Victims of Communism Day

A worthy suggestion from Ilya Somin at the Volokh Conspiracy to make May 1 "Victims of Communism" day.

It is pretty appalling the extent to which communist crimes against humanity in the last century (and, in a few spots like North Korea, still today) are ignored.

Back to the Future, Back to the USSR

The fellow who runs the Northstar Compass lives in a posh house in the same neighborhood as my in-laws.

The website of the Maoist International Movement says: "Northstar Compass occupies a niche to the nominal left of the most left-wing social-democrats like the CP-USA and to the right of consistent Maoists. It consists of reprints of various communist and so-called communist organizations from the ex- Soviet Union for the consumption of Russians in Russia and Russophiles in the Western imperialist countries, especially Canada where it is based and the United $tates."

Now, can someone please point out the Judean People's Front?

Reform in Cuba

An update from the Economist. The US should end its economic restrictions now. If it ever had a justification, that justification ended when the Soviet Union collapsed two decades ago.

A prediction: Cuba will be very successful economically 20 years from now.

Say hello to our dear leader for me

The Economist goes to North Korea.

Sounds even more dreary than when I went to the Soviet Union in 1979.

Winds of change in Cuba

Looks like change might come at last. The US can help by ending the travel and trade embargoes, whose justification disappeared 20 years ago when the Soviet Union collapsed.

It would be really valuable for someone to produce a credible estimate of the economic cost of the Cuban communist regime. 45+ years of lost economic growth is a staggering hit - a human tragedy really.

Hat tip: Taylor Hui

Contracting out, North Korean style

The Vancouver Sun on North Korea contracting out to China to provide fans for its FIFA World Cup matches.

Can you hear that giant sucking sound along the Yalu River?

Hat tip: Dann Millimet

More on Samuelson's textbook and comparative systems

A fine post from marginal revolution that summarizes a new paper on the topic of why Samuelson got his Soviet economic predictions so wrong for so long: were the blinders methodological or ideological?

The comments are fun too. My favorites:

"Krugman temper-tantrum in 3, 2, 1..."

and

Perhaps Robert Conquest's words on the USSR were intended for people like Samuelson and his fellows: `I told you so, you f[***]ing fools.'"

GDR memories

The Guardian publishes misty memories from someone with a bad case of Ostalgie.

Nearly all treatments have heterogeneous treatment effects, even the totalitarian dictatorship treatment. No doubt the Guardian could find, if it cared to, folks who miss the good old days under Ceaucescu in Romania or Pol Pot in Cambodia. But why share them when it is so obvious that the great mass of people are far better off? Note too that the brave new world of capitalism that the author complains about is West Germany, where you get a never-ending stream of generous social assistance checks just for having a pulse, along with health care and other goodies paid for by your neighbors.

I should note too that my sense from my German economist friends who are familiar with departments in the former GDR is that the problem was not too many dismissals of socialist deadwood economics professors, but rather too few.

Hearts, minds and ... other bits

Apparently the US is using free gifts of Viagra to powerful figures in Afghanistan as a way to lure them onto our side.

The link is here and it is not work friendly due to the ads that surround the blog post but I could not find another more work friendly discussion that I liked as well (or that had as many clever puns).

It always struck me during the end of the cold war that we were wrong to be in such fear of communism. The fact is, communism is not any fun and no one likes it much, other than the party bosses, once they have experienced it. I think the same is true of radical Islam, which is one reason that I am more optimistic about the future of Iran than about the future of some other middle eastern countries as the Iranians have experienced a heavy dose of it and so have a keen sense, by this point, of what they do not want. I think the way we can help these things along is by exporting the fun bits of our culture, whether it be sports, jazz, or viagra.

Fidel and Che

The Economist on the 50th anniversary of the Cuban revolution.

If the US embargo ever had a justification, it disappeared with the Soviet Union in the early 1990s. We should be flooding them with US products and US culture. It seems to me that the best antidote to communism is consumerism, not comically ineffective CIA plots.