The Price of Junk Science by Sheldon Richman December 1, 1997 The Clinton administration knows how to add insult to injury. Not only is it committed to an environmental program that will sap the American economy of its vitality, it also refuses to level with the American people about the costs. At the global warming conference in Kyoto, Japan, the ...
No Bailouts for Ailing Asian Economies by Sheldon Richman December 1, 1997 The International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, along with the United States and other countries, propose once again to rescue troubled countries with a wheelbarrow full of cash, compliments of American taxpayers. The planned $94 billion bailout of South Korea, Thailand, and Indonesia is a lousy idea all around. The plan should be trashed. "We have ...
California’s Blow Against Property Rights by Sheldon Richman December 1, 1997 California likes its reputation as the trend-setter of the nation, but let's hope it won't be true this time. On New Year's Day, it will become the first state where smoking is forbidden in bars. Most people don't smoke, so they may be pleased with this news. But that would be short-sighted, ...
The Creeping Takeover of Medical Care, Part 2 by Sheldon Richman December 1, 1997 Part 1 | Part 2 In Part I we saw that the right to medical care is a pseudo right. It cannot be a real right because it conflicts with rights that stand the test of authenticity. But that is only the beginning of what's wrong with trying to enforce a right to medical care. Imagine for a moment a ...
Neglected Fortieth Anniversary by Sheldon Richman December 1, 1997 A remarkable event occurred 40 years ago this month. Not the launching of Sputnik, which in retrospect, considering the collapse of the Soviet Union, had much less significance than people suspected at the time. Ironically, the event I am thinking of involved a woman who understood from the ...
Some Republican Revolution by Sheldon Richman December 1, 1997 With revolutionaries like these, who needs counter-revolutionaries? Now that President Clinton has signed all the 1998 spending bills, we have a clear picture just how vigilant the Republican Party, which controls the U.S. Congress, is about cutting back on the scope and power of government. It is not a ...
Killing and Lying for Safety: Airbags and the Salvation State by James Bovard December 1, 1997 Airbags symbolize the bogus paternalism that increasingly blights Americans' lives. In order to save lives, federal regulators seem to have granted themselves a license to kill. While airbags are sometimes seen as an arcane consumer issue, they are actually a great lesson of the danger of the combination of ...
Economic Sanctions: Who Has What Rights? by Samuel Bostaph December 1, 1997 Christmas is one of the most joyful times of the year for most Americans. Gaily decorated houses, yards, and Christmas trees sprout nationwide in November and last until the New Year season closes the holidays with fireworks, parties and, finally, the Super Bowl. People decorate their Christmas trees in many ways, but one of the staples is bright, multicolored strings ...
Book Review: Reniassance by Richard M. Ebeling December 1, 1997 Renaissance: The Rebirth of Liberty in the Heart of Europe by Václav Klaus (Washington, D.C.: The Cato Institute, 1997); 177 pages; $18.95. 0ut of all the countries of Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, the one that has so far had the greatest success in instituting market-oriented reform is the Czech Republic. Czechoslovakia emerged as an independent country in 1918, ...
Compromise and Concealment–The Road to Defeat, Part 3 by Jacob G. Hornberger November 1, 1997 Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 Libertarian candidates for public office often say, "A no-compromise approach may be fine for a think tank, but it has no place in a political campaign. We have to be practical. We can't turn voters into libertarians overnight. ...
Monetary Central Planning and the State, Part 11: The Great Depression and the Crisis of Government Intervention by Richard M. Ebeling November 1, 1997 Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | ...
The Creeping Takeover of Medical Care, Part 1 by Sheldon Richman November 1, 1997 Part 1 | Part 2 President Clinton favors barring health-insurance companies from using genetic testing to determine whom they will insure. If that position is enacted into law, it will be one more step toward what he has been aiming at since he came into office: a government takeover of medical care. Why shouldn't health underwriters use the results of ...