Dr. Robert Higgs, senior fellow at the Oakland-based Independent Institute, penned an article in The Christian Science Monitor (2/9/2009) that suggests the most intelligent recommendation that I’ve read to fix our current economic mess. The title of his article...
POLITICS
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
Random Thoughts for February 2008
Random thoughts on the passing scene: One of the most important skills for political success is the ability to make confident assertions of absurdities or lies. The adage “follow the money” will be hard to apply in the current administration, when there is...
De-Programming Students
Letters from parents often complain of a sense of futility in trying to argue with their own children, who have been fed a steady diet of the politically correct vision of the world, from elementary school to the university. Some ask for suggestions of particular...
The National Ponzi Scheme
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) was set up to combat fraudulent practices. The SEC’s website explains that “Ponzi schemes are a type of illegal pyramid scheme named for Charles Ponzi, who duped thousands of New England residents into...
Stop the Assault on our Public Markets
In a widely-circulated NY Times column (Jan 13, 2009), Bob Herbert proposes a 0.25% transaction tax on every stock trade. If this idea, which has been garnering support among politicians, passes into law, it will mark another devastating — perhaps fatal...
Republicans as Democrats
A brief glimmer of sanity among Congressional Republicans has been followed, almost immediately, by a return to the more traditional Washington insanity. Last week, every single Republican in the House of Representatives voted against the Obama administration’s...
Rational Science versus Sacrificial Politics
The Obama administration continues to appoint radical environmentalists who want us to commit industrial suicide on behalf of nature. Meanwhile, top-rank scientists continue to renounce claims of a coming climate disaster. The latest scientist to voice his conclusions...
There Is No Santa: The Stimulus Spending Ruse
Here is what my George Mason University colleague Professor Richard Wagner wrote, which was published by Office of the House Republican Leader: “Any so-called stimulus program is a ruse. The government can increase its spending only by reducing private spending...
A Crisis is a Terrible Thing for a Politician to Waste
Everyone is talking about how much money the government is spending, but very little attention is being paid to where they are spending it or what they are buying with it. The government is putting money into banks, even when the banks don’t want it, in hopes...
Castro’s Cuba at Fifty: No Freedom, No Fish
I was in Hollywood, Florida, on January 8, the 50th anniversary of Fidel Castro’s triumphant arrival in Havana after shooting his way to power and ousting the U.S.-backed dictator Fulgencio Batista. The morning newspaper at our hotel reported that Fidel Castro...
Lured To Disaster by “Affordable Housing”
Behind the housing boom and bust was one of those alluring but undefined phrases that are so popular in politics– “affordable housing.” It is hard for me to know specifically what politicians are talking about when they use this phrase. But then...
Political Speeches
If making speeches is one of the tests of a President of the United States, then Barack Obama has passed his first test with flying colors. He has understood the varied constituencies, and the various hopes and fears he had to address. He said the kinds of things that...
Israel vs. Hamas: Pretty Talk and Ugly Realities
No phrase represents more of a triumph of hope over experience than the phrase “Middle East peace process.” A close second might be the once-fashionable notion that Israel should “trade land for peace.” Since everybody seems to be criticizing...
Rich People Versus Politicians
Sometimes I wish there were a humane way to get rid of the rich. Without the rich for whipping boys, we might be able to concentrate on what’s best for the 99 and a half percent of the rest of us....
The “Federal Health Board:” Another Scheme to Ration Healthcare
Tom Daschle, President-elect Obama’s nominee for Secretary of Health and Human Services, has big plans for healthcare. Mr. Daschle has proposed a new “Federal Health Board,” an agency that would have unprecedented powers over the healthcare...
The Economic “Stimulus”
Two centuries ago, when there were plans to create a huge fund of money to pay off Britain’s national debt, the great classical economist David Ricardo objected on grounds that– no matter what the money was said to be for– politicians could spend it...
Teaching Economics
Many professors, mostly on the liberal side of the political spectrum, use their classrooms to proselytize students. I have taught economics for the past 40 years and challenge anyone to find even one student, among the thousands who went through my classes, who can...
The Art of the Impossible
Whoever called politics “the art of the possible” must have had a strange idea of what is possible or a strange idea of politics, where the impossible is one of the biggest vote-getters. ...
Outliers: The Story of Success
“Outliers” are not politicians who lie even more than other politicians. It is a term used by statisticians to describe some data that are far away from the average– data on seven-foot women or freezing temperatures in Los Angeles, for example....
Random Thoughts for December 2008
Random thoughts on the passing scene: Maybe the current bailout fever is Congress’ way of getting into the spirit of the season– saying in effect, “Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus.” They will undoubtedly also be saying, “Yes, New...
Another Great Depression?
With both Barack Obama’s supporters and the media looking forward to the new administration’s policies being similar to President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s policies during the 1930s depression, it may be useful to look at just what those policies were...
Counterfeiting versus Monetary Policy
Congress is on a spending binge. With all the calls for bailouts, economic stimulus and other assorted handouts, there is a real risk of inflation in our future. If we do have a rapid inflation, it’s likely that Congress, as they did in the financial meltdown,...
Postponing Reality
Some of us were raised to believe that reality is inescapable. But that just shows how far behind the times we are. Today, reality is optional. At the very least, it can be postponed. Kids in school are not learning? Not a problem. Just promote them on to the next...
Bailout Parade Panic and The Benefits of Bankruptcy
Let’s not allow Congress and members of the bailout parade panic us into allowing them to do things, as was done in the 1930s, that would convert a mild economic downturn into a true calamity. Right now the Big Three auto companies, and their unions, are asking...
O.J. Simpson and The High Cost of Favoritism
O.J. Simpson has attracted less attention by being declared “guilty” in Nevada than he did by being declared “not guilty” in California. Yet his story is more than the tragedy of one man. O.J. is not the first star athlete– or movie star,...
Capitalism and the Moral High Ground
Economists from Adam Smith to Ludwig von Mises to Henry Hazlitt to Thomas Sowell have elucidated the general mechanics of a free market and demonstrated the unassailable practicality of capitalism. They have shown how freer markets provide better and cheaper health...
Reason or Faith: The Republican Alternative
The presidential election of 2008 was more significant than the mere defeat of John McCain; it was a resounding defeat of the Republican party. Conscientious Republicans are now faced with the question: Why? Why did so many Americans either not vote, or vote for...
The Meaning of the Terrorist Attacks in Mumbai
Will the horrors unleashed by Islamic terrorists in Mumbai cause any second thoughts by those who are so anxious to start weakening the American security systems currently in place, including government interceptions of international phone calls and the holding of...
The World’s Leading Climate Scientists, in Their Own Words
Lawrence Solomon, a longtime environmental activist, began wondering a few years ago how it could be that some scientists were questioning the apparently solid consensus that humans are causing a global warming crisis. He began seeking them out, and interviewing them...
The High Cost of Washington’s Price Manipulation Policy
For decades Washington has been manipulating prices to encourage homeownership and “steer” the economy. To “incentivize” you to buy a house, it made mortgage payments tax deductible, largely exempted homes from capital gains taxes, and created...
Ignorance Reigns Supreme
How about a few civics questions? Name the three branches of government. If you answered the executive, legislative and judicial, you are more informed than 50 percent of Americans. The Delaware-based Intercollegiate Studies Institute (ISI) recently released the...
Freedom from the FDA
It took the Food and Drug Administration more than a century to grow into a massive, expensive, wasteful, inflexible, ineffective, distant and indifferent bureaucracy. It now violates a founding principle of the practice of medicine: “First, do no harm.”...
Subscribe for free.
Latest pro-Capitalism goodness sent weekly to your email box.
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.