Hopping mad

I don't think that I've noticed any British observations on the Hans-Hermann Hoppe affair that is attracting so much attention in the United States:

This brings us to the current situation involving charges against libertarian Hans-Hermann Hoppe, who teaches economics at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas. In a lecture on time preference during the fall of 2003, Hoppe said that homosexuals in general would have lower time preferences because some of them engage in very risky sexual practices, and that homosexuals tend not to have children. He also noted that John Maynard Keynes, who put short time preferences into near-holy status, was a homosexual and that certain economists have speculated that Keynes’ sexual proclivities may have influenced his thinking.

It is important to remember that Hoppe’s economic concepts are thoroughly Misesian, in that they are grounded in a priori logic. If the premises are true and the logical mechanisms that use those premises are correctly put into place, then the conclusion a priori is true as well. The reason that this is important is because Hoppe was reaching an academic conclusion, not expressing a statement of belief in opposition to homosexual behavior.

Hoppe’s s remarks did not sit well with one student, who filed a complaint with the university, with the current result being the "punishment" of a letter of reprimand and the docking of pay.

One despairs for the future of the West at times like this. Where are the political voices supporting Professor Hoppe and academic freedom? I hope that any large private financial contributors to UNLV are tearing up their cheques right now, but few businessmen support capitalism and freedom on principle.

I have my own little fantasy about the ideal outcome for this ridiculous situation:

And here is next week’s news:

BEIJING, February 18th.

In a surprise development late last night the Chinese government announced the appointment of Professor Hans-Hermann Hoppe as Chief Economic Advisor.

Professor Hoppe resigned two days ago from his position at UNLV.

In his first public statement Professor Hoppe shocked the world’s financial community by revealing his plan for an immediate decoupling of the Chinese and US currencies. In future, the Renminbi will be 100% backed by gold and in Far East markets overnight the dollar has lost 30% of its value. Reports are coming in of US-bound oil tankers turning back in mid-ocean.

Professor Hoppe told bemused western reporters: “Countries that tie their currencies to gold tend to be more forward looking than those that don’t.”