Friday Morning Ramble: The ‘did anyone notice he had gone’ edition?

David Shearer has stepped down, but should the Labour Party itself be next? After all, what does it stand for that either Greens or National doesn’t already, and articulate better?
Labour needs more than a new leader - it needs change – Josie Pagani, PUNDIT
Why Shearer failed – David Farrar, KIWIBLOG

The Reserve Bank reckons it’s providing a benefit to first-home buyers by making it too hard for them to buy houses. (Eric Crampton reckons “I could as plausibly claim that I'm making everyone better off by banning them from listening to Coldplay because they're not likely to be "cool" for much longer.”) But there’s a bigger problem than just illogic.
RBNZ misstep on macroprudential policy – Matt Nolan, VISIBLE HAND
Curbs unlikely to stop house hikes – NZ HERALD

Oppositionto the government’s GCSB Bill was “marked by a lack of coherence and internal consistency, poor targeting, and seemingly more at shoring up support among activists than in extending that support.”
Crossing: the flaw – Lew, KIWIPOLITICO

Here’s a Kids Guide to the Internet, from 1997…

Writer Robert Tracinski reckons if you're feeling sympathetic to the plight of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, consider their role in Egypt's Coptic Kristallnacht.
Coptic Kristallnacht – Andrew Doran, NATIONAL REVIEW

Speaking of which…
This is what it looks like just before the Muslim Brotherhood jumps you – Aymann Ismail, ANIMAL NEW YORK

“It's the kind of justification that only a government agency could make.”
GCHQ ordered Guardian to destroy Snowden files because its servers weren't secure – WIRED, UK

Maybe they should have looked first?
US doesn't know what Snowden took, sources say – NBC NEWS

The future of the SurveillanceState?
Detaining my partner was a failed attempt at intimidation – Glenn Greenwald, THE GUARDIAN

“The issue is whether the government has the authority to exert military and
similar power as it carries out the task of securing the rights of the citizenry. It must
find a way and not violate rights, for which there is no excuse. If governments do
engage in rights violation while securing the rights of the citizenry, they
become criminal organizations and lose their moral authority, period.”
- Tibor Machan, “Christie’s Demagoguery”

Which of the two proposed Fed chairmen would be worse? “Larry Summers has a proven track record of crisis management due to his proven track record of causing them,” and “this Fed on which Janet Yellen sits has triggered asset bubbles in stocks and bonds and she cannot even see it.” “Neither Yellen nor Summers is qualified. In fact, there is not a single person who would take the job that is qualified. There should not be a Fed at all.
 Tweedle Dum vs. Tweedle Dee; Does Janet Yellen Have What It Takes? – MISH’S GLOBAL ECONOMIC TREND ANALYSIS

“Myth: Central banking purpose is to stabilize economy Truth: Created so govts spending unchecked by the people .”
The End of Central Banking, Part I, Richard Salsman, OJBJECTIVE STANDARD

Fair question.
John Maynard Keynes: Where's The Genius?! (Part 1) – Ilana Mercer, ECONOMIC POLICY JOURNAL

It was the only political game John Maynard Keynes ever lost, and set the tone for post-war economic mismanagement. The Weekly Standard reviews a new book about the battle over Bretton Woods.
Out of the Woods: The rise and fall of a monetary regime – Kevin Kosar, WEEKLY STANDARD

“No sane thinker would try to explain World War I in the language of physics.” Yet some economists aim close to such craziness.
Is Economics More Like History Than Physics? – Jag Bhalla, SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN

“There is one book by Ludwig von Mises that I think is slightly neglected, namely Bureaucracy, dealing with the difference between profit-and-loss management and bureaucratic management .. I just want to give some illustrative quotes.”
Ludwig von Mises on Bureaucracy – Per Olof Samuelsson - THE HOUSE AT POS CORNER

British 18 yr olds who choose work £100k better-off than graduates at age 22. Any different here?
Are some universities close to conning? – Eric Joyce, MP

Professional yet ignorant environmental protesters. Canadian, yes, but …

“Here's a good example of how complicated the earth's environment is...it's a study raising the possibility that the increase in clean air across the globe over the last 40 years plays a significant, and important, role in the temperature record…”
Cleaner air, not CO2, responsible for "global warming"? – ON LIBERTY STREET 

The headline says it all.
Ten big fat lies about fracking – Phelim McAleer, SPIKED

To ascribe rights to animals is to contradict the purpose and justification of
rights--to protect the interests of humans. Rights are moral principles
necessary for men to survive as human beings--to coexist peacefully, to
produce and trade, to provide for their own lives, and to pursue their own
happiness, all by the guidance of their rational minds. To attribute rights
to nonrational, amoral creatures who can neither grasp nor live by them is to
turn rights from a tool of human preservation to a tool of human extermination.
- Alex Epstein, “The Terror of 'Animal Rights'”

For a while there, based on research begun with patient ‘Sybil,’ multiple personalities were a textbook psychological phenomenon.  However…
Real 'Sybil' Admits Multiple Personalities Were Fake – Lynn Neary, NPR

Before the Skeptical Environmentalist there was doom-slayer Julian L. Simon, widely derided during his lifetime but vindicated posthumously.
Julian Simon Remembered: It’s A Wonderful Life – Stephen Moore, LIBERTARIANISM

Conservative thinker George Will breaks ranks with conservative religionists in an essay looking at “the relationship of religion to the American way—that is, to government based on rights… ‘I do not think the idea of natural rights requires a religious foundation,’ he writes. ‘’The American founding owed much more to John Locke than to Jesus’ … It is great to see a conservative acknowledge that religion is not essential to the existence or defence of rights. But why does Will maintain that religion is even “helpful” or “important” to the cause?”
George Will: A Conservative “None” in Need of Ayn Rand’s Theory of Rights - Craig Biddle and Stephen Bourque, OBJECTIVE STANDARD

“At first glance Elon Musk appears to be the sort of inventor-entrepreneur I would celebrate on this site.  He helped create PayPal, he has had a big hand in Tesla, Space X, and Solar City.  Now he is touting his Hyperloop which is supposed to be ten times cheaper than present day high speed rail projects, such as the proposed line between LA and San Francisco.  But…”
Mr. Musk Represents Everything that is Wrong with the US Economy. – Dale Halling, STATE OF INNOVATION

Did you know the educational system of militarised Sparta profoundly influenced later advocates of state education?
The Roots of State Education Part 1: The Spartan Model – George H. Smith, LIBERTARIANISM

Beaches from another planet? No, beaches from Planet Earth. And New Zealand. Just really, really strange.
15 Really Strange Beaches – WORLD GEOGRAPHY

“If you want to know what it's like to major in Linguistics, just watch this video at least once a month.”
21 Accents – Amy Walker, YOU TUBE

Hard on the heels that DB’s losing profits, Moa Brewery was slapped by the stock market after admitting to poor sales.
Nice to know that faux-craft beers aren’t breaking through.
Brewer Moa lost in beer market, says fund manager – NZ HERALD

[Geek Press, Joel Rowan, Mark Thoma, Benn Steil, Justin Templer, Eric Joyce MP, Mark Hubbard , Michael Caution,  TakingHayekSeriously, Michele Fedgechin, Public Anon News, Nikolas Kozloff , Cafe Hayek , Offsetting Behaviour]

Thanks for reading,
Have a great weekend!
PC