GlobLog - January 2008
A direct link to each entry is obtained by using the button below the entry.

05:32 - PROVEN RIGHT BY BEING FOUND GUILTY: 

Some time ago, Atilla Yayla, one of Turkey´s most important intellectuals, gave a lecture criticising Kemalist ideology for not promoting free speech and the rule of law. This was a lie, said Yayla´s critics.

But now Yayla has just been sentenced to a 15-month suspended jail term for his lecture. So it turns out that he was right all along.

(Thanks Thomas)

17:03 - ORANGES AND DISASTERS: 

I am in the US until February 14, and therefore it might be a little less action on this blog than usual. 

Right now I am in Florida and will accompany friends as they vote in tomorrow´s primary election. They are independents and can´t vote for the candidates, but they can vote on some issues that are coming up at the same time. A big topic here is the suggested federal catastroph fund that would take a lot of the costs for the windstorms here. Rudy Giuliani, who is on the verge of losing the race without ever having really been part of it, is tarnishing his limited government credentials by aggressively supporting it, whereas John McCain continues with his straight talk:

"McCain said he wanted to express ´all due respect to this beautiful state,´ but said he was ´not in favor of spending $200 billion a year simply for the state of Florida.´"

That is an impossible position in this state, says Mark Bubriski, communications director of the Florida Democrats: "It´s like saying you don´t like oranges." And that is why I respect McCain. If he doesn´t like oranges, he says so. Apparently an impossible thought in modern politics.

23:38 - FÖR BRA FÖR ATT VARA SANN: 

Oj, vilken oväntad vändning. Efter att tidskriften Mana anklagades för antisemitism och hotades med att inte längre få ta leva på våra pengar har åtskilliga kulturknuttar trätt till dess försvar och förklarat att den faktiskt står för mångfald.

Jo, visst. Exempelvis genom medgrundaren Sharare Irani, som är en av tidningens mest frekventa skribenter. Kvinna, kurd och feminist som rapporterar direkt från Iran och för en heroisk kamp i kommunistpartiets ledning. Hon har allt.

Enda problemet: Hon finns inte, avslöjar Peter Wennblad på Neo blog.

02:27 - HUNDEN SOM INTE SKÄLLDE: 

Som Sherlock Holmes konstaterade är det mest intressanta ibland det som inte hände. Kommer ni ihåg skogsdöden? Försurningen - "den långsamma atombomben" - som skulle utradera våra skogar. Det var bara det att det aldrig blev någon skogsdöd. Skogarna växte sig i stället större och frodigare än någonsin.

Ett oerhört intressant program i P1:s serie om miljölarm beskriver hur skräckscenarier och politiserad forskning lätt skapar lämmeltåg i debatten.

15:19 - DEN RADIKALA CENTERN: 

Mitt möte med den liberala Stureplanscentern i går blev väldigt givande, och inte bara för att jag råkade träffa mannen som har gjort den underbara solanimationen till Kents makalösa liveversion av Mannen i den vita hatten. Det visade sig vara en mycket öppen och frihetlig intellektuell miljö och som jag konstaterade är Stureplanscentern en av de bästa saker som har hänt Stureplan och definitivt det bästa som har hänt centern.

Jag hade fått i uppgift att tala fritt om liberalism, så det blev en berättelse om liberalismens idéer och en om dess strategier, en salig röra från miljöpolitik till monsterrock, från Internets utveckling till de amerikanska primärvalen. Sedan vidtog en riktigt spännande och ännu mer spretig diskussion.

Joakim Lundblad sammanfattar kvällen.

Andra bloggare om mötet: Per Ankersjö, Fredrick Federley, Christer Mellstrand, Simon Palme och Peace, Love & Capitalism.

02:34 - AID EVALUATED: 

In the international debate Swedish foreign aid has been considered relatively rational and efficient, partly because there are no old colonies to subsidise whatever they do. Therefore, the current official evaluation of our development aid 1973-2003 might be of interest for the whole foreign aid debate.

Two results have already been presented by Riksdag & Departement: Richer countries have received more money than poor countries every year. And as countries have become less democratic they have received more money.

11:41 - HAN ÄLSKAR ATT ÄGA: 

"Människor som äger sin fastighet och bostad är mer aktsamma och det skapas ett socialt nätverk som påverkar tryggheten i hela området."

Förre v-politikern och moståndaren till ombildningar Torsten Sandgren berättar för Svenska Dagbladet varför han har ändrat sig.

11:15 - THE COLOUR OF A PRESIDENT: 

I have been curious to find out why there is not more enthusiasm about Barack Obama in the European left. Here is an interesting interpretation from Alvaro Vargas Llosa: Obama would be problematic for them since he - because of who he is - would not just help to heal a deep wound in the American society, he would also make it easier for pro-Americans to "sell" the same old USA to skeptical Europeans. (Thanks Mattias)

Full disclosure: In the first US election I followed in any way I was hoping for Jesse Jackson to win, because he is black. I know, that was not very mature and he is also anti-capitalist and never hesitates to play the race card to inflame aggression between groups. But this was in 1984, and I was 11 years old.

03:25 - FRÅN TOKFEL TILL BARA VÄLDIGT FEL: 

I dag införde DN Kultur en rättelse efter Ulrika Kärnborgs senaste debacle, som jag skrev om här. Men nu tror de att "Från Rimbaud till Rimbo?" egentligen skulle vara "Från Rimbaud till Rambo?". Vågar man hoppas på att de inför ett par rättelser till så att de så småningom kommer fram till Carl Rudbecks egentliga fråga, "Rambo eller Rimbaud?". För DN Kultur har väl Google så att de kan kolla?

(Måste för övrigt säga att jag är imponerad över Svenska Dagbladets nya, dagliga rättelsespalt. Vågar DN följa efter?)

03:00 - WHY I LIKE OBAMA: 

Why is Barack Obama such a likeable person and such a great speaker? I think it´s partly because he isn´t obsessed with the "how to"-book so he doesn´t do what all the others have been told by their advisers to do, and therefore he comes across as a natural, nice guy (just like McCain does when he debates the scripted Romney). And then Obama can make fun of those who don´t. Just look at how he ripped Clinton and Edwards to pieces in Las Vegas today:

"I was laughing when we had the debate a couple days ago. You remember: People were asked, ´What´s your biggest weakness?´ So I thought, because I´m like an ordinary person, I thought that they meant what´s your biggest weakness?

So I said: ´Well, you know, I don´t handle papers that well. My desk is a mess. I need somebody to help me file stuff all the time.´ So the other two, they say, ´My biggest weakness is I´m just too passionate about helping poor people.´ ´I am just too impatient to bring about change in America.´

"If I had gone last, I would have known what the game was. I could have said: ´Well, you know I like to help old ladies across the street. Sometimes they don´t want to be helped. It´s terrible.´ Folks, they don´t tell you what they mean."

(Via L A Times Top of the Ticket)

17:46 - MIKAEL NYBERG, THE RICH, THE POOR AND THE WB: 

There might be 600 million more people living in extreme poverty around the world than we thought. That is what a World Bank´s revision of the purchasing power of different currencies indicate. Last week, Mikael Nyberg wrote in Aftonbladet that this undermines my world view. Today I respond, and he responds again.

As I wrote more than four years ago, there are serious problems with the World Bank figures, and I explained how it might both underestimate and overestimate poverty. Personally I think that there are good arguments (pdf) that the World Bank´s method underestimates the reduction in poverty, but I still use its statistics since it is probably more reliable than what the critics in both camps come up with and whether it over- or underestimates it has the longest and most detailed data series to measure trends. But I include these caveats.

In the specific report (pdf) on global living standards Nyberg attacks I introduce the whole subject by pointing out that many of the estimates are uncertain, and that we should therefore look at as many indicators of living standards as possible, and we should be more interested in the direction than in absolute numbers, because they vary according to the method we use - just like we should do when we look at opinion polls.

My response today is about this. And when we adjust the figures (we still don´t know what it will look like since despite what Nyberg writes there are no revised poverty figures from the World Bank yet) we also have to adjust the earlier figure, and so poverty is still decreasing and the decline might be the same as before. Yes, there are 200 million more Chinese in extreme poverty than we thought, but there were also 200 million more Chinese in poverty in the 1980s. Nyberg asks rhetorically why we should assume that. Well he could start to look at  the source that he used, which reaches this conclusion.

Nyberg´s conclusion is that there is no point in measuring poverty because it is so complicated to adjust for purchasing power. When I mention all the other indicators from my report that also point to dramatic improvements around the world - health, hunger, literacy, life expectancy - he answers that he hasn´t studied them in detail. So his suggestion that the world is not improving is not based on any reading of living standards for people around the world, it is based on the example that some rich people have become extremely rich in this era. He mentions India´s Mukesh Ambani (who has revolutionised India´s petrochemical industry - Nyberg doesn´t mention how Ambani made his money, he just doesn´t like that he is that rich), and his outrageous income distorts the average.

Of course it does. But I wasn´t writing about income, I suggested that Nyberg took a look at non-economic indicators of living standards. For example, life expectancy has increased by 5 months every year since 1960 in the developing countries. And that increase is not the result of the likes of Mr Ambani becoming 800 years old and distorting the average.

01:48 - LIVE FREE AND PROSPER: 

A graphic summary of the 2008 Index of Economic Freedom from Wall Street Journal and the Heritage Foundation.

12:24 - FANTASY LITERATURE: 

A comforting poll (pdf) for those who think that Sweden is rapidly being overtaken by Muslim fundamentalists: Just one percent of Swedes mention the Quran as a book that has had an important influence on their ethical views. The same proportion mentioned Harry Potter or the Lord of the Rings (far too few compared to the 20 percent who mention the Bible, I think).

11:00 - MEN HON STAVADE RÄTT TILL RIMBAUD: 

Det finns gott om ofrivillig komik i Ulrika Kärnborgs angrepp på "Timbrohögerns" kultursyn i DN Kultur i dag. Dels naturligtvis det faktum att hon tror att dess tidiga 90-talsslagord var "Från Rimbaud till Rimbo?", när det egentligen var "Rambo eller Rimbaud?". Dvs det handlade inte om att peka ut en riktning, utan om att ställa den klassiska liberalismens fråga om staten verkligen ska göra sådana val åt oss (För att fula ut åsikten kallar Kärnborg det "extremhöger" trots att de som brukar avses med begreppet alltid har ansett att staten ska styra kulturkonsumtionen.)

Och så handlade det förstås om en viss actionfigur på bio, inte om en liten ort i Norrtälje kommun.

Men ännu roligare är att Kärnborg ser frågan som ett uttryck för kulturhat, en avsky mot Rimbaud. Det är kul eftersom den som myntade frågeställningen och drev hela projektet inte bara förklarade att han ansåg Rimbaud vara överlägsen, utan var en timbroit som i alla fall har fått DN Kulturs godkännande för sitt intresse och sin kunskap om kultur. Där är han nämligen medarbetare i dag - Carl Rudbeck.

00:55 - GHOST OF PALEOS PAST: 

When it comes to Ron Paul´s old newsletters, there is a growing consensus that they were indeed written by somebody else. So Paul is not guilty of writing these ugly things, but of letting someone do it in his name for such a long time, which is bad enough. Most insiders seem to think that the chief ghostwriter was Llewellyn Rockwell, Jr, founder of the Mises Institute, who joined Murray Rothbard in his break with other libertarians in the late 1980s and tried to build a "paleo"-coalition with right-wing populists and social conservatives.

Worst of all, when Rockwell commented on the newsletter, he did not seem to be the least troubled by anything in it and didn´t even argue that the quotes were taken out of context. Instead he attacked the messenger.

Related things from Tom Palmer here and here, especially the comments. His conclusion:

"The evidence of truly ugly racist collectivism at LewRockwell.com and the little network of groups clustered around him is overwhelming ... The embrace of clearly anti-libertarian figures, sentiments, and causes, all in the name of being ´anti-PC,´ contrarian, and enemies of the American state has done incalculable damage to the cause of limited government. Rockwell and his sick crew should be ostracized and excluded from decent company."

23:51 - MITT BIDRAG TILL DEN TOTALITÄRA PROPAGANDAN: 

Timbros poddradio har givit mig och en rad andra personer utrymme att fördjupa oss i ett visst ämne, att berätta och skildra våra tankar och känslor inför det (jag valde att tala om lycka) samtidigt som vi spelar vår favoritmusik. Tanken är att det ska vara motsatsen till den snuttifiering som ofta präglar alla de debattprogram som folk i Timbrokretsen ständigt deltar i. En plats för reflektion. Som ett sommarprogram för oss som aldrig får prata i Sommar, ungefär.

Detta tycker Svenska Dagbladets radiokrönikör Martin Aagard är sovjetiskt och propagandistiskt eftersom ingen är med i programmen och bemöter den som talar. TIll på köpet anser han att Timbros poddradio är den mest välproducerade i Sverige, vilket tydligen förstärker känslan av totalitär propaganda.

Här kan du lyssna och se om du håller med honom. Mitt program finns här.

17:32 - JAG RECENSERAR NAOMI KLEINS CHOCKDOKTRINEN: 

10:08 - THE POWER OF LOGOS: 

In a fascinating new study (pdf) from Timbro, Karl Malmqvist and Lydiah Wålsten examines coffee from the popular Swedish "fair trade"-brand, Rättvisemärkt. At current world market prices (118 cents/lb), Rättvisemärkt gets more than three quarters of the extra money you pay for that cup of fair coffee, the coffee farmers get no more than about 23 percent. This huge margin means that if you are going to spend ten dollars on coffee, the farmers would get more if you bought conventional rather than fair trade coffee.

So we can only congratulate Rättvisemärkt on having built a brand that is so strong that it makes consumers want to put extra money in their pockets.

23:23 - COMPARISONS: 

An interesting thing when you follow the primaries in Michigan is that it is always described as the American state that has lost out in the global economy, with high unemployment as the result. 

The unemployment rate in Michigan is 7.4%.

In the Eurozone it is now at a record low: 7.2%.

14:48 - MILTON FRIEDMAN UPDATED IN KENYA: 

A few years ago, Mattias Bengtsson and I published an anthology with classical liberal texts. We included a section from Milton Friedman´s Capitalism and Freedom, where he explained the connection between political and economic freedom. Could the press really be independent if the government owned all the printing presses, Friedman asked. Since we did this, some readers have told us that this example is a bit outdated in a world of electronic media.

Ok, here is the update:

When Kenyans began protesting against the stolen election recently, the government told mobile-phone operators to suspend text messages in the country, because they were used to organise protests. The operators refused. Do you think they would have dared to do that if they were state-owned or if they had politcally appointed boards?

00:19 - HOW TO EXPOSE ELECTION FRAUD: 

According to the Russian Election Commission, 98 percent voted in Ingushetia, and 99 percent of them voted for Putin´s party. Yeah right. Amanda Lövkvist writes about a web site that collects the names and details of people who claim that they did not vote. So far more than half of the electorate has registered.

23:49 - GOOD INTENTIONS CREATE CHILD PROSTITUTION: 

Some of us have warned that banning child labour might force children into worse circumstances. Via Hårek Hansen I find a report from Norwegian television, where a respected Danish NGO explains that this is what they have just seen in Bangladesh:

"Due to Western pressure, Bangladesh outlawed work in garment factories for children under 14.

- When the children lost their jobs, many of them ended up on the streets, as prostitutes. We know that much, says Rasmus Juhl Pedersen, adviser in Save the Children, Denmark.

Somewhere between 30.000 and 100.000 children lost their jobs when the garment factories introduced the age limit.

To work as a prostitute, maid or further down the line of production is much worse than working in the garment industry, according to Juhl Pedersen.

Western companies are so afraid of being associated with child labour that the children are thrown out of the factories even though no one has prepared any alternatives.

Well-meaning western consumers who boycott products that can be tied to child labour can do more harm than good, according to Save the Children, Denmark.”

(My translation)

12:38 - STATISTICS VS STORIES: 

Niklas Ekdal endorses Hillary Clinton today. Meanwhile Don Boudreaux writes a letter to Washington Post: 

Dear Editor:

For the past few years, persons on the left have described themselves proudly as being members of the "reality-based community." This community, ostensibly, insists that policies be based on facts, reason, and intelligent thinking rather than upon myths, superstitions, and sloppy thinking.

So we can trust, I presume, that Sen. Clinton´s remarks yesterday in Los Angeles will cost her the votes of reality-based citizens. Speaking about the economy, Ms. Clinton declared that "the statistics are one thing, the stories are something altogether different. . . . It doesn´t matter what you´re told. It´s what you feel, what you feel deep down" ("Clinton Proposes $70 Billion To Stimulate Economy," January 12). As a wag once noted, the plural of "anecdote" is not "data." And because facts are found with the head and not the heart, Ms. Clinton´s "feelings" - no matter their depth - would be a dangerous guide to policy.

00:19 - WHY THE ECONOMIST RULES: 

Here is one reason why I love The Economist. In this week´s edition they write about John McCain:

"Mr McCain´s resurgence is extraordinary. Six months ago, his campaign was broke and its obituary was in every paper, including this one."

But if you go back to The Economist April 12th 2007, they wrote that: "the [McCain] machine is so rickety that ex-friends in the media are lining up to write his obituary". The Economist agreed that this was a possibility, but this is their conclusion:

"All the same, it is too early to write him off ... [a lot of talk about his credentials] ... Mr McCain, now aged 70, could yet become the oldest comeback kid in American history."

And the title of the piece is "The comeback grandpa?".

The Economist could have congratulated themselves, bragged about their wisdom and reminded the reader that they are truly brilliant, as any other magazine and newspaper would have done. Instead, they admit that they basically made the same mistake as other observers. Then you understand that you read a brilliant magazine.

00:07 - BUT SOME DEAD DOGS COULD RUN FOR CONGRESS: 

4% (pdf)

- The proportion of Americans who strongly approves of what the Democrats do in Congress (and only 9% of Democratic voters do).

23:53 - INSTEAD OF THE PERMANENT REPUBLICAN MAJORITY: 

"I´d rather vote for a dead dog than a Democrat. But the way things are going it might have to be the dead dog.”

- The Economist talks to a Republican in New Hampshire.

12:37 - CICERO´S QUESTION: 

When some sailors were saved from a shipwreck many Romans took this as a proof of how just the gods were. But Cicero asked: What about all the sailors that drowned?

I come to think of that since Mike Huckabee some time ago attributed his rise in the polls to the will of God. So why does God punish him with no more than 26,000 votes in New Hampshire?

It must be easier to believe in an interventionist and just God when you are winning.

(Via Nonicoclasos)

12:09 - DYNASTY: 

The Hillary Clinton victory was disappointing. Not because of her policies, I don´t think she is much worse than Obama. But because of the order of succession: Bush - Clinton - Bush II - Clinton II. And then there is probably time for one of the Bush daughters to become president. After all, in Pakistan you can take over mum´s party when you are 19. And then Chelsea Clinton, and then the other Bush daughter can be sworn in as Bush IV.

Come on, there are more than 300 million Americans. Isn´t it possible to find anyone outside the family at a time when the rest of the world is slowly moving away from the concept of clans and tribes?

02:42 - THE LAST SENTENCE: 

I have been asked if the last sentence in my last post wasn´t a little bit unfair and exaggerated. My first reaction is: Yes, it was. It was an expression of anger and disappointment.

But then I remember what New Republic wrote about when the racist and anti-semite David Duke, former Grand Wizard of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, got 44 percent in the 1990 Louisiana Senate primary. Ron Paul´s newsletter didn´t just avoid criticising Duke, it cheered him on. It portrayed his message in a positive light, and concluded that they should now take Duke´s anti-establishment message "and enclose it in a more consistent package of freedom".

Gosh, even more consistently pro-freedom than the Grand Wizard? My last sentence still stands.

00:05 - THE END OF RON PAUL: 

Racism, homophobia and conspiracy theories about AIDS, Israel, the Bilderberg Group and the Trilateral Commission. Just another day in the work of Aryan Nation, USA? It sure sounds like it. But no, they are some of the ingredients in the pre-1999, pre-Internet newsletter of Ron Paul, the Republican presidential candidate who now tries to portray himself as a libertarian. James Kirchick writes about it in New Republic.

Ron Paul claims that the newsletter was published in his name, but written by others and he didn´t pay close attention to what was written since he was working full time. Fascinating defence. So he trusted those writers to write in his name to such a degree that he didn´t even check what they wrote?

Paul is running for president. The obvious question is if he would act in the same way when he as president appoints ministers, ambassadors and consuls, and don´t have the time to pay attention to what they are doing. It would be sad if a few neo-nazis sneaked in, wouldn´t it? 

(Via Come to think of it)

11:55 - CHOCKDOKTRINEN ANNO 1220: 

Johan mailar (nej, en annan Johan):

"´Genghis Khan´s ´rampages across the steppes led to the pax Mongolica that allowed Eurasian trade to flourish in the 13th century´.

Detta är ju mumma för Klein-förespråkare! Antagligen var redan Djingis Khan ´Friedmanite to the core´ när mongolerna satte igång ett av världshistoriens stora militära chock-projekt. Allt för att imposera nyliberal handel över Eurasien."

15:40 - Даяаршиж буй капитализмыг хамгаалахуй: 

The Economist recently wrote about how Genghis Khan´s "rampages across the steppes led to the pax Mongolica that allowed Eurasian trade to flourish in the 13th century". That ancient Mongolian globalisation connection makes it only natural that there is now a Mongolian translation of In Defence of Global Capitalism.

Read about it here and here (if you know Mongolian).

02:24 - THE INVISIBLE FIST: 

"[John] Edwards, synthetic candidate of theatrical bitterness on behalf of America´s crushed, groaning majority, says the rich have an ´iron-fisted grip´ on democracy and a ´stranglehold´ on the economy. Strangely, these fists have imposed a tax code that makes the top 1 percent of earners pay 39 percent of all income tax revenue, the top 5 percent pay 60 percent and the bottom 50 percent only 3 percent."

- George F Will in Washington Post.

02:16 - HEAD-TO-HEAD: 

If we had the election today:

John McCain 48.8%

Hillary Clinton 43.8%

01:59 - DIREKT FRÅN KRYPTAN: 

Nima Sanandaji lyckas få plats med både mig och Stefan Jonsson i samma intervju i Captus Tidning.

01:05 - WHAT ABOUT THE HOOLIGAN LIBERTARIAN?: 

So why didn´t the radical libertarian Kent McManigal make it to the top of my list, Lars asks. Actually, he did. But since Selectsmart claim that he has suspended his campaign, I didn´t count him as one of the candidates.

And why didn´t Ron Paul get a better result than McCain and Giuliani? Apparently it´s because of our differences of opinion on immigration, abortion and Iraq (no matter what you think about the invasion, leaving now would be disastrous). Another difference is that he opposes all federal involvement in research and education. I can agree on principle, but in the current political situation it means for example that he opposes federal funding of stem cell research. And my view is that if the federal government is involved in research it should definitely not discriminate against stem cell research, just as it shouldn´t disciminate against research that involves animal testing, just because some people oppose that on moral grounds.

This is not the only case where Paul´s idealistic views turn the best into an enemy of the good. He would also leave Nafta and the WTO because he is in favour of unilateral free trade, without any institutional framework. But in the current political climate that would of course mean less free trade since Paul would get the US out of trade agreements but would never get Congress to approve of unilateral free trade. And his opposition to federal involvement in education would bloc school vouchers, but would never roll back traditional federal involvement.

Nonetheless, I am positively surprised by his 10 percent in Iowa.

00:16 - THE ELEPHANT IS A STRANGE ANIMAL: 

As if I needed more proof that the US Republican Party is an unholy alliance I took the presidential candidate test at SelectSmart.com, and found out that of all the candidates, a republican comes first on my list - Rudy Giuliani with his combination of economic and cultural liberalism, AND a republican comes last - Mike Huckabee with his combination of Christian conservatism and economic populism.

12:38 - LO-TIDNINGEN RÄTTAR: 

John Swedenmark på LO-Tidningen tar tillbaka sin kritik mot mina diagram på Naomi Klein-presentationen. Och eftersom jag är oerhört svag för folk som är schysta nog att erkänna en misstolkning är allt - trots meningsskiljaktigheter och gliringar - härmed glömt och förlåtet.

12:36 - SYND ATT DET FINNS SÅ MÅNGA BRA KANDIDATER: 

Mattias Svensson om årets förmyndare 2007.

12:33 - VAD I ALL VÄRLDEN ÄR DET SOM HÄNDER?: 

Vad vet du egentligen om världen? Jacob Lundberg ordnar frågesport.

23:45 - AND HE´S THE ARNIE VINICK IN THIS RACE: 

According to this reference guide (pdf) from the Iowa Corn Growers, Ron Paul is systematically opposed to all their priorites (whereas Giuliani and Thompson are no better than Huckabee, Romney and the Democrats). So Paul obviously deserves all the votes he can´t get tonight.  (Thanks Mattias)

23:36 - BUT THE RON PAUL VOLUNTEERS SEEM NICE: 

"Actually, if the candidates were judged by the quality of their young supporters, I would now be voting for Ron Paul. Beyond just being polite, the Paul volunteers have an incredible passion for the technical mechanics of the American constitution and body of laws. As I spend time with them, I start to think: I wouldn´t want a repairman working on my car who didn´t know how it was put together, so why not the same with people who work on my government?"

- Eve Fairbanks in New Republic (thanks Mattias)

21:54 - DEBUNKING PATERNALIZMUS ŠTASTIA: 

Now there is a Slovak version of my happiness paper, translated by Petra Orogvanyiova.

12:14 - WHAT RON PAUL DOES WITH HIS MILLIONS: 

Some have asked me why I am not more enthusiastic about Ron Paul´s anti-big government message. This is why. Yesterday this ad was aired on CNN.

11:49 - IF YOU CAN WIN THERE, YOU SHOULDN´T BE PRESIDENT: 

Today Iowa votes. Just keep in mind that the candidates who win today prove that they are presidential material only by pandering to special interests, especially when it comes to farming and ethanol subsidies.

As a brave John McCain said in 2000:

"We don’t need the subsidies and if it wasn’t for Iowa being the first caucus state no one on this stage would support ethanol.”

Unfortunately, this time McCain is more serious in his presidential bid:

"I support ethanol and I think it is a vital, a vital alternative energy source"

And Hillary Clinton has flip-flopped in the same way. The only serious candidate brave enough to defy the special interests on stage in Iowa is Arnold Vinick:

"Now I know that the ethanol subsidies have been good for some of you but mostly it’s a windfall for huge conglomerates. I’m embarrassed by it and you should too.”

Too bad he´s a fictional character.

20:39 - WHAT HAPPENED TO WHEAT: 

The impressive Swedish meteorologist Bert Bohlin - of climate change fame - has died, so Rapport tonight showed archival footage from 1970 where Bolin warned that we might see a future lack of wheat. With the recent price increases in mind, Rapport probably meant it as an illustration of his prophetic credentials. However, this graph from Nature shows what really happened to wheat production (orange, in million tons) and prices (green) in the three decades after Bohlin´s prophecy.

14:36 - A COMING OUT PARTY: 

Happy new year!

Something gave me the idea to arrange absinthe tasting on new year´s eve, so I haven´t really woken up and cleaned the apartment until now. It´s a fascinating green drink with a history that tracks the rise and fall and rediscovery of European liberalism. It was given eternal life by cosmopolitan artists in the borderless late 19th century, but after a campaign from the wine industry and the temerpance movement with bogus claims that it was poisonous it was banned in France and other big countries (despite a brave defence from liberals like the economist Yves Guyot and the daily Le Siécle).

But there is a happy ending: after the fall of communism, Czech producers and British importers convinced the EU that an open Europe needs absinthe. But more about that some other time.

Most interesting about 2007 was that when the year begun the richest person in the world, the biggest car producer and the biggest bank were all American and the second biggest exporter and the biggest emitter of greenhouse gases was the US. By the end of the year, they were Mexican, Japanese and Chinese and China was the second biggest exporter and the biggest emitter.

2007 was the developing world´s coming out party.