Daily Articles

Players and Pawns: The Persian Gulf War

by Jacob G. Hornberger July 1, 1991

For the greater part of this century, the United States government has plundered, looted, and terrorized the American people through the Internal Revenue Service. It has surreptitiously stolen people's income and savings through the Federal Reserve System. It has brutally enforced — through fines and imprisonment — rules and regulations governing people's peaceful economic activities. In a very real ...

A New World Order: Economic Liberalism or the New Mercantilism

by Richard M. Ebeling July 1, 1991

In the days immediately following the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in August 1990, the Bush Administration declared that a vital interest of the United States was at stake. American economic wellfbeing was threatened by Iraqi control of the Kuwaiti oil fields. However, when a growing number of economists pointed out that the U.S. economy had the capacity to adjust ...

Some Other Costs of War

by Robert Higgs July 1, 1991

War always increases State power over the economy, and the Gulf war is no exception. Thus one of President Bush's first actions was, by executive fiat, to give himself total control over any corporation or industry, if he deems it necessary for the war effort. He can now requisition what he wants, without regard ...

We’d Rather Fight

by Lannon Stafford July 1, 1991

We're a peace-loving people — everybody says so. Well, maybe not everybody, but we sure say so. Hardly a week goes by without one of our national leaders referring to Americans as a peace-loving people. What can they be thinking of? In the past fifty years, we have fought four major wars; that is, wars that ...

Book Review: The Hidden Nations

by Richard M. Ebeling July 1, 1991

The Hidden Nations: The People Challenge the Soviet Union by Nadia Diuk and Adrian Karatnycky (New York: William Morrow and Co., Inc. 1990); 284 pages; $22.95. Many of the "captive nations" of central and eastern Europe reclaimed their freedom in 1989 and 1990. Non-communist democratic governments were elected in Poland, Czechoslovakia ...

Locking Out the Immigrant

by Jacob G. Hornberger June 1, 1991

America of the 1800s was the most unique society in the history of man. People could engage in virtually any economic enterprise without permission of their public officials. People could become as wealthy as they want, and there was nothing the government could do about it. They could dispose of their ...

In Defense of Free Migration

by Richard M. Ebeling June 1, 1991

Not long after the Declaration of Independence was signed in 1776, Thomas Jefferson wrote of "the natural right which 0 men have of relinquishing the country in which birth or other accident may have thrown them, and seeking subsistence and happiness wheresoever they may be able, and hope to find them. For most of America's history, our country's door was ...

A Capitalist Looks at Free Trade

by William L. Law June 1, 1991

Protectionists seeking relief from the rigors of foreign competition bring to mind Milton Friedman's dictum, "The great enemies of face enterprise are businessmen and intellectuals — businessmen because they want socialism for themselves and free enterprise for everyone else; intellectuals, because they want free enterprise for themselves and socialism for everyone else." I speak from personal experience. Baseball-glove leather was ...

Man’s Mobility

by Leonard Read June 1, 1991

Mobility of goods and services is an elaboration or extension of man's own mobility. It cannot be said that man has mobility except as the manifestations of his labors are free to move.... That the general welfare is served by the free mobility of man's goods and services domestically is generally ...

Book Review: Soviet Civilization

by Richard M. Ebeling June 1, 1991

Soviet Civilization: A Cultural History by Andrei Sinyavsky (New York: Arcade Publishing, 1990); 291 pages; $24.95. At the height of the great purges in the Soviet Union during the 1930s, Stalin personally sent instructions to the Soviet secret police which stated that in obtaining confessions from the accused, "the NKVD was given permission by the Central Committee ...

Gun Control, Patriotism, and Civil Disobedience

by Jacob G. Hornberger May 1, 1991

The State of California recently enacted a law which requires owners of semiautomatic weapons to register their guns with the state. But when the law went into effect thousands of California gun owners, although risking a felony conviction, refused to comply with its requirements. The gun owners were immediately showered with harsh criticism, not only from their public officials but ...

Something Must Be Done!

by Richard M. Ebeling May 1, 1991

During hard times there are few phrases as frequently heard as, "Something must be done!" And what is usually meant by the phrase is that governmental action is needed to cure the economic woes of society. In other words, government spending should be increased to raise the demand for goods and ...