"The worst thing that can happen to a good cause is, not to be skillfully attacked, but to be ineptly defended." ~ Frederic Bastiat (1801-1850)

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Circle Bastiat is a discussion group founded on Aug. 5, 2001, for the analysis of libertarian ideas. The name was shamelessly lifted from a discussion group run by Murray Rothbard in New York City in the 1950s.

The idea for the new Circle Bastiat originated with Chaim Katz (formerly Karczag), a frequent participant in the now defunct Free-Market.Net forums who was frustrated by that venue's high noise-to-signal ratio.

Chaim invited four other active FMN posters (Tim Lee, Kevin O'Reilly, Julian Sanchez, and Glen Whitman — collectively known as the "Gang of Five") to join him in forming a private group for the discussion and debate of libertarian policy, strategy, and economic and moral theory. Julian then created the Circle Bastiat e-mail list and forum using the Yahoo! Groups software.

"The idea is," Julian explained in an Aug. 6 post, "that within the Circle, people can post (1) without worrying about explaining more elementary concepts in libertarian theory, since it's assumed that everyone here has at least moderate familiarity with those, and (2) to allow people to air thoughts without worrying about running into trolls, personal attacks, or histrionic dogmatism."

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Administrivia

1. Invitations can only be sent by moderators.
   
   
2. The moderators are Chuck, Tim, Kevin, Julian, and Glen.
   
   
3. Any member may nominate a candidate for invitation, but invitations should be rare, as the goal is to keep the Circle relatively small.
   
   
4. Nominations automatically produce invites after two days, unless two members object, which constitutes a veto.
   
   
5. If only one member objects to a nomination, the nominator may elect to withdraw the nomination in response.
   
   
6. Discussions about prospective members will be deleted from the archive before the invitation is issued.
   
   
7. Nominating rules may change as the Circle grows in size.

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Who was Bastiat?

Frederic Bastiat (1801-1850) was a French economist and politician, wrongfully ignored in France, though recognized as being an author of foremost importance in other countries — the United States, in particular.

His most famous and widely read work is "The Law."Bastiat's essay, "That Which is Seen, and That Which is Not Seen," indirectly inspired 20th-century free-market economist Henry Hazlitt's classic introductory text, "Economics in One Lesson."

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