Plundering Immigrants and Other Travelers by James Bovard February 1, 1998 Obscure federal regulations give government agents the power to plunder private citizens. Largely in order to suppress tax evasion, in 1970 Congress enacted the fraudulently named Bank Secrecy Act. This act requires that anyone who travels abroad and carries more than $10,000 in cash must fill out Customs Form ...
Foreign Aid, Help or Hindrance? Part 1 by Doug Bandow February 1, 1998 Part 1 | Part 2 There may be no more pitiful sight than tides of impoverished and starving refugees; and there may be no greater irony than grievous want in the Third World amidst exploding possibilities in the First World. Supporters of foreign aid rely on such images in an attempt to shake more money out of seemingly tight-fisted ...
Book Review: Interventionism by Richard M. Ebeling February 1, 1998 Interventionism: An Economic Analysis by Ludwig von Mises (Irvington-on-Hudson, N.Y.: The Foundation for Economic Education, 1997); 112 pages; $9.95. In the summer of 1940, Austrian economist Ludwig von Mises arrived in the United States as a refugee from war-torn Europe. Mises had been professor of international economic relations at the Graduate Institute of International Studies in Geneva, Switzerland, for six ...
Rhinestone Benevolence by Sheldon Richman January 2, 1998 If the Senate doesn't think perjury and obstruction of justice are high crimes, they could convict President Clinton of bribery. His State of the Union address was nothing if not an attempt to bribe the American people to let him stay in office. Bill Clinton embodies everything that is wrong with government in the 20th ...
Let the Presidency Be Diminished by Sheldon Richman January 2, 1998 The hand-wringing over President Clinton's extracurricular activities is misplaced. Whatever else can be said about what Mr. Clinton did or didn't do, we can say this: it would be no tragedy if, as a result of the scandal, the presidency, indeed government itself, were diminished. Pundits and others have been heard to say that it ...
Any Surplus Belongs to the Taxpayers by Sheldon Richman January 2, 1998 After years of budget deficits in the hundreds of billions of dollars, an increasing number of Washington watchers now see budget surpluses coming in the near future. What happened? It should be said up front that the politicians don't deserve credit for the disappearing deficit -- although, unsurprisingly, they have seized credit. The reason ...
No Federal Role in Daycare by Sheldon Richman January 2, 1998 Those of us who favor limiting government power should stop accusing President Clinton of treading water during his final years in office. The last thing we need is a new initiative from this lifelong interventionist politician. Last year several observers commented that the president was playing golf more than presiding and that perhaps he had ...
Let the Presidency Be Diminished by Sheldon Richman January 1, 1998 The hand-wringing over President Clinton's extracurricular activities is misplaced. Whatever else can be said about what Mr. Clinton did or didn't do, we can say this: it would be no tragedy if, as a result of the scandal, the presidency, indeed government itself, were diminished. Pundits and others have ...
Compromise and Concealment-The Road to Defeat, Part 5 by Jacob G. Hornberger January 1, 1998 Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 Some libertarians suggest that it is incorrect strategy for libertarians, both in the ideological and political arenas, to maintain the consistency and purity of libertarian principles. They recommend that libertarians "reach out" to mainstream America by watering down ...
Monetary Central Planning and the State, Part 13: FDR’s New Deal by Richard M. Ebeling January 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 | ...
The Folly of Castro by Sheldon Richman January 1, 1998 In any dictatorship, the biggest fool is the dictator. It takes a prodigious amount of self-deception to believe you are running a country. That occurred to me as I heard about Fidel Castro's preparations for the Pope's visit to Cuba. In an interview on Cuban television, Castro said a couple of interesting things. First, he invited ...
Social Security Has to Go by Sheldon Richman January 1, 1998 President Clinton has jumped on the Social Security reform bandwagon. As a believer in government-sponsored pensions, he thinks he can fix the system. He is wrong. Social Security cannot be fixed. There is only one thing to do: junk it. The financial problems with the system have ...