In the 1990s, politicians wanted to make home ownership as universal as possible. They used laws such as the Community Reinvestment Act to force banks to make unsustainable loans to millions of people. They also expanded quasi-government agencies such as Fannie Mae...
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
Free Trade versus Protectionism
There’s a growing anti-trade sentiment in our country. Much of the dialogue is grossly misinformed. Let’s try to untangle it a bit with a few questions and observations. First, does the U.S. trade with Japan and England? Put another way, is it members of...
Ivan and Boris Again: Why Politicians and the Media Attack CEO Salaries
There is an old Russian fable, with different versions in other countries, about two poor peasants, Ivan and Boris. The only difference between them was that Boris had a goat and Ivan didn’t. One day, Ivan came upon a strange-looking lamp and, when he rubbed it,...
“Jolting” the Economy
Barack Obama says that we have to “jolt” the economy. That certainly makes sense, if you take the media’s account of the economy seriously– but should the media be taken seriously? Amid all the political and media hysteria, national output has...
This Thanksgiving, Don’t Say Grace, Say Justice
The religious tradition of saying grace before meals becomes especially popular around the holidays, when we all are reminded of how fortunate we are to have an abundance of life-sustaining goods and services at our disposal. But there is a grave injustice involved in...
Reason, Not Force, As The Basis of Human Interaction
In a recent lengthy discussion with a friend who is an Obama supporter, she wanted to focus upon economics. Her view was that top economists had endorsed Obama. Why was that not enough for me to support him? One, I refused to discuss economics. I explained to her that...
A Nation of Thieves: Evil Concealed by Money
Evil acts can be given an aura of moral legitimacy by noble-sounding socialistic expressions such as spreading the wealth, income redistribution or caring for the less fortunate. Let’s think about socialism. Imagine there’s an elderly widow down the street...
The Future of Social Security?
One of the slowly-simmering issues I try to follow is the future of Social Security. Eventually, the current Ponzi scheme is going to go bankrupt, and right now there’s no morally principled reform on the horizon. So one big question is what sort of response to...
The Right To Win: Tolerance for Gay Activists But Not for Mormons and Evangelicals
Among the many new “rights” being conjured out of thin air, a new one seems to be a “right” to win. Americans have long had the right to put their candidates and their ideas to a vote. Now there seems to be a sense that your rights have been...
It’s Priceless: How Politicians Hand Out “Free Lunches”
Wouldn’t it be wonderful to live in a world where there were no prices? If you happened to want a Rolex or a Rolls-Royce, you could just go get one– or two if you wanted– and not have to worry about ugly little things like price tags. There is such a...
Stop Blaming Capitalism for Government Failures
Speaking of the financial crisis, French president Nicolas Sarkozy recently said, “Laissez-faire is finished. The all-powerful market that always knows best is finished.” Sarkozy was echoing the views of many, including president-elect Obama, who assume...
Why The Republicans Lost My Vote
After a resounding electoral defeat, in which voters in this once-red state rejected Republicans McCain, Schaffer, and Musgrave, the Colorado Republican Party will undoubtedly be asking themselves, “Why did we lose?” I want to let them know that...
Getting Beyond Race
Despite the fact that President-elect Barack Obama’s vision for our nation leaves a lot to be desired, the fact that he was elected represents a remarkable national achievement. When the War of 1861 ended, neither a former slave nor slave owner would have...
Planned Chaos: The Alleged Inevitability of Socialism (Part 11 of 11)
Many people believe that the coming of totalitarianism is inevitable. The “wave of the future,” they say, carries mankind inexorably toward a system under which all human affairs are managed by omnipotent dictators. It is useless to fight against the...
Planned Chaos: The Teachings of Soviet Experience (Part 10 of 11)
Many people all over the world assert that the Soviet “experiment” has supplied conclusive evidence in favor of socialism and disproved all, or at least most, of the objections raised against it. The facts, they say, speak for themselves. It is no longer...
Planned Chaos: Nazism (Part 9 of 11)
The philosophy of the Nazis, the German National Socialist Labor Party, is the purest and most consistent manifestation of the anticapitalistic and socialistic spirit of our age. Its essential ideas are not German or “Aryan” in origin, nor are they...
Planned Chaos: Fascism (Part 8 of 11)
When the war broke out in 1914, the Italian socialist party was divided as to the policy to be adopted. One group clung to the rigid principles of Marxism. This war, they maintained, is a war of the capitalists. It is not seemly for the proletarians to side with...
Planned Chaos: The Liberation of the Demons (Part 7 of 11)
The history of mankind is the history of ideas. For it is ideas, theories, and doctrines that guide human action, determine the ultimate ends men aim at and the choice of the means employed for the attainment of these ends. The sensational events which stir the...
Alan Greenspan vs. Ayn Rand and Freedom
The connection of Alan Greenspan to Ayn Rand, decades ago, is being used to blacken her name and her ideas. This from the Leftist “Mother Jones” publication is one of the milder expressions: “In a historic moment, former Fed chair Alan...
Antipathy Towards Mark-to-Market Accounting is Misguided
The antipathy towards mark-to-market accounting is misguided. Mark-to-market is entirely appropriate for goods that trade in liquid markets. Open up your brokerage statement. If you see a notation that your account gained or lost X% of value, that is an application of...
Planned Chaos: Trotsky’s Heresy (Part 6 of 11)
The dictatorial doctrine as accepted by the Russian Bolshevists, the Italian Fascists and the German Nazis tacitly implies that there cannot arise any disagreement with regard to the question who shall be the dictator. The mystical forces directing the course of...
Capitalism and the Financial Crisis
There has always been contempt for economic liberty. Historically, our nation was an important, not complete, exception. It took the calamity of the Great Depression to bring about today’s level of restrictions on economic liberty. Now we have another...
Planned Chaos: Russia’s Aggressiveness (Part 5 of 11)
The German, Italian and Japanese nationalists justified their aggressive policies by their lack of Lebensraum. Their countries are comparatively overpopulated. They are poorly endowed by nature and depend on the import of foodstuffs and raw materials from abroad. They...
Airstrikes Against Iran?
Why do I assume that air strikes against Iran will be ineffective, especially given the sad shape of the Iranian economy and its weak military capability? [1] My answer: because everything Bush has done for the past seven years indicates that the strikes will be...
Planned Chaos: Socialism and Communism (Part 4 of 11)
In the terminology of Marx and Engels the words communism and socialism are synonymous. They are alternately applied without any distinction between them. The same was true for the practice of all Marxian groups and sects until 1917. The political parties of Marxism...
“Maestro” Alan Greenspan vs. and The Free Market
Alan Greenspan claims that the free market failed to prevent the financial crisis, and that he is “shocked” that his professed “free-market ideology” turned out to contain a “flaw.” But why should we take him seriously? Greenspan,...
The Conservative Package Deal
One of the worst mistakes that one can make in about this election is to see the two-parties as standing for a fundamental alternative. The symptom of this is when an opponent of Party A (“don’t vote for McCain”) is accused of advocating a vote for...
Planned Chaos: The Dictatorial, Anti-Democratic and Socialist Character of Interventionism (Part 3 of 11)
Many advocates of interventionism are bewildered when one tells them that in recommending interventionism they themselves are fostering anti-democratic and dictatorial tendencies and the establishment of totalitarian socialism. They protest that they are sincere...
Why Conservatism Failed: The Anatomy of Compromise Revisited
It’s been argued that if Obama wins, the left will properly once again be blamed for the failures of collectivism. This is actually an example of a broader principle, one Miss Rand identified in her essay “The Anatomy of Compromise” [1]: “When...
Planned Chaos: The Failure of Interventionism (Part 2 of 11)
NOTHING is more unpopular today than the free market economy, i.e., capitalism. Everything that is considered unsatisfactory in present-day conditions is charged to capitalism. The atheists make capitalism responsible for the survival of Christianity. But the papal...
George W. Bush’s Empowerment of Iran
The recent surge in Iraq has gotten great press lately. Clearly Iraq is calmer than it has been in years. The surge itself, some have claimed, demonstrates how the Bush administration has learned to fight such an enemy. It provides, they say, a blueprint for defeating...
Planned Chaos: Introduction (Part 1 of 11)
The characteristic mark of this age of dictators, wars and revolutions is its anticapitalistic bias. Most governments and political parties are eager to restrict the sphere of private initiative and free enterprise. It is an almost unchallenged dogma that capitalism...
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