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The Economics of Foreign Policy

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Doing Bad by Doing Good: Why Humanitarian Action Fails by Christopher Coyne (Stanford Economics and Finance 2013), 272 pages. In the aftermath of the carnage wrought by World War II, Harry Truman committed America to humanitarian action. In his 1949 inaugural address, he pledged to “continue our programs for world economic recovery” and “embark on a bold new program for … the improvement and growth of underdeveloped areas.” One of those underdeveloped areas was Afghanistan. The Helmand Valley Project, referring to Afghanistan’s southern province, received tens of millions of dollars in U.S. aid and aimed to “increase the standards of living of the poor through the development of farms, infrastructure for electricity, and protection against flooding.” In the ensuing years Washington’s humanitarian project continued to receive funding, but produced little but failure. The first dam built for the Afghans in Helmand Province “resulted in salt deposits, which had devastating effects on the soil, making it useless for farming purposes.” Increases ...

A Small Victory for Freedom

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One of the most ridiculous things about the government’s war on drugs is that it classifies marijuana in the same category as dangerous drugs such as heroin, thus making marijuana worse than morphine, cocaine, methamphetamine, and phenobarbital. Marijuana is classified as a Schedule I controlled substance under the Controlled Substances Act (CSA). As a Schedule I drug, marijuana supposedly meets the following criteria: 1. The drug or other substance has a high potential for abuse. 2. The drug or other substance has no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States. 3. There is a lack of accepted safety for use of the drug or other substance under medical supervision. Schedule II drugs (such as morphine and cocaine), although they have “a high potential for abuse,” also have “a currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States or a currently accepted medical use with severe restrictions.” Schedule III drugs (such as methamphetamine) have “a potential for abuse less ...

Obama’s Failed Presidency

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It was a foregone conclusion that President Obama wasn’t going to change his stripes when it comes to economic philosophy and policy. Like Republicans and other Democrats, Obama is a died-in-the wool socialist and interventionist. He believes in Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, welfare, food stamps, public (i.e., government) schooling, farm subsidies, foreign aid, and other welfare-state programs. Like his statist cohorts on both the left and the right, he is also a fierce advocate of the war on drugs, a federal program that has brought nothing but death, destruction, corruption, and loss of liberty all over the world. Thus, no one, and especially not libertarians, ever thought that there was a possibility that Obama’s election to the presidency would mean any shift toward the philosophy of economic liberty and free markets. If anything, libertarians were convinced that his election would mean even more socialism and interventionism. But Obama had the opportunity to move America in a dramatically different direction with respect ...

A Lesson in Interventionism in Iraq

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The great Austrian economist Ludwig von Mises pointed out that one government intervention inevitably produces a crisis, which then causes government officials to enact a new intervention to address the crisis. The new intervention, however, produces a new crisis, which then necessitates a new intervention. With each new intervention, the government’s power continues to grow. While Mises was referring to ...

More U.S. Deaths in Korea?

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George Washington and Thomas Jefferson set forth one of the founding principles of our nation: It is our true policy to steer clear of permanent alliances with any portion of the foreign world.—George Washington Peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations — entangling alliances with none.—Thomas Jefferson That guiding principle went out the window with the advent of the U.S. national-security ...

The Middle East Harvests Bitter Imperialist Fruit

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The wall-to-wall coverage of the disintegration of Iraq ought to carry this credit: “This bloodshed was made possible by the generosity of British and French imperialists.” The stomach-wrenching violence in Iraq — not to mention the horrendous civil war in Syria, the chronic unrest in Palestine/Israel, and problems elsewhere in the Middle East — are direct consequences of the imperialist ...