Daily Articles

The Jacob Hornberger Show: September 10, 2011 (video)

by Jacob G. Hornberger September 13, 2011

The Jacob Hornberger Show broadcasts live Saturday nights at 7pm EST. Visit FFF's Ustream Channel to watch the show live.

Antitrust Is Central Planning

by Laurence M. Vance September 13, 2011

Child safety, national security, national defense, counterterrorism, and consumer protection — by invoking one of these terms, the federal government can do almost anything and the public will not just go along with it, but accept it as good and necessary. Under the guise of consumer protection, the U.S. government is seeking to block the merger of two companies — ...

Trumping Protectionism

by Robert Murphy September 12, 2011

Although he’s no longer a contender for the 2012 Republican nomination, Donald Trump’s short-lived proto-campaign was notable for its extreme China-bashing. Because such mercantilist and xenophobic sentiments may get only worse as the economy slumps along, it’s worthwhile to point out exactly why Trump’s proclamations made little sense and in fact were internally contradictory. At the height of his popularity ...

Obama’s War on Prosperity and Freedom

by James Bovard September 12, 2011

On September 7, 2011, James Bovard gave the following speech at The Future of Freedom Foundations Economic Liberty Lecture Series. The speech can viewed below in its entirety. James Bovard is the author of nine books, including Attention Deficit Democracy (2006), The Bush Betrayal (2004), and Lost Rights: The Destruction of American Liberty (1994). He has written for ...

The Freedoms Defended Since 9/11

by Anthony Gregory September 9, 2011

“Freedom itself was attacked this morning by a faceless coward,” said George W. Bush on September 11, 2011. “And freedom will be defended.” President Obama apparently agrees that the U.S. government’s response to 9/11 has been to defend freedom. This past Memorial Day he announced, “From Gettysburg to Kandahar, America’s sons and daughters have served with honor and distinction, securing ...

Ten Years After 9/11, America Deserves Better than Dick Cheney’s Self-Serving Autobiography

by Andy Worthington September 9, 2011

On August 30, when In My Time, former Vice President Dick Cheney’s self-serving autobiography was published, the timing was pernicious. Cheney knows by now that every time he opens his mouth to endorse torture or to defend Guantánamo, the networks welcome him, and newspapers lavish column inches on his opinions, even though astute editors and programmers must ...

9/11 and the National Security Scam

by Sheldon Richman September 9, 2011

National security is a scam — an $8 trillion scam. That’s the amount spent since September 11, 2001, on the military, including the Iraq and Afghan wars, and “homeland security,” according to Christopher Hellman of the National Priorities Project. If “veterans benefits, future costs for treating the war-wounded, and interest payments on war-related borrowing” are added, Hellman writes, the cost ...

Stockholm and the Kidnapped Citizenry

by Rich Schwartzman September 8, 2011

Individual men and women don’t need enemies. Many want a challenge with an opponent, someone with whom to compete cooperatively, but not an enemy. Governments, however, do need enemies to get their citizenry to submit to coercion. Some of us accept that as almost axiomatic, a self-evident fact that’s so blatant we can’t understand why the rest of society doesn’t ...

An Orgy of Make-Work for Bureaucrats and Lawyers

by Wendy McElroy September 7, 2011

New Jersey has provided a blueprint on how not to solve a social problem. The blueprint will almost certainly create a barrage of new difficulties without relieving the old one. The “Anti-Bullying Bill of Rights Act” took effect on September 1. The New York Times (August 30) reported, “Under a new state law in New Jersey, ...

Give Thanks to Price Gougers

by Fergus Hodgson September 7, 2011

Some things never cease to amaze me, for example, the willingness of state officials to vilify and prosecute those who dare to raise prices during an emergency. As far as superficial demagoguery and economic illiteracy go, those initiatives are right up there. Thirty-one states have some form of anti-price-gouging law, and a recent statement from North ...

The Jacob Hornberger Show – September 3, 2011

by Jacob G. Hornberger September 6, 2011

The Jacob Hornberger Show broadcasts live Saturday nights at 7pm EST. Visit FFF's Ustream Channel to watch the show live. Download the MP3 here, or subscribe to the RSS feed.

Why Do Republicans Want to Raise Taxes?

by Laurence M. Vance September 6, 2011

True or false: Barack Obama wants to raise taxes and Republicans in Congress want to cut them. The surprising answer is, False. Although it can usually be said that the president never met a tax hike or spending increase he didn’t like, such is not the case right now. One does not have to be a fan of Obama or ...