Supreme Skepticism Toward Method Patents
As I mentioned in Radical Patent Reform Is Not on the Way, in in In re Bilski, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) modified previous holdings regarding the patentability of software or business-method patents in upholding the rejection of patent claims involving a method of hedging risks in commodities trading. The case was appealed to the Supreme Court and oral arguments were heard earlier this month. This entire area of patent law is very arcane, but the main issues and the oral arguments are explained very well by the heroic IP-abuse reporter Joe Mu

Experience in the Private Sector
A fascinating chart from J.P. Morgan provides a look at the percentage of cabinet level political appointees who have private sector experience from Roosevelt to Obama. Of course there is a downside to private-sector experience. In government, these people tend toward corrupting partnerships between government and business. And yet, it seems essential that if some gang were going to purport to enact policies to bring economic growth, some real-world knowledge is a good idea. The best idea of all would be to leave private sector employees in the private sector and eliminate government rulers altogether. In any

Hülsmann on Argumentation Ethics
I've done a good deal of writing on Hoppe's argumentation ethics defense of libertarian rights and related matters (see Revisiting Argumentation Ethics, Mises and Argumentation Ethics). I was reminded recently of Guido Hülsmann's superb and unique presentation of argumentation ethics in his paper "The A Priori Founda

Fiat Currency I Might Accept
here. HT: Brent Butgereit.

The Specific Value of Money
The task of the theory of money consists merely in dealing with that component in the valuation of money which is conditioned by its function as a medium of exchange. FULL ARTICLE by Ludwig von Mises