CNE Monatsmagazin Digest
June 2005

English Summary

Collapse, the new best seller by Jared Diamond "will appeal to those for whom environmental fear has become a matter of faith, whose dearly held beliefs must not be scrutinised. Unfortunately, such blinkered attitudes can lead to gross violations of freedom, justice and prosperity. Diamond's new book typifies the misuse of science in the service of the environmental 'fear industry'. Facts and plausible episodes are selectively strung together to create an impression of scientific rigour, showing that the 'human plague' destroys the earth", writes CNE AAC-Member Wolfgang Kasper in his review.

They belong to the liberal highlights in Germany: the Hayek Days of the Friedrich A. von Hayek-Gesellschaft and the Friedrich A. von Hayek-Foundation. This year they take place in Tuebingen, 30-31 June 2005. Among the speakers will be Slovak finance minister Ivan Mikloš, Profesor Christian Watrin, Cologne, and Baden-Wuerttemberg premier Guenther H. Oettinger, topics include competition and monetary policy, reform of democracy, and globalization.

German think tank Council on Public Policy held a workshop on "The Business of Politics". Topics included Elites in Social Research and Social Theory; Political Elites and Political Process in Transition-Countries; Reimbursement, Remuneration, Alimentation (do different types of compensation produce different types of politicians?); From Social Choice to Public Choice and beyond - Economic Interpretations of Politics; and Civil Society and the "New Political Entrepreneurs". Among the speakers were Enrico Colombatto (ICER), Steve Pejovich, (Texas A&M University), and Kenneth Prewitt (Columbia University).

Angela Merkel wants to "serve Germany". Will she represent the new politician who lives for politics rather than off politics? "Hardly so", says Hardy Bouillon. "The political entrepreneur in the Weberian sense is not only a romantic figure, but also a misnomer, for an entrepreneur uses his or borrowed money for which he takes the entire risk, while the "political" entrepreneur disposes only of alien money for which he does not bear the risk", says Bouillon. "But this is not Max Weber's only confusion of concepts."

ISIL's World Freedom Summit this year is being held at the facilities of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation at Gummersbach (near Cologne, Germany). Topics will cover the emergence of freedom movements throughout the former Soviet bloc and Africa, debates on the EU Constitution (pro and con), and a celebration of "The Year of Ayn Rand" with Rand biographer Barbara Branden. Among the 20 speakers will be Hardy Bouillon, Samuel Brittain, Jacques de Guenin, Sabine Herold, Julian Morris, Jan Narveson, Robert Nef, Erich Weede, and Martin Wolf.

Hardy Bouillon invited a mix of academics, think tank representatives and continental business people to discuss in the Moselle valley the values of liberty. On the basis of the writings of a wide span of authors (Jasay, Locke, Hayek, Rothbard, Humboldt, Mises, Prince-Smith, Rand, Bastiat, Seldon, Flew, Tullock, Machan, Norberg) the colloquium discussed the core values of liberty, individual freedom and private property, and continued with the "next generation" of liberal virtues, i.e., values which can be generated from the former, such as responsibility, tolerance, freedom of contract, trade and move, and peace.

Click here to view the full Monatsmagazin in German.

Dr. Hardy Bouillon is Head of Academic Affairs at the Centre for the New Europe.