21:36 - GLOBALISERINGSAVSTÄMNING: 

Här (pdf) är de första slutsatserna från regeringens globaliseringsråd, i viss utsträckning baserade på en rapport jag har skrivit för dem om världens utveckling de senaste decennierna, som kommer att publiceras inom kort.

19:08 - CORRECTION: 

Gosh, sometimes I am really stupid. Al Gore does not admit exaggerating risks in the quote below - he says that he wants to emphasise the risks, which is something entirely different. I am sorry about that, and can only blame the fact that I read it and blogged about it while a nine-month old tried to eat my laptop and delete my text...

Of course, my mistake does not change the fact that Al Gore does exaggerate, for example when he talks about a sea-level rise of six metres as if that was the consensus, and ignores the fact that IPCC talks about 0.18-0.59 metres in 100 years.

Apparently a British High Court agrees.

(Thanks David)

11:34 - WHAT WOULD NOBEL HAVE THOUGHT ABOUT THAT?: 

I am in Oslo now, and here, the Norwegian Nobel Committee just announced that Al Gore will get Nobel´s peace prize for his popular film on global warming. Here is Gore himself, speaking about the exaggerations in his film (that are in direct opposition to the estimates of the IPCC, that shares the prize with Gore):

"I believe it is appropriate to have an over-representation of factual presentations on how dangerous it [global warming] is, as a predicate for opening up the audience to listen to what the solutions are"

In other words, they were not mistakes, but conscious exaggerations, the ends justify the means, and it´s ok to lie if it´s for a good cause. The Norwegian Nobel Committe has just thrown its weight behind that world view.

13:27 - THE FUNNIEST BOOK OF 2007: 

Naomi Klein´s No Logo was a well-written defence of brands and capitalism that explained that investments in logos made companies vulnerable to consumers and activists, and therefore had to behave better. Of course Klein thought it was an attack on capitalism, but she is a good writer, no one has accused her of being a good thinker. The only thing that came close to an argument was her claim that capitalist countries like South Korea and Taiwan are just as poor today as they were 50 years ago (they are about 20 times richer).

Now Klein is back with another book, The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism. I have just had the time to read bits of it, but she explains that free market-liberals need crises, because that gives them an opportunity to enforce their despicable ideas. Of course, the facts points in the opposite direction - the size and power of governments tend to grow in times of crisis and war (just look at the US after 9/11 or how governments act in the face of global warming).

But Klein doesn´t seem to be too interested in the facts, instead she makes up metaphores. Since the word "shock" appear in "shock therapy", to deregulate approaches giving victims electrical shocks, since free marketeers support impoular policies and torture also supports impopular policies, they are basically the same thing, and since the word "tank" appears in "think tank", free-market think tanks are in favour of war and murder (what about leftist think tanks?).

I am not making this up, it´s that silly. If you need to relax from hard work and heavy reading and just need a few laughs, you will not be disappointed.

(Here is more about it from Tyler Cowen, Steve Horowitz, Jan Arild Snoen and Free Exchange.)

10:32 - DAGENS HAIKU: 

T-shirt

Che Guevara

Cool kille

Ignorance is bliss

- Haiku Moderne

23:04 - SIDING WITH THE MURDERER: 

So today far-leftists all over the world celebrated the life and deeds of Che Guevara, 40 years after his death.

Here´s another idea: Why don´t someone find out the exact dates Cuban social democrats and other advocates of democracy were executed by Che, and then we can celebrate them instead?

13:45 - APART FROM THAT, A NORMAL DAY: 

Apart from being cursed by God today, I have debated CO2 and trade in P1-morgon and in Dagens Industri (subscribers only) I have written about the 50th anniversary of one of one of my favourite books, Ayn Rand´s Atlas Shrugged.

11:25 - HACKED BY ISLAMISTS: 

Around midnight tonight Turkish Islamists hacked this website and replaced yours truly with words of hatred and condemnation in bad English:

"While All Islam World regard with reverence to your prophet and address him as Hz. ISA A.S ( Christ ) ( putting a holy prefix in front of his name ), You keep abusing, Islam’s almighty Prophet with disgusting and disgraceful cartoons using excuses of freedom of speech. No doubt, Hz. Isa ( Christ ) would dislike and hate your nation.

Be God’s Curse On You !

We Will be Your Curse on Cyber World !"

Ok, calm down a bit. I am an atheist, and Jesus is not "my prophet", and even if he was, I would still defend the right to mock him. That is freedom and civilisation. These enemies of free speech must think that they have a very fragile prophet if they think he is afraid of cartoons and needs their help to stop them.

And they must have lousy websites if they need my help to get some traffic. But isn´t it better if they improve their websites instead of sabotaging others´? Perhaps they should read the Holy Qur´an sometime:

"To you your way, to me mine" (109:6)

UPDATE 14:13: By the way, this site (which denounces the hackers) was the one the Islamists wanted you to see instead of this.

12:17 - BARA SÅ ATT TITTARNA SKA HA LITE BAKGRUND: 

Jag trodde att Sven-Eric Liedmans definition av nyliberalismen i hans "Från Platon till..."-lärobok aldrig någonsin skulle kunna överträffas i intellektuell ohederlighet (nyliberalism handlar tydligen om föräldrars frihet att välja om deras barn ska bli slagna i skolan). Men medan jag var i Dublin hände det faktiskt.

Mats mailar mig detta obetalbara uttalande av statstelevisions ledarskribent Bo Inge Andersson från Kulturnyheterna 4 oktober, 5.08 in i programmet:

"Ja alltså det handlar ju då nyliberalismen, Friedman kort - det handlar om att staten och ja, även facket ska inte få blanda sig i hur näringslivet, hur kapitalet sköter sig. Det finns ju exempel på det i Chile och Ryssland. I ena fallet kaos, i andra fallet terror."

(Förresten, när definierade public service senast socialism som massmord och diktatur?)

00:14 - IDEOLOGISK TIME-OUT: 

"Men någonting måste vi väl vara oeniga om?"

Jo, man tycker ju det. Det uttalandet från Mona Sahlin i kvällens debatt med Fredrik Reinfeldt är symboliskt. Det är två sympatiska politiker som inte tar till onödig retorik för att försöka få marginella meningsskillnader att se ut som stora principskillnader. Det känns som en lättnad så här post-Persson. Problemet är bara att det då inte finns så mycket kvar att debattera. Två sociala administratörer (inte sociala ingenjörer, för de konstruerar något nytt) debatterar vems administration som är mest social.

14:15 - THE JAMES JOYCE AWARD: 

For a couple of days I have been in Dublin, invited by the prestigious Literary and Historical Society at University College of Dublin to debate capitalism vs socialism with three socialist guest speakers. After two and a half hours of lively and intense discussion about history, ethics, economics and Venezuela, the audience voted and it turned out that they preferred capitalism.

But something that made me even happier was that the society, a 152 year old institution with 30,000 members, decided to give me their James Joyce Award, named after their most famous member, and given to those who "have excelled in a particular field" (in my case global economics, and are "held in high esteem by Irish students". Among former recipients are the novelist Bill Bryson and England´s former soccer captain Gary Lineker.

I learned that the society was important for James Joyce´s development. Joyce ran for the position of auditor of the society but lost the vote. Good for him. He had to turn to literature instead...

11:24 - SPEAKING OF DRUNKEN SAILORS: 

And by the way, here is John McCain´s joke about it, if you´ve missed it:

"Ronald Reagan used to say we spend money like a drunken sailor. I never knew a sailor, drunk or sober, with the imagination of the Congress. And by the way, I received an e-mail recently from a guy who said, ´I — as a former drunken sailor, I resent being compared to members of Congress.´”

10:36 - NO BRIDGE TO NOWHERE: 

I just learned that the Alaskan $398 million "bridge to nowhere" - the best symbol of how the Republican Congress spent like drunken sailors - will not be built. Ironically it´s because the state of Alaska has already spent most of the money on other projects, and now the bridge is $329 million short of full funding.

15:01 - WHY I JUST BOUGHT A PAIR OF SWEDISH SOCKS: 

It would be overoptimistic to think that it has affected worldwide sales, but many bloggers have joined my call to buy Swedish to neutralise the campaign from Islamist opponents of free speech to boycott them.

But some have also criticised me with the argument that those companies are often the first to lobby against free speech to protect their sales - therefore they don´t deserve our support. But that was precisely my point (even though a lot of companies are innocent of this of course): This kind of boycott often get companies to abandon democratic principles, and since politicans care more about exports than principles it has the effect that they don´t dare to speak up. That is why these boycotts should be systematically neutralised by an increase of sales to people who care about freedom of religion and free speech.

We buy Swedish right now not to protect Swedish companies, but to protect Sweden´s democracy from Swedish companies-turned-appeasers.

22:16 - WORTH PROTESTING AGAINST: 

Here is the system the military dictatorship of Burma/Myanmar is killing people to keep in place:

Political rights: 7, the lowest possible (Freedom House)

Civil liberties: 7, the lowest possible (Freedom House)

Press freedom: 164 of 166 countries (Reporters Without Borders)

Freedom from corruption: 179 of 179 countries (Transparency International)

Economic freedom: 140 of 141 countries (Economic Freedom of the World)

00:10 - BAD NEWS FOR CONGOLESE ENTREPRENEURS: 

The World Bank´s Doing Business index is my favourite index, because it´s so very micro. The politically connected elite can always do business, but this is about the average person´s freedom to engage in economic activity. Now the 2008 edition is published. The conclusion is that you´re lucky if you do business in Singapore, New Zealand, US, Hong Kong and Denmark, not if you try to do it in Burundi, Republic of Congo, Guinea-Bissau, Central African Republic or Democratic Republic of Congo.

Here is the regional summary, which highlights how African governments systematically destroys the potential of their people.

23:52 - APART FROM THE KILLING, HE´S CUTE: 

I have to confess that I couldn´t really get myself to understand that some Americans and Europeans excused Hitler and Stalin because they saw problems in the West. I couldn´t understand that they were so obsessed with everything they thought was wrong with their own countries (and certainly there were problems) that it blinded them to the important differences in the world, and they begun to embrace the dictators.

Until I read Sally Kohn explain that she has a crush on Iran´s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, at the Daily Kos:

"I know I´m a Jewish lesbian and he´d [Ahmadinejad] probably have me killed.  But still, the guy speaks some blunt truths about the Bush Administration that make me swoon...

I want to be very clear.  There are certainly many things about Ahmadinejad that I abhor — locking up dissidents, executing of gay folks, denying the fact of the Holocaust, potentially adding another dangerous nuclear power to the world and, in general, stifling democracy.  Even still, I can’t help but be turned on by his frank rhetoric calling out the horrors of the Bush Administration and, for that matter, generations of US foreign policy preceding."  

(Thanks Billy)

00:43 - BURMESE DAYS AND NIGHTS: 

The Burmese tell the dark joke that George Orwell did not just write one book about Burma/Myanmar, but three. Not just Burmese Days, but also Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four. But it turns out that Orwell also had something to say about the current brave protests against the dictatorship:

"In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act."

00:18 - VARFÖR LJUGER REGERINGEN?: 

Genom ständigt nya besked om fastighetsskattens avskaffande som sedan tas tillbaka har regeringen lyckats skrämma upp alla grupper. Jag var i England när den slutliga (?) lösningen presenterades, och har inget särskilt emot den. Jag bara undrar varför regeringen påstår att de inför en ränta på 0,5 procent på uppskov på reavinstskatten när den i själva verket inför en 2,27-procentig ränta.

Karin Grundberg reder ut begreppen i Dagens Industri.

18:13 - LOSS AVERSION: 

In Dagens Industri today (subscribers only) I write about how psychological research predicted the Swedish government´s problems with the voters. We care more about losses than gains, and very few accept to enter a bet where they have a 50/50 chance of gaining $150 or losing $100. We are even willing to accept greater risks to avoid a certain loss. In other words, lower welfare benefits will be noticed by voters and the media more than much bigger tax cuts.

18:05 - THE ARGUMENT FOR ONE HAND TIED BEHIND OUR BACK : 

Principles are important because they give us a long-term perspective on what we want our society to be like, even though they might create bad consequences in the short run. Few advocates of liberal principles dare to explain and argue for this trade-off. It takes The Economist to do it in a brutally frank way:

"When liberals put the case for civil liberties, they sometimes claim that obnoxious measures do not help the fight against terrorism anyway. The Economist is liberal but disagrees. We accept that letting secret policemen spy on citizens, detain them without trial and use torture to extract information makes it easier to foil terrorist plots. To eschew such tools is to fight terrorism with one hand tied behind your back. But that—with one hand tied behind their back—is precisely how democracies ought to fight terrorism. [...]

Human rights are part of what it means to be civilised. Locking up suspected terrorists—and why not potential murderers, rapists and paedophiles, too?—before they commit crimes would probably make society safer. Dozens of plots may have been foiled and thousands of lives saved as a result of some of the unsavoury practices now being employed in the name of fighting terrorism. Dropping such practices in order to preserve freedom may cost many lives. So be it."

10:34 - THE ADAM SMITH CODE: 

I will blog less the rest of the week. The reason is that after having been back in 22 from 112 and their neighbours 112 for a few days I am going to Europe´s 5 for five days. And after that, I will also go to 9 and our neighbouring 22.

By the way, Economic Freedom of the World 2007 is now published.

00:34 - TWO CAN PLAY THAT INCENTIVE GAME: 

Muslims against Sharia condemns Abu Omar Al Baghdadi for putting a price on Lars Vilks´ head. So now they offer SEK100,000 (about $15,000) to anyone who can supply information leading to the capture or neutralisation of Abu Omar Al Baghdadi. I would be happy to chip in. Shouldn´t we turn it into an eBay auction?

13:59 - DANISH FARMERS VS SUBSIDIES: 

"The higher the market price of our goods, the more difficult it becomes to defend agricultural subsidies ... They put us in an unfortunate situation where we receive money, property prices rise which lead to these price rises, and then we get taxed."

- Peter Gæmelke, the president of Danish Agriculture, explains why EU´s subsidies should be reduced.

(Thanks Philip)

21:53 - APPEAL TO BLOGGERS EVERYWHERE: 

I have an idea and you can help. But first, the background:

About one hundred Swedish companies have been threatened on Islamist websites in the last few days. Jihadist websites call for Muslims to boycott companies like IKEA, H&M, Ericsson and Electrolux, and in several cases to attack them. This is evil times two. They attack people who have nothing to do with what they are fighting against, and they do it because they want to put pressure on the Swedish government to stop artists like Lars Vilks from mocking religion.

This has dangerous potential. When the Danish Mohammed cartoons were published Danish companies like Arla were hurt by boycotts. This probably didn´t have an effect on the Danish government, but it did on other countries´ governments. They could see that if they forcefully defended freedom of speech their companies would also be hurt. And since politicians often care more about industry interests than about democratic principles they started to appease opponents of free speech.

So what do we do to save our liberties from Jihadists and unprincipled politicians? It´s easy. The opponents of freedom and democracy are fewer than the supporters and their purchasing power is smaller. The only thing that makes them influential is that they act in unison. But we can do that too.

Why don´t we decide to try to buy goods from companies that find themselves in the middle of free speech conflicts like this? If we, thousands of bloggers and writers and our readers do that, the effect of every boycott will be diminished. Spread the word now, around the world, that we are buying Swedish if we need beer, food, furniture or phones this week. And then, if Canadian or Georgian companies are the next targets, we´ll buy Canadian and Georgian goods next.

Perhaps we can institutionalise this as well, and turn it into a Break the boycott- and Buy for freedom-website and a movement that looks at what happens next and informs us on the next victims that need our help. I am sure that there is talent out there, who could do it. Perhaps you are the one? We need it, because this will happen again and again unless we do something about it.

UPDATE 2007-09-18: These bloggers are the first to support consumption for free speech, as far as I can see:

Arquette.com, Oscar Löfroth, Johnny Munkhammar, Mathias Sundin, Ο “Νεοφιλελεύθερος”

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