The basic and crucial political issue of our age is: capitalism versus socialism, or freedom versus statism. For decades, this issue has been silenced, suppressed, evaded, and hidden under the foggy, undefined rubber-terms of “conservatism” and “liberalism” which had lost their original meaning and could be stretched to mean all things to all men. – AYN RAND
“Without calculation, economic activity is impossible. Since under Socialism economic calculation is impossible, under Socialism there can be no economic activity in our sense of the word … All economic change, therefore, would involve operations the value...
On August 22, 1999, Tony Martin of Emneth, Norfolk, England, killed one burglar and wounded a second. In April, 2000, he was convicted and is now serving a life term. How did it become a crime to defend one’s own life in the once-great British Empire? How did it...
Once again, the Hong Kong government has swung from manic to depressive over its property market. A few years ago, in an attempt to gain popularity with the poor, the government reacted to high property prices by promising more government housing programs and more...
In 1786 New England farmers, oppressed by taxation, launched a series of rebellions against state authorities. Beginning with popular protests at town meetings, the demonstrations spread to local courthouses and legislatures. The statehouse in Hew Hampshire was...
On June 9th, by a majority of two thirds, Congress representatives voted to repeal the federal estate tax. The most impressive thing, however, was to hear arguments for the repeal being advanced on moral grounds. It seems that at least some politicians grasped the...
I read a most outrageous article in last Sunday’s New York Times written by Paul Krugman, the Times’ Keynesian economist in residence. (Available with free registration) Entitled “Green Cheese Rules,” the article was inspired by a theory...
Al Gore’s vow to “take on” the prescription drug industry will continue the decades-long hobbling of the American health care industry, said a senior writer for the Ayn Rand Institute.
Look in the dictionary, under the word “gall.” You might find a picture of defense attorney Johnnie L. Cochran. If it doesn’t appear, it should. June 12, 2000, marks the sixth anniversary of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman. On...
The Justice Department committed a grave injustice against you, Bill Gates. Your crime was to be too ambitious and too successful in a society riddled with envy. You were condemned for your ability, which made you stand out from the crowd. The wealth you own is the...
Fidel Castro’s use of food and medicine as weapons of control over the Cuban population is a tactic as old as the Revolution itself.
“Social Security’s purpose is not to help you pay for your own retirement, but to force you to pay for your neighbor’s retirement or your neighbor’s parents’ retirement,”
Over the last month, we heard numerous discussions about whether granting Permanent Normal Trading Relations (PNTR) to China, in preparation for its entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO), was a good thing or a bad thing. Most who opposed the bill suggested...
Fire the Men! The government repeatedly informs us that women remain oppressed in the workforce, earning “only” 76.5 cents on the dollar compared with men doing the “same” work. “Wage discrimination,” says Labor Secretary Alexis M....
The case of Elian Gonzalez is the morality of freedom versus immorality of dictatorship. It is the individual versus the all-powerful state.
President Clinton wants, in his final months in office, to strike a major arms control deal with Russia, including a new ABM Treaty that would limit the United States’ ability to defend itself against ballistic missile attack. White House officials have openly...
“Don’t they have any shame?” thundered Robert De Niro to Congress in “Guilty by Suspicion,” a movie about the Hollywood Blacklist. But toe-tag — don’t-confuse-me-with-the-facts — liberals show absolutely no shame,...
Presidential candidate George W. Bush recently announced that he would campaign for the partial privatization of Social Security. Under Bush’s proposal, taxpayers would be allowed to invest a portion of their Social Security taxes in the stock market. This plan...
Last month, the formulators of the Nikkei 225 attempted to update the index in order to reflect the growth of the high-tech sector in the Japanese economy. While editors at the Nihon Keizai newspaper were operating on the belief that the index had become increasingly...
Many people understand that capitalism is a practical means of creating wealth, but few would argue that capitalism is moral.
What do low interest rates have to do with causing the government to inflate the money supply? The link between Fed-manipulated interest rates and the money supply is a direct, causal one. The interest rate in question is the ‘Fed Funds rate’. This is the...
For the sixth year in a row, Hong Kong has been named the world’s freest economy in the Heritage Foundation’s annual “Index of Economic Freedom.” One of the reasons for this is its low taxes, and what the Hong Kong government boasts on its web...
CM: Another question for you Dr Andrew Bernstein. Just as when a great artist portrays a simple piece of fruit in a distinctive, compelling way – so that after we’ve seen his painting we never look at fruit or color or texture in the same way – I...
“The essence of heroism is an unbreached and unbreachable allegiance to the good in the face of any possible form of opposition”–Dr Andrew Bernstein Prodos for Capitalism Magazine: What do these people have in common? Galileo, Thomas Jefferson,...
After the NASDAQ Composite Index slid 33% from March 27th to its dramatic one-day decline on April 14th, most people weren’t sure what had happened – or why it happened. The financial press was in an uproar trying to make sense of everything, and even now,...
Defending Elian’s right to stay in America on the principle of individual rights
“They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” Ben Franklin’s statement remains true today. But the absence of rule of law produces anarchy. In the most far-reaching corruption...
Earlier this month US District Court Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson issued his “conclusions of law” in the Microsoft antitrust case. BAM! Nearly $90 billion in value was destroyed–at Microsoft alone. The firm’s stock plunged 14%. The broader...
An education bill seems to be moving through Congress to some sort of bipartisan consensus. Like many other bipartisan measures, it serves the short-term interests of Democrats and Republicans, not the long-term interests of the public. Despite some largely cosmetic...
Smoking a cigarette was symbolic to Miss Rand. As one character in Atlas Shrugged said, “I like to think of fire held in a man’s hand. Fire, a dangerous force, tamed at his fingertips. I often wonder about the hours when a man sits alone, watching the...
On Sunday May 14, as many as 750,000 people, mostly mothers, gathered in Washington, D.C., as part of the Million Mom March. What a tragic collection of emotionally driven, self-righteous but utterly wrongheaded people. These “gun control supporters,” as...
It’s official. Beer drinking causes gonorrhea! Don’t laugh. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention just released a study concluding that many young people get drunk before engaging in unprotected sex. Solution? A beer tax. The study found that a 20...
…The kidnapping of Elian, of course, had nothing to do with Elian’s welfare. The motive of the raid was obviously an attempt by Reno to short-circuit Elian’s bid for asylum and to railroad him back to Cuba before he could even have a hearing. She was...
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