All Posts Tagged With: "government intervention"

FDR’s Folly: How Roosevelt and His New Deal Prolonged the Great Depression

The Great Depression of the 1930s was by far the greatest economic calamity in U.S. history. In 1931, the year before Franklin Roosevelt was elected president, unemployment in the United States had soared to an unprecedented 16.3 percent. In human terms that meant that over eight million Americans who wanted jobs could not find them. [...]

6Jul2010 | Burton W. Folsom Jr. | 2 comments | Continued

Capital Letters

Can There Be Free Trade in a Mixed Economy? To the Editor: Although I don’t see any flaws in your arguments about the theory of free trade in your column for the April 2004 issue of The Freeman, you should at least acknowledge the distortions in most any nation’s economy because of government intervention and [...]

5Jul2010 | FEE Admin | 0 comments | Continued

Reaping the Whirlwind of Progressivism, Part I

From numerous wars (to promote “democracy” abroad) to the current depression, we see the imprint of Progressivism.

30Jun2010 | William L. Anderson | 8 comments | Continued

The Rise of Government and the Decline of Morality

The recent financial crisis has expanded the power of government. Tea parties have revealed the disillusion of millions of Americans with the rise of government and the decline of morality. The crisis has damaged, unfairly, the vision of market liberalism. It is essential, therefore, to reexamine and articulate the principles of a free society and [...]

29Jun2010 | James A. Dorn | 10 comments | Continued

A Free-Market Energy Vision

Energy is the master resource. Without it other resources could not be produced or consumed. Even energy requires energy: There would not be usable oil, gas, or coal without the energy to manufacture and power the requisite tools and machinery. Nor would there be wind turbines or solar panels, which are monuments to embedded fossil-fuel [...]

29Jun2010 | Robert L. Bradley Jr. | 5 comments | Continued

Legends of the Fall: The Real and Imagined Sources of Our Bubble Economy

Preface The Foundation for Economic Education is pleased to announce that Richard W. Fulmer of Humble, Texas, is the winner of the second annual Eugene S. Thorpe writing competition. Mr. Fulmer holds a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from New Mexico State University and for over 20 years has worked as a systems analyst in [...]

24Mar2010 | Richard W. Fulmer | 13 comments | Continued

Public Support for Healthcare Reform Drops Even More

“A bare majority of Americans still believe government action is needed to control runaway health-care costs and expand coverage to the roughly 46 million people without insurance. But after a year of exhortation by President Obama and Democratic leaders and a high-octane national debate, there is minimal public enthusiasm for the kind of comprehensive changes [...]

16Dec2009 | Mike Van Winkle | 0 comments | Continued

Are We Really all Healthcare Collectivists Now?

“We have to do something about health care.” The scariest word in that sentence is not something. It’s we. The first-person plural form is not merely a convenience, as in “We’re in for a cold winter.” It indicates that decisions about “the healthcare system” should be made collectively, with one decision binding everyone. That’s collectivism. [...]

23Sep2009 | Sheldon Richman | 7 comments | Continued

New Deal or Raw Deal? How FDR’s Economic Legacy Has Damaged America

Not everyone loved President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Even in 1936, when he enjoyed his most lopsided electoral victory, almost 17 million voters cast their ballots for Alf Landon. During Roosevelt’s long presidency, he attracted vigorous literary critics, such as H. L. Mencken, John T. Flynn, and Garet Garrett. But the winners write the history, and [...]

19Aug2009 | Robert Higgs | 3 comments | Continued

Dim Bulbs

“Hell, there are no rules here—we’re trying to accomplish something.” —Thomas A. Edison Edison’s words may have been true in the 1800s. Today, however, we have plenty of rules, thanks to the U.S. Congress. Some are so bizarre that you have to question the judgment of those who come up with them. One rule in [...]

10Jun2009 | Michael Heberling | 30 comments | Continued

From Good Samaritan to Robin Hood

The clamor from interventionists against inequality morphs into a clamor for a larger and larger state. This path leads to the loss of liberty and a distortion of both democracy and justice. It distorts democracy because, by attempting to solve inequality, it removes limits to power and expands the field of state action. It distorts justice because the only way to solve inequality politically is for the state to have the power to treat individuals unequally. Thus the struggle to eliminate inequality ends up destroying the most important form of equality for an open society: equality before the law.

10Jun2009 | Carlos Rodríguez Braun | 2 comments | Continued

Government Fundamentalism

Many free-market economists like me are quite willing to admit that markets don’t work perfectly and to examine and accept government solutions if their advocates can show how governments can be motivated to actually carry them out. And yet we are called market fundamentalists. On the other hand, many people who call us that are unwilling to change any of their views about the efficacy of government intervention no matter how badly the intervention works. Who are the fundamentalists here?

21May2009 | David R. Henderson | 16 comments | Continued

Black Swans, Butterflies, and the Economy

One side blames the market. The other blames government. We get two causal stories going in opposite directions and a lot of animus. But both perhaps are missing something important in this titanic debate about our current financial crisis. It’s time we exposed a complicated truth about the economy of the 21st century. Nassim Nicholas [...]

2Mar2009 | Max Borders | 62 comments | Continued

Eating Disorder: How Governments Raise Food Prices

Higher food prices may be frustrating Americans, but they are literally killing people in the least industrialized parts of the world. Hundreds of millions of the world’s poorest people—who live close to starvation even in good years—are facing malnutrition and chronic hunger. The absolute poorest are facing death. In the 12 months leading to March [...]

1Sep2008 | Arthur E. Foulkes | 1 comment | Continued

Book Reviews – June 2008

David’s Hammer: The Case for an Activist Judiciary by Clint Bolick Cato Institute • 2007 • 177 pages • $11.95 paperback Reviewed by George C. Leef In recent years “judicial activism” has been assailed from both ends of the political spectrum. Conservatives complain about “liberal” activism when courts strike down laws they favor, and “liberals” [...]

1Jun2008 | George C. Leef | 0 comments | Continued

Government Intervention Is Needed to Solve the Housing Crisis?

In his March 18, 2008, column in the New York Times, David Brooks addresses the ongoing problems in the housing industry and concludes that “In normal times, the free market works well. But in a crisis like this one, few are willing to sit back and let the market find its own equilibrium.” Instead, Brooks [...]

1May2008 | Steven Horwitz | 3 comments | Continued

The Four Mistakes of Nonlibertarians

George Leef  is book review editor of The Freeman. In Libertarianism: For and Against (Rowman & Littlefield, 2005), two philosophers debate the merits of libertarianism. Arguing in favor is Professor Tibor Machan, a contributing editor to The Freeman. His opponent is Professor Craig Duncan, who attempts a refutation of libertarianism and seeks to persuade readers [...]

1Jun2007 | George C. Leef | 0 comments | Continued
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