Gotta say I really like Leeson's book. I'm half way through it, and have been for some time now because of being bogged down with school work, but there is some great substance in there about anarchy and governance vs. government.
 

OK everyone, if anyone takes a shot at Leeson, it needs to be really clever. I don't want the GMU/Auburn war to open up a new front here.

(Jesse, I know you are being serious, but I'm sure a lot of the cynics who post at The Austrian Economists might be here as well.)

I am pretty sure Pete sent me a review copy but I am totally swamped right now. Even if he does nothing else, his publication in JPE can go on his tombstone.
 

Bob, I gotta say that your comments on climate science are both overly eager and predictable.

Re: the Berkeley physics professor, nothing in article indicates that he has any particular expertise regarding climate - which he does not say won`t be a probem, but one he simply thinks is overstated, and can`t be solved unless Chna and India agree (hardly a controversial view), his suggestions that the government ought to be spending money on clean coal technologies and nuclear power are of course wrong, and you fail to note that he is very concerned about ocean acidification ("I consider this to be potentially a bigger problem than global warming").

As for Lindzen, the paper hasn`t even been published yet and already guys like Bradley and Knappenberger are - as they are paid to do - blogging it around like it`s gospel. Do you share a similar need to rush these things?

Furthermore, where is your common, real-world sense on the climate "sensitivity" (amount of average temp inclrease w/ a CO2 doubling)? The average temp has risen only 0.6 C in the last half century, to a peak we have maintained for the past decade, and the Arctic and all of the world`s glaciers are visibly thawing, and a host of other changes that affect human activities and ecosystems are underway - based almost wholly on emissions that occurred decades ago.

Regardless of what the temperature "sensitivity" to a doubling turns out to be - and recent emissions and those looming over the next decades are very likely to have a price - it should be crystal clear that the climate is exquisitely sensitive to even small AVERAGE temperature changes (which are more pronounced up North).
If we really want to slow down global warming, we have to invest in, or invent, technology that's cheap enough to be deployed in China.
 

Oops, last sentence is an unnecessary quote from the Berekley physics prof.
 

The review of Leeson`s book is interesting, but doesn`t actually spend much time explaining what Leeson thinks. The reviewer also unfortunately sees a need to classify the pirates as either socialists or capitalists, rather than focussing on the nature of the environment in which they behaved so opportunistically.

FWIW, more on the Somali pirates and the role of the state here.
 

Bob, you mean you are not jumping on the Somalia Rocks! bandwagon?

Or, taking a ride down the Disney-inspired Pirates of the Caribbean good ship lollipop?

I may add that Leeson was horrific at seeing the signs of the current downturn as he argued on the AE blog that all things were just grand and glorious in September/October '08.

Not to mention the really smart idea of the two Pete's selling a 1232 page book consisting of Ludwig von Mises essays on Amazon.com for $565 in 2009!

http://www.amazon.com/Legacy-Ludwig-Intellectual-Legacies-Economic/dp/1840644028

What a bargain! What great entrepreneurs! What willing desire to share their knowledge with the world!