Bipartisan “Stimulus” Hypocrisy by Sheldon Richman May 1, 2009 The cynicism and shallowness of politics were abundantly displayed throughout the debate over the “stimulus” bill. The Obama administration and its allies in Congress see themselves as champions of democracy, yet the process by which the bill was rammed through Congress flouted the democratic spirit. The final bill was nearly ...
The Post–9/11 Roundup of Innocents, Part 1 by James Bovard May 1, 2009 Part 1 | Part 2 Many Americans have been lulled into a false sense of security by the end of the George W. Bush administration. In reality, the government continues to pose grave perils to people’s rights and liberties. And it could take only one shocking incident for the government to once again show its heavy-handed ways. Prior to the ...
The Fallacies of Another New Deal, Part 3 by William L. Anderson May 1, 2009 Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 Historians want us to believe that Franklin Roosevelt had nothing to do with causing the massive unemployment and World War II that came in the wake of the Great Depression. Instead, they tell us that Roosevelt simply did the best he could with the hand which he was dealt. No doubt, ...
The Fallacy of Equal Pay for Equal Work by Glenn Jacobs May 1, 2009 We’ve all heard the phrase “equal pay for equal work.” Many of those who habitually repeat this mantra may not realize that it is simply a variation of the discredited labor theory of value (LTV), which is generally associated with Marxian economics. According to the LTV, the value of a product is related to the labor needed ...
The Justice of Pay Discrimination by Michael Tennant May 1, 2009 Recently the upstairs toilet in my house backed up. Unable to budge the clog, my wife called a plumber, who replaced both the seal and some of the inner workings of the toilet. Let’s say, just for the sake of this example, that the plumber charged us $200 for the repair. Now suppose the next day the downstairs toilet had needed ...
Selling Short the Short-Seller by Gregory Bresiger May 1, 2009 It happens every financial crash. Or in every prolonged bear market. Or almost any time things go bad in the financial markets. An evil person must be found. Oftentimes, the scapegoat is the short-seller. Today the short-seller is like Shylock in The Merchant of Venice. It’s ...
A Free Market in Labor by George Leef May 1, 2009 Labor Economics from a Free Market Perspective: Employing the Unemployable by Walter Block (World Scientific, 2008); 393 pages. The first time I ever heard of Walter Block was in 1980, when a faculty colleague showed me his copy of Block’s book Defending the Undefendable. Knowing of my anarcho-capitalist views, my colleague said ...
Gold and Freedom, Part 1 by Jacob G. Hornberger April 1, 2009 Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 Among the major threats facing the American people today is out-of-control spending at the hands of the U.S. government. It is a grave danger that people have faced throughout history from their own governments. After all, let’s not forget the oft-repeated claim by U.S. officials about ...
Hope Is No Substitute for Theory by Sheldon Richman April 1, 2009 Should libertarians hope that Barack Obama succeeds or fails in his presidency? The question comes to mind because conservatives got embroiled in the issue when their leading radio star, Rush Limbaugh, said he hoped Obama would fail. Some commentators thought that was a horrible thing to say. Radio stars need ...
Obama and Perilous Delusions of Democracy by James Bovard April 1, 2009 When Barack Obama was inaugurated on January 20, there was euphoria across the land and millions of people cheered in the streets of Washington. Many people are convinced that American democracy has been redeemed and that the federal government no longer poses a peril to individual rights. Since the people’s choice is now at the helm of the U.S. ...
Arrogance and Torture: A History of Guantánamo by Andy Worthington April 1, 2009 The mesh-wire cages, suitable only for animals, are empty now and overgrown, but they will stand forever as a symbol of the Bush administration’s brutal and destructive “war on terror” policies, implemented in the wake of the terrorist attacks on the U.S. mainland on September 11, 2001. This is Camp X-Ray, the first of the prison camps at the U.S. ...
The Fallacies of Another New Deal, Part 2 by William L. Anderson April 1, 2009 Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 In the latter part of 1920, the economy fell into a deep recession, which lasted well into 1921. As Murray Rothbard points out, it was the last downturn in which the government did not play much of a role. Newly elected President Warren G. Harding openly said that government should ...