Freedom Daily Archive

Thank You, Mr. President

by Sheldon Richman March 1, 1999

Maybe we should be grateful for and to President Clinton. Not since Richard Nixon has a tenure in the White House illustrated the evils of the political class with such clarity. Every day brings a new lesson. Libertarians get it. Let's hope the rest of America does too. The last few months have been most enlightening. Through much of 1998, ...

Robbery with an Environmental Badge

by James Bovard March 1, 1999

As the federal government has devoted itself to rescuing Americans from more perils, fair treatment of individuals is a luxury that the government can no longer afford. Few programs better illustrate the modern contempt for due process than Superfund. Congress enacted Superfund in 1980 to deal with the problem of abandoned hazardous waste sites. Since 1980, the Environmental Protection Agency ...

Putting the Taxpayers at Risk, Part 3

by Doug Bandow March 1, 1999

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 What is driving support for the multilateral development banks (MDBs) is businesses' constant quest for government handouts. Groups such as the Chamber of Commerce and National Association of Manufacturers spare no expense in lobbying Congress to toss money abroad in the hopes that some of it will be used to purchase ...

Book Review: Is There a Third Way?

by Richard M. Ebeling March 1, 1999

Is There a Third Way? by Michael Novak (London: Institute of Economic Affairs, 1998); 62 pages; £6.00. In spite of the failure and collapse of Soviet-style socialism and the free market's demonstration of its superiority over all forms of central planning, the ideal that still guides most intellectuals and all governments is the "middle way" of the interventionist-welfare state. While ...

Patriotism along the Southern Border, Part 3

by Jacob G. Hornberger February 1, 1999

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 In 1910, Mexico celebrated the 100th anniversary of the beginning of the war for Mexican independence from Spain. The political climate in Mexico was peaceful and orderly. It would not last. In 1867, Mexican forces had defeated the French occupation army and had captured and executed Hapsburg Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian, whom ...

Monetary Central Planning and the State, Part 26: Milton Friedman and the Monetary “Rule” for Economic Stability

by Richard M. Ebeling February 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 ...

A-Scalping We van Gogh

by Sheldon Richman February 1, 1999

One of the most reviled characters in urban America is the scalper. He's the guy who buys tickets to an event, not for his own use, but to sell to others on the street. He is indeed reviled — until a person realizes that he's the only source of a coveted ticket. Then he's a lifesaver. After the event, the ...

The Failure of the Republican Revolution

by James Bovard February 1, 1999

In a 1996 presidential debate, Republican nominee Bob Dole declared, "The president wants to increase spending 20 percent over the next six years. I want to increase spending 14 percent. That's how simple it is.... We're talking about six points over six years." This was the pathetic choice the Republicans ...

Putting the Taxpayers at Risk, Part 2

by Doug Bandow February 1, 1999

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 The World Bank has also long promoted development at any cost. Bank loans underwrote Julius Nyerere's coercive "ujamaa" program and Indonesia's forced transmigration project. Millions of farmers have been forced off their land without compensation by Bank-backed dams. Bank lending long subsidized the destruction of Brazil's rain forest. To blunt such criticisms, ...

Book Review: Say’s Law and the Keynesian Revolution

by Richard M. Ebeling February 1, 1999

Say's Law and the Keynesian Revolution: How Macroeconomic Theory Lost Its Way by Steven Kates (Northhampton, Mass.: Edward Elgar, 1998); 252 pages; $85. John Maynard Keynes ended his famous 1936 book, The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money, by pointing out, "The ideas of economists and political philosophers, both when they are right and when they are wrong, ...

Patriotism along the Southern Border, Part 2

by Jacob G. Hornberger January 1, 1999

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 In February 1846, the independent nation of Texas was annexed as a state in the United States of America. The citizens of Texas were now American citizens. However, there was one major glitch. Mexico still considered the Texas territory to be part of Mexico. It threatened war over the annexation ...

Monetary Central Planning and the State, Part 25: Milton Friedman and the Demand for Money

by Richard M. Ebeling January 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 ...