Daily Articles

Bad Verdicts

by Sheldon Richman August 1, 1999

People who care about justice should be concerned by the recent spate of jury verdicts holding manufacturers responsible for the harmful consequences of their products. In recent months a jury returned a civil verdict against the firearms industry after someone used a gun to commit a crime. Four ...

NATO’s Balkans Disaster and Wilsonian Warmongering, Part 2

by Doug Bandow August 1, 1999

Part 1 | Part 2 The Founders vested the power to declare war in Congress because they feared presidents would do precisely what they are doing today — regularly taking the nation into overseas conflicts. It is all too easy to loose the dogs of war; it is impossible to control where they go afterwards. The administration launched an unprovoked ...

Book Review: The Passing of an Illusion

by Richard M. Ebeling August 1, 1999

The Passing of an Illusion: The Idea of Communism in the Twentieth Century by François Furet (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1999); 596 pages; $35. Even now, though it is less than 10 years since the end of the Soviet Union, it is hard to imagine that in the 20th century, millions of people believed in and dedicated their lives ...

What’s Compassion Got to Do with It?

by Sheldon Richman July 2, 1999

Gov. George W. Bush has distinguished himself from the pack of Republican presidential aspirants by calling himself a "compassionate conservative." Some conservatives have taken umbrage, charging that Bush's label implies that conservatives aren't generally compassionate. That lame response is to be expected of conservatives, who lack a coherent political philosophy. The better response is: ...

The Myth of “Public Service”

by Sheldon Richman July 2, 1999

The accident involving John F. Kennedy Jr. has filled the airwaves with much rhapsodizing about "public service." Never mind that Kennedy did not go into public service, but rather launched a for-profit enterprise, George magazine (although it glamorizes public service). That didn't stop commentators and politicians from lavishing praise on the Kennedys for, ...

A Libertarian Visits Cuba, Part 2

by Jacob G. Hornberger July 1, 1999

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 My trip to Cuba last spring entailed talking primarily to two groups of people — those in research centers at the University of Havana and people whom I encountered in daily life in Cuba. The meetings with the research centers were arranged by the Cuban Interest Section in Washington, D.C., which ...

The Surrender of Choice

by Jacob G. Hornberger July 1, 1999

Why do Americans continue to support such governmental programs as public schooling, Social Security, and drug laws? Advocates argue that these programs display a deep regard for education, compassion, and responsibility. However, isn't it possible that by surrendering the power of making individual choices in these important parts of ...

Monetary Central Planning and the State, Part 31: Ludwig von Mises on the Case for Gold and a Free Banking System

by Richard M. Ebeling July 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 ...

The Myth of “Public Service”

by Sheldon Richman July 1, 1999

The accident involving John F. Kennedy Jr. has filled the airwaves with much rhapsodizing about "public service." Never mind that Kennedy did not go into public service, but rather launched a for-profit enterprise, George magazine (although it glamorizes public service). That didn't stop commentators and politicians from lavishing ...

Clinton’s Quagmire

by Sheldon Richman July 1, 1999

"The man of system ... seems to imagine that he can arrange the different members of a great society with as much ease as the hand arranges the different pieces upon a chess-board; he does not consider that the pieces upon a chess-board have no other principle of motion besides that which the hand impresses upon them; but that, ...

The Mirage of Administrative Justice

by James Bovard July 1, 1999

The trademark of modern political thinking is faith in discretionary power wielded by benevolent politicians and administrators and in letting government employees treat private citizens as they think best. We have far more federal agencies than we used to have, and they are under less restraint than what they ...

Why Are They Poor?

by Sheldon Richman July 1, 1999

President Clinton has been visiting what he calls "pockets of poverty" in America. He still thinks government can make people prosperous. You'd think after the government has spent tens of trillions of dollars on poverty programs since the 1960s he'd have gotten the point. But he wants to spend more ...