Daily Articles

CAPSULE COMMENTARY: “The I.R.S. Stealeth, Clinton Giveth”

by Jacob G. Hornberger July 1, 2000

"President Clinton has announced that he is giving $78 million to Ukraine to help close the Chernobyl nuclear reactor. At about the same time, a study by Syracuse University disclosed that the Internal Revenue Service is cracking down on lowest-paid Americans. Is there a relationship? Well, the U.S. government does not ...

CAPSULE COMMENTARY: “Cuban Baseball Star Escapes Again”

by Jacob G. Hornberger July 1, 2000

"Several weeks ago, the U.S. government captured 25-year-old Cuban baseball star Andy Morales and 30 other Cuban refugees on the high seas and forcibly repatriated them to Cuba. After his return, Cuban government gendarmes closely followed him, harassed him, and beat him up. So, what did Morales do? What any ...

CAPSULE COMMENTARY: “Do Drug Addicts Own Themselves?”

by Jacob G. Hornberger July 1, 2000

"In last Sunday's Parade magazine (I read it only sometimes), "Walter Scott's Personality Parade" took Hollywood star Robert Downey Jr. to task for being a drug addict. A reader had asked whether Downey needed rehabilitation rather than incarceration. Reflecting the statist mindset that unfortunately grips the minds of all ...

CAPSULE COMMENTARY: “Drug War Moves to Hollywood”

by Andy Falkof July 1, 2000

"Today, Gen. Barry McCaffrey, director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, will try to convince Congress that the drug war's newest line of attack should be in Hollywood. His office has already offered financial incentives to television networks to air anti-drug messages, but he concedes, "As powerful as ...

CAPSULE COMMENTARY: “Regulation Causes Corruption”

by Jacob G. Hornberger July 1, 2000

"The election of Vicente Fox as Mexico's new president has raised hopes that government corruption will be ended. Don't count on it. As long as people believe that government should regulate peaceful behavior, regulations interfering with mutually beneficial transactions will be enacted. And ...

Gored, Not Gouged

by Sheldon Richman July 1, 2000

Vice President Al Gore has an annoying habit. When he doesn't like the price of something, he sanctimoniously condemns the particular industry that produces it. He's lately accused both the oil industry and the pharmaceutical industry of "price gouging," which after "risky scheme" is becoming his favorite sound-bite phrase.

Stop the Political Gouging!

by Sheldon Richman July 1, 2000

Price gouging! That's the sound of panicking Democrats as they contemplate the prospect of going into the election with the price of gasoline rising. They are miserable about the possibility that the growing economy, on which they long have thought they would ride to victory, might turn around and bite them. The ...

Reform Social Security … or Repeal It?

by Jacob G. Hornberger July 1, 2000

WITH THE presidential campaign season here, the quadrennial debate over Social Security has begun. Republican presidential candidate George W. Bush is calling for Social Security reform. He says that people should have the right to have their Social Security funds invested in the stock market. Democratic presidential candidate Al Gore says ...

The War on Drugs Rots America

by Sheldon Richman July 1, 2000

President Clinton may have found a legacy, and the Republicans in Congress are backing him. His legacy? Taking the United States into the civil war raging in Colombia by an injection of $1.3 billion in money and military equipment, including combat helicopters, not to mention hundreds of American pilots and "advisors." And why is ...

Self-Defense Prohibition

by Sheldon Richman July 1, 2000

The sickening spectacle of hoodlum gangs molesting women in New York City's Central Park in broad daylight while the police stood by has elicited volumes of criticism. But two key facts have been left out of the commentary: First, the police have no legal duty to come to any particular person's ...

Imagining Freedom for the 21st Century: A Presidential Candidate’s Press Conference, Part 2

by Richard M. Ebeling July 1, 2000

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 Ladies and gentlemen of the press, America is entering the 21st century as still one of the greatest nations in the world. We have had a booming economy for most of the last two decades that has created tens of millions of ...

Government: Creator of Uncertainty

by Sheldon Richman July 1, 2000

THE STOCK MARKET tumbles of recent months are a reminder that when it comes to economic phenomena, subjectivism reigns. One of the pillars of the Austrian school of economics is the principle that in explaining economic events, objective entities and quantities in themselves dont count. What counts is what human beings make of them. As F.A. Hayek wrote, It is ...