Daily Articles

Price Controls Can Be Deadly

by Jacob G. Hornberger December 12, 2003

Who would ever dream that the economic fallacies to which U.S. officials subscribe could turn deadly? Yet that’s what recently happened in Baghdad, where an American GI was shot dead while guarding long lines of angry and disgruntled consumers at a gasoline station in Baghdad. Why are there long lines ...

Freedom without Due Process of Law?

by Jacob G. Hornberger December 3, 2003

No American should be too enthusiastic about the Pentagon’s decision to permit accused terrorist Yaser Hamdi to speak to an attorney after some two years of incarceration in a military brig here in the United States. While some people might be tempted to be grateful to the Pentagon for ...

The Socialism of Social Security

by Jacob G. Hornberger December 1, 2003

The crown jewel of the socialist welfare state in America is Social Security. Rooted in the socialist predilections of Otto von Bismarck, the iron chancellor of Germany in the late 1800s, Social Security is one of the most immoral, anti-family socialist programs in America today. It also perfectly embodies the American peoples denigration of the great God-given gift of ...

Anti-Freedom Conservatism

by Sheldon Richman December 1, 2003

“A prescription drug entitlement is not inherently unconservative, unless the welfare state itself is — and it isn’t.” — George Will Writing in the Wall Street Journal back in August, Fred Barnes, executive editor of the neoconservative magazine The Weekly Standard, asks, “Is President Bush a conservative?” Barnes replies that, although many conservatives ...

China: From Brutal Oppressor to Terrorist Victim

by James Bovard December 1, 2003

Since 9/11, President Bush has endlessly reminded the world that he is leading a “freedom-loving coalition” to vanquish terrorists anywhere and everywhere. However, the more closely one examines the details of the Bush coalition, the more difficult it becomes to detect any love of freedom. The Bush administration’s anti-terrorism partnership with China exemplifies its hypocrisy ...

Background of the Middle East Conflict, Part 3

by Wendy McElroy December 1, 2003

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 In 1936, the Arabs went on a six-month general strike, seeking both economic reforms and a moratorium on all debt. The Arabs would call off the strike if the British would end Jewish immigration. Instead, the British increased the immigration quota by 10 percent, establishing the port at Tel Aviv ...

The Revolution’s Forgotten Hero

by David A. Merrick December 1, 2003

On December 15, an anniversary will come and go with little or no fanfare. It will probably pass unnoticed, even though it is the anniversary of one of the greatest events in the history of written law. On that day, the first ten amendments to the Constitution of the United States of America, commonly known as the Bill of ...

Ireland and Big-Spending Republicans

by Benjamin Powell December 1, 2003

Despite some tax cuts, the size of the U.S. government has increased rapidly under President Bush and the Republican-controlled Congress. Washington leaders looking to improve the economy could learn a lesson or two from Ireland, which has consistently achieved high rates of growth over the last 15 years by successfully slashing government spending. Under the Republican Congress during Clintons years ...

“Bad Money Drives Out Good”

by Charles Adams December 1, 2003

This is what has been called Gresham’s Law. It was formulated by Sir Thomas Gresham to explain to Queen Elizabeth I what was happening to the English shilling. Her father, Henry VIII, had been adulterating the English shilling, the basic coin of the realm, by replacing 40 percent of the silver in the coin with base metals — a ...

Environmentalist Nonsense

by Scott McPherson December 1, 2003

The environmentalist movement has gone into overdrive over the newest trend in Sport Utility Vehicles (SUVs). The Hummer, from General Motors, Ford’s Excursion, and now the Unimog from DaimlerChrysler are all driving our Green friends to distraction distraction because they have attained a new low in “excessive” gas consumption. Labeled “gas-guzzlers” and scathingly dishonored with the “Exxon Valdez Award for ...

Book Review: Dependent on D.C. by Charlotte A. Twight

by George Leef December 1, 2003

Dependent on D.C.: The Rise of Federal Control over the Lives of Ordinary Americans by Charlotte Twight (St. Martins Press, 2002); 422 pages; $26.95. I have often thought about how different the United States of today is from the United States my grandfather knew. A century ago, he was a young man embarking on a business career. He and all other ...

Bush as Fake Free-Trader

by Sheldon Richman November 28, 2003

President Bush is the most protectionist president since Ronald Reagan. And that’s saying something, because Reagan was the most protectionist president since Herbert Hoover, who signed the infamous Smoot-Hawley Tariff and helped turn a recession into the Great Depression. Take note: all three presidents mentioned are Republicans. No wonder many people still think that capitalism ...