Wednesday, May 2, 2012

A Confederacy Of Dunces

There are proof readers who do not know what the political concept “state” means. There are managing editors who cannot tell corporate finance from corporate financing, and are convinced that single currency and common currency are two different things. There are editor-in-chief’s who do not know what the word “invariably” means, and still uses it three times in a sentence. And there are editors on all levels who are incapable of writing a decent sentence.

Read the rest: A Confederacy Of Dunces

Sunday, August 15, 2010

ResponsibilityType of ProjectExpenditure in Rs CroresIn US dollar (million)
Government of IndiaSports infrastructure2,934624
Training of sports teams678144
Loan to CWG organizing committee2,394509
MTNL (telephone and connectivity)18239
Ministry of Urban Development828176
Ministry of Information and Broadcasting483103
Ministry of Home affairs (security)747159
Ministry of Health7115
Archeological Survey of India (monuments)266
Government of Delhi2,800596
Others35175
TOTAL11,4942,446
Government of DelhiOn Commonwealth Games (stadiums)670143
Flyovers and bridges3,700787
ROB, RUB and IG Airport45096
BRTS (dedicated bus corridor)21546
DTC bus fleet1,800383
DTC bus depots900191
Roads650138
Streetscaping525112
Road signages15032
Delhi Metro connectivity3,000638
Power plants2,800596
Water supply40085
Health5011
Parking facilities40085
Communication and IT20043
Others650138
TOTAL16,5603,523

Friday, March 6, 2009

March 5 2009

Read the first few pages of "Economic Freedom and Interventionism".

March 4 2009

Read from "The Case Against the Fed".

March 3 2009

Read from "Money,Bank Credit And Economic Cycles".

March 2 2009

Read the first part of "The Mystery Of Banking".

March 1 2009

Read a few pages from Chodorov's One is a Crowd.

February 28 2009

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February 27 2009

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Febryary 18 2009

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February 17 2009

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Tuesday, February 17, 2009

February 16 2009

Read the first part Of "The Warren Buffet Way".

February 15 2009

Read parts of "Bastiat's Collection-I" and "Human Action"

February 14 2009

Read the first part of "Bastiat's Collection-I"

February 13 2009

Read from Reisman's Capitalism.

February 12 2009

Wrote a new blog post!

February 11 2009

Read Parts of "Egalitarianism" and "Socialism".

February 10 2009

Read from "An Introduction to Value"

February 9 2009

Wrote a new blog post!

February 8 2009

Finished "Understanding Stocks".

February 7 2009

Read from "Understanding Stocks".

February 6 2009

Read Parts of "The Market For Liberty"

Thursday, February 5, 2009

February 5 2009

Read from "The Market For Liberty" and "The Production Of Defense".

February 4 2009

Read the fist part of "The Myth Of National Defense".

February 3 2009

Read a few pages from "The Market For Liberty".

February 2 2009

Wrote a new blog post.

February 1 2009

Read the first part of "Understanding Stocks".

January 31 2009

Read a few pages from Henry Hazlitt's "Time Will Run Out".

January 30 2009

Read part of Shapiro's book.

Thursday, January 29, 2009

January 29 2009

Started learning about the market price system and profit mechanism.Started with the work of Shapiro!

January 28 2009

Wrote a new blog post

Liberty And Economics

January 27 2009

Read parts of Reisman's book.

January 26 2009

Wrote a new blog post

On Motives-Good And Evil.

January 25 2009

Somehow completed the application for Charles G Koch Summer Fellowship program.

January 24 2009

Got back home.Read parts of Tibor Machan's work "Liberty And Hard Cases".

January 23 2009

Read "The Economic And Political Weekly" for the first time.It seems to be a leftist publication.

January 22 2009

Read parts of "The Intelligent Investor.In Kanyakumari now.

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

January 21 2009

Decided to read the Reisman's book,writing blog posts on each of the chapters after reading it,to strengthen my understanding of the subject.Started with Chapter One-Economics And Capitalism

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

January 20 2009

Still with Reisman.Wrote a blog post on Taxation

The Evils Of Taxation

January 19 2009

Read Reisman on monopolies.

January 18 2009

Read the first part of "Epistemological Problems Of Economics"

January 17 2009

Read half of "Planned Chaos"

Thursday, January 15, 2009

January 16 2009

Started reading Bastiat.He was one of the first economists I have read.Reading Bastiat in 2005 was one of my greatest intellectual shocks.

Made a new blog post.

Roots Of Anti-Capitalism

January 15 2009

Finished Mises' "Profit And Loss".Wrote a new blog post.

Profit Motive:An Evil?

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

January 14 2009

Done with Mises' "Anti-Capitalist Mentality".Read half of his book "Profit and loss".He explains why profit and loss signals are crucial for a business.He doesn't deal with the Economic calculation is a socialist community in this book.The tone of the book is really bitter,as it is with "Anti-Capitalist Mentality".He uses the word "grumblers" a lot many times.

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

January 13 2009

Finished Henry Hazlitt's "The Conquest Of Poverty".Wrote two blog posts based on what I have learnt.

Poverty:Causes And Cure

Education:A Birth Right?

January 12 2009

Started and finished half of the book "The Conquest Of Poverty" by Henry Hazlitt.I decided that I would write a blog post summarizing every book that I read.What disturbed me about Henry Hazlitt's book is that he doesn't take a firm stand against collectivism and statism.He doesn't explicitly state that he is for laissez faire Capitalism.I don't think he is an evil compromiser,but he is not radical enough.

January 11 2002

Read a few pages from Mises' "Anti-Capitalist Mentality".I have read it several times before.It is one of my favorite works of Mises.Mises digs deep into the psychological roots of Anti-Capitalism.

January 10 2009

Read a few pages from "Epistemological Problems Of Economics" .Von Mises deals with the methodology of Economics in this book.It is an interesting,though difficult read.Jorg Guido Hulsmann writes in the introduction of the book that Mises is more of an Aristotelian than a Kantian.Could it be true that it is a myth that Mises is largely a Kantian in epistemology?

Monday, January 12, 2009

January 9 2009

Decided to read the works of Ludwig Von Mises.Read a few pages from his "Bureaucracy".In "Bureaucracy",he digs deep into the reasons why every public enterprise gets bureaucratic.He proves that Socialism would be bureaucratic tyranny.

Thursday, January 8, 2009

January 8 2009

Read a few pages from "The Case Against The Fed".I am getting bored of reading the same thing again and again.Switched to Finance.I have been reading Business Magazines for the past 8 years,but I know close to nothing about Finance.I have decided that I would learn everything I need to learn in the next few days.

January 7 2009

Started learning Banking.This is how I understand money and deposit banking:

Before money, there was barter. If I produced potatoes and you produced onions, we would exchange it for mutual benefit. But, there were several problems with the barter system. For instance, if I had a bus and wanted to sell it to buy a car, washing machine and television set, I can't chop my bus into several parts and exchange it. There should also be double coincidence of wants. A person who wants to exchange potatoes for onions wants to find a person who has onions and want to buy potatoes. To quote an example of Murray Rothbard, consider the fate of an economics professor who wants to find an egg seller who would like to listen to a ten minute economics lecture! It also required people to remember the beef price of onions, egg price of milk and several other such relations. Moreover, businessmen couldn't economically calculate-which means: They can't calculate their expenditures and revenues in monetary terms and find out whether they have made a profit or not.

Money emerged when the person who has to sell onions in order to buy potatoes found out what the potato seller wanted and sold his onions to buy that item, and then exchange it for potatoes. This helped commodities which are in high demand to emerge as money. Several items were used as money in the past-Salt, cowrie shells, cigarettes etc. But in course of time, gold and silver emerges as money and in most countries gold became used as money. Gold had many properties which resulted in its use as money-It was divisible, homogenous, portable & in high demand.

Deposit banking emerged when people found it difficult to carry gold to make transactions. They found it safe to deposit in a deposit bank, which is in fact a warehouse. The deposit bank in return paid the depositors of gold warehouse receipts in the form of bank notes. These bank notes became used as money in transactions. This was the origin of paper money.

There is a possibility that the banks could inflate the money supply by issuing warehouse receipts (Bank notes).But, there would be several checks on banks in a free banking system on issuing warehouse receipts. 1) There would be bank runs. If a bank issues too many fake warehouse receipts, the clients of the bank would ask for redemption of the warehouse receipts in gold specie-which means: They would ask for gold coins in return for the warehouse receipts they hold. If the bank don't have enough gold to back it up, they would be bankrupt.2) The extent of clientele of various banks. If I use bank A and you use the Bank B- And I sell a car to you. You would pay me in warehouse receipts of the bank B.I would deposit the warehouse receipts of Bank B in Bank A and Bank A would pay me its own warehouse receipts. Bank A then would ask Bank B for redemption of its own warehouse receipts in gold specie and if it doesn't have enough gold to pay to Bank A, Bank B would go bankrupt.

There is also a possibility that banks could form cartels and inflate the money supply. But, that is very unlikely as the economic incentives for the banks to break the cartel would be enormous. Moreover, if banks for a cartel, new banks would come into existence which would ask for redemption in gold of the fake warehouse receipts and all the banks would go bankrupt. The Federal Reserve (Fed) (or Reserve Bank of India or Bank of England) is in fact a cartelization device which would enable the banks to inflate simultaneously so that redemption of the banks would cancel out each other, if they inflate at the same rate. The central bank has no check on it in inflating the money supply. And several decades back the central bank abolished the gold standard and people can't ask for redemption of paper money in gold specie. Central Banking (Fractional Reserve banking) is a fraud perpetrated on mankind.

I have learnt a lot in the past few years.But,there are some aspects of banking that I don't understand.It is getting really frustrating.I won't give up.


January 6 2009

Started reading Walter Block's "Defending The Undefendable".Block defends several professions like that of a pimp,prostitute and likes.While reading it,a question which some of my collectivist friends had asked me came into my mind.What would be done if an employer sexually harasses his employee.I find the question ridiculous.They totally miss the point.Sexual harassment is a crime and the employer would be punished if the employee files a complaint and proves it.Moreover,in a private organization the employer has a moral and financial responsibility to stop the harrassment.In a government enterprise there is no such incentive.But,this is not what the collectivists mean.What is implicit in their question is the belief that the employee would submit to the sexual harrasment and won't complain.It apparently means that she is trading sex for her job and all the benefits which comes with it.Or that she is a prostitute and these collectivists sympathize with her.What is interesting is that more often than not,the ones who ask such questions don't sympathize with prostitutes or prostitution.Double standards,indeed.Another point which struck me was something I have been thinking for a long time.People argue that dowry makes marriage a trade and women a commodity.I have no idea of what they are talkin about.It is the girl's family which pays dowry to the boy.How would that make the girl a commodity? Certainly,it is the boy who is treated as a commodity here.Moreover,in almost all cases the girl's family look at the job and income of the boy before marriage.Doesn't that make it a trade? Doesn't that make the girl a prostitute? The answer is that everything comes down to trade,whether on a conscious level or not.The issues is only what is offered for trade.Is it ones virtues or money or sex? I would be looking for the virtues I value in my partner.

Tuesday, January 6, 2009

January 5 2009

I have decided to spend my time on reading the classics of liberty this month-to strengthen my fundamentals.Reisman's book,which I have read before is the best one to start with.It is the single economics text from which I have learned the most.I have read articles which praise "Human Action" and "Man,State and the Economy".Both are undoubtedly classics.But,why isn't anyone praising Capitalism? Isn't a work of this size a great achievement.It deals with most of the fallacies on economics in a brilliant manner.There are even ones who praise "Economics In One Lesson",though the fast part is a copy paste act from Bastiat's essay.It is not on say that I am in agreement with everything the book has to say.I don't understand why the author rejects anarcho capitalism.Why do a lot many libertarians reject anarchism? Probably,it is because their understanding the subject of private law is inadequate.Why don't they devote some time to it? Or are they seeking intellectual respectability through compromise? I don't think so.Reisman rejects Mises' ethical relativism and utilitarianism.I sympathize a lot with natural law theorists.But,there is something I don't understand.How would we decide whether an act is selfish or not? Where do we draw the line? Ayn Rand says that an act is selfish if the intended beneficiary is the person who performs the act.But,how do we know who is the intended beneficiary?Ayn Rand is of the opinion that a son who gives up his career to look after his parents is selfless.But,if the son has a good relationship with his parents and is doing it for the sake of selfish pleasure? I never understood.

January 4 2009

Read Murray Rothbard's "Education:Free And Compulsory".This is by far,the best piece on education I have ever read.I have read it several times.It had a huge impact on my intellectual development.It strengthened my views on homeschooling.I had decided years back that I will home school my child.I wonder whether I would have the time to devote to such activities.It all depends on my life partner.Would she have the courage and strength to do so? It is a huge responsibility and not many have the nerve to go through it all.

January 3 2009

Woke up very late in the morning.Through a Facebook friend,I discovered the works of Wes Bertrand.He seems to be highly influenced by the works of the philosopher Ayn Rand and the psychologist Nathaniel Branden.Read parts of Wes Bertrand's "The Psychology Of Liberty", "Complete Liberty" and Nathaniel Branden's "Honoring The Self".Wes Bertrand's works were something I have been looking for long-Psychology from a libertarian view point.Few psychologists seem to be libertarians-The exceptions being Nathaniel Branden and Wes Bertrand.Chatted with an Orkut friend Stephen who said that his Grandparents knew Ludwig Von Mises and Friedrich Hayek.He learnt libertarianism from his grandparents who were fans of Milton Friedman.

January 2 2009

Woke up at 5.30 in the morning.Returned back home.Reached here at 6.30 in the morning.Slept for a while.Went to the bank to deposit money.Arranged my book shelf in order.Started reading the works of Murray Rothbard.Read one of his articles -"Praxeology."I read "Cries Unheard" by Gitta Sereny around two years back.It was the story of girl called Mary Bell-who commited a murder at the age of 11.But,I hadn't noticed the name of the Author when I had read it.When I was arranging my bookshelf,I suddenly noticed her name and it struck me that the name of Ludwig Von Mises' step daughter too is Gitta Sereny.What an irony!Ludwig Von Mises was a far more important thinker and his works are not available in India.His not so important step daughters works are! Why is Gitta Sereny so interested in holocausts and child abuse? Was she abused as a child?

January 1 2009

Woke up very late in the morning.Celebrated my birthday.I was not able to read anything at all.Helped Chinnu create an Orkut account.Went to the beach and later to the Sarovaram Park.Went to Mothers house.

Made a list of the Books I have Read In 2008.