Tax-Cut Deceptions by Sheldon Richman May 1, 1999 The Republican collapse on taxes is about as surprising as an elephant's fleeing a mouse, which, come to think of it, may be exactly what happened. It looked as though the congressional Republicans were going to make a 10 percent across-the-board unconditional tax-rate cut the centerpiece of their agenda. It was supposed to contrast with the Clinton administration's insistence that ...
Order by Agreements or by Iron Fists by James Bovard May 1, 1999 In his 1651 classic, Leviathan, Thomas Hobbes warned: "To obey the King who is God's lieutenant, is the same as to obey God. We shall have no peace till we have absolute obedience." Many contemporary statists share Hobbes's assumption that near-total control is the only way to avoid near-certain destruction ...
Housing Discrimination Laws and the Continuing Erosion of Property Rights by George Leef May 1, 1999 Not so long ago in this country, you could stay out of legal trouble by refraining from aggression against other people. The law of torts, crimes, and property was well established and under those bodies of law, you committed no offense unless you acted ...
Book Review: The Future and Its Enemies by Richard M. Ebeling May 1, 1999 The Future and Its Enemies by Virginia Postrel (New York: Free Press, 1998); 265 pages; $25. May 8, 1999, marks the hundredth birthday of Austrian economist Friedrich A. Hayek. One of Hayek's most important and lasting contributions to human understanding has been his development of a theory of spontaneous order. Hayek argued (echoing the 18th-century Scottish moral philosopher Adam Ferguson) that ...
Loving the Poor and Compassionate Conservatism by Jacob G. Hornberger April 1, 1999 One of the biggest con jobs in American political history has been that which the Democratic Party has perpetrated on the American people. To justify the existence of the socialistic welfare state, along with the $1.7 trillion in taxation needed to fund it, Democrats proclaim, "We love the poor, the ...
Monetary Central Planning and the State, Part 28: The Chicago and Austrian Economists on Money, Inflation, and the Great Depression by Richard M. Ebeling April 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 ...
Know Your Government by Sheldon Richman April 1, 1999 The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) has a new way to protect us and our banks. It proposes a mandatory program for insured nonmember banks called "Know Your Customer." (Member banks are presumably already under such an obligation.) This is not some friendly way for banks to serve us better. No, this is right out of Orwell. Here's what Big ...
Cutthroat Competition and Dead Chickens by James Bovard April 1, 1999 President Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal created much of the moral framework of contemporary political thought. The National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA), a hallmark of Roosevelt's first hundred days in office, symbolizes blind faith in government as moral savior. In a May 17, 1933, message, Roosevelt called for Congress to "provide for the machinery necessary for a great cooperative movement throughout ...
FDR – The Man, the Leader, the Legacy, Part 6 by Ralph Raico April 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 the course of the 1920s, Roosevelt had grown ...
Book Review: The Roosevelt Myth by Richard M. Ebeling April 1, 1999 The Roosevelt Myth: 50th Anniversary Edition by John T. Flynn (San Francisco: Fox and Wilkes, 1998); 437pages; $24.95. When President Franklin Delano Roosevelt died on April 12, 1945, there followed a vast outpouring of despair and sadness from one end of the United States to the other. For more than 12 years, FDR had occupied the White House, having won ...
A Libertarian Visits South America by Jacob G. Hornberger March 1, 1999 Last fall, I was invited to South America by two free-market think tanks — the Instituto de Estudos Empresariais (IEE — Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies) in Porto Alegre, Brazil, and the Fundación Atlas para una Sociedad Libre (Atlas Foundation for a Free Society) in Buenos Aires, Argentina. I thought the readers of Freedom Daily might find my experiences ...
Monetary Central Planning and the State, Part 27: Milton Friedman’s Second Thoughts on the Costs of Paper Money by Richard M. Ebeling March 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 ...