All Posts Tagged With: "war"
Freedom and the Pitfalls of Predicting the Future
The prospects for freedom in America and in many other parts of the world appear dim. Government continues to grow bigger and more intrusive, imposing tax burdens that siphon vast amounts of private wealth. Extrapolating these trends out for the foreseeable future, it would seem that the chances for winning liberty are highly unlikely. There is only one problem with this pessimistic forecast: the future is unpredictable and apparent trends do change.
1Jun2006 | Richard M. Ebeling | 0 comments | ContinuedLudwig von Mises: The Political Economist of Liberty, Part II
Mises’s defense of classical liberalism against the various forms of collectivism was not limited “merely” to the economic benefits of private property.
1Jun2006 | Richard M. Ebeling | 0 comments | ContinuedOn Misplaced Concreteness in Social Theory
The following piece will not be as abstruse as its title suggests. Rather, it results from the simple observation that, time and time again, some harmful outcome or process commonly attributed to the everyday workings of the market economy actually does exist, but it exists in the realm of the government and politics. Politicians and [...]
1May2006 | Joseph R. Stromberg | 0 comments | ContinuedWarriors and Merchants
In 1915 the well-known German economic historian Werner Sombart published a book with the arresting title Merchants and Heroes. It argued that the war then underway between the Central Powers and the Entente was not just a traditional great-power conflict. It was rather a struggle between two different worldviews embodied by France and Britain on [...]
1Nov2005 | Stephen Davies | 0 comments | ContinuedThe Myth of Wartime Prosperity
Whenever an earthquake or a tornado causes great damage, some reporter somewhere claims that on net it will boost the local economy since the rebuilding effort will create jobs and increase business for local merchants. Similarly, whenever a war breaks out, the same reporter can be counted on to emphasize the economic stimulus it allegedly [...]
1Dec2004 | Thomas E. Woods Jr. | 9 comments | ContinuedAll Poorer After the War
No part of the world can become permanently richer by an immense destruction of wealth in another part. Our prosperity is bound up with that of our neighbors. If my neighbor becomes poorer, he will have fewer surplus goods to sell me; he will not be able to spare them; I myself may have to [...]
1Nov2004 | Henry Hazlitt | 0 comments | Continued1914 and the World We Lost
Ninety years ago this month, on June 28, 1914, Archduke Francis Ferdinand, heir to the throne of the Austro-Hungarian empire, and his wife, Sophie, were assassinated by a Bosnian-Serb nationalist in the city of Sarajevo. It served as the spark which set off the events that started World War I later that summer. It also [...]
1Jun2004 | Richard M. Ebeling | 0 comments | ContinuedBook Reviews – April 2004
America the Virtuous: The Crisis of Democracy and the Quest for Empire by Claes G. Ryn Transaction Publishers • 2003 • 221 pages • $34.95 Reviewed by Richard Ebeling In 1988 Robert Nisbet, one of America’s most prominent sociologists and conservative social philosophers, published The Present Age: Progress and Anarchy in Modern America. He critically [...]
1Apr2004 | FEE Admin | 0 comments | ContinuedThe Economic Causes of War
Ludwig von Mises (1881–1973) was the foremost Austrian economist of the twentieth century, an adviser to FEE from the time of its founding in 1946, and the author of Human Action, Socialism, and The Theory of Money and Credit. This is the major part of a lecture delivered in Orange County, California, in October 1944. [...]
1Apr2004 | Ludwig von Mises | 0 comments | ContinuedBook Reviews – November 2003
Adam Smith’s Marketplace of Life by James R. Otteson Cambridge University Press • 2002 • 338 pages • $70.00 hardcover; $26.00 paperback Reviewed by Robert Batemarco One of the puzzles confronting students of the history of economic thought is the apparent inconsistency of the two masterworks of Adam Smith: The Theory of Moral Sentiments and An Inquiry into the Nature and [...]
1Nov2003 | FEE Admin | 0 comments | ContinuedBook Reviews – October 2003
The Illusion of Victory: America in World War I by Thomas Fleming Basic Books • 2003 • 543 pages • $30.00 Reviewed by Richard M. Ebeling Imagine how different the twentieth century might have been if Lenin and the Bolsheviks had never come to power in Russia in 1917 and had not set in motion all the cruel crimes that were [...]
1Oct2003 | FEE Admin | 0 comments | ContinuedHomeland Security Circa AD 285
Alexis de Tocqueville said that nothing is so threatening to individual liberty as extended war. Wars add to the relative power of the central government, and this change in the balance of power is accompanied by the decline of personal freedom. “A long war almost always places nations in this sad alternative: that their defeat [...]
1Apr2003 | Harold B. Jones Jr. | 3 comments | ContinuedThe Pentagon Ramps Up the War on Privacy
David Brown is a freelance writer and editor. This is the first of two parts. [Editor's Note: As we went to press the U.S. Congress had hampered the Defense Department's ability to carry out the threat to privacy discussed in the following article. Under the provision adopted the Pentagon cannot proceed until it assesses for [...]
1Apr2003 | David M. Brown | 0 comments | ContinuedJames Madison: The Constitutional War President
Is it possible for a president to run a war effectively and obey the Constitution at the same time? Most historians would say no; after all, they persistently rank Abraham Lincoln and Franklin Roosevelt as two of the nation’s greatest presidents. Lincoln and Roosevelt, as war presidents, centralized power, restricted liberty, and suspended key parts [...]
1Feb2003 | Burton W. Folsom Jr. | 0 comments | ContinuedPostconstitutional America?
It’s a cliché that in time of war we must shift the balance between liberty and security, sacrificing some freedom to protect our society from assault. Funny how we blithely forget other fond adages when they become unfashionable, such as Benjamin Franklin’s famous warning about trading freedom for security. It is more important than ever [...]
1Feb2003 | Sheldon Richman | 0 comments | ContinuedI, Government
I am government–the institution known the world over to all who pay taxes, get subsidies, and face regulation. Coercion is both my vocation and my avocation; it is in my very nature to compel others to do that which they otherwise would not do. My nature should then be of great concern to you as [...]
1Oct2002 | D.W. MacKenzie | 1 comment | ContinuedOnly Congress Can Declare War
The Bush administration has been looking at other potential military targets almost since the war in Afghanistan started. But should the President decide he wants to expand the war, he should get legislative approval. After September 11 Congress authorized President Bush to retaliate against any “nations, organization, or persons” he determined to be involved in [...]
1Oct2002 | Doug Bandow | 3 comments | Continued-
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