BK Marcus is an amateur political economist with no formal education in the subject.
He works from Charlottesville, Virginia as an editorial consultant for the Ludwig von Mises Institute and managing editor of Mises.org.
He is no longer a house husband, nor a faculty spouse, but he is still a dilettante and a layabout, at least in spirit.
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"It is no crime to be ignorant of economics, which is, after all, a specialized discipline and one that most people consider to be a 'dismal science.' But it is totally irresponsible to have a loud and vociferous opinion on economic subjects while remaining in this state of ignorance."
Benjamin Tucker Marcus
February 19, 2010
November 30th, 2007 by 
bkmarcus
From my friend AC:
“In times of change, learners inherit the Earth, while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists.” – Eric Hoffer (1902–1983)
He found that quote here.
Posted in schooling | 
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November 29th, 2007 by bkmarcus
Today’s featured article at Mises.org, “National Review and the Triumph of the New Right,” was written in the early 1970s, when the Vietnam War and a Nixon White House had already convinced many libertarians that Buckleyite conservatism was as or more dangerous than the Establishment Left.
But 20 years earlier, many individualists embraced young William F. Buckley, Jr. as a future leader of the resistance and a fellow enemy of the State.
Twenty-six-year-old Murray Rothbard was one the very few able to congratulate himself "for treating the Buckley Boom on the intellectual Right with considerable skepticism."
Rather than "a welcome newcomer to the libertarian ranks," wrote Rothbard, “Buckley is really, in 1952 terms, a totalitarian socialist, and what is more, admits it.” FULL ARTICLE
Posted in LvMI, history | No Comments »
November 29th, 2007 by bkmarcus
Actually, that’s the wrong question, since the law-enforcement lobby would make it very, very expensive to abolish the police through legal channels, and any violent attempt to bypass legal channels would probably end up having the opposite effect.
What I mean is this: if we pushed the Rothbardian button* and made all the cops go away tomorrow, how much would it cost to implement a private libertarian replacement, where person and property are protected, and victimless so-called crimes are nobody’s business but the nonexistent victims?
Gil Guillory, et al. have crunched the numbers. He summarizes on LRC. Here’s my summary of his summary (dollar amounts are per annum per household):
| Murder | $8 | |
| Rape | $21 | |
| Assault/Battery | $3 | |
| Robbery/Burglary | $126 | ** |
* Murray Rothbard, For a New Liberty, final chapter, “A Strategy for Liberty”:
“The libertarian, then, should be a person who would push the button, if it existed, for the instantaneous abolition of all invasions of liberty.”
** If the payouts were capped at your homeowner’s insurance deductible, it would only be $25.
Posted in economics, law | No Comments »
November 21st, 2007 by bkmarcus
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In honor of the great man, here’s my favorite Gen-X reference to Voltaire:
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Posted in culture, history | 1 Comment »
November 18th, 2007 by bkmarcus
A flattering IM:
Stephen Carson
9:26
Look at what hit the front page of Digg! http://digg.com/design/Why_Do_Some_Coins_Have_Ridges_Around_the_Edges
I believe I remember a much better article on the same topic by you. Oh well.
He’s referring to this:
See also:
Posted in economics, history, metablog | No Comments »
