12:04 - REAGAN HIMSELF: A lot of things will be said about Ronald Reagan in the next few days, but it is impossible to understand him right, without seeing and listening to him. Look at his 1964 speech for Barry Goldwater as president, or his Tear down this wall-speech in Berlin 1987, or his farewell adress to the nation 1989.

00:38 - AN AMERICAN HERO (1911-2004): I just heard that Ronald Reagan has died, 93 years old. He will be sadly missed. Reagan was the first American president I could listen to on the news, and I don’t think I will ever have the opportunity to experience such a great president again. Reagan’s economic liberal reforms made America great again, and his uncompromising fight against the evil empire of communism liberated millions. Two things I admire about him set him apart from most politicians of our era: Reagan had moral convictions, which were more important to him than focus groups. And his vision was one of optimism: He appealed to people´s best hopes, not their worst fears. Despite his problematic moral traditionalism and relationship with the Christian Right, his conservatism was more optimistic, individualistic and…Californian, than that of other conservatives. As Ronald Reagan said in a Reason interview in July 1975:

"I believe the very heart and soul of conservatism is libertarianism. I think conservatism is really a misnomer just as liberalism is a misnomer for the liberals – if we were back in the days of the Revolution, so-called conservatives today would be the Liberals and the liberals would be the Tories. The basis of conservatism is a desire for less government interference or less centralized authority or more individual freedom and this is a pretty general description also of what libertarianism is.”

23:42 - SENSELESS JOBLESS GROWTH THEORY: Some hobby economists and one Nobel laureate (Stiglitz) persist in their claim that outsourcing and higher productivity has doomed America to jobless growth. The US job statistics for May just gave us 248,000 new arguments against that hypothesis. And the last three months has given us almost one million arguments against it.

18:44 - DOING MY BEST TO STIMULATE: The new Swedish foundation Nytt Europa has been founded to stimulate a critical yet constructive debate on the EU institutions. Now it has published the anthology Vägval för Europa, with perspectives from both market liberals and socialists. I contribute with a chapter (only in Swedish) arguing against the proposal for a constitution, and in favour of a liberal version of federalism, with strong constraints on Brussels power, making subsidiarity more than a catch phrase.

16:20 - SAD ANNIVERSARY: Today it is 15 years since hundreds, maybe thousands of Chinese students were murdered on Tiananmen Square, because they demanded freedom and democracy. Perhaps we will never know how many were massacred, despite brave efforts from Chinese citizens to find the facts. And today, China´s government censors are repeatedly blacking out coverage of the anniversary by CNN and others. But the world will never forget.

15:46 - MODUS VIVENDI: Twice the last week, I have criticized the Swedish radio show Konflikt for incorrect reporting on the 9/11 Commission (here and here). I won´t complain about tomorrow´s show, though. Why not? Because they have asked me to participate (on a completely different subject). If they think that will make me more positive to the show...they´re right. =)

09:08 - NO MOORE?: 18 May I published an article in Swedish criticising the lies and distortions of Michael Moore (with a follow-up 28 May). Since then, it seems like it has become acceptable for Swedish journalists, even from the left, to attack Moore. Often they complain that his systematic distortions make it too easy for his critics to attack left-wing views. Just look here, here, here and here. Apparently, Mr Moore has peaked.

10:37 - RICHARD COBDEN AT 200: As we are reminded by Per Ericson, today it is 200 years since the "manchester liberal" thinker, politician and industrialist Richard Cobden was born. I would rank Cobden not merely as one of my favourite liberals, but also as one of the most important individuals in the world in the last two centuries. He forced the British government to abolish the corn laws in 1846, which marked the end of hunger and the start of unilateral free trade. And he was the man behind the free trade treaty between UK and France 1860, which expanded to the rest of Europe, and got industrialisation going all over the continent. If you appreciate the fact that we have abolished hunger and misery in the Western world, you owe a big debt of gratitude to the heroic Richard Cobden. Read Erik Herbertson´s portrait in Swedish, Gregory Bresiger´s introduction to the Manchester school, or read Cobden´s speeches - they are just as devastating to the case of the anti-globalists of today as they were to the aristocratic protectionists of the 19th century.

09:06 - SMITH EXPLAINS THE NORWEGIANS: In a new survey, 17 percent of all Norwegians say they smuggle goods across the border every time they are abroad, and 46 percent does it now and then. As usual this is because of high prices caused by monopolies and protectionism (alcohol and tobacco in Norway´s case). Adam Smith explained this Norwegian mentality already in 1776:

"To pretend to have any scruple about buying smuggled goods, though a manifest encouragement to the violation of the revenue laws, and to the perjury which almost always attends it, would in most countries be regarded as one of those pedantic pieces of hypocrisy which, instead of gaining credit with anybody, serve only to expose the person who affects to practise them to the suspicion of being a greater knave than most of his neighbours."

15:36 - EUROPEANS POORER THAN POOR AMERICANS: Is it just my imagination, or does the anti-Americanism in the EU have something to do with envy? We sure have something to be envious of. If the European Union were a state in the US it would belong to the poorest group of states. France, Italy, Great Britain and Germany have lower GDP per capita than all but four of the states in the United States. Only Luxembourg has higher per capita GDP than the average state in the US. That is shown in the fascinating new Timbro study EU versus USA, by Fredrik Bergström and Robert Gidehag, published today.

07:34 - BRADBURY ON MOORE: One of my favourite books is Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451. So what does Bradbury think about Michael Moore’s use of the title? Mårten Blomkvist asks him today in Dagens Nyheter:

”– Michael Moore is a stupid son of a Bitch, that’s what I think of him. He stole my title and changed the numbers without asking me for permission.
Have you spoken to him?
– He is a terrible person. A terrible person. …
–I called his company. They promised that he would call me the same afternoon, but he never did.
When was this?
– A couple of months ago, when his plans for the movie became known. …
– Just write that Michael Moore is dishonest and that I don’t want to be associated with him in any way whatsoever.”
(Mårten Blomkvist: "Moore är en korkad skitstövel", Dagens Nyheter, 2 June 2004)

In a way you could say that Bradbury is a bit too sensitive. Many others would be flattered that they have written such a classic that other works allude to its title. On the other hand, it is easy to understand that you don’t want to be used by a notorious distorter of truth, like Moore. And isn´t it ironic that Moore – who has made a career of hunting powerful people with a camera when they are not willing to comment – don’t return calls?

09:26 - I STÄLLET FÖR FRI FORSKNING: Såg ni att statsrådet som gav politisk korrekthet ett ansikte, Mona Sahlin, erkänner att kritiken mot henne var riktig? Ropa inte hej. Det enda hon erkänner är att hon ännu tidigare borde ha gjort som hon nu gör. Denna dimridå ska skymma hur hon på egen hand håller på att montera ned det fristående svenska utredningsväsendet. Det handlar om den integrationspolitiska utredningen som tillsattes i september 2000, där den särskilde utredaren, statsvetaren Anders Westholm, enligt direktiven skulle ägna sig åt empiriskt och förutsättningslöst kunskapssökande. Då gick ett par ledamöter i taket och skällde ut honom på DN Debatt för att han inte hade bestämt i förväg att det finns strukturell diskriminering. Här såg Sahlin chansen att undvika ett oförutsägbart och möjligen obekvämt slutbetänkande och i stället beställa fram politiskt korrekta forskningsresultat. Då beslöt hon helt sonika att avveckla utredningen och i stället starta en ny, ledd av en av kritikerna, sociologen Masoud Kamali. Läs Shirin Ahlbäck Öbergs initierade artikel om turerna i Axess.

Antingen är detta ett osmakligt försök att kleta rasistanklagelser på kritiker som Bo Rothstein och Olof Peterson, alternativt syftar Sahlin på de vanliga rättshaveristerna som man hittar i sin inkorg vad man än gör – och det har naturligtvis inget att göra med sakfrågan. Det är talande att den maktfullkomliga ministern tar till sådana lumpenheter för att undvika en debatt i sak, som hon aldrig kan vinna.

21:31 - RUSSIAN TRANSITION: A SECOND OPINION: Many still think that reforms ruined Russia. They should read the Foreign Affairs-article A normal country, by Andrei Shleifer and Daniel Treisman. I don’t agree with all their conclusions, but it’s difficult not to agree that the big Russian story is that a threatening, oppressive and bankrupt empire could become a pretty normal middle-income country in 15 years. Here are their three arguments why the Russian economic crisis in the 1990s was exaggerated:

1) Much of the Soviet Union’s output was military goods, unfinished construction projects and other goods for which there was little demand on a market. Reducing that kind of waste looks bad in GDP statistics, but makes the economy more efficient.

2) “Under the Soviet system, moreover, managers routinely inflated their production figures to obtain increased bonuses. With the end of central planning, managers wished to underreport output so as to reduce their tax bills.” Official figures show that GDP fell by 29 percent 1990-2001, but at the same time electricity consumption fell only about 19 percent, indicating that true output fell less. And since firms are likely to use electricity more sparingly under market conditions, the decline in electricity consumption probably still overstates the real output drop.

3) Other statistics suggest that living standards fell less dramatically, or even improved: “figures for final household consumption, for example, fell just 4 percent (in constant prices) between 1990 and 2001. Retail trade actually rose 4 percent between 1990 and 2001. And average living space per person rose from 16 square meters in 1990 to 19 square meters in 2000. The shares of households with radios, televisions, tape recorders, refrigerators, washing machines, and electric vacuum cleaners all increased between 1991 and 2000. And private ownership of cars doubled, rising from 14 cars per 100 households in 1991 to 27 cars per 100 households in 2000. The number of Russians going abroad as tourists rose from 1.6 million in 1993 to 4.3 million in 2000… Since 1993 (the first year for which comprehensive figures exist), the percentage of Russia´s housing with running water has increased from 66 percent to 73 percent; the share with hot water from 51 to 59 percent; and the percentage with central heating from 64 percent to 73 percent. Since 1990, the proportion of Russian apartments with telephones has increased from 30 percent to 49 percent.”

20:01 - SOMEONE TO WATCH OVER THEM: At last a good journal on economic research! The electronic triannual Econ Journal Watch has promised to watch other journals for ”inappropriate assumptions, weak chains of argument, phony claims of relevance, and omissions of pertinent truths.” I’m sure it will have a strong free-market perspective, since the editor is my friend Dan Klein, a good classical liberal economist who has got a very charming cat. The journal has a wonderful section called ”Do economists reach a conclusion?”, where we learn if there is ever a consensus between economists. In the inaugural edition, Mark Thornton looks at drug policy, and concludes that the majority of economists are anti-prohibition. This is a page worth bookmarking.

00:10 - DOUBLE STANDARDS: President Bush replied to the charges of torture in Iraq by saying "That´s not the way we do things in America". That’s right, it wouldn’t happen in America. A nasty aspect of US policies is that is seems to apply different standards for different nationalities. The American taliban were given a fair trial, but suspect talibans from other countries (including a Swedish citizen) is still in a lawless captivity at Guantanamo Bay. I don’t think the American government would accept that any other government would treat Americans like that. Here is another example: The School of the Americas at Fort Benning, Georgia, has trained almost 60,000 Latin American policemen and soldiers to fight the war on drugs. In 1996, Pentagon was forced to release the school’s training manuals, which apparently included torture, extortion and execution. If this is the curriculum at an official, tax-funded school, I don´t find it mysterious that some American soldiers think they can treat Iraqi prisoners like they did.

18:36 - THE NEWSPAPER TAX: The Economist observes that newspapers all over the world are changing their format from broadsheets to tabloids, which can be read on public transports without hitting fellow passengers when you turn the page. But the strange thing is not that this is happening now, it is that it took such a long time. The Economist fails to mention it, but the reason why broadsheets were invented in the first place was the 19th century British newspaper tax, which taxed papers by the number of pages. Therefore, newspapers made the pages enormous, to minimise the tax. That this tradition hasn´t begun to fade until now is a certain proof of the power of taxes to distort behaviour.

16:00 - EUROPEAN PARTIES: I have been asked how I will vote in the election for the European Parliament 13 June. I don’t know yet. But I just replied to 25 questions at Votematch, to find out how close I am to the parties in parliament. It seems I am closer to the socialists and the greens than to the conservatives of Europe. The liberal group ELDR was my first alternative by far, and the christian democrat/conservative group EPP was second to last. Amongst other problems, EPP likes the CAP, wants an EU tax, and opposes membership for Turkey.

If we voted for the European parties I wouldn’t hesitate for a second to vote ELDR, but now we have to vote for national parties, and that makes the decision more difficult. For example it might be a good idea to vote for liberal, free-market conservatives like the Swedish moderate party, to get some healthy influences into the EPP – it is after all the biggest party in the European parliament. I will get back to this problem another day.

Here are my results from Votematch:

13:59 - KONFLIKT III: Nej, radioprogrammet Konflikt lät idag bli att rätta sina felaktiga påståenden om 11-septemberkommissionens slutsatser. Och visst kan man förstå att det fanns utrymmesbrist. Dagens program var nämligen packat av utrikesrapportering: 1) Intervju med Clintonrådgivaren Sidney Blumentahl, som angrep Bush, 2) Reportage om amerikanska konstnärer som angriper Bush, 3) Intervju med konstnären Carl Johan de Geer, som säger att Bush är värre än Saddam, 4) Samtal mellan fyra ganska eniga journalister och författare om chanserna för en renässans för 70-talets politiska konst i Michael Moores fotspår – Anders Ehnmark säger att Bush är en skurk i likhet med Saddam, 5) Intervju med filosofiprofessorn Avishai Margalit om skuld och skam inför USA:s framfart i Irak.

10:31 - WTO: I just got back from the WTO’s annual symposium in Geneva, where I talked at two seminars, one on the multilateral trade system – where I asked people not to exaggerate multilateral negotiations and agreements. Most reforms which can make globalisation work better must be done back home, unilaterally. The other one was on the strong links between trade and technological developement (organised by the International Policy Network), I was also supposed to debate the British globalisation critic Noreena Hertz, but she cancelled her participation. Since she declined an invitation to debate me once before because the organisers couldn’t pay the fee she demanded, it might be interesting to mention that none of the participants at the WTO seminar received a fee. They pay our travel and hotel expenses, that’s it. People seem to think that WTO is an enormously powerful and wealthy organisation, but it is completely dependent on the goodwill of the member countries, and the entire budget of the WTO is smaller than the travel budget of the IMF.

08:29 - MER KONFLIKT: För en vecka sedan skrev jag ett kritiskt brev till P1:s Konflikt. Medan jag har varit i Genève de senaste dagarna har jag fått ett vänligt svar från reportern Daniela Marquardt. Jag tycker emellertid inte att det besvarar kärnan av min kritik - att de sprider vandringshistorien om saudiflyget efter 11 september. Detta skriver jag om i Svenska Dagbladet idag.

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