Surveying the 2012 Republican field. Did we learn anything from last week's Republican presidential debate? I heard the usual platitudes like "bring people together," but there was also plenty of talk about the private sector. I liked that. So did the guests on my show. One was Steve Forbes, himself a former candidate for the GOP nomination: "We got first the principle: ... MORE
Todd Myers: Feel-Good Policies Replace Science
Eco-Fads take center stage. The photo takes more than a full page of the magazine and it is stark. It shows acre upon acre of decaying tree stumps, a barren area where a mighty forest once stood. Only a small patch of trees remains, sitting on a mound of dirt. The caption underneath the photo reads “Clear-cut land in Washington.” Published in 2002 by the magazine ... MORE
Tim Cavanaugh: How Long Will It Take Keynes To Die?
Ignorance is a stubborn beast. It’s been many years since I’ve read The New York Times. Like most readers, I got discouraged by the shrinking page size, the self-confident erroneousness that becomes apparent whenever America's newspaper of record covers a topic I’m familiar with, and the lack of a comics page. Sure there are occasions when you can’t avoid it—usually when ... MORE
Labels:
borrowing,
economics,
government,
inflation,
interest rates,
media bias,
socialism,
spending
Jacob Sullum: The Power To Mandate Almost Anything
Looking for limits. Opponents of the federal law requiring Americans to buy government-approved medical coverage face a daunting challenge. Because the U.S. Supreme Court has treated the power to "regulate commerce…among the several states" like Silly Putty since the New Deal, explaining why it cannot be stretched to cover the health insurance mandate is harder than you ... MORE
VIDEO: John Stossel - Abolish Drunk Driving Laws
Tyranny wrapped in pretty paper. Police roadblocks are an effective means of trolling for fineable offenses and combatting that pesky Constitutional obstacle, probable cause. Like anti-terrorism laws and the TSA, drunk driving laws provide law enforcement with a mandate to arbitrarily violate individual liberty.
Gene Healy: Nixon's Wage And Price Controls
Another tale of executive power and the damage done. Remember "TARP," "Too Big to Fail," "Government Motors," "pay czar," the buzzwords of the Bush-Obama era? They reflected a disturbing trend toward presidential interference in economic life. Forty years ago this week, President Richard Nixon showed us just how dangerous unchecked executive power can ... MORE
James Valliant: Ayn Rand's Critics
Ayn Rand is hot right now. Sizzling hot. As government grows more intrusive, and our freedom shrinks, her novels, The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged, are selling at an unprecedented clip. Given today’s headlines, it is easy to see why. Less easy to understand is the remarkable level of ignorance about Rand’s philosophy, Objectivism. Can anyone doubt the truth of ... MORE
Thomas Sowell: Social Degeneration, Part One
Facing reality. Someone at long last has had the courage to tell the plain, honest truth about race. After mobs of young blacks rampaged through Philadelphia committing violence -- as similar mobs have rampaged through Chicago, Denver, Milwaukee and other places -- Philadelphia's black ... MORE
Social Degeneration Part Two Social Degeneration Part ThreeWalter E Williams: Ominous Parallels
Repeating the folly of the past. People are beginning to compare Barack Obama's administration to the failed administration of Jimmy Carter, but a better comparison is to the Roosevelt administration of the 1930s and '40s. Let's look at it with the help of a publication from the Mackinac Center for Public Policy and the Foundation for Economic Education titled "Great Myths of the ... MORE
Ron Ross: Why President Obama Is Painful To Watch
A political trip to the dentist. If someone looked at your face while watching President Obama make a speech or hold a press conference, I'll bet it would reflect pain and discomfort. Your facial expression might be described as a grimace. There are a number of reasons for that kind of reaction. It might not even matter whether you are liberal or conservative. There is much ... MORE
Thomas Bowden: Importance Of The Obamacare Litigation
What’s at stake in the Obamacare litigation? Much more, we are being told, than the viability of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act itself. What hangs in the balance, conservatives proclaim, is nothing less than the future of constitutionally limited government in America. Back in January, Judge Roger Vinson held that Congress exceeded its constitutional authority by ... MORE
VIDEO: Ayn Rand - Reason Requires Capitalism
Ayn Rand shows how the path of reason leads to capitalism.
Labels:
capitalism,
economics,
free enterprise,
freedom,
laissez fare,
libertarian,
morality,
values
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