Daily Articles

Support Cuban Dissidents-Lift the Embargo

by Jacob G. Hornberger March 1, 1999

If the Cuban authorities persist in jailing Cuban citizens for criticizing Cuban socialism, they might have to implement a new five-year plan for prison expansion. I recently spent a week in Cuba. Since the United States embargo against Cuba makes it a criminal offense for Americans to spend money there, I had ...

Robbery with an Environmental Badge

by James Bovard March 1, 1999

As the federal government has devoted itself to rescuing Americans from more perils, fair treatment of individuals is a luxury that the government can no longer afford. Few programs better illustrate the modern contempt for due process than Superfund. Congress enacted Superfund in 1980 to deal with the problem of abandoned hazardous waste sites. Since 1980, the Environmental Protection Agency ...

Putting the Taxpayers at Risk, Part 3

by Doug Bandow March 1, 1999

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 What is driving support for the multilateral development banks (MDBs) is businesses' constant quest for government handouts. Groups such as the Chamber of Commerce and National Association of Manufacturers spare no expense in lobbying Congress to toss money abroad in the hopes that some of it will be used to purchase ...

Book Review: Is There a Third Way?

by Richard M. Ebeling March 1, 1999

Is There a Third Way? by Michael Novak (London: Institute of Economic Affairs, 1998); 62 pages; £6.00. In spite of the failure and collapse of Soviet-style socialism and the free market's demonstration of its superiority over all forms of central planning, the ideal that still guides most intellectuals and all governments is the "middle way" of the interventionist-welfare state. While ...

The King’s False Legacy

by Sheldon Richman February 2, 1999

You have to wonder about the monarch who is so beloved by American presidents, Henry Kissinger, and the big establishment media. That's the case with King Hussein of Jordan. The encomiums got a little extreme. President Clinton somehow learned that this "magnificent man" who "lived his life on a higher plane" was already in paradise. One ...

Brazil and the Crisis of Paternalism

by Jacob G. Hornberger February 1, 1999

After the Brazilian government devalued the Brazilian real, causing the Brazilian people to lose more than 40 percent of their savings, the Brazilian authorities issued the customary line that governments follow after a devaluation. They blamed external forces for the currency debasement, in this case "the Asian currency ...

Pay Equity Errors

by Sheldon Richman February 1, 1999

President Clinton has pledged to step up enforcement of the Equal Pay Act. The promised $14 million to fight wage discrimination was on his list of bribes to the American people, otherwise known as the State of the Union address. The president's Council of Economic Advisers says women make only 75 cents ...

Patriotism along the Southern Border, Part 3

by Jacob G. Hornberger February 1, 1999

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 In 1910, Mexico celebrated the 100th anniversary of the beginning of the war for Mexican independence from Spain. The political climate in Mexico was peaceful and orderly. It would not last. In 1867, Mexican forces had defeated the French occupation army and had captured and executed Hapsburg Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian, whom ...

Monetary Central Planning and the State, Part 26: Milton Friedman and the Monetary “Rule” for Economic Stability

by Richard M. Ebeling February 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 ...

Tax-Cut Fallacies

by Sheldon Richman February 1, 1999

The Republican collapse on taxes is as about as surprising as an elephant's fleeing a mouse, which, come to think of it, may be exactly what's happened. It looked as though the congressional Republicans were going to make a 10 percent across-the-board unconditional tax-rate cut the centerpiece of their agenda. ...

A 10 Percent Tax Cut? Repeal the 16th Amendment Instead

by Jacob G. Hornberger February 1, 1999

In 1913, the 16th Amendment - the income tax amendment - was added to the U.S. Constitution. It was a watershed event in American history, for it fundamentally transformed the relationship between the American people and the federal government. For approximately 125 years, the American people had lived without a federal income ...

A-Scalping We van Gogh

by Sheldon Richman February 1, 1999

One of the most reviled characters in urban America is the scalper. He's the guy who buys tickets to an event, not for his own use, but to sell to others on the street. He is indeed reviled — until a person realizes that he's the only source of a coveted ticket. Then he's a lifesaver. After the event, the ...