Archive for James Peron
James Peron is the president of Laissez Faire Books, and edits its magazine Laissez Faire!
Phony Food Crisis
Green icon Paul Ehrlich is widely known for his absurdly inaccurate projections regarding population and food. Rarely does a doomsday projection pass by without his embracing it. But most of his previous false claims are forgotten, or ignored, by the anti-capitalist coalition of today. After all, Ehrlich made those claims in 1968, and that was [...]
27Jun2010 | James Peron | 1 comment | ContinuedWealth, Poverty, and Natural Disasters
Policies that destroy wealth creation today mean a poorer world tomorrow, and poverty — not wealth — exacerbates disaster.
18Jan2010 | James Peron | 21 comments | ContinuedRanking the U.S. Health-Care System
It is curious that the United States ranked below Europe in the World Health Organization’s 2000 World Health Report, which rated 191 countries’ medical systems. In his documentary Sicko, socialist Michael Moore makes hay out of the fact that the United States placed 37th, behind even Morocco, Cyprus, and Costa Rica. This ranking is used [...]
1Nov2007 | James Peron | 64 comments | ContinuedThe Peace Principle
The key principle of liberalism is peace. Some would say peaceful cooperation is the key. But in a free society one is also free peacefully not to cooperate. Many would say the core principle of liberalism is freedom, and since the word liberalism is derived from the Latin liber, which means free, that is a [...]
1Dec2006 | James Peron | 1 comment | ContinuedChernobyl in Perspective
When the Chernobyl nuclear reactor exploded in 1986 the world held its breath. In the aftermath, we were told that a catastrophe had taken place. Ten years later Greenpeace said the accident was “blamed for the deaths of some 2,500 people, has affected millions and displaced hundreds of thousands, many of whom have still not [...]
1Oct2006 | James Peron | 3 comments | ContinuedWhen Safety Nets Fail
An elderly woman sat on the stone steps of the St.
Alexander Nevsky Cathedral clutching a small
handful of wildflowers picked from a field
somewhere. She offered them up to any passerby, hoping
to earn just a few cents for them.The air in Sofia was
frigid, but at least the rain had finally stopped. I wondered
if she had sat there in the rain the day before. I suspected
she was there every day.
The Facts about World Hunger
Jim Peron is editor of Free Exchange, a monthly newsletter, and the owner of Aristotle’s Books in Auckland, New Zealand. The headline in the New York Times screamed: “World Hunger Increasing, New U.N. Report Finds.” Coming as it did just two days before Thanksgiving, the irony couldn’t be lost on the average reader. The opening [...]
1Sep2004 | James Peron | 2 comments | ContinuedAntiglobalists Are Scarce in Poor Countries
Whenever some international conference on world trade takes place, without fail the organized forces of antiglobalization appear outside the gates. They whine; they protest; they frequently riot and attack. If you ask them, they’ll tell you that what they do is justified because they represent the world’s poor. Rarely are the protesters themselves poor. They [...]
1Jun2004 | James Peron | 0 comments | ContinuedThe Irrational Precautionary Principle
Chlorine is a common chemical. It’s estimated to be used in the production of 80 percent of all pharmaceuticals. But like most chemicals it can cause problems depending on the dose, what it is mixed with, and how it is used. On one hand, it is used to disinfect drinking water and saves millions of [...]
1Apr2004 | James Peron | 1 comment | ContinuedThe Real Population Problem
According to one department of the United Nations, some 400 million people have vanished. This wasn’t a spate of alien abductions. Instead the UN’s Population Division (UNPD) lowered its projected world population figure for 2050 by 403 million. This revision is from the projection of just two years ago. The agency now concedes that the [...]
1Sep2003 | James Peron | 2 comments | ContinuedBastiat, Socialism, and the Blank Slate
“It is evident,” the French economist and parliamentarian Frédéric Bastiat wrote a century and a half ago, “that the socialists set out in quest of an artificial social order only because they deemed the natural order to be either bad or inadequate; and they deemed it bad or inadequate only because they felt that men’s [...]
1Jun2003 | James Peron | 1 comment | ContinuedUnsustainable Development
Sound economic thinking lies in accounting for the secondary results of private and government actions.1 This observation is not limited to economics. It can be applied to all areas of human study, including political philosophy. Once learned, that lesson can prevent a great deal of human hardship. Take, for instance, a concept promoted by left-wing [...]
1Mar2003 | James Peron | 0 comments | ContinuedWhere Have All the Marxists Gone?
From the early days of Marxism until its collapse, the Left pretended that socialist central planning would lead to greater productivity and advanced technological progress. No one seriously entertains that illusion any more. So how is it that so many Marxist ideas still hold such influence? Certainly the modern "Green" movement is filled with Marxists [...]
1Dec2002 | James Peron | 2 comments | ContinuedWhy the Poor Need Property Rights
Early in the morning the streets below my flat would become a beehive of activity. Small stands were scattered everywhere, cramming every available inch of sidewalk. Small bundles of bananas, packets of tomatoes, or potatoes were for sale. Newspaper vendors grabbed the busy corners. Hawkers with every imaginable product had set up business. As the [...]
1Oct2002 | James Peron | 0 comments | ContinuedHow’s the Third World Doing?
The Third World is in trouble. Standards of living are plummeting, while the West is getting richer. Nearly everyone seems to believe it. The left wants to believe it as a justification for global socialism. Racists want to believe it because it “proves” the superiority of the white race. The media think it’s a good [...]
1Sep2002 | James Peron | 0 comments | ContinuedThe Contradictions of Capitalism
We advocates of individual rights and free markets can’t win the intellectual debate with the ideological left. That’s because there is no intellectual debate with the left. There can’t be a debate since the opponents of capitalism are simply not open to rational discussion. They know that capitalism is inherently evil, and no argument, no [...]
1Aug2002 | James Peron | 0 comments | ContinuedThe Mugging of an Environmental Skeptic
When I read Bjørn Lomborg’s The Skeptical Environmentalist I felt a sense of déjà vu. As excellent as it is, what Lomborg has to say—that the world is not going to hell—has been said before. But it was ignored because it was said by a brilliant man, the late Julian Simon, who was considered politically [...]
1Jul2002 | James Peron | 1 comment | Continued-
The Latest
Contraception: Insuring the Uninsurable
Update below. Controversy rages over the Obama administration’s mandate that all employers – including... Read More
The Snow Plowers’ Petition
The following might have happened in a small college town in upstate New York… In a cold and snowy... Read More
Super Bowl versus Education?
In the spirit of Super Bowl weekend I’d like to deconstruct a Facebook status update that a friend... Read More
Capitalism, Corporatism, and the Freed Market
When a front-running presidential contender tells the country that thanks to Barack Obama, “[w]e are... Read More
Creating Jobs versus Creating Value
Picking on New York Times columnist Paul Krugman is one of the largest participation sports on the Internet.... Read More
