Competition Is Not Freedom by Jacob G. Hornberger January 1, 2000 Word has leaked out that the Justice Department might demand that Microsoft break up into three companies as part of any settlement agreement in the government's antitrust suit against Microsoft. The idea is that consumers would be better off with three companies competing against each other than with one ...
Free Trade without the WTO by Jacob G. Hornberger December 1, 1999 Demonstrators at the World Trade Organization (WTO) meeting in Seattle protested "free-trade" negotiations between various nations of the world because, the protestors claimed, free trade harms people. I too oppose the WTO but for a different reason: I favor free trade, not only because people should be free to ...
False Alternatives by Sheldon Richman December 1, 1999 It's a classic false alternative: One side says trade policy should be made democratically by each nation. The other side says it should be made by a secretive international bureaucracy, the World Trade Organization. Both are wrong. Trade policy should be made by and for each individual. That's free trade. Free trade ...
None Dare Call It Extortion by Sheldon Richman December 1, 1999 What do you call it when one person threatens violence against another unless he obeys? How about "extortion"? Consider this sentence from the New York Times on Christmas day: "Brandishing new data showing that the drug industry earns higher profits and pays lower taxes than most other industries, White ...
Imports are Good! by Sheldon Richman November 1, 1999 As champions and opponents of the World Trade Organization (WTO) descended on Seattle, it would have been nice if they at least had their premises correct: Imports are benefits. Exports are costs. That is the opposite of what most people inside and outside the meeting hall believe. They insist on ...
Oh, Go Away Already by Sheldon Richman November 1, 1999 It's unseemly for people who have never created wealth to tell those who have how to spend it. Especially when they do so while sitting around the Villa La Pietra overlooking Florence. The Associated Press described the setting as "a spectacular 14th-century Renaissance palace with frescoed ceilings." Perfect for ...
The Lynching of Microsoft by Sheldon Richman November 1, 1999 Reading Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson's findings of fact in the Microsoft case, you can't help but conclude that the software company wouldn't be in trouble if it didn't make life so easy for consumers. That, of course, is at odds with the judge's explicit conclusion that Bill Gates has stifled innovation ...
The Art of Plunder by Sheldon Richman October 1, 1999 Now that the controversy surrounding the art exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum has calmed down, it's a good time for some sober reflection. To recap, the museum, which is subsidized with taxpayer money, is hosting an exhibit that includes among other things, a painting purportedly of the Virgin Mary adorned ...
Free Wal-Mart! by Sheldon Richman September 1, 1999 In its untiring effort to lead the United States to fascism with all possible dispatch, the California state legislature has enacted a law to save its unsuspecting citizens from groceries at Wal-Mart! The bill, which awaits the governor's signature, would make it impossible for Wal-Mart and other so-called big-box retail ...
Population Controllers Got It Wrong by Sheldon Richman September 1, 1999 World population is estimated to be nearing the six billion mark. The UN Population Fund, which "knows" precisely how many people there should be in the world, also "knows" precisely what day the world will hit six billion: October 12. In fact, no one knows precisely how many people there ...
Delay the Canonization by Sheldon Richman May 1, 1999 Let's not rush to elevate outgoing Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin to sainthood. Rubin is like a surfer who accepts credit for creating the big wave that carries him to shore. He might look good riding the board, but he's not responsible for the wave's motion. The accolades being heaped ...
Travel to Cuba to Learn about America by Jacob G. Hornberger May 1, 1999 In order to preserve the national security of the United States, the U.S. Congress has made it illegal for Americans to spend money in Cuba. National security, you ask? Well, what Congress actually might mean is the security of the socialistic and paternalistic state that Democrats and Republicans have constructed ...