Breeding Terrorism by Sheldon Richman December 15, 1999 If 2000 comes in with a terrorist's bang, the blame must be squarely placed at the feet of our foreign-policy makers. Of course, the perpetrator is directly responsible for the deaths and injuries of innocent civilians, but that doesn't alter the fact that the foreign-policy establishment, from President Clinton on down, are accessories. They ...
Public Master by Sheldon Richman December 2, 1999 First lady Hillary Rodham Clinton apparently wants to represent New York state in the U.S. Senate. She says she wishes to serve the people of New York. Read that carefully. She wants to be their servant . Does anyone believe that? What I'm about to say does not apply just to Mrs. Clinton. It applies ...
Free Trade without the WTO by Jacob G. Hornberger December 1, 1999 Demonstrators at the World Trade Organization (WTO) meeting in Seattle protested "free-trade" negotiations between various nations of the world because, the protestors claimed, free trade harms people. I too oppose the WTO but for a different reason: I favor free trade, not only because people should be free to ...
False Alternatives by Sheldon Richman December 1, 1999 It's a classic false alternative: One side says trade policy should be made democratically by each nation. The other side says it should be made by a secretive international bureaucracy, the World Trade Organization. Both are wrong. Trade policy should be made by and for each individual. That's free trade. Free trade ...
None Dare Call It Extortion by Sheldon Richman December 1, 1999 What do you call it when one person threatens violence against another unless he obeys? How about "extortion"? Consider this sentence from the New York Times on Christmas day: "Brandishing new data showing that the drug industry earns higher profits and pays lower taxes than most other industries, White ...
Time to Separate School and State by Michael Prowse December 1, 1999 A few centuries ago courageous thinkers urged the separation of church and state. Religion, they argued, is a personal matter. It should not be regulated or funded by government. The principle was duly enshrined in the first amendment to the US Constitution. The country thereby avoided much civil strife and ...
Monetary Central Planning and the State, Part 36: Free Banking and the Competitive Limits to Monetary Expansion by Richard M. Ebeling December 1, 1999 Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 ...
Drugs and Politicians by Sheldon Richman December 1, 1999 What do you call it when one person threatens violence against another unless he obeys? How about "extortion"? Consider this sentence from the New York Times on Christmas day: "Brandishing new data showing that the drug industry earns higher profits and pays lower taxes than most other ...
Custom-Made Abuses at Customs by James Bovard December 1, 1999 You know it is going to be a bad day when your Customs inspector starts putting on latex gloves. A rising floodtide of scandal is engulfing the Customs Service. Press reports across the nation are trumpeting cases of Customs agents taking bribes and abusing their power. A Treasury Department investigation is looking at the agency's ...
What Is Seen and What Is Not Seen by Fredric Bastiat December 1, 1999 Have you ever heard anyone say: "Taxes are the best investment; they are a life-giving dew. See how many families they keep alive, and follow in imagination their indirect effects on industry; they are infinite, as extensive as life itself." The advantages that government ...
Liberty and Virtue: Invaluable and Inseparable, Part 1 by Doug Bandow December 1, 1999 Part 1 | Part 2 There is no quicker means of raising a skeptical eye among many conservatives and libertarians alike than to endorse both liberty and virtue. Many people who consider freedom the preeminent political objective perceive support for virtue to be an implicit call for restrictive new laws. ...
The Virtue of Freedom by Jacob G. Hornberger December 1, 1999 Christmas is the perfect time of year to reflect on such things as freedom and virtue. People give presents to their friends and loved ones, donate food and clothing to the poor, and make contributions to their churches and other worthy causes. And they do it all voluntarily. No one forces them to do so. Do you ever wonder how ...