Freedom Daily Archive

Book Review: The U.S. War Machine

by Anthony Gregory September 1, 2012

The American Way of War: Guided Missiles, Misguided Men, and a Republic in Peril by Eugene Jarecki (New York: Free Press, 2008); 336 pages. Many supporters of Barack Obama are disappointed that he has not reversed the war policies of his predecessor. He did his best to continue the U.S. occupation of Iraq. The Afghanistan war rages far beyond what ...

The Market and Uncertainty

by Sheldon Richman August 1, 2012

Relying on the mass media for accurate economic analysis is like relying on a mobile home for shelter from a tornado. It’s a rather bad idea. Two items in the news demonstrate this beyond a shadow of a doubt: JPMorgan Chase’s big loss last spring and the role of private equity in an economy. It’s widely believed that JPMorgan Chase’s ...

The Federal Wetlands War, Part 2

by James Bovard August 1, 2012

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 In August 1993, the Clinton administration announced a new policy that tightened the federal noose over private lands. The White House Office on Environmental Policy (echoing a 1988 George H.W. Bush campaign promise) proclaimed a national goal of no net loss of wetlands, creating a presumption ...

Keynesians, Austrians, and the Continuing Economic Depression, Part 3

by William L. Anderson August 1, 2012

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 Shortly after Barack Obama took office in 2009, he requested new spending of $800 billion to help “stimulate” the economy, and given that the Democrats controlled the White House and Congress, he faced little opposition. Soon construction workers were making highway repairs and digging ditches, and new signs ...

Citizens United and the First Amendment

by Laurence M. Vance August 1, 2012

As we move closer to another presidential election, the Supreme Court case of Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission will be brought up with increasing frequency. Decided by a vote of 5-4 on January 21, 2010, it was one of the most polarizing Supreme Court decisions of the Roberts Court. Justice Stephen Breyer, who joined fellow justices John Paul Stevens, ...

Book Review: Roosevelt and World War II

by George Leef August 1, 2012

FDR Goes to War by Burton W. Folsom Jr. and Anita Folsom (Threshold Editions, 2011); 386 pages.  Hillsdale College history professor Burton Folsom and his wife, Anita, have given us in this book a much-needed counterweight to the standard view that Franklin D. Roosevelt was one of the greatest American presidents. After reading FDR Goes to War anyone who ...

An Echo, Not a Choice

by Sheldon Richman July 1, 2012

Last November, Barack Obama stood before an audience and said government needs to be “responsive to the needs of people, not the needs of special interests.” He added, “That is probably the biggest piece of business that remains unfinished.” He made those remarks, the New York Times reports, before a $17,900-a-plate fundraising dinner at the home of Dwight and Antoinette ...

The Federal Wetlands War, Part 1

by James Bovard July 1, 2012

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 Since the 1980s, federal wetlands crackdowns have been one of the most brazen violations of American property rights. Federal agents have continually sought to play trump cards that effectively turned owners into serfs of federal bureaucracies. And despite a recent Supreme Court ruling vindicating landowners, the ...

Keynesians, Austrians, and the Continuing Economic Depression, Part 2

by William L. Anderson July 1, 2012

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 The existence of business cycles — the boom-and-bust patterns — has puzzled economists. While Marx might have created a theory of why depressions occur, nonetheless there was nothing in Marxism to explain the boom period that preceded the bust. Furthermore, there was nothing in Marxism that could ...

Book Review: The Reality of Race Oppression

by Anthony Gregory July 1, 2012

The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander (New York: New Press, 2010); 312 pages. Many Americans deny that their country is home to any serious problem of institutional racism. Segregation was abolished generations ago and slavery has been extinct nearly a century and a half. Those favoring smaller government often see that the ...

Obama’s Logic of War

by Sheldon Richman June 29, 2012

Despite the alleged difference between Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Iran, both embrace a position that logically commits them to war. If war is to be avoided, as Obama says he wishes, he will have to abandon his current stance. The difference between Obama and Netanyahu is more apparent than real. Both say Iran’s possession of ...

How Roosevelt’s Farm Policy Paved the Way for Obamacare

by James Bovard June 28, 2012

The Obama administration invoked a 1942 Supreme Court agricultural-policy case to justify its sweeping health- care law compelling individual Americans to purchase health insurance. The role of Wickard v. Filburn in sanctifying Obamacare is a reminder of how the New Deal continues to imperil our rights and liberties. Unfortunately, few U.S. Supreme Court justices or journalists recognized the sordid ...