Columns
The Dangers of the Myth of Merit
In his various chapters and essays on the “mirage” of the concept “social justice,” F. A. Hayek makes a claim that is very often overlooked by those who support the market. He argues that markets generally do not reward “merit.” That is, the people who become wealthy in the marketplace do not do [...]
19Nov2009 | Steven Horwitz | 5 comments | ContinuedBenedict XVI on Labor Unions
On June 29 Pope Benedict XVI issued an encyclical letter titled Caritas in Veritate (CV) in which he discusses several economic questions. There is much in the letter that suggests Benedict lacks a clear understanding of economics, such as his belief that market exchanges should involve things of equal value. However, notwithstanding absurd claims by [...]
18Nov2009 | Charles W. Baird | 1 comment | ContinuedTen Reasons Not to Abolish Slavery
Slavery existed for thousands of years, in all sorts of societies and all parts of the world. To imagine human social life without it required an extraordinary effort. Yet, from time to time, eccentrics emerged to oppose it, most of them arguing that slavery is a moral monstrosity and therefore people should get rid of [...]
18Nov2009 | Robert Higgs | 5 comments | ContinuedThe Shame of Medicine: Conviction by Psychiatry
In the predawn hours of June 5, 2002, Brian David Mitchell entered the bedroom of 14-year-old Elizabeth Smart and her nine-year-old sister Mary Katherine and left the house with Elizabeth. They walked to a camp site four miles behind her wealthy parents’ spacious Salt Lake City home where they joined Wanda Barzee, Mitchell’s wife. Nine [...]
18Nov2009 | Thomas Szasz | 1 comment | ContinuedFrom 1944 to Nineteen Eighty-Four
A longer version of this article appears at the FEE website: www.tinyurl.com/npxxet.
I’m inclined to think of George Orwell and F. A. Hayek at the same time. Both showed great courage in writing the truth, undaunted by the consequences. Both valued freedom, though they understood it differently.
Orwell, a man of the “left,” could not remain silent [...]
Big Business Goes Big for Health Care Reform
“What disturbs Americans of all ideological persuasions is the fear that almost everything, not just government, is fixed or manipulated by some powerful hidden hand,” Frank Rich wrote in the New York Times a few months ago.
That manipulation should disturb us. But contrary to Rich, it is not the work of “corporatists” who have sprung [...]
The Sound of Freedom
When I have the chance, I often pose this question to people who have become advocates for liberty: “What was it that first turned you on to these ideas?”
It’s an important question that always produces revealing answers and sometimes some fascinating stories. Liberty, keep in mind, is not automatic or guaranteed. Few people who have [...]
Too Big to Fail?
The New York Times declares that the Obama administration wants to “rein in” those businesses “too big to fail.” The story says:
Congress and the Obama administration are about to take up one of the most fundamental issues stemming from the near collapse of the financial system last year — how to deal with institutions that [...]
A Health-Insurance Criminal Pleads His Case
If mandatory health insurance goes through, it will turn me into a criminal. I don’t have health insurance. I don’t want it. And I will refuse to buy it even though I can afford it. Before they lead me to the cells, perhaps the prisoner may be allowed to say a few words in his [...]
16Nov2009 | James L. Payne | 5 comments | ContinuedHow Dense Can They Get?
When it comes to power, density is the key. Energy density. The reason that solar power, wind power, and ethanol are so expensive is that they are derived from very diffuse energy sources. It takes a lot of energy collectors such as solar cells, wind turbines, or corn stalks covering many square miles to produce [...]
12Nov2009 | Richard W. Fulmer | 4 comments | ContinuedAmerica’s Munich: The House Medical-Care Bill
In the wake of the euphoria that passed through Great Britain after Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain displayed the Munich Agreement and declared “peace in our time,” Winston Churchill had a different view. The agreement between France, Britain, and Hitler’s Germany, Churchill told Parliament, was a “total and unmitigated disaster.”
I thought about this exchange after seeing [...]
Berlin, August 1961: An Anniversary We Should Never Forget
[This essay originally appeared in the National Review Online in 2001. ]
August marks the anniversary of the building of the Berlin Wall that for 28 years thereafter, divided the city of Berlin and closed off the only remaining escape hatch for people in the communist East who wanted freedom in the West. It was a [...]
The Freedom Philosophy as a Calling
I hope that this column becomes a place where my calling becomes part of your calling and helps you to spread the freedom philosophy. I’ll do my best to live up to my end, and I hope you’ll do the same.
5Nov2009 | Steven Horwitz | 14 comments | ContinuedRegulating Executive Pay Can Reduce Systemic Risk
Late last month White House pay czar Ken Feinberg unveiled executive pay rules for 175 key players in the nation’s seven-firm TARP-assisted sector. The new rules generated different bundles of base and incentive pay for the affected executives, along with a good bit of grumbling and grousing. Unsullied by the frowns and accompanying [...]
4Nov2009 | Bruce Yandle | 20 comments | ContinuedThe “Stimulus” Stopped the Recession? Not So Fast!
The “stimulus” has not “saved” anything. It has been a huge misdirection of resources from things that would meet real-live individual needs to those things that meet the “needs” of politicians to be reelected.
4Nov2009 | William L. Anderson | 6 comments | ContinuedBen Bernanke Saved the Day?
Instead of being “brave,” Bernanke has been reckless, just like a young driver playing “chicken.” There is a huge difference between bravery and bravado, and Bernanke’s actions reflect the latter not the former.
28Oct2009 | William L. Anderson | 3 comments | ContinuedCompetition
Give Me a Break!
Competition
by John Stossel
John Stossel is the hosts of Stossel on Fox Business and the author of Myths, Lies, and Downright Stupidity: Get Out the Shovel—Why Everything You Know is Wrong. Copyright 2009 by JFS Productions, Inc. Distributed by Creators Syndicate, Inc.
“Choice, competition, reducing costs—those
are the things that I want to see accomplished [...]
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Book Reviews
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The End of Prosperity: How Higher Taxes Will Doom the Economy–If We Let it Happen
By Arthur B. Laffer, Stephen Moore, and Peter J. Tanous
