The libertarian left, the folkx who embrace markets while rejecting capitalism, are always quick to point out that “free market” used as a media buzzword refers to something that is anything but free, and the think tanks and lobbyists who advocate what they call free market are in practice proponents and beneficiaries of subsidy and…

Many formulations called “third way” have been advanced over many years. These denote a variety of things. In the 1930’s, “third way” generally referred to “mixed economy,” or a synthesis of socialism and capitalism. By the 1990’s, the understanding was that “third way” was a synthesis of conservative and progressive ideas, with a very explicit…

Obviously, in this context, we mean voluntary austerity, not the type of austerity plan imposed on a population as part of a program of market-based reforms. Voluntary austerity means cheap living as an art form. It can also be a religious thing. Voluntary austerity in pursuit of anagory takes the monastic formula of “poverty, celibacy…

I’m joining the mass exodus. The mission (such as it is) of the present blog will be continued at astoundingteam.com/wordpress. See you there! Keep the aspidistra flying!

Anagory or anagorism is offered as an alternative to agorism. Anagorism is like free market anticapitalism but minus the market part. Topics of interest include: continuing the search for end runs around the Iron Laws of Economics. seeking strategies that assume the validity of the Iron Laws, but look to salvage the maximum possible amount…

Seems one of the featured (bankrolled) videos on YouTube is some kind of astroturf presentation condemning what they call the “bad cap tax.” A Google search on the quoted phrase “bad cap tax” (as of this writing) produces exactly one result. Keep the aspidistra flying!

The website costaricaprivatecertifiedguide.com directs one to http://odilfmvt.cz.cc/fast-scan/ which runs an apparent Java exploit which shrinks the browser window to a very small size. Re-maximizing it reveals the message: Windows Security 2011 has found critical process activity on your PC and will perform fast scan of system files Keep the aspidistra flying!

Elitism is the belief that wealth and power are evidence of virtue. The ‘liberal elite’ meme is Orwellian in the sense of ‘ignorance is strength,’ ‘freedom is slavery,’ etc. As with all memes, the strategy of choice is assertive, relentless repetition. The people who parrot the ‘liberal elite’ meme would like us to believe that…

This one purports to be from Bank of America, and redirects to www.syrianone.net. They even included a copyright notice, which I am taking the liberty of disregarding here, as the message is fraudulent to begin with. Non-standard grammar, it seems, is par for the course with spam, and this one is no exception, with “To…