All Posts Tagged With: "regulations"
Government the Job Killer
President Obama says government will have to build the nation out of the economic trough. “We’re the country that built the intercontinental railroad,” Obama says. “So how can we now sit back and let China build the best railroads?” I guess Obama doesn’t know that the transcontinental railroad was a Solyndra-like Big Government scandal. The [...]
4Jan2012 | John Stossel | 4 comments | ContinuedThe Preamble They Should’ve Written
Did the Founding Fathers get it right? Is the Constitution they drafted a secure basis for limited government? Many conservatives suppose so and believe the drift to big government has simply been a case of not reading the directions on the package. Last January these conservatives ordered that the Constitution be read aloud at the [...]
22Jun2011 | James L. Payne | 21 comments | ContinuedHow Corporations, Government, and Trial Lawyers Abuse the Judicial Process
If you want money, one way of getting it is to produce and trade with others who desire what you have to sell. Sociologist Franz Oppenheimer famously called that the “economic means” of obtaining what one wants. Alas, many people prefer another way of getting money, namely, the use of force and/or threats to compel [...]
13Jul2010 | George C. Leef | 0 comments | ContinuedA Busybody Behind Every Tree
If you happen to be flying into Reagan National Airport in summertime and look out the window, you will see that the suburbs of Washington, D.C, are heavily wooded. In many sections the trees are so thick it’s difficult to believe there are houses, let alone a major city, below. How did this suburban forest [...]
7Jul2010 | James L. Payne | 3 comments | ContinuedGovernment 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 | ContinuedOne Size Fits Some
The nonhuman part of the world makes sense. I expect no less of the human part. So let’s explore the following true-life experience: You’re sitting in an airliner that has just landed and is taxiing to the gate. The flight attendant comes on the public-address system to say, “Welcome to New York’s LaGuardia Airport. Please [...]
1Nov2005 | Sheldon Richman | 0 comments | ContinuedRegulations Improve the Free Market?
Despite its remarkable record the free market
remains for many people a tough sell. Even
those who on balance support free enterprise
hesitate to give unregulated market forces their full
endorsement.After all, they argue, the market sometimes
fails, requiring corrective measures at the hands of
wise government authorities.
Beware Democracy without Liberty
A fundamental fallacy of our time is that democracy is the open-sesame to peace, freedom, and prosperity. The recent elections in Ukraine, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia, and the promise of a contested presidential election in Egypt, are hailed as evidence of a new dawn for mankind. And, indeed, maybe they are. But democracy in itself [...]
1Apr2005 | Richard M. Ebeling | 0 comments | ContinuedNo More Czars, Please
For hard-pressed, taxpaying citizens who believe in limited government, April is not a favorite month. But something really good and worth noting happened a couple days before our taxes were due this year. On April 13 in Michigan, a Democratic governor chided a Republican legislature for trying to create a state “manufacturing czar.” In fact, [...]
1Oct2004 | Lawrence W. Reed | 1 comment | 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 [...]
19Apr2003 | Norman Barry | 1 comment | ContinuedThe Trouble with Government
Why does the federal government perform so badly, asks Derek Bok, former president of Harvard University? It’s a step in the right direction for a political “liberal” even to pose that question. But although Bok notes several factors that inhibit the efficiency of Washington, he seldom addresses the most important failure of government: attempting to [...]
10Feb2003 | Doug Bandow | 0 comments | ContinuedWashing Your Clothes Washington’s Way
Our home is becoming less and less our castle as the government moves in . . . one room at a time. First there was the bathroom. Working toilets were outlawed in 1992 in favor of the environmentally friendly government toilets. (See my “The Federally Mandated Toilet Still Doesn’t Work,” November 2001.) On January 1, [...]
1Jan2002 | Michael Heberling | 3 comments | ContinuedThe Clinton Regulatory Miasma
It has been a sad spectacle: President Bill Clinton, desperate to salvage his scandal-laced legacy, crisscrossing the nation proposing new spending programs and regulatory initiatives with wild abandon. He seems determined to jettison perhaps his one good bequest to the nation: a less loony left-wing Democratic Party.
1Nov2000 | Doug Bandow | 0 comments | ContinuedSelf-Government
The United States is often described as an experiment in self-government. But what is this thing? Most people understand “self-government” to mean democracy. According to this understanding, a people are self-governed if they regularly vote to select the individuals who are to occupy political offices. This method of deciding who holds political power has clear [...]
1Sep2000 | Donald J. Boudreaux | 5 comments | ContinuedMost Outrageous Government Waste
Mr. Schatz is president of Citizens Against Government Waste. Since my job is to be a watchdog on government waste, I’m often asked about the most outrageous cases. That’s a tough call because government bureaucrats never take care of your money as carefully as you would take care of it yourself. More important, bureaucrats spend [...]
1Jun1996 | Thomas A. Schatz | 41 comments | ContinuedHow Much Do You Know About Liberty? (a quiz)
Try your hand at answering the following questions: 1. What method of resolving disputes did trial by jury replace? 2. Which great American patriot was called the “Prince of Smugglers”? 3. What bulwark of American liberty do we owe to the Antifederalists? 4. How many slaves were liberated by Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation? 5. After the [...]
1Jun1996 | FEE Admin | 0 comments | ContinuedLosing Freedom Costs a Lot
Mr. Semmens is an economist with Laissez-Faire Institute in Chandler, Arizona. Over the last fifty years, the federal government in the United States has taken on behemoth proportions. Six new cabinet departments have been created (Education, Energy, Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, Transportation, and Veterans Affairs). Twenty new “independent establishments and government [...]
1May1996 | John Semmens | 0 comments | Continued-
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