Free Trade & Trade Policy

No Bailout for Amtrak

by Bart Frazier June 1, 2002

Once again, Amtrak is in dire need of our tax dollars. Without a cash infusion, Amtrak president David Gunn said it will have to halt operations. Negotiations are now underway that will provide a guaranteed “loan” (read: subsidy) to the railroad. The question that no one seems to ...

“Economic Freedom”

by Jacob G. Hornberger May 1, 2002

In a May 1 editorial, The Washington Post called on Cuban dictator Fidel Castro to honor a petition signed by 10,000 Cuban citizens demanding that a national referendum be called on freedom of expression, free elections, the right to private enterprise, and amnesty for political prisoners. The Post correctly praised those 10,000 ...

Classical Liberalism in the 21st Century: Freedom of Trade, Part 2

by Richard M. Ebeling May 1, 2002

Part 1 | Part 2 A FUNDAMENTAL REVOLUTION IN IDEAS began to emerge in the 18th century against the premises and policies of mercantilism. These ideas undermined the rationales for government regulation and control of the economic affairs of the people of European society. In its place there arose a conception and vision of a free society based on ...

Why Congress Investigates Enron

by Jacob G. Hornberger April 1, 2002

Members of Congress are certainly licking their chops over the Enron affair. Now why would that be? Could it be that they cannot resist investigating a company that apparently lied to the public, misrepresented its financial situation, kept lousy records, engaged in conflicts of interest, and acted covertly? Wait, that sounds ...

Bush Betrays Free Enterprise

by Sheldon Richman April 1, 2002

There’s no longer any excuse for thinking that President Bush is a champion of free-enterprise capitalism. The week of March 4 sealed the question. He began the week by imposing tariffs up to 30 percent on imported steel. True, he didn’t give the industry and the steelworkers all that they wanted. He ...

Classical Liberalism in the 21st Century: Freedom of Trade, Part 1

by Richard M. Ebeling March 1, 2002

Part 1 | Part 2 BEFORE THE 19TH CENTURY, governments in the major European countries and their colonial empires around the world took it for granted that they had both the right and responsibility to control and direct the economic activities of their subjects. Indeed, the lands and peoples in these countries were considered to be the property of ...

Netscape Gets the Green

by Sheldon Richman March 1, 2002

Imagine the nerve of a company that gives away its product in an attempt to knock off the dominant firm in an industry. I have one such company in mind right now. It went all out to make it easy for consumers to have free access to its product. You couldn’t ...

Slave to the Olympics

by Bart Frazier February 1, 2002

Getting up to answer the knock at your door, you open it to find a police officer standing stiffly, fidgeting with his nightstick. “Mr. Jones, I am here for the soccer field”, he says tersely. “Soccer field?” you say. “I don’t get it.”

Farmers: Get a Job!

by Sheldon Richman February 1, 2002

It kind of makes me wonder what country I'm living in when I pick up the newspaper and read this from the Associated Press: "With crop prices mired near record lows, the government says farm earnings will drop 20 percent this year unless Congress enacts a new farm program or approves ...

Government Needs to Lose Weight

by Sheldon Richman February 1, 2002

How ironic that just as an already-bloated government is taking on major new powers, it is exhorting us to lose weight. But that’s exactly what Surgeon General David Satcher is calling for. In his recently released “Call To Action To Prevent and Decrease Overweight and Obesity,” Satcher writes, “Our ...

What the Enron Bankruptcy Doesn’t Mean

by Sheldon Richman February 1, 2002

A big company fails, maybe even commits wrongdoing, and in some people’s eyes that proves free markets are bad. This is what passes for logic these days. The full story on Enron is not known yet. But for the sake of discussion, let’s assume the worst: namely, that company management deliberately ...

Regulation Gave Us the Enron Scandal

by Sheldon Richman February 1, 2002

When pundits and politicians say the Enron scandal demonstrates the need for federal regulation of business, you have to be a little suspicious. They think everything demonstrates the need for federal regulation of business. It’s a reflex, that’s all. What seems to have been forgotten in all the blather about ...