LIBERTY: November 2008 Archives

Tyler Cowen (of the Marginal Revolution blog) and a George Mason economist participated in a Big Think Forum on Business and Economics.

The full talk started with a discussion of capitalism and morality but it ended up focusing on the financial crisis, and he makes some great points about the nature of markets and their role and purpose in our lives.

Building on an unacknowledged base of Randian enlighten self-interest, Tyler Cowen begins by making the case that markets and capital helps us to realize ourselves, to become more of what we are as individuals.

While Guantanamo detainees are not citizens of the U.S., and what to do with them was a tricky question, the complete suspension of habeas corpus and keeping them locked up forever with no due process was an affront to the basic ideas enshrined in both the Constitution and the bill of rights.

The idea of habeas corpus is fundamental because it suggests that, when you have an executive detention, there ought to be an opportunity for the individual detained to get an independent judicial assessment about whether the detention is legal.

Remember, habeas does not create a single right. It just says you can have a judge examine the legality of your detention. This is what the Supreme Court upheld at the end of its 2007 term (see: Boumediene v. Bush). Forty detainees have been held for more than six years without charges filed against them. Some detainees who deny being enemy combatants have never been given an opportunity to show their detention is unwarranted. To its credit, the Supreme Court has finally said "enough."

While I'm concerned about Obama's domestic economic policies (and would McCain's have been much better? Probably, but that's water over the dam), the one thing I'm really looking forward to is a reversal of the constitutional oversteps taken by the neo-conservatives in the past 8 years:

While anticipated, predicted, & even expected, the election of Barack Obama nevertheless was an amazing moment: the lifelong dreams and aspirations of millions realized.

It happened. It really happened.

Whether or not one voted for Barack Obama, I think there's one thing that we all shared tonight: a realization that anything is possible, and that the only real limits in our lives exists in our own minds and hearts. For a moment, all that was lifted, and we saw what was — and is — possible.

Barack Obama has been the elected 44th President, the nation's first African-American President. While it was predicted and anticipated, it's absolutely amazing nevertheless.

A celebration -- but a warning too (to the DNC):

“Well, Doctor, what have we got—a Republic or a Monarchy?

"A Republic, if you can keep it.”
~ Benjamin Franklin

Absolute power corrupted the GOP, and it can happen to you.