Daily Articles

A Week in a (Sort of) Libertarian Country, Part 1

by Scott McPherson June 1, 2005

Part 1 | Part 2 “Are you a libertarian?” I wasn’t expecting the question, but under the circumstances it made sense. We were in Costa Rica, in a taxi heading southeast into the heart of San Jose. My wife, Charlotte, and I were on a long-overdue week’s holiday. The kids were staying with some friends in Texas. It ...

Economics for the Citizen, Part 4

by Walter E. Williams June 1, 2005

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 In the last lecture, we discussed three of four kinds of behavior that can be called economic behavior: production, consumption, and exchange. ...

Productivity and the Wealth of Nations

by George Leef June 1, 2005

The Power of Productivity by William W. Lewis (University of Chicago Press 2004); 323 pages; $28.00. “Watch the pennies and the dollars will take care of themselves,” Benjamin Franklin said. We might, in a similar vein, explain the key message of William Lewis’s book The Power of Productivity by saying, “Watch the ...

Close the Bases and Cut the Spending

by Sheldon Richman May 30, 2005

The frantic reaction to the Pentagons plans to close 33 major military facilities demonstrates how heavily government dominates modern life. Most of the reaction had nothing to do with national security. After all, it is Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld floating the proposal. Who is going to believe that he and his boss, President Bush, are weak on the military? ...

Foreign Policy Threatens Our Freedom

by Jacob G. Hornberger May 25, 2005

There are four important pending U.S. terrorism legal cases, which separately and together present ominous and dangerous threats to the freedom of the American people. The Jose Padilla case Padilla is an American civilian who was initially arrested at the international airport in Chicago and held as a “material witness” in ...

Socialism and Empire, Not Immigration, Are Destroying America

by Jacob G. Hornberger May 20, 2005

A friend recently sent me an article written a couple of years ago entitled “How to Destroy America,” which provided an account of a Washington, D.C., “immigration-overpopulation conference filled to capacity by many of America’s finest minds and leaders.” According to the article, Richard D. Lamm, former governor ...

The Consumer Is Boss

by Sheldon Richman May 18, 2005

The morning paper brings two pieces of news about Wal-Mart. The first tells of an effort by politicians and so-called community groups to pressure the retail chain to raise its wages. The second describes Wal-Mart’s plans to meet competition from Target and other stores by including products that ...

Social Security Demeans Workers

by Sheldon Richman May 13, 2005

We can thank President Bush for reminding us that Social Security is not a pension or insurance plan but a welfare program. He did that recently when he proposed changing the benefit structure to favor (even more) low-income retirees at the expense of the “better off.” Whether this ...

The Bill of Rights: Reserved Powers

by Jacob G. Hornberger May 11, 2005

The Constitution brought into existence the most unusual government in history. It was a government whose powers were limited to those enumerated in the document itself. If the power wasn’t enumerated, the government could not exercise it. Fearful that the newly formed government might try to break free of that ...

Minuteman Project Is a Fraud

by Sheldon Richman May 4, 2005

If people who make up the Minuteman Project really want to do something for their country, they should devote their energies to getting rid of the stifling welfare state. Aside from all the good that would do for citizens, it would also ensure that anyone coming here from a ...

Oklahoma City and 9/11

by Jacob G. Hornberger May 2, 2005

The Oklahoma City bombing 10 years ago holds an important lesson regarding the 9/11 attacks. It is a lesson about terrorist motivation and the consequences of U.S. government policy. After the Oklahoma City bombing, U.S. officials immediately discouraged discussion about Timothy McVeigh’s motivation for committing his terrorist attack. Whenever someone pointed out that McVeigh bombed ...

Democracy, But Not Necessarily Freedom

by Sheldon Richman May 1, 2005

Democracy is breaking out all over. Or thats the impression we get from the daily news. Maybe its true. Elections have been held in Afghanistan, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and the Palestinian territories. Theres talk (just talk) of a real presidential election in autocratic Egypt. Whos next? One need not sanction the imperial Bush Doctrine to take inspiration from two salient ...