Drug War Interventionism by Jacob G. Hornberger April 19, 2012 Ludwig von Mises pointed out that one government intervention into economic activity inevitably leads to more interventions. The reason? Each intervention brings with it more crises and more chaos, which then cause public officials to enact new interventions to address the new crises and chaos. As each new intervention is enacted, the government moves inexorably toward more government control ...
Don’t Attack Argentina by Jacob G. Hornberger April 18, 2012 Argentina’s president, Cristina Fernandez Kirchner, had better watch her back. She could conceivably be the target of a regime-change operation, compliments of the CIA. Given all the other things the CIA is currently engaged in, why would it target Argentina for one of its regime-change operations? Argentina’s government, under Kirchner’s direction, has just seized majority control in YPF, the nation’s largest ...
What Tarek Mehanna Might Have Told the Judge by Jacob G. Hornberger April 17, 2012 Both Glenn Greenwald and Chris Hedges have excellent analyses of the federal terrorism conviction of American citizen named Tarek Mehanna. At his sentencing hearing last week in federal court, Mehanna delivered a scathing condemnation of U.S. foreign policy, a statement that Greenwald incorporates in full in his blog. U.S. District Judge George A. O’Toole stated, “I am ...
Obama’s “Free-Trade Pact” Is the Opposite of Free Trade by Jacob G. Hornberger April 16, 2012 President Obama’s “free-trade pact” with Colombia at the recent Summit of the Americas demonstrates the statist mindset of liberals and, well, for that matter, conservatives — and shows how different their mindset is from that of libertarians. According to the Los Angeles Times, “When the pact takes effects May 15, most industrial and manufactured products exported from the U.S. and ...
Ending the Drug War in Latin America by Jacob G. Hornberger April 13, 2012 The Internet is abuzz with talk about how Latin American leaders are increasingly considering the idea of drug legalization. Latin America should not hesitate to end the war on drugs — and the sooner, the better. Latin American countries are paying the biggest price for the drug war. Murders, assassinations, kidnappings, robberies, thefts, muggings, gang wars, infringements on ...
Antitrust Attacks on Economic Liberty by Jacob G. Hornberger April 12, 2012 The Justice Department has filed an antitrust lawsuit against Apple and five of the biggest book publishers. The action alleges that Apple and the publishers secretly got together and colluded to fix prices of e-books. If they did, so what? Isn’t it their property? What is private ownership of property if it doesn’t include the right to sell what you ...
Baseball, Socialism, and Assassination by Jacob G. Hornberger April 11, 2012 Ozzie Guillen, the manager of the Miami Marlins baseball team, is in hot water over words of praise that he spoke about Cuban president Fidel Castro. Team owners have suspended him for 5 days and he’s issued a profuse apology for what he said. The controversy raises interesting issues regarding freedom of speech, socialism, and long-term policies of the U.S. ...
The Gold Clause Cases by Jacob G. Hornberger April 10, 2012 Last night we wrapped up our discussion of the Gold Clause Cases in the informal law and economics seminar I’ve been conducting for economics students at George Mason University. The seminar is hosted by the GMU Econ Society, a great student-run libertarian group dedicated largely to Austrian economics. What were the gold clauses? They were provisions in long-term bonds in ...
Singing “God Bless the U.S.A.” in Public Schools by Jacob G. Hornberger April 9, 2012 Last week a rant about a public-schooling controversy by a conservative radio talk-show host reminded me of how differently conservatives think as compared to libertarians. The controversy involved the Lee Greenwood song, “God Bless the U.S.A.,” which was to be sung by elementary school students during a concert at a public school in Massachusetts. School administrators decided to change the lyrics ...
Obama’s Preemptive Strike and FDR’s Court-Packing Scheme by Jacob G. Hornberger April 5, 2012 People are taking President Obama to task for suggesting that the Supreme Court should not interfere with the will of Congress by declaring his healthcare legislation unconstitutional. Critics are reminding Obama that under our system of government it is the responsibility of the federal judiciary to determine the constitutionality of congressional enactments, including even those that are approved unanimously ...
Our Panel at Occupy Washington by Jacob G. Hornberger April 4, 2012 Yesterday I participated in a very interesting panel at another liberal forum. This one was part of an Occupy Washington event that attracted people from around the country. Just like the panel in which I participated at the Left Forum in New York City last month, the theme of yesterday’s panel was left-right cooperation to oppose the U.S. government’s ...
Ernesto Lira Meets the Drug War by Jacob G. Hornberger April 3, 2012 The full horror of the federal government’s much-ballyhooed, 40-year-old war on drugs is on display in the case of Ernesto Lira. Lira’s “crime”? According to this article in the New York Times, the drug-war gendarmes caught him driving with “three foil-wrapped grams of methamphetamine in his car.” No, he wasn’t consuming the drugs, and no, he wasn’t high on the ...
