Antitrust Aggressor Loses

Business, Victimless Crimes
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As reported in the Wall Street Journal, memory chip manufacturer Rambus has lost its antitrust case against competitors Micron Technology Inc. and Hynix Semiconductor Inc.

Rambus had sought $4 billion in direct damages for the harm it allegedly suffered in the case, an amount that can be instantly tripled under California law. It also asked for punitive damages.

Rambus, a Silicon Valley designer of technology used in memory chips, accused Micron and Hynix of violating antitrust laws by conspiring to prevent Rambus technology from gaining traction in the market and fixing the price of memory chips.

The jury deliberated 8 weeks after a 3-month trial. Good result!

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Corporate Personhood, Limited Liability, and Double Taxation

Anti-Statism, Business, Corporatism, Libertarian Theory
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The politics of the left-oriented Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement, like that of the right-oriented modern Tea Party movement, is not very well defined. But one of the things some of the OWS participants are calling for in their list of “demands” is an end to “corporate personhood.” In this they echo the views of left-libertarians who contend that state-chartered “corporations” are the source of grave social ills. [ See vol. 20, no. 1 and vol. 19, nos 3-4, of the Journal of Libertarian Studies, focusing on these and related issues, in particular articles by, and in response to, Piet-Hein van Eeghen’s anti-corporation views, and Kevin Carson’s views on mutualism. ]

Some of these issues were recently debated on the pages of Roderick Long’s blog, in the comments to his post “Double Standard.” Left-libertarians who oppose incorporation, and usually also “capitalism,” argue that firms derive some great benefit from the state by the privilege of incorporation. The standard leftist critique of the corporation is the “concession” theory outlined by Robert Hessen in his seminal study In Defense of the Corporation (see a key excerpt from Hessen corporation tort liability excerpts). They argue that the state grants to corporations three features: entity status, perpetual duration, and limited liability to shareholders, all of which are artificial and would not exist absent state intervention. Left-libertarians maintain that these privileges grant corporations more power than they otherwise would have, which distorts the market, nay, society in general. This gives rise to more “hierarchy” and “authoritarianism” than would prevail in what Hans-Hermann Hoppe calls a private law society, and indeed, to “exploitation” of the workers by the bourgeoisie.

The Alleged “Privileges” of Incorporation

Labor Theory of Value

There are several problems with the left-libertarian and leftist critiques of corporations. One is the acceptance of a Marxian-type labor theory of value—the idea that employers per se “steal” or exploit from workers the “social surplus product”—a discredited, hoary, unscientific view based on deeply flawed economics.

Entity Status

And as Hessen has pointed out, each of the three corporate features pointed to as a state-granted privilege—entity status, perpetual duration, and limited liability for shareholders—can be created purely by private contract. As for entity status (being able to represent the firm in lawsuits or for property ownership purposes, in the firm’s name) this is just a convenient legal fiction that could be created by means of trustees, or other contractual techniques (including agreements with private defense agencies, insurance companies, arbitral agencies, and the like). In any case, even stripped of this procedural convenience, firms could still organize themselves as joint stock companies or “corporations”.

Perpetual Duration

Hessen also easily disposes of the myth that perpetual duration is a privilege granted by the state; this can be achieved easily by means of continuity agreements and the like.

Limited Liability

The big objection to corporations is usually limited liability for shareholders. …

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Latest Thoughts on iPad

Business, Technology
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Early last year, I posted Thoughts on iPad from a Slightly Disappointed Fanboi. I later posted a followup, Followup on Thoughts on iPad from a Slightly Disappointed Fanboi. In these posts I explained how initially I was hoping to replace my (then large and heavy MacBook Pro 15″) laptop with the iPad, and how I tried to do so, and eventually gave up, and then eventually my use of the iPad declined.

Since getting an 11″ MacBook Air several months ago, I take it everywhere–it is almost as portable as the iPad, and so much more useful for me. Since I have an iPhone and they now allow tethering, I can connect the Air to the Internet via the iPhone at any time. Now days go by without me using the iPad. Basically I use it only for reading books now. I have even considered switching to a Kindle for book reading, since it is lighter, smaller, and has better battery life. But I still prefer the iPad for books, over the Kindle, since the iPad (a) has touch; (b) smooth scrolling etc.; (c) color; (d) greater flexibility for book reading (I can read nook, PDF, iBook, etc. formats on it); and (e) it has email and browsing and apps and games and music and movies that can be used too, on occasion.

But the iPhone has amazing resolution now, with retina display, and the same processor and iOS as the iPad, so it can do almost everything the iPad can do; the main limitation is the smaller screen makes movies and book reading a bit worse than on the iPad–but not much. So the iPhone is basically a mini-iPad, and having it plus the Air is really all I need, especially at it permits the Air to tether. (Actually, a larger iphone would be ideal and an almost perfect iPad replacement, for me.) So, sometimes I do not even take the iPad along with me on vacation and trips, since I have my Air and my iPhone, and it’s a pain to carry a third device (plus, when wife or kid are traveling with me, they usually have their iPad so I can borrow theirs for movies or NetFlix or books–or just use my iPhone or Air). However, when I can, I do like it on long plane trips for movies and books, though, again, I can use the iPhone or Air for movies, and the iPhone for books, in a pinch, though the battery life of the iPad on plane trips is a plus (except that nowadays more and more planes are adding power for a laptop); sometimes I take a Hypermac external battery for the Air for long plane trips, meaning I have so many gadgets in my travel backpack, that the iPad is just extra.

So, for me, the bottom line is: the advent of the MacBook Air 11″ has given me the full computing power I need, in a near-iPad size. I would love to be able to replace the Air with an iPad since it is more portable and has better battery, does not crash or slow down, and is better for movies and books (and is cheaper), but my own usage just does not permit it. I doubt it ever will because of the limitations of the iPad form factor. Even as the software and apps improve over time and product generations, it will just be too limiting for the kind of uses I make (lots of document editing, cutting and pasting, multitasking, and heavy use of keyboard). If I had a lighter use case, I think I could use the iPad as my main portable machine–people that do not do a lot of text input or editing can make the switch, I think.

For example, as I noted in my last post, I have some friends for whom the iPad has almost replaced their laptops/notebooks. One of them uses it almost exclusively in his business. He has it linked in with his company’s computer systems, and he can check status reports, emails, etc., all with his iPad. It’s great for him. For a specialized use like this that does not require a lot of document editing, I can see this replacing a laptop. Another is a lawyer who takes it on business trips and vacations instead of a laptop–he uses it to surf, watch media, check emails, and display/read documents. He never likes to do a lot of heavy document editing on the road, so it does no bug him not to have a laptop. For people who are light computer users–say, my parents–I could see the iPad being their only or main computer, too.

I think the iPad is gorgeous and well-designed, especially iPad 2. I suspect it will be the best pad-type device for some time. But for heavy text-inputers/editors like me, it’s becoming less necessary. I doubt I’ll upgrade to the iPad 2 or even iPad 3, as the first model is fine for me for the book reading and occasional video use I make of it. If anything, I could see switching to a dedicated book reader instead of iPad, if it was as good as the iPad on flexibility of book format and movies. But I don’t see anything like that coming for a while.

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Mises Academy Course: “Libertarian Controversies”

(Austrian) Economics, Anti-Statism, Education, Libertarian Theory, The Basics
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Next month I’ll be teaching a new Mises Academy course,”Libertarian Controversies.” This is my fourth Mises Academy course (the previous three are Libertarian Legal Theory, Rethinking Intellectual Property: History, Theory, and Economics, and The Social Theory of Hoppe), and my fifth time teaching there (I have reprised the IP course once).

From the course page:

Modern libertarianism is a young, developing and vibrant science. Variants includes classical liberalism, minarchism, and, in its most rigorous form, anarcho-Austrian libertarianism. Libertarians of various stripes are influenced by utilitarian, pragmatic and natural law theories, and by thinkers including Ayn Rand, Hayek, Rothbard, Mises, and others. For decades there has been vigorous debate among different camps of libertarians about a host of controversial issues, from the foundation of rights to the nature of government, and about concrete issues such as abortion, strategy and activism, living in an unfree world, anarchy v. minarchy, punishment and restitution, and so on. In this course, libertarian legal theorist Stephan Kinsella will explore a variety of libertarian misconceptions and controversies, from an Austro-libertarian perspective.

In the discussion about misconceptions, Kinsella will identify a number of common libertarian mistakes, confusions, fallacies or flawed reasoning and propose a solution or more consistent approach. Issues to be discussed include: creation as a source of property rights; labor as being owned; unintentional equivocation (harm, authority, hierarchy, etc.); alienability and voluntary slavery; …

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Kinsella on Intellectual Property and Economic Development

(Austrian) Economics, Anti-Statism, IP Law, Libertarian Theory, Podcasts
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My Mises University 2011 lecture, Intellectual Property and Economic Development (July 27, 2011), is now up. The audio may also be downloaded here; the original PowerPoint slides are here. Streaming audio and a googledocs version of the slides are below.

~*~

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