One Entrepreneur Is Worth a Million Consumer Advocates by Sheldon Richman June 1, 1998 When someone finds fault with absolutely everything you do, you might begin to wonder who's really got the problem. The same is true with an economic system. Predictably, the tired old school of carps led by Ralph Nader is condemning the mergers that have been announced recently, including CitiCorp ...
Book Review: Central Banking in Theory and Practice by Richard M. Ebeling June 1, 1998 Central Banking in Theory and Practice by Alan S. Blinder (Cambridge, Mass.: The MIT Press, 1998); 92 pages; $20. In one of the most insightful passages in The Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith argued: "The statesman, who should attempt to direct private people in what manner they ought to employ their capital, would not only load himself with a most unnecessary ...
Closed Minds on Open Borders, Part 1 by Jacob G. Hornberger May 1, 1998 Part 1 | Part 2 The core principle of libertarianism is a simple one: the noninitiation of force by one person against another. The libertarian philosophy holds that a person should be free to do whatever he wants in life as long as his conduct is peaceful. In other words, as long as a person does not murder, rape, ...
Monetary Central Planning and the State, Part 17: Keynesian Economic Policy and Its Consequences by Richard M. Ebeling May 1, 1998 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 ...
To Create Order, Remove the Planner by Sheldon Richman May 1, 1998 Which came first, the chicken of economics or the egg of economic action? Did the discipline of economics precede the object of its interest? The obvious answer is no. To say yes would be like saying that astronomy preceded the planets and stars or that before Newton, apples didn't fall from trees. Yet, there are people who speak as though ...
Save the Children–from Government by Sheldon Richman May 1, 1998 The cynical political exploitation of children continues apace in Washington. The calculated abuse of children in order to accumulate power knows no limits. But since it is the government itself that is guilty of this child abuse, there is no one to stop it. President Clinton reminded us ...
Some Free-Enterprise System by Sheldon Richman May 1, 1998 The booming U.S. high-tech industry is doing so well it can't find enough well-trained employees to handle all the work. There are too few prospects in the United States to fill the need, so companies have recruited abroad. The problem is that a foreign-born person can't just move to the ...
Needed: The Separation of Cable and State by James Bovard May 1, 1998 There is growing political manipulation of the information that the average American is allowed to receive. Americans long ridiculed the Soviet-bloc media for presenting absurdly self-serving images of their government. Yet, in this country, thanks to government controls over cable television, most American cable subscribers are forced to bankroll multiple television stations that ...
Punishing Success by Sheldon Richman May 1, 1998 Let's cut to the chase: It's Microsoft's property. The company should be free to offer it on any terms it wishes. If people don't want to buy Microsoft products, they don't have to. As long as no law keeps other people from offering competing products, no one need ...
FDR – The Man, the Leader, the Legacy, Part 2 by Ralph Raico May 1, 1998 Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Table of Contents Anna Eleanor Roosevelt, whom Franklin took as his wife ...
Book Review: J.B. Say by Richard M. Ebeling May 1, 1998 J.B. Say: An Economist in Troubled Times writings translated and selected by R.R. Palmer (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1997); 164 pages; $39.95. Whatever economic freedom we enjoy in the world today is due, to a great extent, to the ideas and efforts of the classical liberals and economists of the first half of the 19th century. Inspired by the ...
Who Is an Extremist? by Jacob G. Hornberger April 1, 1998 Libertarians are often hit with the accusation "You are an extremist." What the accuser means is that the libertarian holds political and economic beliefs that are at the outermost fringes of American society. The term is customarily used in an insulting or derogatory sense. But isn't "extremist" a relative term? That is, doesn't being extreme depend, in large part, on ...