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1701. Social Justice and the Indian Rope Trick

Author:
Aaron Ross Powell
Publication Date:
07-2015
Content Type:
Journal Article
Abstract:
There’s a clarity and straightforwardness to Anthony de Jasay’s work that’s always refreshing—even when I find myself disagreeing with what he’s clearly and straightforwardly arguing. Jasay is unapologetic about his beliefs and that sense of purpose has animated his numerous contributions to libertarian thought. Yet, in this collection, that certainty occasionally leads him to offer incomplete arguments that miss their mark. The essays collected in Social Justice and the Indian Rope Trick largely group into three different arguments, all intended in some degree to highlight what Jasay calls a “perilously ignored defect of modern political thought, namely the careless use, the misuse, and even the downright abuse of the language.” The first target is the term “social justice,” which Jasay thinks a pleonasm at best, a dangerous subversion of justice at worst. Then he turns to rights, which he finds conceptually unhelpful, tying us in intellectual knots we could shrug out of if we’d only recognize the primacy of rules. Finally, he addresses the problems of social contract theory and distinguishes it from his own preferred theory of conventions.

1702. This Nonviolent Stuff’ll Get You Killed: How Guns Made the Civil Rights Movement Possible

Author:
David Kopel
Publication Date:
07-2015
Content Type:
Journal Article
Abstract:
Charles Cobb’s excellent book This Nonviolent Stuff’ll Get You Killed: How Guns Made the Civil Rights Movement Possible teaches two important lessons that will make some people uncomfortable. The first lesson is summarized in the subtitle: the exercise of Second Amendment rights was a sine qua non for the survival and success of the Civil Rights Movement in the South during the 1960s. The second uncomfortable lesson, for some people, is that community organizing is vital to democracy. This Nonviolent Stuff is not the first book about armed self-defense in the Civil Rights Movement, but it does make a vital and unique contribution.

1703. The Myth of Dynastic Wealth: The Rich Get Poorer

Author:
Robert Arnott, William Bernstein, and Lillian Wu
Publication Date:
09-2015
Content Type:
Journal Article
Abstract:
Thomas Piketty’s Capital in the Twenty-First Century rocketed to the top of the best-seller lists the moment it was published in 2013, and remained there for months. While this feat is quite remarkable for a weighty tome on economics, it’s no mystery why Piketty’s magnum opus created such a sensation; it is clearly articulated, is accessible to the non-economist, and contains a trove of historical insights. We believe Piketty’s core message is provably flawed on several levels, as a result of fundamental and avoidable errorsin his basic assumptions. 1 He begins with the sensible presumption that the return on invested capital, r, exceeds macroeconomic growth, g, as must be true in any healthy economy. But from this near-tautology, he moves on to presume that wealthy families will grow ever richer over future generations, leading to a society dominated by unearned, hereditary wealth.
Topic:
Economics
Political Geography:
United States and Europe

1704. Central Bank Stress Tests: Mad, Bad, and Dangerous

Author:
Kevin Dowd
Publication Date:
09-2015
Content Type:
Journal Article
Abstract:
One of the most important aspects of the remarkable transformation of central banking following the onset of the 2008 global financial crisis is the growth of regulatory stress tests for the larger banks. The relevant regulator—typically the central bank—uses these to determine the ability of the banks to withstand stress, and uses the results of the tests to assess the overall financial health of the banking system. A key purpose of the stress tests is to reassure the public that the banking system is sound.
Topic:
Economics
Political Geography:
United States

1705. The Conservatarian Manifesto: Libertarians, Conservatives, and the Fight for the Right’s Future

Author:
Ilya Shapiro
Publication Date:
09-2015
Content Type:
Journal Article
Abstract:
It’s altogether fitting that a book throwing down the gauntlet for a libertarian-conservative fusion in the 2010s has emerged from an author linked to the same magazine as the progenitor of the original fusionism of a half-century earlier. I only recently met Charlie Cooke—though we’ve exchanged many tweets—and never had the chance to meet Frank Meyer—though I’m heavily involved with the Federalist Society, which his son Eugene has long led—butI have no doubt that the two would get on swimmingly. And it comes as no surprise that both cut their writing chops at National Review, which many assume is a stodgy journal of urtraditionalist redoubt when in fact it has produced some of the most innovative reformist ideas in the conservative movement. Or, should I say, that it has featured ideas from the full range of center-right thought, along with various manifestations of entertainingly untraditional personal style.
Topic:
Economics
Political Geography:
United States

1706. Greece and the European Project: Canary in the Coal Mine?

Author:
Daniel V. Speckhard
Publication Date:
09-2015
Content Type:
Journal Article
Institution:
Council of American Ambassadors
Abstract:
After serving for two challenging years in the chaos of a war zone as the Deputy Chief of Mission in Iraq, I received word that I would become the next Ambassador to Greece. To be quite honest, I had mixed feelings. I looked forward to the challenge, but I imagined the post would be too sedate compared with the adrenalin-charged days and world-shaping events in Iraq. It was anything but. Within a year of my arrival, the streets were aflame with violent protests over a police shooting of a teenager. A year later, snap elections brought a socialist government to power. And soon thereafter, the onion was further peeled to expose a financial crisis and a crumbling economic foundation built on a corrupt, oligarchic, and debt-addicted system fed by billions of dollars of public and private EU loans and grants.
Topic:
Corruption, Economics, Politics, Financial Crisis, and European Union
Political Geography:
Europe and Greece

1707. IN3 - Incubating a New Spain through the Promotion of Entrepreneurship

Author:
James Costos
Publication Date:
09-2015
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
The Ambassador's Review
Abstract:
Helping entrepreneurs grow their businesses and achieve their full potential is in the interest of anyone who wants to foster prosperity worldwide— that’s why it’s an Obama administration priority. Growth anywhere does some good everywhere, and the fact is that entrepreneurs create jobs and drive economic growth both at home and abroad. In the United States, 40 percent of our $17 trillion economy is generated by companies that did not even exist 20 years ago. Two-thirds of our 65 months of consecutive job growth is driven by small businesses. The owners of those businesses—28 million and growing—employ over half of America’s workforce.
Topic:
Economics, Human Welfare, Social Stratification, and Labor Issues
Political Geography:
United States and Spain

1708. Engaging the Swiss on Apprenticeships: Economic Diplomacy with Results Back Home

Author:
Susan G. LeVine
Publication Date:
09-2015
Content Type:
Journal Article
Abstract:
One of the core priorities for the State Department and for the Obama administration overall is shared prosperity because, as Secretary Kerry frequently points out, “Economic policy is foreign policy.” The United States firmly believes that, by growing bilateral economic ties, the United States as well as the host country will prosper. The metrics around our economic relationship with Switzerland are a perfect example of that: Switzerland is one of the top ten foreign direct investors in the United States and number one in research and development; the United States has been the largest growth market for Swiss exports over the past five years; and Swiss companies generate almost half a million jobs in the United States—really great jobs with an average salary of $100,000 per year. With those ties in mind, I set out to meet with Swiss companies of all kinds to understand how they do business in Switzerland and how to deepen their investment in the United States. What I learned in the course of that exploration will, I believe, profoundly and positively affect both countries economically, and also have a positive effect on the world.

1709. Ebola, Liberia, and the “Cult of Bankable Projects”

Author:
Shefa Siegel
Publication Date:
04-2015
Content Type:
Journal Article
Institution:
Carnegie Council
Abstract:
Fragile states are unable to cope with additional shocks like Ebola; without passable roads, electricity, and social solidarity there is no viable way to administer basic medical care or prevent minerals from illegally crossing porous borders, much less suddenly contain a runaway virus. Yet instead of addressing core issues of state failure, development aid continues pushing narrowly focused agendas that have little meaning in places where institutions and infrastructure are broken. Why, in response to the disastrous events we saw unfolding in Liberia, were we not calling for public and private investment in the region to be shifted from one bureaucratic budget line to another?
Topic:
Development, Humanitarian Aid, Infectious Diseases, Health Care Policy, and Ebola

1710. International Organizations vs. Terrorism

Author:
O. Khlestov, A. Kukushkina, and Sh. Sodikov
Publication Date:
11-2015
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
International Affairs: A Russian Journal of World Politics, Diplomacy and International Relations
Institution:
East View Information Services
Abstract:
The growth in acts of international terrorism endangers the lives of people worldwide, as well as threatens the peace and security of all states. The September 23, 1999 Statement on Combating International Terrorism issued by the ministers for foreign affairs of the five permanent members of the Security Council has stressed that it is vital to strengthen, under the auspices of the United Nations, international cooperation to fight terrorism in all its forms. Such cooperation must be firmly based on the principles of the UN Charter and norms of international law, including respect for human rights.
Topic:
Conflict Resolution, Terrorism, United Nations, International Security, and Peacekeeping
Political Geography:
Global Focus