Archive for Sheldon Richman
Sheldon Richman is the editor of The Freeman and TheFreemanOnline.org, and a contributor to The Concise Encyclopedia of Economics. He is the author of Separating School and State: How to Liberate America's Families.
Obama’s “Accommodation” on Contraception
President Obama tells us that through his “accommodation” on the contraception controversy he’s avoided “choos[ing] between individual liberty and basic fairness for all Americans.” How so? By ordering insurance companies to give away birth control pills.
11Feb2012 | Sheldon Richman | 1 comment | ContinuedHonesty Is Not the Best Political Policy
An honest statist would just say: “Let’s have the government levy a tax on men to pay for women’s birth control.” The transfer program wouldn’t be buried in the employer-based insurance system. It would be open for all to see — which is why it’s not done that way.
10Feb2012 | Sheldon Richman | 1 comment | ContinuedPondering the Imponderable about Contraception
If Woman A pays for Woman B’s birth control and Woman B pays for Woman A’s birth control, does each get free birth control?
10Feb2012 | Sheldon Richman | 0 comments | ContinuedContraception: Insuring the Uninsurable
It makes no sense to talk about insuring against the eventuality that a particular person will reach child-bearing age and use contraception.
10Feb2012 | Sheldon Richman | 9 comments | ContinuedBernanke Pledges No “Higher Inflation”
“Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke defended the central bank’s newly established price goal and rejected suggestions he was prepared to allow higher inflation to create jobs. “We are not seeking higher inflation,” Bernanke said yesterday….” (Bloomberg) We’ll see. FEE Timely Classic “What’s Up with Inflation?” by Warren C. Gibson
3Feb2012 | Sheldon Richman | 2 comments | ContinuedContra-IP
My article “Patent Nonsense,” which makes the libertarian case against “intellectual property,” was published and posted by The American Conservative magazine. Read it here.
3Feb2012 | Sheldon Richman | 0 comments | ContinuedCapitalism, Corporatism, and the Freed Market
The system that most immediately threatens individual liberty is corporatism.
3Feb2012 | Sheldon Richman | 21 comments | ContinuedThe Chimera of Tax Fairness
Let’s hear no more about tax fairness, unless it’s to point out that fairness is approached as tax rates move toward zero.
27Jan2012 | Sheldon Richman | 21 comments | ContinuedWe’re the Economy They Want to Manage
In his State of the Union speech President Obama said: Tonight, I want to . . . lay out a blueprint for an economy that’s built to last. . . . Considering that an economy (a free one, that is) is just people engaging in exchanges for mutual benefit, it defies blueprinting, which sounds ominously [...]
26Jan2012 | Sheldon Richman | 1 comment | ContinuedIs It a Tax or Not?
In his State of the Union speech the other night President Obama said: Right now, our most immediate priority is stopping a tax hike on 160 million working Americans while the recovery is still fragile. People cannot afford losing $40 out of each paycheck this year. There are plenty of ways to get this done. [...]
26Jan2012 | Sheldon Richman | 0 comments | ContinuedTaxation 101
Is it asking too much for reporters to know the difference between taxes paid and the percentage of income paid in taxes? Despite what the reporters imply, Warren Buffett did not pay less in taxes than his secretary, even if he paid a smaller percentage of his income in taxes.
24Jan2012 | Sheldon Richman | 4 comments | ContinuedDo-Nothing Congress?
The 112th Congress is being judged as do-nothing because it passed only 80 bills in 2011, the smallest number since 1947. It shouldn’t be judged by how many bills it passed, but by how many laws it repealed.
24Jan2012 | Sheldon Richman | 55 comments | ContinuedThe Internet Dodges the SOPA Bullet — for Now
Last week the acronyms SOPA and PIPA were unheard of, much less decipherable, by most people.
20Jan2012 | Sheldon Richman | 15 comments | ContinuedPeter Boettke on Austrian Economics
George Mason University Professor and FEE trustee Peter Boettke was interviewed about Austrian economics at The Browser. Pete is among the most knowledgeable people in the world about this important school of thought and the larger context in which it exists. Highly recommended! Read it here.
17Jan2012 | Sheldon Richman | 0 comments | ContinuedBusts Are Not Punishments for Booms
As a follow-up to today’s TGIF about Matthew Yglesias’s critique of Austrian economics, I note that he claims that for Austrians “the suffering of a bust is a kind of cosmic payback for the boom.” Paul Krugman has similarly charged that Austrians see the bust in moralistic terms, as though it were just punishment for [...]
13Jan2012 | Sheldon Richman | 7 comments | ContinuedAustrian Economics Hits the Headlines
Austrian economic theory describes how purposive action by fallible human beings unintentionally generates a grand, complex, and orderly market process.
13Jan2012 | Sheldon Richman | 23 comments | ContinuedThe Mobility Gap: What Does It Mean?
“Americans enjoy less economic mobility than their peers in Canada and much of Western Europe.”
6Jan2012 | Sheldon Richman | 16 comments | 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
