Crony Communism
It's not like the old days in China when the top guys in the Communist Party at least pretended to be pro-equality. Back then, "poor peasants" were encouraged to denounce and kill "rich peasants" for the crime of being too productive, too individualistic or...
Obama and Iran: Making Peace With Bullies Never Ends Well
Associated Press reports: "Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guard began military exercises Saturday in the country's south, the latest show of force after threats to close the strategic Strait of Hormuz in retaliation for tougher Western sanctions. The latest military...
The Grand Illusion of Medicare
National Journal online reports: "According to the Congressional Budget Office, which released its new Budget and Economic Outlook report [last week], a 10-year repeal of the growth-rate formula that froze doctors' rates [for Medicare reimbursement] at current levels...
The INS versus the Founding Fathers: An Interview with Emmanuel Foroglou
Prodos for Capitalism Magazine: America, the Land of the Free, is currently trying to expel a man who defends its highest principles. Why? Because he defends its highest principles! Reason, individual rights, capitalism, and the pursuit of happiness, are not welcome...
The Life of Six Year Old Elian Gonzalez
Elián Gonzales, a 6-year-old Cuban boy, found Thanksgiving Day clinging to an inner tube off the coast of Florida, is about to be deported back to Communist Cuba on January 14, 2000 if the United States Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) has its way. It was...
Why Racism Persists
"Any Day Now," a weekly sitcom on cable TV's "Lifetime" channel, chronicles the lives of two woman-one black; the other white - who have renewed their childhood friendship that began in Birmingham, Alabama, during the early 1960s. The show featured a special two-hour...
Rapid Climate Change and Human Intervention
The world's climate can change in just a few decades without any human intervention. Jeffrey P. Severinghaus of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, using a new method of analyzing gases trapped in Greenland ice, showed air temperatures warming rapidly at the end...
U.S. Schools Have Abandoned Knowledge for Emotionalism
"Vampires: The Undead," "The Biology of ER," juggling, witchcraft, UFOs -- all are courses taught in our increasingly anti-intellectual university system. However, the roots of anti-intellectualism are found not in the ivy halls but in kindergarten, said a senior...
Did Britain’s anti-gun laws save ex-Beatle Harrison?
"Thank 'My Sweet L-rd' For Gun Laws." A major newspaper opinion piece led with that headline. Ex-Beatle George Harrison, maintains the columnist, remains alive today only because of England's tough anti-gun laws. A few weeks ago, an apparently deranged man entered...
The IMF in Brazil = Inflation + Recession
Mundell’s economic policy recommendations have been summarized as: “low taxes solve recession, hard money solves inflation”.
In Defense–and Against–the Euro
The following letter was sent in reply to John Lewis' article England, The Euro, and Socialist Europe. We present it followed by John Lewis' reply. In Defense of the Euro: Mr. Lewis: Painting Germany as a socialist planned economy that is stagnating is inaccurate....
Government Controlled Medicine: The Destruction of the Physician-Patient Relationship (Part 2)
One of the most tragic effects of state controlled health care is the phenomenomen of "brain drain." No young bright individual, no dedicated physician who has spent years mercilessly studying and mastering his art wishes to be a slave to the government. For a...
What Does Competition Mean Under Capitalism?
Government should uphold and enforce market contracts–not violate freedom of contract by dictating the terms, changing the terms, or abrogating the terms of contracts
In Defense of Martin Luther King III
"What's he really done in life?" A Montgomery civil rights worker posed this question about Martin Luther King III -- the eldest son of legendary civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. Pretty heavy thing, being named King III, and now he stands accused of lacking...
George W. Bush’s Prosperity Against Your Purpose
Governor George W. Bush claims prosperity is not enough. Instead, he says, we need prosperity with a "purpose." The crucial question remains: whose purpose? In a free country, individuals are left free to decide their own purpose, so long as they do not impose force...
Government Controlled Medicine: The Destruction of the Physician-Patient Relationship (Part 1)
Approximately 2500 years ago Hippocrates, a physician-philosopher and genius from Greek antiquity, put into motion one of man's greatest and noblest achievements-Western Medicine. The inheritors of Hippocrates' rational Art-the physicians of today-are routinely...
Y2K problems will be minor
I'm not expecting a Year 2000 cataclysm. I've read a fair amount of literature on the subject, and it largely breaks down into two categories. In the first, you find sober discussions of the details with a conclusion that the problem is largely manageable. Any...
John Rocker: Designated Bigot?
"White racism exists," "National Review" editor John O'Sullivan once said, "But its social power is weak. And the social power against it, overwhelming." Too bad white Atlanta Braves relief pitcher John Rocker did not consult with O'Sullivan before Rocker shot his...
Campaign Finance Reform — Needed or Needless?
Question: What is "eating away at the fabric of democracy"? According to Democratic Presidential candidate Bill Bradley, the answer is the impact of special interest money on campaign finance. Ditto for Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain, for whom...
Commentary: How Christianity Created Capitalism
Michael Novak's "How Christianity Created Capitalism," (The Wall Street Journal, December 23, 1999) makes interesting fiction reading, but it totally ignores all the essential issues. The essential elements of religion are: supernaturalism (God transcends natural...
Here Comes Mickey Mao: Hong Kong’s new Mickey Mouse economics
Hong Kong's new government appears to be losing its inhibitions about contradicting market prices, favoring some industries over others, and using taxpayers' money to dispense windfall profits to those in favor. The deal recently signed with Disney to build a theme...
Individual Rights and the Essential Nature of Capitalism
Part 3 of 6 in a Series of articles on Capitalism, Free-competition, Antitrust, and MicrosoftThe following article is an adaptation of a lecture Mr. Salsman gave at Harvard University, in May of 1999. The print version has been edited lightly in order to retain it's...
The Department of Justice and Judge Jackson Commit The Crime of the Century
Forget the Lindbergh Kidnapping. The Crime of the Century is Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson's Finding of "Fact" against Microsoft. The 207 page condemnation of Microsoft as a "monopoly" that "hurts consumers," is one of the most egregious violations of individual...
Senator Bradley and the Black Vote
"I was spellbound." A black minister, attending a speech by Democratic presidential candidate Bill Bradley, made this gushing assessment. Bradley addressed 150 black ministers in Los Angeles, at an annual meeting of the Congress of National Black Churches. What caused...
Is it immoral to join a political party?
Q. Is it immoral for an Objectivist to join a political party? Why doesn't the Ayn Rand Institute have its own political party? A. It is not immoral to join a political party, although given the state of the major parties today, it may well be. The reason for this is...
England, The Euro, and Socialist Europe
For years the socialists have been claiming that England should join the single European currency (the Euro) and should follow a central economic policy as voted by all 15 nations. England, we are told, faces dire economic woes if it fails to join the economic "party"...
Clinton-China vs. Taiwan-America: Independence Day’s Meaning Long Forgotten
On July 4, the US celebrated its 223rd birthday with hot dogs, cotton candy, ice-cream and fireworks. There was much self-congratulation but few tributes to the day's real meaning. July 4, 1776 was the day the Continental Congress approved and signed the Declaration...