Articles From July/August 2009
Features
Keynes’s GhostBy James C. W. Ahiakpor
Underlying the belief that increased government spending can stimulate the economy is the “expenditure...
The American Land QuestionBy Joseph R. Stromberg
In 1934 in the depths of the Great Depression, Southern agrarian (and historian) Frank Owsley called...
From Good Samaritan to Robin HoodBy Carlos Rodríguez Braun
Unjust forms of accumulating wealth have always been open to, and practiced by, human beings, but progress...
In Praise of Tax HavensBy Daniel Mitchell
“The proprietor of stock is properly a citizen of the world, and is not necessarily attached to any...
Dim BulbsBy Michael Heberling
“Hell, there are no rules here—we’re trying to accomplish something.” —Thomas A. Edison Edison’s...
What is Seen and What is Unseen: Government “Job Creation”By Larissa Price
Barack Obama says his roughly $800 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan could save or create...
FDR’s Lucky TimingBy Jim Powell
On his New York Times blog page, Paul Krugman displayed a graph showing that the post-1929 U.S. economy...
Columns
The Founders, the Constitution, and the HistoriansBy Burton W. Folsom Jr.
The first step in getting Americans to disregard the Constitution is to get them to distrust the men...
School ChoiceBy Walter E. Williams
The overall quality of primary and secondary education received by white students is nothing to write...
The Fatal ConceitBy John Stossel
Sure, the economy is in bad shape—though the late ’70s and early ’80s were worse in many ways....
The Shame of Medicine: The Depravity of PsychiatryBy Thomas Szasz
Responding to my May 2009 column, George Mason University economics professor Bryan Caplan commented:...
What The Drug Warriors Have Given UsBy Sheldon Richman
Violence among Mexico’s drug cartels and government has spilled over the U.S. border and beyond. The...
Give Up? Are You Kidding?By Lawrence W. Reed
These are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this...
Book Reviews
Vermeer’s Hat: The Seventeenth Century and the Dawn of the Global WorldBy George Leef
Timothy Brook has written a fascinating work on the pivotal seventeenth century, one that defies neat...
The Encyclopedia of LibertarianismBy Martin Morse Wooster
There have been all sorts of books about libertarianism, from introductory treatises to memoirs and biographies...
Churchill, Hitler, and “The Unnecessary War”By Robert Higgs
As a soldier, politician, and writer, Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (1874–1965) made a deep imprint...
Who Killed the Constitution? The Fate of American Liberty from World War I to George W. BushBy J.H. Huebert
There have now been many conservative and libertarian books covering the demise of American liberty under...
Departments
Government Must Keep Track of Derivatives?By Robert P. Murphy
In a surprising Wall Street Journal op-ed, property-rights advocate Hernando de Soto writes that our...
Bad Regulation Drives Out GoodBy Sheldon Richman
In 1969 economist Harold Demsetz identified a flaw in much public policy analysis, the “Nirvana Fallacy”: “The...
