The Human Cost of Protectionism

Steve Landsburg on the very high humans-costs of legislating against child labor and in favor of protectionism.

(H/T: Don Boudreaux @ Cafe Hayek)

Fear the Boom and Bust

"Fear the Boom and Bust", a Hayek vs. Keynes Rap Anthem:

(Note: You should really watch it full screen, in 720p)

When I first read Russ Roberts was doing a rap video, I was highly skeptical. But this thing turned out to be brilliant.

It has the wisdom of Robert's Cafe Hayek blog, the down-to-earth accessibility of Robert's EconTalk podcast, and the high quality production value you'd expect from "award winning director and media executive" John Papola.


If it's excellence also leave you looking for more, be sure to visit/watch:

• The EconStories.tv website
  


• The Cafe Hayek post about the video
  


• John Papola's web page for the video
  


• NPR/All Things Considers's coverage, Economists' Rap Battle Gains Cred From Ke$ha's Nod
  


• PBS/NewsHour's coverage, Revisiting the Economics of John Maynard Keynes
  


• B-Cast's interview with John Papola
  

Jeff Zucker Lies to Congress

Rep. Rick Boucher (D-VA): What about Boxee? Mr. Zucker you probably are in a better position to answer that. Did Hulu block the Boxee users from access to the Hulu programs?

Zucker (NBC): This was a decision made by the Hulu management to, uh, what Boxee was doing was illegally taking the content that was on Hulu without any business deal.

First of all, deflecting the blame to "Hulu management" is disingenuous. NBC owns 32% of Hulu. And, back on February 20th 2009, when Hulu blocked Boxee, Hulu made it clear their hands were being forced by their content partners (eg. NBC!).

And, second of all, what Boxee was doing was in no way "illegal". That's a flat out lie.


Here's Boxee's response to the "illegal" accusation. Their key bit:

Boxee uses a web browser to access Hulu’s content – just like Firefox or Internet Explorer. Boxee users click on a link to Hulu’s website and the video within that page plays. We don’t “take” the video. We don’t copy it. We don’t put ads on top of it. The video and the ads play like they do on other browsers or on Hulu Desktop. And it certainly is legal to do so.

Finally, Harold Feld at Public Knowledge has more.