On Bad Arguments

It’s regrettable but not surprising that many people are ignorant of economics, of history, and of all the other disciplines that are important to our understanding of society. Equally regrettable, but much more surprising, is the number of people who simply are unable to think clearly.  People who think clearly understand how to distinguish logical [...]

Book Reviews – October 2006

• Reviving the Invisible Hand: The
  Case for Classical Liberalism in the Twenty-First Century
  by Deepak Lal Reviewed by Richard M. Ebeling
  
• Laws of Fear
  by Cass Sunstein Reviewed by Donald J. Boudreaux
  
• Bury the Chains: Prophets and Rebels in the Fight to Free an
  Empire’s
  Slaves
  by Adam Hochschild Reviewed by Becky Akers
  
• Why Men Earn More
  by Warren Farrell Reviewed by George C. Leef
  

Free Trade: History and Perception

In the natural sciences, such as physics, there is a large number of statements that can be made about the world that command general assent from scientists and those with a scientific education. This is not true to anything like the same degree in the human and social sciences, such as economics and history. The [...]

Presumptuous Protectionism

If someone gets caught selling somebody elses property,
he goes to jail.What may be legally bought and
sold in the market is limited to legitimate private
property acquired by ones own effort or through voluntary
exchange with others. Since legal transactions are
settled accounts, what is traded belongs to neither the
government nor the community. It is private property,
and as such the owner can dispose of it at his sole discretion,
limited only by other peoples
rights. Correct?

The Persistent Influence of Bad Ideas

Sometimes books, and the ideas they contain, have a much longer-lasting impact than anyone would expect or realize. Long after the book itself has been forgotten and languishes unread in the reserve stacks of libraries or on the shelves of secondhand-book dealers, the ideas it puts forward continue to influence people and the way they [...]

The Unconstitutionality of Protectionism

Even the staunchest free trader might reluctantly concede that the apparatus of protectionism—tariffs, import quotas, and anti-dumping duties—is constitutional because clause 3 of Article I, Section 8, of the U.S. Constitution delegates to Congress “power . . . to regulate commerce with foreign nations. . . .” Before we make too hasty a concession, however, [...]

A Man to Remember

June 4, 2004, was a significant date for all who care for the history and cause of human liberty. It marked the 200th anniversary of the birth of a great champion of freedom, a man who wrought a revolution not only in his own land but worldwide. The man was Richard Cobden. Born in Sussex [...]

Twisting Economics Against Immigrants

P. Gardner Goldsmith is an independent journalist and screenwriter in New Hampshire. On January 7 President Bush announced what appeared to be a sweeping plan to grant de-facto amnesty to millions of illegal aliens working in the United States. In fact, it was little more than a long-term worker-visa program that barely increased the ability [...]