Surplus Balderdash by Sheldon Richman November 1, 1999 The projected budget surpluses are useful in revealing the political philosophies of Democrats and Republicans. None of the revelations is flattering. The Democrats hold that lowering taxes in light of the surpluses constitutes a form of government spending and should be judged against other ways government could spend the ...
Drug-Courier Profiles: Or, Why We Are All Guilty by James Bovard November 1, 1999 Police using drug-courier profiles are bringing the best of Third World authoritarianism to American airports and highways - with narcs constantly waiting to leap out and shake down any passenger or driver they think looks suspicious. And the definition of "suspicious" includes almost anyone over the age of four. The next time that you make a phone call after getting ...
FDR – The Man, the Leader, the Legacy, Part 8 by Ralph Raico November 1, 1999 Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Table of Contents In January 1932, Franklin Roosevelt announced his candidacy for ...
Book Review: Patterns in the Dark by Richard M. Ebeling November 1, 1999 Patterns in the Dark: Understanding Risk and Financial Crisis with Complexity Theory by Edgar E. Peters (New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1999); 222 pages; $39.95. In the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s, the Austrian school of economics was considered one of the leading contributors to both economic theory and economic policy. The Austrian economists challenged the premises and arguments of the ...
Educational Coercion and Aberrant Behavior by Jacob G. Hornberger October 1, 1999 Many years ago, a high-school teacher from North Dakota invited me to deliver a lecture to one of her classes, assuring me that I would find it to be a fascinating experience. The class was composed of approximately 10 students who had been classified by the school authorities as "slow ...
Monetary Central Planning and the State, Part 34: Free Banking and the Political Case against Central Banking by Richard M. Ebeling October 1, 1999 Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 ...
The Myth of Public Service by Sheldon Richman October 1, 1999 The death of John F. Kennedy Jr. filled the airwaves with much rhapsodizing about "public service." Never mind that Kennedy did not go into public service, but rather launched a for-profit enterprise, George magazine (although it glamorizes public service). That didn't stop commentators and politicians from lavishing praise on the Kennedys for, as Vice President Al Gore put it, ...
Ethnic Cleansing, American-Style by James Bovard October 1, 1999 The United States government intervened earlier this year in a civil war in Yugoslavia. President Clinton and other Western leaders justified the NATO bombing by the crackdowns that Serbian forces had conducted on Kosovar Albanian rebels and civilians. However, prior to the onset of NATO bombing, the actions of the ...
Child Labor and the British Industrial Revolution, Part 2 by Lawrence W. Reed October 1, 1999 Part 1 | Part 2 It has not been uncommon for historians, including many who lived and wrote in the 19th century, to report the travails of the apprentice children without ever realizing they were effectively indicting government, not the economic arrangement of free exchange we call capitalism. In 1857, Alfred Kydd published a two-volume work entitled ...
Time to Rethink the War on Drugs by David Boaz October 1, 1999 Eighty-four percent of Americans say that possible cocaine use in his 20s should not disqualify Texas governor George W. Bush from being president. But if a cocaine user can go on to be president, why should we put young people in jail for using cocaine? Maybe the voters' indifference to Bush's possible past indicates that ...
Book Review: What do Economists Contribute? by Richard M. Ebeling October 1, 1999 What Do Economists Contribute? edited by Daniel B. Klein (New York: New York University Press, 1999); 156 pages; $14.95. The following is the abstract of an economics article that appeared in the November 1998 issue of the International Economics Review: "The authors investigate confidence intervals and inference for the instrumental variables model with weak instruments. Confidence intervals based ...
The Nationalization of Income by Jacob G. Hornberger September 1, 1999 It's election time and Republicans are making their quadrennial call for income-tax cuts. Democrats are opposing them because the federal government needs the money to shore up Medicare and Social Security. The entire debate obscures an uncomfortable truth — that in 1913, the 16th Amendment to the Constitution effectively nationalized the income of every American. Although most Americans honestly believe ...