Freedom Daily Archive

Book Review: Desperate Deception

by Richard M. Ebeling November 1, 1998

Desperate Deception: British Covert Operations in the United States, 1939-44 by Thomas E. Mahl (Washington, D.C.: Brassey's, 1998); 256 pages; $22.95. Imagine that the United States were in a war with a strong and determined foe. Imagine that it had become clear to American foreign policymakers that the United States were unable to militarily defeat its enemy on its own. ...

Cleveland, Clinton, and Texas Heat Waves

by Jacob G. Hornberger October 1, 1998

To relieve the suffering in the drought-stricken counties of Texas, Congress passed an appropriations bill, but it was vetoed by the president. In his veto message, the president stated: "I can find no warrant for such an appropriation in the Constitution, and I do not believe that the power and duty of the General Government ought to be extended ...

Fighting Terrorism with Terrorism

by Jacob G. Hornberger October 1, 1998

After the bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, the U.S. government retaliated by bombing a gathering of individuals in Afghanistan and a pharmaceutical plant in Sudan. American government officials were convinced to a moral certainty that the people meeting in Afghanistan were international terrorists, probably even including some who were involved in the Kenyan and Tanzanian ...

Monetary Central Planning and the State, Part 22: The Chicago School Economists and the Great Depression

by Richard M. Ebeling October 1, 1998

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 ...

Educational Gimmickry

by Sheldon Richman October 1, 1998

The coming controversy in the debate in education policy — actually, it's here already — will be over the matter of equality of funding. In several states, the courts or legislatures have decided that it is unfair for communities with higher-priced real estate to have better schools than communities with lower-priced real estate. Their solution is to have the ...

More Federal Lies on Guns

by James Bovard October 1, 1998

The Clinton administration is continuing to portray the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act of 1993 as the key to national salvation. However, once again, the administration's claims are as bogus as a $3 bill. The Justice Department announced on June 21, 1998, that presale handgun background checks ...

Inequality of Wealth and Incomes

by Ludwig von Mises October 1, 1998

The market economy — capitalism — is based on private ownership of the material means of production and private entrepreneurship. The consumers by their buying or abstention from buying ultimately determine what should be produced and in what quantity and quality. They render profitable the affairs of those businessmen ...

Book Review: In Praise of Commercial Capital

by Richard M. Ebeling October 1, 1998

In Praise of Commercial Culture by Tyler Cowen (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1998); 278 pages; $29.95. One of the most persistent views in many intellectual circles is that capitalism and the market economy are antagonistic to refined culture and artistic appreciation. On the one hand, the general public, it is claimed, is too uneducated and narrow-minded to understand either ...

The Conservative Commitment to Educational Socialism

by Jacob G. Hornberger September 1, 1998

It would be difficult to find a better model of socialistic central planning than public (government) schooling. Public schooling entails a central board of elected or appointed government planners, either at a national, state, or local level. Attendance is mandated by compulsory-attendance laws. Government-approved schoolteachers, using government-approved textbooks, ...

Monetary Central Planning and the State, Part 21: The Keynesian Revolution and the Early Critics of Keynes

by Richard M. Ebeling September 1, 1998

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 ...

Eliminate, Don’t Reform, the IRS

by Sheldon Richman September 1, 1998

Yet again, a taxpayer "bill of rights" has been enacted into law. And so, after all the recent revelations of Internal Revenue Service abuse of peaceful citizens, we can all now be confident that the tax collector will respect the rights and dignity of every American. Right. And pigs have started ...

The Legalization of Prostitution

by James Bovard September 1, 1998

Prostitution has long been illegal in the vast majority of the United States. Unfortunately, laws against prostitution often bring out the worst among the nation's law-enforcement agencies — and pose a growing threat to public health. As fear of the spread of AIDS rises, the legalization of prostitution offers ...