tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15453937.post7614605839576338714..comments2024-01-10T17:36:15.040-07:00Comments on The Lippard Blog: The Amazing Meeting 7: SGU, Shermer, SavageLippardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16826768452963498005noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15453937.post-5072639165188633082009-09-18T16:26:45.180-07:002009-09-18T16:26:45.180-07:00Shermer is certainly right about free trade. But ...Shermer is certainly right about free trade. But your favoured president Obama is <a href="http://www.burtfolsom.com/?p=441" rel="nofollow">channelling Herbert Hoover</a> in imposing yet more protectionist measures on <a href="http://www.ibdeditorials.com/IBDArticles.aspx?id=337823792088028" rel="nofollow">tyres from China</a>. Way to go: repeating exactly the same thing that made the Depression "Great". America under Uncle Barack's protection(ism) can now look forward to higher consumer prices for tyres, the same sort of trade war that followed the Hoover-signed Smoot–Hawley tariffs, downturns in businesses using tyres, and in businesses that have less patronage because consumers have less money left over because of overpriced tyres.<br /><br />Bastiat, cited by Shermer, demolished protectionist arguments 160 years ago in Part 7 of his brilliant essay <a href="http://www.econlib.org/library/Bastiat/basEss1.html" rel="nofollow">What Is Seen and What Is Not Seen</a>. Incidentally, Part 5 demolishes government "stimulus" packages.Ktisophiloshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16718156076583190052noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15453937.post-26589807873962162352009-08-07T06:42:31.060-07:002009-08-07T06:42:31.060-07:00Ah, looks like there are native speakers of Espera...Ah, looks like <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Native_Esperanto_speakers" rel="nofollow">there are native speakers of Esperanto</a>, including George Soros!Lippardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16826768452963498005noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15453937.post-4694931519065590202009-08-07T06:40:37.965-07:002009-08-07T06:40:37.965-07:00I like the idea of Esperanto and know a few speake...I like the idea of Esperanto and know a few speakers. (I took the ten free lessons myself years ago, but never pursued it further.) It does seem to be a good way of putting people on a more equal footing by using a non-native language, so long as it doesn't ever become a native language. But it doesn't seem to have reached anything like critical mass, and has been criticized for not quite meeting its own ideals by being overly Indo-European in its roots--though that hasn't stopped it from being used by native speakers of Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, and Hungarian.Lippardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16826768452963498005noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15453937.post-8797406778624797872009-08-07T06:18:35.740-07:002009-08-07T06:18:35.740-07:00In discussing a new global language, don't for...In discussing a new global language, don't forget Esperanto.<br /><br />Your readers may be interested in http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=_YHALnLV9XU Professor Piron was a translator with the United Nations in Geneva.<br /><br />The argument for Esperanto can be seen at http://www.lernu.netBrian Barkerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17619597021388228806noreply@blogger.com