Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Tyler Cowen on "Collective Progress"

Cowen writes:
Going back to Europe, without the bailout no German or French commitment to another European nation, or another European collective project, would be worth very much for a very long time.  Boo hoo you may say, but in the European world that is perceived as a very high cost indeed.  It would mean writing off the major narrative of European collective progress since the end of World War II.
Tyler, ah, maybe writing off "the major narrative of European collective progress since the end of World War II" might not be a bad idea, since "collective progress" at the nation/state level has to mean loss of freedoms for individuals in those collective states.

5 comments:

  1. Cowen's libertarian individualism is obviously much more nuanced and progressive than yours is, Bob, you libertarian caveman, you.

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  2. How can it be progress if it's bogus, flawed, and oppressive?

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  3. Maybe my view is colored by the fact I am not european, but save for the end of the iron curtain and the fall of outright communism, I don't think Europe has made any progress.

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  4. "Tyler, ah, maybe writing off "the major narrative of European collective progress since the end of World War II" might not be a bad idea, since "collective progress" at the nation/state level has to mean loss of freedoms for individuals in those collective states."

    Let me quote Ben Franklin:

    "Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety deserve neither Liberty nor Safety"

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  5. The US Federal Reserve has announced that new Dollar Swaps are available; these are subsidies to bail out foreign central banks and their related country banks. They constitute seigniorage aid to banks world worldwide. A worldwide unified banking and monetary-seigniorage system came into existance with the central banker’s 2009 quatative easing and bank bailout announcemts.

    Now, the funding of the Euro Stability Pact has strengthened that system; and has created a One Euro Government, that is a region of global governance, where sovereign nation states are history — they being part of a bygone era of national sovereignty. Yes, the May 2010 EU Finance Leaders’ Stability Announcement establishes a federal Europe, consisting of an integrated economic, political, and monetary system where finance leaders meet in summits to announce policy; and then workgoups and country leaders meet to effect that policy.

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