There is a class of pundits that defends public confidence in big government, and trashes those who celebrate its undoing. These pundits had a fit following this year' s election that revealed the least flattering side of the US system of government. If we thought the process of making laws was ugly, few were prepared to observe in slow motion the even more contemptible process of picking lawmakers.
While it did not make headway in this latest presidential campaign, events of the last year have weakened one of the longest-standing policies of the US government: the trade embargo with Cuba.
I have come up with a brief list of films I' ve happened upon that I think are of particular interest to the cause of liberty. I am not vouching for ideological purity in any of these films, but they do underscore the case against managed societies and economics. Also, I have selected films that are generally high quality.
The latest outrage from the Profession that Gave Us John Maynard Keynes, John Kenneth Galbraith, and Paul Samuelson is in the form of a story in The Economist.
The inflation suffered by the colony of Rhode Island during the early eighteenth century is well-described by the word "wanton." Especially since the engineers of this inflation were the Wanton brothers, John and William, Governor and Deputy Governor of the colony at the time.
Earlier last year (February 17) in testimony before the House Banking Committee, Alan Greenspan argued that increases in productivity tend to create greater increases in aggregate demand than in potential aggregate supply. His reasoning was that productivity increases stimulate optimistic corporate earnings forecasts, which stimulate stock price increases, which lead consumers to assume increased personal wealth, which increases consumption (and thus aggregate) expenditure.
History frowns upon the belief that government protects children's rights, and yet that is precisely the claim that undergirds child labor laws, now enforced in most parts of the world. Hardly anyone dares question their existence, much less the conventional history of child labor, no matter how many children and families continue to be victimized by government regulation of labor.
So the regulations have begun. Two towns, so far, have passed laws banning the use of cellular phones while driving. In Illinois, the giant cellular telephone provider Verizon said it would lobby for a state law prohibiting anything but "hands-free" cellular phone use by drivers.
Rumor has it that the economics profession has finally been "won over" to a free-market view of the world. If the complimentary economics textbooks that cross my desk are a bellwether, however, it is not yet time to break out the champagne.
In October, the press began reporting Albert Gore's startling catalog of lies. They were legion. How can a person tell so many falsehoods so often about so many things? One newspaper account theorized that it was a habit developed from growing up in a highly-political family.
