How the State Became Immaculate, Part 3 by James Bovard October 1, 2000 Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 During the 1920sand early 1930s, the U.S. government provided huge loans to foreign nations whose exports were subsequently blocked by high U.S. tariffs, artificially held down interest rates and flooded the nation with cheap credit, and championed cartel operations by private businesses. Economic historian Robert Skidelsky recently attributed the start of ...
Strategies from the Past: Boycott, Part 2 by Wendy McElroy October 1, 2000 Part 1 | Part 2 Why, then, does boycott in the form of strikes and blacklists elicit such public condemnation? The 19th-century libertarian Steven Byington offered an explanation: The State is afraid of it. The boycott offers a means for making another do as you wish without calling in the States aid. Byington believed that the state recognized the ...
Morals and the Welfare State, Part 2 by F.A. Harper October 1, 2000 Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 THE DECALOGUE serves as a guide to moral conduct which, if violated, brings upon the violator a commensurate penalty. There may be other guides to moral conduct which one might wish to add to the Golden Rule and ...
Rising above the Surplus by Jacob G. Hornberger October 1, 2000 One of the biggest issues in the presidential race has been what should be done with the surplus. How much of the extra tax revenue should be used to shore up Social Security? To protect Medicare and Medicaid? To pay down the national debt How much should be returned to the ...
Book Review: The Tyranny of Good Intentions by Richard M. Ebeling October 1, 2000 The Tyranny of Good Intentions: How Prosecutors and Bureaucrats Are Trampling the Constitution in the Name of Justice by Paul Craig Roberts and Lawrence M. Stratton (Roseville, Calif.: Prima Publishing, 2000); 240 pages; $24.95. IT OFTEN SEEMS that liberty is only really appreciated when it is either directly threatened or has been lost. In the 1930s, when liberty was challenged by ...
What Al Gore Really Said by Sheldon Richman September 2, 2000 My fellow Americans-well not all of you. Especially not the powerful interests out there. You know who you are. I'm talking just to working families. My party used to call you folks "workingmen." But then feminism came along, so we don't do that anymore. Then we said "workingmen and working women." But the polls ...
Who’s Negative? by Sheldon Richman September 2, 2000 Why is it considered negative campaigning to say, “My opponent has a credibility problem,” but it is not negative to say, “We’re for the people; they’re for the powerful”? According to virtually all mainstream observers, the first is a vicious accusation, while the second is a constructive discussion of the ...
The Constitution: Liberties of the People and Powers of Government, Part 2 by Jacob G. Hornberger September 1, 2000 Part 1 | Part 2 In 1787, the Constitution of the United States called into existence the federal government. What was significant, however, was that it was a government whose powers were expressly limited by the people. Throughout history, government officials had exercised omnipotent power over their citizenry. Of course, there had been some exceptions, such as Magna Carta in ...
CAPSULE COMMENTARY: “Antitrust Laws Empower the State” by Jacob G. Hornberger September 1, 2000 "On the heels of the Justice Department's antitrust case against that big, bad monopoly Microsoft comes antitrust action by German authorities against Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart? But everyone knows that Wal-Mart doesn't charge high, monopolistic prices! That's right. Which is exactly why it's getting charged with antitrust violations. The Wall Street Journal ...
CAPSULE COMMENTARY: “Chinese Farmers Protest” by Jacob G. Hornberger September 1, 2000 "There has been some interesting news coming out of China. Tens of thousands of farmers have been attacking government buildings and looting communist officials' homes. The reason? The farmers are protesting the Chinese government's increase in fees and taxes. Since there is strict gun control in China, the farmers resorted to ...
CAPSULE COMMENTARY: “Clinton Buys Yugoslavian Presidency” by Jacob G. Hornberger September 1, 2000 "It may be illegal for the American people to donate more than $1,000 of their own money to a presidential candidate but it's apparently not illegal for Bill Clinton to do so. Clinton is spending considerably more than $1,000 -- $77 million to be exact -- to help presidential candidates in ...
CAPSULE COMMENTARY: “Language Laws” by Jacob G. Hornberger September 1, 2000 "The Christian Science Monitor reports that Brazilian authorities are cracking down on Brazilians who commit the dastardly act of speaking English words. You know, words such as 'sale' or 'overtime' or 'summer.' Even 'e-mail,' 'mouse,' and 'delete.' Brazilian lawmaker Aldo Rebelo exclaimed (in Portuguese, presumably), 'Basta. It is time to fight this ...