The Physiocrats by Wendy McElroy December 1, 2010 The Physiocrats, a group of 18th-century French economists, are often credited with founding Western political economy — the study of “laws” governing the production and distribution of wealth. The word “law” is not used in a legal sense. Rather it refers to a principle or governing rule, much as one might speak of the laws of physics. The Greek word ...
Property Rights and the Ground Zero Mosque Debate by Eric Garris December 1, 2010 Amidst all the controversy over the “Ground Zero Mosque,” the most neglected issue is the key question of property rights. The proprietors of the land where the Islamic cultural center is to be built are its rightful owners. In a free society, in a capitalistic country, people are allowed to do with their property as they see fit. When ...
The Falling American Empire by Anthony Gregory December 1, 2010 American Empire before the Fall by Bruce Fein (Campaign for Liberty, 2010); 219 pages. The very notion that America has an empire is most taboo. No matter the party in power, pointing out the reality of U.S. imperialism rarely wins political points. Our country, land of the free, won independence from the British Empire, defeated the Nazi empire, and ...
Natural Rights, the Declaration, and the Constitution, Part 2 by Jacob G. Hornberger November 1, 2010 Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 Throughout most of history, it was a given that government had the legitimate authority to wield omnipotent power over its citizenry. If the king wanted a person’s land, he took it. If he wanted a share of its produce, he confiscated it. If he wanted to punish people for worshiping ...
Park51 and Collective Guilt by Sheldon Richman November 1, 2010 If a YMCA or a YMHA were planned for 51 Park Place in Lower Manhattan, two blocks from the Twin Towers’ former site, who would have noticed? Instead, the equivalent of a Muslim Y (without the implied male exclusivity) is to be built there. What’s the big deal? I can think of only one answer: Consciously or not, a majority of ...
Obama Advisor Sunstein’s Peril to Freedom by James Bovard November 1, 2010 Cass Sunstein is the chief of the Obama administration’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs. As Salon’s Glenn Greenwald noted earlier this year, Sunstein “has long been one of Barack Obama’s closest confidants.” His values are probably guiding the Obama administration far more than most Americans realize. Sunstein, formerly a law professor at the University of Chicago, has long spearheaded ...
Regulation and Union Corruption by Jim Powell November 1, 2010 The International Brotherhood of Teamsters has been a hotbed of violence and corruption ever since it started in 1903. Cornelius Shea was the Detroit-based union’s first president, and he constantly battled rivals. He was charged with graft, criminal libel, and mail fraud, and was indicted for conspiracy to restrain trade, commit violence, and prevent nonunion people from working. During ...
Lessons from a Bloated Budget by Laurence M. Vance November 1, 2010 President Obama has just sent to Congress the largest federal budget ever in U.S. history. His $3.518 trillion budget is also the most unbalanced in history, with a built-in deficit of $1.413 trillion. The United States has rarely in its history had a balance of receipts and outlays. Deficit spending has been the norm, with the last real budget surplus ...
Nullifying Tyranny by George Leef November 1, 2010 Nullification: How to Resist Federal Tyranny in the 21st Century by Thomas E. Woods Jr. (Regnery, 2010); 309 pages. One of the big mistakes made by the drafters of the Constitution was their omission of any provision that says what is to be done if the Congress or president acts unconstitutionally. Although the Constitution places limits on their authority, nowhere does ...
Natural Rights, the Declaration, and the Constitution, Part 1 by Jacob G. Hornberger October 1, 2010 Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 We live in a country whose economic system is a welfare state and a government-managed economy and whose foreign policy is now based on an extensive overseas military empire and perpetual war, along with ever-increasing infringements on the civil liberties of the people. The economic consequences of the welfare-warfare state have ...
The Post-9/11 Feeding Frenzy by Sheldon Richman October 1, 2010 Militarism is the one great glamorous public-works project upon which a variety of elements in the community can be brought into agreement. — John T. Flynn, As We Go Marching (1944) Those who understand the exploitative nature of big government realized that the U.S. response to the 9/11 attacks had little to do with the security of the American people and ...
Clinton’s Forgotten Dictatorial Tendencies by James Bovard October 1, 2010 It seems like a century since Bill Clinton was president of this country. Unfortunately, the abuses of George W. Bush and the pratfalls of Barack Obama are causing many people to raise their estimate of Clinton’s presidency. But he earned his disdain fair and square, and a brief reminder of his abuses is in order. From concocting new prerogatives to ...