Archive for mnolan
As White House Talks Falter, Senate Works on Agreement To Raise Debt Limit
“Late Thursday, McConnell told a radio interviewer that the new debt-reduction panel would “probably be part of the bill” and that it would likely be asked to issue its report by the end of the year. Given the high stakes, Reid and McConnell were moving quietly. Too much information, Reid said, could “kill” the deal. [...]
15Jul2011 | mnolan | 0 comments | ContinuedCapital Letters
Can We Really Do Without FDIC? Warren Gibson’s otherwise interesting article, “Federal Deposit Insurance: A Banking System Built on Sand” (The Freeman, June 2010), contains at least three errors. One is that “the Fed, out of confusion, failed to inject new money” during the time of the Hoover administration. Not so. Federal Reserve notes increased [...]
25Aug2010 | mnolan | 1 comment | ContinuedCapital Letters
Who Is a Mormon? As a long-time reader and supporter of The Freeman, I express my enjoyment in reading the articles by Dr. Thomas Szasz. I appreciate his critical thinking and his skill in constructing the written word in a most efficient and powerful style. However, I take issue with part of his December 2009 [...]
24Mar2010 | mnolan | 2 comments | ContinuedCapital Letters, March 2010
Is Intellectual Property Real Property? I feel I must respond to Kevin Carson’s article “How ‘Intellectual Property’ Impedes Competition” (The Freeman, October 2009). In his article Mr. Carson suggests that intellectual property is different than real property in that real property comes into existence in limited supply. I do not believe this to be true [...]
23Feb2010 | mnolan | 2 comments | ContinuedCapital Letters
Did World War II Help End the Great Depression? Much as I admire Robert Higgs’s work, I suggest clarifying two points he makes in the October 2008 Freeman. Higgs says that World War II did not end the Great Depression; genuine prosperity did not return until after the war. But the Depression did give way to [...]
19Aug2009 | mnolan | 0 comments | ContinuedCapital Letters
Is Greenspan Really Innocent of Causing the Housing Boom? David Henderson and Jeff Hummel have written a remarkably pro-Greenspan article, “Was Money Really Easy Under Greenspan?” (www.tinyurl.com/cuf3ug). The authors overlooked several points that would undermine their portrayal of Fed chairman Alan Greenspan as an anti-inflationist and the best Fed chairman ever. (Better than Paul Volcker?) [...]
21May2009 | mnolan | 0 comments | ContinuedCapital Letters — Does Utilitarianism Deserve Bashing?
In an otherwise meritorious article (“The ‘Risk’ of Liberty: Criminal Law in the Welfare State,” September 2008), Michael N. Giuliano parrots the tiresome old bashing of utilitarian ethics. (He sometimes says “consequentialism,” but since versions of utilitarianism make up almost the entire set of consequentialist doctrines, the distinction is unnecessary here.) “The main component of [...]
27Apr2009 | mnolan | 2 comments | ContinuedCapital Letters — Is Energy Independence Desirable?
Is Energy Independence Desirable? I thought that the title of the article by David R. Henderson, “Let’s Not Be Energy Independent,” in the October 2008 issue was shocking, and the content of the article did nothing to allay my concerns. The author seems to think that one achieves independence by tariffs and import controls. He [...]
2Apr2009 | mnolan | 0 comments | ContinuedGermany: From the Market to Socialism and Back?
Germany is still the third biggest economy in the world, but like the second (Japan) it is suffering from rising unemployment (approaching four million or 10 percent of the workforce), massive capital flight, a growth rate approaching zero, workers who were once a legend for productivity but who are now over-educated and reluctant to do a full day’s labor without consulting a rule book of “rights” (a law restricting shopping on Saturday afternoon has only just been repealed), and enormous present and future welfare obligations.
1May2003 | mnolan | 0 comments | ContinuedCapital Letters
To the Editor: Professor Donald J. Boudreaux’s views against government-financed adjustment assistance to workers harmed by free trade (“Compensate Workers Harmed by Trade?” November 2001) seem well-taken-except for one thing. The influence of freer trade on competition between domestic and imported products isn’t a natural phenomenon like a climate change. Rather, it’s a market transformation [...]
1Mar2002 | mnolan | 0 comments | Continued-
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