FDR and Compulsory Unionism Destroyed Jobs by Jim Powell April 16, 2009 For decades, labor unions struggled for power, but until the 1930s they had made little headway. Unions were based on force and violence, which repelled a substantial number of employees as well as employers. The aim had been to raise the wages of members above market levels, but this was only ...
The Story of Ayman Batarfi, a Doctor in Guantánamo by Andy Worthington April 13, 2009 Andy Worthington, author of The Guantánamo Files, tells the strange story of Ayman Batarfi, a Yemeni doctor held as an “enemy combatant” for over seven years, whose release from Guantánamo was approved by the Obama administration’s Guantánamo review board on March 30. No one in the U.S. military ever doubted that Ayman Batarfi, a slim and articulate Yemeni, who ...
Taxation with Misrepresentation by Sheldon Richman April 10, 2009 It’s tax season. Consider what that means. It’s the time of year when you must account for yourself to the government. You must report every dime you earned last year, and if you believe any of it should be beyond the state’s grasp, you’d better have the proof. If the government ...
FDR’s Anti-Business Crusade by Jim Powell April 10, 2009 In 1938, after having spent many New Deal years signing laws that banned discounting and established cartels, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt denounced “the concentration of economic control” that many of his laws promoted. He went on the attack against big employers, even though, with unemployment still in double digits, ...
A Safer, Freer, and Wealthier America (video) by Bruce Fein April 9, 2009 On April 6, 2009, Bruce Fein gave the following speech at the “The Economic Liberty Lecture Series.” The speech can viewed below in its entirety.
Farce at Guantánamo by Andy Worthington April 6, 2009 In 2007, after four rounds of administrative reviews at Guantánamo, Hedi Hammamy, a Tunisian prisoner, born in 1969, was cleared for release, having satisfied the Pentagon that he no longer represented a threat to the United States or its allies and no longer possessed any ongoing intelligence value. He was not released, however, because, although the U.S. government had ...
Gold and Freedom, Part 1 by Jacob G. Hornberger April 1, 2009 Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 Among the major threats facing the American people today is out-of-control spending at the hands of the U.S. government. It is a grave danger that people have faced throughout history from their own governments. After all, let’s not forget the oft-repeated claim by U.S. officials about ...
Hope Is No Substitute for Theory by Sheldon Richman April 1, 2009 Should libertarians hope that Barack Obama succeeds or fails in his presidency? The question comes to mind because conservatives got embroiled in the issue when their leading radio star, Rush Limbaugh, said he hoped Obama would fail. Some commentators thought that was a horrible thing to say. Radio stars need ...
Ending the Drug War Would End the Violence by Sheldon Richman April 1, 2009 The news media are rife with stories about Mexican drug cartels operating throughout the United States and drug-related violence threatening U.S. cities near the border. Americans are becoming reluctant to cross into Mexican towns for fear of getting caught in the crossfire. Do we need another reason to end the abominable war on “drugs” (a ...
Obama and Perilous Delusions of Democracy by James Bovard April 1, 2009 When Barack Obama was inaugurated on January 20, there was euphoria across the land and millions of people cheered in the streets of Washington. Many people are convinced that American democracy has been redeemed and that the federal government no longer poses a peril to individual rights. Since the people’s choice is now at the helm of the U.S. ...
Arrogance and Torture: A History of Guantánamo by Andy Worthington April 1, 2009 The mesh-wire cages, suitable only for animals, are empty now and overgrown, but they will stand forever as a symbol of the Bush administration’s brutal and destructive “war on terror” policies, implemented in the wake of the terrorist attacks on the U.S. mainland on September 11, 2001. This is Camp X-Ray, the first of the prison camps at the U.S. ...
The Fallacies of Another New Deal, Part 2 by William L. Anderson April 1, 2009 Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 In the latter part of 1920, the economy fell into a deep recession, which lasted well into 1921. As Murray Rothbard points out, it was the last downturn in which the government did not play much of a role. Newly elected President Warren G. Harding openly said that government should ...