Daily Articles

The Authoritarianism of American Labor Law

by George Leef October 1, 2008

American labor law is a dank miasma of special-interest legislation that tramples on the rights of some citizens in order to advance the interests of others. The main beneficiaries are labor-union officials who lobbied for and received extraordinary and unique powers from compliant politicians. The victims are business owners and workers who prefer to have ...

A Revolutionary Manifesto

by Anthony Gregory October 1, 2008

The Revolution: A Manifesto by Ron Paul (New York: Grand Central Publishing, 2008); 173 pages. Ron Paul’s grassroots campaign — a decentralized undertaking that always had much more to do with the principles of the American Revolution, liberty, free enterprise, and peace than with narrowly defined electoral success — has ...

Milk Protectionism

by Gary D. Barnett September 22, 2008

The headline recently in Missoula, Montana’s, daily newspaper, the Missoulian, was “Cheaper milk from Washington pulled from Missoula shelves.” Angry customers know this is obvious protectionism, but Montana milk producers say they only want a “safe” product for Montanans. Yeah, right! Certain stores in Missoula on Friday ...

Government Failure

by Sheldon Richman September 19, 2008

To hear the media pundits and presidential candidates tell it, you’d think Adam Smith has been president for the last eight years and, with a Congress full of free-market advocates, had enacted an agenda of full-blown laissez-faire. Had that been the case, we would not be in the mess we are in economically. Alas, it has not been the case. Politicians ...

Threatened by the Census Bureau

by Gary D. Barnett September 15, 2008

I just received an official letter from the U.S. Department of Commerce threatening me with prosecution and fines if I do not comply with its Economic Census. The letter came from the Office of the General Counsel/Office of the Chief Counsel for Economic Affairs in Washington, D.C., and was sent to ...

Secession and Slavery

by Scott McPherson September 12, 2008

An interesting commentary, “Lincoln, Secession, and Slavery” by Tibor Machan, published by the Cato Institute on June 1, 2002, was recently brought to my attention. I should say at the outset that I have long been a fan of Machan, and have the utmost respect for ...

McCain’s Self-Righteous Fakery

by Sheldon Richman September 10, 2008

If John McCain keeps up that self-righteous fakery about wanting to be our servant, were in for two rather tedious months until election day. First of all, he also says he wants to be our leader. How can he be both our leader and our servant? We know whats really going on here. The servant shtick is phony humility intended ...

The Government’s War on Money Laundering

by Gary D. Barnett September 3, 2008

As a provider of financial services, once again I am required to attest (i.e., declare to be correct and true or genuine), by using the Compliance Attestation System, that I have read and understand and agree to the third-quarter anti–money-laundering training information. I have no effective choice. I can’t disagree. I ...

Seven Years of Darkness, Tyranny, and Oppression

by Jacob G. Hornberger September 1, 2008

The year 1989 was a year of a great celebration. For that was the year that that hated and reviled symbol of tyranny, empire, and oppression, the Berlin Wall, came crashing down. Not only were the people of East Germany and Eastern Europe celebrating the demise of the Wall, so were ...

The Scope of Public Choice Theory

by Tibor R. Machan September 1, 2008

Prague, Czech Republic. In October 1985 (I think it was) Professor James Buchanan, now at George Mason University's Department of Economics, received the Nobel Prize in his discipline for his pioneering work — in collaboration with Professor Gordon Tullock — in what came to be called public choice theory. The ...

Habeas Corpus Barely Saved

by Sheldon Richman September 1, 2008

Once in a while the fading embers of freedom flare with defiant vigor. That happened in June when the U.S. Supreme Court sternly informed the Bush administration that it may not hold people suspected of being terrorists indefinitely without charge and without judicial review at its prison at Guantanámo Bay, Cuba. In a too-close-for-comfort 5-4 ruling, ...

Are Democrats Better on Privacy and Surveillance?

by James Bovard September 1, 2008

The Bush administration has probably illegally violated Americans’ privacy more than any presidency in at least a generation. Many Americans are understandably ready to throw out Republicans who trampled the Bill of Rights. But is the solution to elect a Democrat? Many liberals were shocked in July when putative Democratic Party presidential nominee Barack Obama ...