tomgpalmer.com  
Tom G. Palmer

Welcome to my personal web site. I've devoted much of my life to trying to eradicate coercion and secure liberty for all and I've learned that while it's a lot of work, it can be personally rewarding, too. I'm presently Vice President for International Programs and a Senior Fellow at the Cato Institute, as well as director of Cato University and of the Center for the Promotion of Human Rights. In addition to my work at the Cato Institute, I have served on several board of trustees and currently serve on active advisory boards of a number of other organizations. I frequently lecture in America, Europe, Eurasia, Africa, China, Brazil, and the Middle East on the history of liberty and constitutionalism, globalization and free trade, individualism, public choice, and the moral and legal foundations of individual rights. My curriculum vitae and a few of my published writings are available for downloading in the column below. (A couple require fast internet access; either that, or a lot of patience.) To the right are blog entries on whatever seems interesting at the time or strikes my fancy.

Email:

tomgpalmer-at-gmail.com
tomgpalmer-at-tomgpalmer.com

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Categories

 Curriculum Vitae

"Curriculum Vitae for Tom G. Palmer," updated February 5, 2007


 Speeches and Interviews

"Why They Hate Us," Cato Benefactor Summit - September 20, 2001 [MP3, 1.93Mb]

"The Nature of Liberty: A Response to Tyler Cowen," Cato Institute Podcast, March 22, 2007

"Enterprise and Culture," presentation at conference at the Cato Institute on "What Should Be a Culture of Enterprise in an Age of Globalization?," March 29, 2007

"Does Gun Control Reduce Crime?," interview on ABC News, May 4, 2007

"Individualism, Abundance, and "Impulsivism"," Cato Institute Podcast, May 31, 2007


 Selected Publications

"No Exit: Framing the Problem of Justice," an essay on John Rawls, the social contract, and social justice from from Ordered Anarchy: Jasay and His Surroundings, ed. by Hartmut Kliemt and Hardy Bouillon (London: Ashgate, 2008)

"Freedom Properly Understood", An Address Presented before the Liberal Thinkers’ Conference, “The Future of Freedom,” 60 Years Liberal International, Hamburg, 17 November 2007

"A liberdade corretamente compreendida" (Portuguese)

"The Literature of Liberty," from The Libertarian Reader, edited by David Boaz (New York: The Free Press, 1998)[PDF, 39 pp.]

"Madison and Multiculturalism: Group Representation, Group Rights, and Constitutionalism," from James Madison and the Future of Limited Government, edited by John Samples (Washington, D.C.: Cato Institute, 2002)

"Saving Rights Theory from Its Friends," from Individual Rights Reconsidered, edited by Tibor Machan (Stanford: Hoover Institution Press, 2001) Reprinted from Individual Rights Reconsidered: Are the Truths of the U.S. Dec laration of Independence Lasting?, edited by Tibor R. Machan, with the permission of the publisher, Hoover Institution Press. Copyright 2001 by the Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University.

 Globalization
"Globalization Is Grrrreat!" Cato's Letter, Vol. 1, No. 2 (Fall 2002)

"¡La Globalización Es Fabulosa!" Spanish

"La Mondialisation? C'est Magnifique!" French

"Globalizácia je superrr!" Slovak

"Globalizacja jest bardzo dobra!" Polish

"全球化就是好!" Chinese

"الكتّاب والمؤلفون" Arabic

"Глобализация - это здорово!" Russian

"A Globalização é Fabulosa!" Portuguese

"GLOBALIZAREA ESTE MINUNAT?!!!" Romanian

"Globalizacija je suuuper!" Slovenian

"Globalisasi membawa kemakmuran" Malay

"Globalizacia Magarrria!" Georgian

"Globalization and Culture: Homogeneity, Diversity, Identity, Liberty," by Tom G. Palmer, published as an Occasional Paper by the Liberales Institut of Berlin [PDF, 30 pp. 5.6Mb]

"Globalización y cultura: Homogeneidad, diversidad, identidad, libertad" Spanish translation of the above paper

A Simple Mathematical Demonstration of the Benefits of Trade Based on Comparative Advantage: Download file

"Globalization, Cosmopolitanism, and Personal Identity," from Etica & Politica, Vol. V, No. 2. [PDF, 15 pp. 52Kb]


 Human Rights Abuses
"Getting Kareem Freed: A brave college student and a network of bloggers are stronger than many think, National Review, March 29, 2007

The 'Crime' of Blogging In Egypt, , with Raja M. Kamal, Washington Post, February 21, 2007


 Debate on Libertarianism
"What's Wrong With Libertarianism," by Jeffrey Friedman from Critical Review, Vol. 11, No. 3. (Summer 1997)[PDF, 61 pp. 10.4Mb]

"What's Not Wrong With Libertarianism: Reply to Friedman," from Critical Review, Vol. 12, No. 3. (Summer 1998) [PDF, 22 pp. 22.8Mb]

"The Libertarian Straddle: Rejoinder to Palmer and Sciabarra," by Jeffrey Friedman from Critical Review, Vol. 12, No. 3. (Summer 1998) [PDF, 28 pp. 27.2Mb]

Intellectual Property

"Are Patents and Copyrights Morally Justified?: The Philosophy of Property Rights and Ideal Objects," Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy, vol. 13, no. 3 (Summer 1990) [PDF, 50 pp. 9.09Mb]

"Intellectual Property: A Non-Posnerian Law and Economics Approach," Hamline Law Review, vol. 12 [PDF, 44 pp. 3.02Mb]

Other Topics

Building a Free Society in Iraq , Cato's Letter, Vol. 3, No. 2 (Summer 2005)

"Wohlfahrtsstaat ist nicht zukunftsfähig"": Interview in Die Presse (Austria's premier quality paper) on the future of liberalism, January 10, 2005 [in German]

In Greek: "«Το κράτος ευημερίας ΑΔΥΝΑΤΕΙ να έχει μέλλον»."

Book Review of Michael Otsuka's Libertarianism Without Inequality Reason, (January 2005)

Book Review of Cass Sunstein's The Second Bill of Rights: FDR's Unfinished Revolution and Why We Need It More Than Ever National Review, (December 13, 2004)

"Which Inequalities Are Ours to Arrange: A Response to Schmidtz,"Cato Unbound, March 2006

ï“Do We Need a Government” (Comment on Papers by David Friedman, Birgir Thor Runolfsson, and Boudewijn Bouckaert, delivered at the Mont Pelerin Society meeting, Reykjavik, August 2005)

" Book Review of Never A Matter of Indifference: Sustaining Virtue in a Free Republic, ed. by Peter Berkowitz Cato Journal, Vol. 24, No. 3 (Fall 2004)

" "Common Property?", Boston Review Vol. 27, Nos. 3-4 (Summer 2002)

" Limited Government After 9-11" with John Samples, Cato Policy Report, Vol. XXIV, No. 2 (March/April 2002) [4 pp., 91 Kb]

Book Review of David Miller's On Nationality, Cato Journal, Vol. 16, No. 2. (Fall 1996) [PDF, 5 pp. 2.62Mb]

"Freedom and the Law: A Comment on Professor Aranson's Article," with Leonard P. Liggio, Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy [PDF, 14 pp. 2.38Mb]

"The Meaning of 'Civil Society'," civnet, (June/July 1997)

"Libertarianism in the Crosshairs," Cato Policy Report, Vol. XXII, No. 4 (July/August 2000) [PDF, 5 pp. 265Kb]

"The Resources of Civil Society," with Steven Scalet and David Schmidt, Revista Argentina de Teoría Jurídica de la Universidad Torcuato Di Tella, Noviembre 1999

"Myths of Individualism," Cato Policy Report, Vol. XVIII, No. 5 (September/October 1996)

"Мифы об индивидуализме" [Russian]

"Quelques mythes sur l'individualisme" [French]

"چه‌وت باوه‌ڕی له‌باره‌ی تاکگه‌راییه‌وه‌" [Kurdish]

"Census 2000: You May Already Be a Winner!," Slate, April 4, 2000

"Review of The Cost of Rights, Why Liberty Depends on Taxes," from Cato Journal, Vol. 19, No. 2. (Fall 1999) [PDF, 6 pp. 50Kb]

"G.A. Cohen on Self-Ownership and, Property, and Equality," from Critical Review, Vol. 12, No. 3. (Summer 1998) [PDF, 27 pp. 1.57Mb]

"Gadamer’s Hermeneutics and Social Theory," Critical Review, vol. 1, no. 3 (Summer 1987) [PDF, 18 pp. 15.9Mb]

"Twenty Myths About Markets," Conference on "The Institutional Framework for Freedom in Africa," Mont Pelerin Society Meeting, Nairobi, February 26, 2007

"Двадцать мифов о рынке - Часть I," Twenty Myths About Markets (Russian)

A Checklist for Successful Public Speaking
Checklist to Accompany a Cato University Presentation on "Becoming a Better Public Speaker"

Download file

My Brilliant Modeling Career for Dutch Agricultural Magazines
"Tractor Love Knows Only One Color of Red"

Download file


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October 11, 2008

Jonathan Macey on the Financial Crisis

The Government Is Contributing to the Panic: It’s time to let markets do their messy work,” Jonathan Macey, Wall Street Journal, October 11, 2008

Posted by Tom Palmer at 1:58 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

October 9, 2008

Education for Liberty

My presentation yesterday to the European Resource Bank was fun, but I was dead tired and could barely stand toward the end. (I had been up very early to finish the Powerpoint.) I made profitable use of a book that was sent to me by a Cato Sponsor, Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die, by Chip Heath and Dan Heath, which provided a bit of a theoretical framework for the concrete elements of my talk. (The book is, like most business books, a bit too wordy at times, but it’s offers some very interesting insights.)

170px-Madetostick-book.JPG

Posted by Tom Palmer at 11:25 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

Richard Epstein on Robert Nozick and the Bailout

Robert Nozick Vs. The U.S. Congress,” by Richard Epstein in Forbes.com

Hat Tip: Daniel Shapiro

Posted by Tom Palmer at 3:14 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

October 8, 2008

A New Way to Celebrate Free Market Capitalism

Heroes of Capitalism

I emphasize free market capitalism, to distinguish it from the cronyism and interventionism that has played so large a role in the current crisis: the Federal Reserve, bailouts, Government Sponsored Enterprises (Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac), the Community Reinvestment Act, and more. (As Don Boudreaux has pointed out, the penchant for blaming the problems on “greed” is the Great Chicago Fire on oxygen. Without it, nothing would burn, but it’s present around us whether things burn or not, so it’s better to look for the spark, which in this case is not greed, but institutions that channel it into wasteful avenues.)

Posted by Tom Palmer at 9:50 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

October 7, 2008

This and That

I’ve been in Amman, Jordan for meetings with publishers, writers, and others involved in Arabic publishing and will travel on in the very wee hours of the morning to Istanbul, after which I’ll fly to Tbilisi for the European Resource Bank, where I’ll give a few talks and meet with lots of great people from around Europe and Eurasia, followed by a trip to Belgium, where I’ve got a few items on the agenda, including this:

tompalmer.jpg

(That’s 15 October at 8 pm at the University of Antwerp, on “Social Order, Law and State: Is law necessary to produce social order and is the state necessary to produce law?”)

Posted by Tom Palmer at 12:58 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

October 4, 2008

Andrei Illarionov on a Stock Market Crash

From the Moscow Times: “Fighting Financial Fires With Blini

Posted by Tom Palmer at 12:29 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

October 3, 2008

Error Corrected

An error in a column by Martin Masse in the National Post of Canada was corrected:

Editor’s Note: Scholars at the Cato Institute have not supported Washington’s $700-billion financial bailout plan. The wording of a sentence in Martin Masse’s September 30 commentary, “Karl’s Comeback,” mistakenly implied otherwise. The National Post apologizes for the error.

The correction is at the foot of the column.

Posted by Tom Palmer at 8:40 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

October 2, 2008

Cato Scholars on the Bailout

Posted by Tom Palmer at 10:31 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

September 30, 2008

Crackdown on Southpark in Russia

In Kommersant, “Today they are going after Kenny, tomorrow they will go after you!

Hat Tip: Natalie Vogel

(The Russian state authorities are also looking into cracking down on “emo boys” and their haircuts and other identifiers. Not enough small neighboring countries to invade, I guess. They do seem to need someone weak to pick on.)

Posted by Tom Palmer at 11:23 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

And Will on the Bailout (and on the Cato Institute)

Bailout on Wheels

Posted by Tom Palmer at 1:20 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

The Bailout

Prof. Jeffrey Miron of Harvard University on CNN: “Bankruptcy, not bailout, is the right answer

Posted by Tom Palmer at 12:58 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

A liberdade corretamente compreendida

My lecture at the Liberal International meeting, “Freedom Properly Understood,” is now available in Portuguese: “A liberdade corretamente compreendida.” (Thank you, Magno!) A German translation is forthcoming.

Posted by Tom Palmer at 1:12 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

September 28, 2008

The "Financial Crisis"....

In Forbes, “Bernanke’s Hype,” by David R. Henderson

David Cay Johnston, formerly of the New York Times, interviewed on NPR on the bailout, “Rescue Mission

Hat tip to Jeff Hummel

Posted by Tom Palmer at 9:06 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

National Taxpayers Union on the Bailout

An Open Letter to the United States Congress: Stand Up for Taxpayers by Standing Against Quick-Fix Bailouts!

(I was Editor of Dollars & Sense, the newspaper of the NTU in the 1980s, when I was studying philosophy at The Catholic University of America; it actually made a pretty good fit. NTU has always been a good friend of the taxpayers.)

Posted by Tom Palmer at 2:35 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Two Years of Imprisonment and Abuse

Kareem%20banner%20top.jpg

Come November 6, it will be two years since an Egyptian student was imprisoned for expressing his opinions in his personal blog. It breaks the heart to think of what he is enduring, which includes physical and psychological abuse and isolation.

A variety of defenders of freedom are getting together in various cities to remind the Egyptian authorities that Kareem is not forgotten. If you can help or just want to be present, please contact the FreeKareem.org campaign. Dignified gatherings are planned for a number of cities around the world. Please take part. If you cannot do that, please write a respectful letter to the Egyptian authorities or donate to his support on the FreeKareem.org site via Paypal, as his extremist father has disowned him and his friends (who are mainly poor students) raise small amounts to pay for his food and clothing while in prison, as the Egyptian state does not do that. (I have donated in the past and am about to send more now.)

Posted by Tom Palmer at 1:16 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack (0)

Macaulay Remembered Again

Thomas_Babington_Macaulay.jpg

In doing some research for my paper on “Classical Liberalism, Morality, and Poverty” I re-read Thomas Babington Macaulay’s brilliant refutation of Tory paternalism, “Southey’s Colloquies on Society.” (If you want to read a definitive smackdown refutation, I recommend this as probably the best I’ve ever read.) I asked my friend Don Boudreaux for his ideas on Macaulay (I know Don’s a great Macaulay fan) and he mentioned that Walter Olson, another old friend, had written a great appreciation of Macaulay. A quick google search and there it was, a tribute both to Macaulay’s genius and to Olson’s exquisite command of the English language: “Confessions of a Macaulay Fan: The great liberal historian appreciated on his bicentenary.” Anyone interested in the work of one of the greatest historians and the greatest champions of liberty who ever lived should start with Wally’s essay. Enjoy!

(Macaulay’s entire The History of England from the Accession of James the Second can be downloaded as a PDF facsimile from Google Books. Or you can buy it here from Amazon.)

Posted by Tom Palmer at 12:35 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

September 27, 2008

Whatever Happened to Limited Government?

The presidential debate, which I had on as I was working on a paper on “Classical Liberalism, Poverty, and Morality” for a volume in the Ethikon series, was rather depressing. But I do work best when there is meaningless white noise in the background, so it helped my writing.

Posted by Tom Palmer at 12:21 AM | Comments (4) | TrackBack (0)

September 26, 2008

Governor Mark Sanford on the Bailout

I had the pleasure of hearing Governor Mark Sanford of South Carolina in Charleston last Saturday address a Cato Institute meeting, where he gave an enthusiastic defense of liberty and called for more citizen involvement to combat Leviathan. He’s an inspiring champion of limited government. In today’s Washington Post, he makes an eloquent case against bailing out those who made bad decisions, letting the market liquidate malinvestments, and learning the lessons from the current financial crisis: “A Bailout for All Our Bad Decisions?

Last week’s events were rooted in distressed mortgage securities whose optimistic values were facilitated by quasi-governmental entities Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The investment banking capital write-downs were turbocharged by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, which did what too many laws do — it fixed yesterday’s problem. The amazing expansion of credit was fueled by a Federal Reserve offering an easy-money policy that led us right into a credit bubble. All this was made worse by the government enabling some people’s tendency to want more house than they can afford.
Posted by Tom Palmer at 5:39 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

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