Egypt’s Lessons for Americans, Part 2 by Jacob G. Hornberger November 1, 2013 Part 1 | Part 2 The ambivalent reaction of the U.S. government to the Egyptian coup should not have surprised anyone. While U.S. law requires a termination of U.S. foreign aid to Egypt in the event of a coup, the Obama administration ignored the law by simply refusing to declare that the coup was actually a coup. Keep ...
The Phony Trade-Off between Privacy and Security by Sheldon Richman November 1, 2013 Most people take it for granted — because they have heard it so many times from politicians and pundits — that they must trade some privacy for security in this dangerous world. The challenge, we’re told, is to find the right “balance.” Let’s examine this. On its face the idea seems reasonable. I can imagine hiring a firm to look ...
AmeriCorps: Idealistic Triumph or Usual Buffoonery? by James Bovard November 1, 2013 National service is the latest fashionable panacea for all that ails America. Time magazine ran a July cover story, “How Service Can Save Us,” on the potential benefits of pressing all young people into service. The article approvingly quoted a retired Air Force veteran: “There isn’t an 18-year-old boy who doesn’t need to get his butt kicked by someone ...
The Fault in Fairness by Joseph S. Diedrich November 1, 2013 The coffee aisle at the supermarket has become the latest front in the crusade for “social justice.” Coffee roasters proudly tout their allegiance to the ideals of the fair-trade movement, which ostensibly aims to elevate the economic and social welfare of disadvantaged Third-World farmers. Despite its meteoric rise in popularity, does fair trade translate its stated intentions into tangible results? ...
Freedom of Speech: Abridge to Nowhere by Michael Tennant November 1, 2013 Americans, known for their outspokenness on matters of politics, sports, American Idol contestants, and practically every other topic, would appear to treasure few things more highly than their freedom of speech. Why, it’s even right there in the Constitution: “Congress shall make no law ... abridging the freedom of speech.” In America, everyone is allowed to speak his mind ...
Whither Power? by Kevin Carson November 1, 2013 The End of Power: From Boardrooms to Battlefields and Churches to States, Why Being in Charge Isn’t What It Used to Be by Moisés Naím (Basic Books 2013), 320 pages. The topic of Moisés Naím’s book is the decay of power — the shift of power “from brawn to brains, from north to south and west to east, ...
The Business Cycle Explained by George Leef November 1, 2013 It Didn’t Have to Be This Way: Why Boom and Bust Is Unnecessary — and How the Austrian School of Economics Breaks the Cycle by Harry C. Veryser (Intercollegiate Studies Institute 2012), 318 pages. This is one instance where a book’s subtitle tells the reader much more about its content than the title does. You know at once that ...
Inflation Is the Last Thing We Need by Sheldon Richman October 31, 2013 “Some economists say more inflation is just what the American economy needs to escape from a half-decade of sluggish growth and high unemployment,” the New York Times reports. One is Harvard economist Kenneth S. Rogoff, quoted in the Times: “Weighed against the political, social and economic risks of continued slow growth after a once-in-a-century financial crisis, a sustained ...
The Keynes Disaster by Gregory Bresiger October 31, 2013 The government and the private sector should start spending more to turn the economy around. That’s what a former Obama administration official, speaking to a recent UBS adviser conference, said in making no apologies for the administration’s poor performance since 2009. Indeed, he said that Barack Obama had “saved” the country from a depression in 2009. He also called ...
The Libertarian Angle: Inflation and the Federal Reserve by Future of Freedom Foundation October 28, 2013 Jacob Hornberger and Sheldon Richman on monetary policy. The Libertarian Angle airs weekly.
The Myth of Economics (video) by Edward H. Crane October 28, 2013 On October 16, 2013 Edward H. Crane gave the following speech as part of the Economic Liberty Lecture Series which is co-sponsored by The Future of Freedom Foundation and the George Mason Economics Society. Mr. Crane's talk is entitled "The Myth of Economics: They Changed Global Warming to Climate Change, Why not Economics to ...
Speaking on Liberty: Sheldon Richman Live! (video) by Sheldon Richman October 24, 2013 Liberty Minded contributor Jason Lee Byas sits down with Sheldon Richman after his Constitution Day talk at The University of Oklahoma.