Daily Articles

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 ...

Recall the Government Meat Inspectors

by Sheldon Richman January 1, 1998

The record recall of hamburger meat from the Hudson Foods plant in Nebraska last year should prompt us to ask whether the government should be certifying the safety of America's food supply. Let's face it, food is too important to be left to government. For many people, that may come as a shock. Doesn't the E. coli-contaminated beef show that ...

The Justice Department’s Other Criminal Cover-Up

by James Bovard January 1, 1998

Many Americans have been appalled in recent months to watch the Justice Department use one tactic after another to block inquiries into possible criminal wrongdoing by the Clinton administration. Regrettably, such anti-justice tactics are not a novelty. The Justice Department's continuing falsification and obstruction of justice in the Ruby Ridge case exemplify its devotion to covering up crimes against ...

Book Review: Socialism and War

by Richard M. Ebeling January 1, 1998

Socialism and War: Essays, Documents, Reviews, The Collected Works of F. A. Hayek, vol. 10 edited by Bruce Caldwell (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1997); 270 pages. With the recent collapse of communism, it is almost hard to remember that just 50 years ago, government central planning was considered by many as the desirable and superior economic system of the ...

Some Republican Revolution

by Sheldon Richman December 2, 1997

With revolutionaries like these, who needs counter-revolutionaries? Now that President Clinton has signed all the 1998 spending bills, we have a clear picture just how vigilant the Republican Party, which controls the U.S. Congress, is about cutting back on the scope and power of government. It is not a pretty picture at all. As the Washington ...

Compromise and Concealment-The Road to Defeat, Part 4

by Jacob G. Hornberger December 1, 1997

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 Libertarians believe that individuals should be free to engage in any peaceful activity without governmental permission or interference. It is one of the duties of government, libertarians hold, to protect, not regulate or obstruct, peaceful activities. Thus, libertarians ...

Monetary Central Planning and the State, Part 12: The Austrian Analysis and Solution for the Great Depression

by Richard M. Ebeling December 1, 1997

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 Price of Junk Science

by Sheldon Richman December 1, 1997

The Clinton administration knows how to add insult to injury. Not only is it committed to an environmental program that will sap the American economy of its vitality, it also refuses to level with the American people about the costs. At the global warming conference in Kyoto, Japan, the ...