LawLiberty: “Some books become good friends. They not only stimulate our minds, but they also speak to our very souls. The Individualists: Radicals, Reactionaries, and the Struggle for the Soul of Libertarianism, by Matt Zwolinski and John Tomasi, is such a book. The two authors do everything humanly possible to uncover and reveal the deepest roots of modern and post-modern libertarianism, tracing its very diverse and tenuous strands back to the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, noting that, ultimately, it’s a radical form of classical liberalism. At one level, it’s a biography of the very idea of libertarianism, but at another level, it’s an intellectual autobiography of anyone who considers him- or herself libertarian.”
Michael Munger: “After taxes are taken from your income, you spend some of it. And save the rest. Unsurprisingly, people with very high incomes spend a large amount, but save a large percentage, of their after-tax incomes. These savings are not isolated from the economy, buried in old mayonnaise jars in the garden, or stuffed under mattresses. This wealth, the accumulation of income not taxed or spent on consumption, is invested. Liquidity is the human growth hormone of the capitalist economy, directed toward potentially profitable opportunities to convert abstract purchasing power (money) into actual productive resources (factories, software, bricks and mortar stores, and online platforms). Now, from that foundation, how should we think about a wealth tax? An income tax takes a part of the flow of income in a given year, so a wealth tax is targeting the stock of savings left over from income that has already been taxed once. It goes like this: “You have money left after your income is taxed, and you spend part of the money? Give us some of that.” Later: “Wait, you still have money? Give us some.” Forever. That’s a wealth tax.”
Martin Wolf: “The extraordinary power enjoyed by Europeans and the US, their potent progeny, is dwindling. Not surprisingly, what we call Asia, close to half of the human population and home to some of the world’s historic civilisations, is leading the change. Barring catastrophes, this is also likely to continue. The world economy’s centre of gravity is simply shifting east. Asia then will be hugely economically and politically important. But it will also have highly significant internal rivalries and difficulties of its own. There will be no collective Asian “will”, other than for societies to pursue their own paths. Meanwhile, the west needs to get two contrasting thoughts into its collective head. First, it must deal with the world as it is. Second, it must defend the best of its values, notably democracy and individual freedom, regardless of what anybody else in the world thinks.”
Adam Smith quotes in honour of his 300th birthday from Reason. One of them: “Little else is requisite to carry a state to the highest degree of opulence from the lowest barbarism, but peace, easy taxes, and a tolerable administration of justice: all the rest being brought about by the natural course of things.”
FT: “AI has the potential to help take us beyond this world of asset price levitation and debt-dependent growth through its capacity to improve productivity. Dario Perkins of TS Lombard suggests that two mechanisms will drive this improvement. First, AI can make current processes more efficient. It is already helping workers make better informed decisions, optimise their processes and remove mundane tasks. The resulting increase in the efficiency of the workforce should boost overall output. And then AI can help workers invent new things, make new discoveries and generate technological progress that can raise future productivity. Meantime a number of studies have shown that Generative AI, which is capable of self-learning and performing several tasks, will boost the efficiency of workers and companies that use it.” More: “Researchers at Morgan Stanley say US productivity is “poised to rebound”, in part because demographic trends, combined with government “friendshoring” policies, will make it harder for multinationals to tap a global pool of cheap labour and force them to automate. An AI-focused “productivity revolution” could be broader than that seen after the introduction of personal computers, they suggested in a recent note, with sectors such as retail and manufacturing “primed to invest”.”
