Freedom Daily Archive

Book Review: Rebels on the Air

by George Leef March 1, 2002

Rebels on the Air — An Alternative History of Radio in America by Jesse Walker (New York University Press, 2001); 326 pages; $24.95. YOU DON’T HAVE TO BE harboring an escaped Cuban child to receive an unexpected, pre-dawn visit from a federal SWAT team. Early in ...

Book Review: Wilhelm Ropke

by Richard M. Ebeling March 1, 2002

Wilhelm Röpke: Swiss Localist, Global Economist by John Zmirak (Wilmington, Del.: ISI Books, 2001); 229 pages; $24.95. WITHOUT A DOUBT, Wilhelm Röpke was one of the leading free-market economists of the 20th century and one of the most influential thinkers in Germany after the Second World War. Many years ago, an economist acquaintance of mine, who had studied with Röpke in ...

Raining on the Victory Parade

by Jacob G. Hornberger February 1, 2002

WOULD SOMEONE MIND telling me whether the war in Afghanistan is over or not? U.S. government officials seem to be proclaiming victory. But if the war has been won, then why is the U.S. government continuing to bomb Afghanistan, conduct that everyone agrees continues to kill innocent civilians, albeit as unfortunate “collateral damage”? If the replacement of the murderous and abusive ...

Freedom and Security in America and around the World

by Richard M. Ebeling February 1, 2002

THE SHOCKING AND tragic events of September 11, 2001, have affected not only the United States but the rest of the world as well. This impact, however, is not limited to an increased awareness of the dangers from networks of international terrorists. Nor is it limited to a heightened awareness of ...

Wrong Rights

by Sheldon Richman February 1, 2002

BRACE YOURSELF. We are about to witness the launch of a global movement to establish economic and social rights on a par with human rights. In other words, say the organizers of this movement, the right to food and health care is as legitimate as the right not to be tortured by ones government. (See The Economist, August 16.) A ...

Drug Laws: Terrorists Best Friends

by James Bovard February 1, 2002

PRESIDENT BUSH, when signing the Drug-Free Communities Act on December14, announced: If you quit drugs, you join the fight against terror in America. Bush could also have added: If you quit drug laws, you join the fight against terror. How many more Americans should die in order to perpetuate the fiction that the U.S. government can completely control every farmer ...

Declare War before Waging War, Part 2

by Doug Bandow February 1, 2002

Part 1 | Part 2 Naturally, presidents and their aides have been creative in coming up with reasons to short-circuit the Constitution’s clear requirement. Those who thus torture the Constitution include many conservatives who normally proclaim the importance of “original intent. ” Except when they want to empower politicians to do what they want. One ...

Anti-Dumping Laws

by Robert W. McGee February 1, 2002

ANTI-DUMPING LAWS have been with us since the early decades of the 20th century. Ostensibly aimed at preventing unfair trade practices, they have in recent decades been used mostly to punish foreign producers for offering their products to domestic consumers at low prices. Rather than being used to protect the public (from low prices), they have been used to ...

Book Review: The Race to the Top

by Richard M. Ebeling February 1, 2002

The Race to the Top: The Real Story of Globalization by Tomas Larsson (Washington, D.C.: Cato Institute, 2001); 164 pages; $18.95. “Globalism” has become the new, fashionable catchword for a process that has been developing with increasing intensity for more than 200 years — the internationalization of the division of labor. Of course, in one sense, international trade is as old as ...

A Libertarian Visits Guatemala

by Jacob G. Hornberger January 1, 2002

LAST SUMMER, I had one of the most uplifting experiences I have had in the many years that I have been advancing libertarianism. My week at Francisco Marroquin University in Guatemala will always rank near the top in terms of events that have charged up my batteries big-time. I had heard of FMU as far back as 1987, when I ...

State Department Confusion over Liberty

by Jacob G. Hornberger January 1, 2002

THE GREAT GERMAN THINKER Johann Wolfgang von Goethe once observed, “No one is as hopelessly enslaved as the person who thinks he’s free.” Goethe’s words might sum up the plight of the American people, a plight that was recently reflected in a secret report that emerged from the U.S. embassy in Guatemala, which is headed by U.S. Ambassador Prudence ...

Republic or Empire: Which Path for America in the 21st Century?

by Richard M. Ebeling January 1, 2002

IN THE FIRST ISSUE of Modern Age, a conservative journal of opinion, published in 1957, there appeared an article by the classical-liberal journalist and author Felix Morley on the question of whether America was still a republic or becoming an empire. He later developed this theme in his 1959 volume, Freedom and Federalism. Morley’s point was that ...