End the Fed by Jacob G. Hornberger March 5, 2020 In response to the potential economic downturn in the economy arising from the spread of the Coronavirus, the Federal Reserve dropped the federal funds rate by half a point — to a range of 1% to 1.25%. Ironically, after the Fed’s announcement, the stock market dropped 786 points or 2.9%. The Fed’s aim is to stimulate economic activity. By lowering ...
The Right of Trial by Jury by Jacob G. Hornberger March 4, 2020 One of the best things that our American ancestors did was to include the right of trial by jury in the Bill of Rights. The Fifth Amendment states in part: “In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial an impartial jury of the state and district wherein the crime shall have ...
Lift the U.S. Embargo on Cuba by Jacob G. Hornberger March 3, 2020 The U.S. embargo on Cuba has been in effect for 60 years. It’s time to end it. The embargo makes it a criminal offense for any American to spend money in Cuba or to do business in Cuba. If an American travels to Cuba and spends money there or does business there, he is subject ...
Repealing America’s Welfare State by Jacob G. Hornberger March 2, 2020 Ever since The Future of Freedom Foundation was founded in 1989, FFF has been advocating the immediate repeal of America’s welfare-state way of life. Thirty years ago, there were those who were arguing that immediate repeal would bring economic and social chaos within American society. Today — 30 years later — there are people who are making the same ...
A Virtue of the 14th Amendment by Jacob G. Hornberger February 27, 2020 When the Constitution called the federal government into existence, it set forth its limited, enumerated powers. It was different, however, with respect to state governments. Except for a few express restrictions on their powers enumerated in the Constitution, the states could continue exercising whatever powers they wished against people within the state. That concept of ...
Immunity for Immigration Murder by Jacob G. Hornberger February 26, 2020 The American immigration police state continues to grow more tyrannical with each passing day. The latest example involves the U.S. Supreme Court, which has just issued a ruling in a case that effectively gives the Border Patrol a license to kill Mexican citizens. And guess which two magic words the Court used to justify its decision: “national security,” the ...
TSA Searches and Interventionism by Jacob G. Hornberger February 25, 2020 Every time you go to the airport and are forced to undergo the TSA screening process, including the possibility of pat-down searches, keep in mind that this is for one reason alone: to ensure that the CIA and the Pentagon continue to have the “right” to intervene and meddle in the affairs of other nations. That’s what the destruction ...
The War on Drugs Meets the War on Immigrants by Jacob G. Hornberger February 24, 2020 Both conservatives and leftists (also known as “liberals”) have long lamented the flow of immigrants illegally entering the United States from Mexico or seeking refugee status within the United States. To combat this, statists have erected a police state in the American Southwest that consists of a broad array of totalitarian-like measures that have contributed to the destruction of ...
Truth Matters to the Government, Sometimes by Jacob G. Hornberger February 21, 2020 In yesterday’s sentencing hearing for Roger Stone, a friend and former advisor to President Trump, federal Judge Amy Berman Jackson misspoke. According to the New York Times, prior to sentencing Stone to serve 3 years in jail for various offenses, including lying under oath to Congress, Jackson stated: In government inquiries, “the truth still exists. The ...
Immigration Interventionism by Jacob G. Hornberger February 20, 2020 Ludwig von Mises pointed out that one government intervention into economic activity inevitably leads to another intervention, which then leads to more and more interventions. That’s because the first intervention inevitably produces problems, which then require another intervention to fix those problems. That new intervention then produces a set of new problems, which then necessitates new interventions. The process ...
Drug War Obtuseness by Jacob G. Hornberger February 19, 2020 Sometimes I wonder how super-smart people can be so obtuse when it comes to the drug war. A recent example of this phenomenon is Ioan Grillo, a contributing editor for the New York Times. Grillo is the author of two books on the drug war: El Narco: Inside Mexico’s Criminal Insurgency, which was translated into five languages and was ...
Has the Constitution Failed? by Jacob G. Hornberger February 18, 2020 Given the massive welfare-warfare state system under which Americans live, the natural assumption is that the Constitution failed in its mission to constrain the powers of the federal government. Actually, though, that isn’t the case. How, then, can these two points be reconciled? How can the Constitution be said to have succeeded in its mission given that, at the same time, ...
