To understand the House Republicans' budget "revolution," pay careful attention to this number: $55 billion. That's the amount federal spending will increase next year. A year later, according to their plan, the budget ticks up another $38.1 billion. It goes up an average of $45 billion every year thereafter.
In the Clinton administration's spin control on the Mexican meltdown, Nafta had nothing to do with it. Without the treaty, matters would have been worse, the White House says, and now Nafta will help Mexico recover.
A gasoline-powered truck just towed an electric Ecostar out of my driveway. Built by Ford Motor Co. under pressure from the federal government, the "state-of-the-art" vehicle was loaned to me for the day. It was supposed to recharge overnight, but the lights on the panel display, flashing wildly, said it would not.
The period between the World Wars was a golden age for the Austrian School of economics. Led by Ludwig von Mises, a group of scholars writing in the tradition of Carl Menger broke new ground in economic science. Their studies showed the superiority of free markets and sound money over all forms of government control. A top theorist in that Mises Circle of thinkers was Gottfried Haberler, who died in Washington, D.C., at the age of 94 on May 6, 1995.
The lesson for everyone else is to be skeptical when the government claims it has a central plan to bring prosperity and joy to an entire hemisphere, and all we have to give up is money, power, and freedom.
Anyone who listens to the news hears a lot about failed policies. Conservative Republicans in Congress say they are seeking to overturn the failed policies enacted by liberal Democrats. Although the Democrats defend their deeds, they admit that certain policies may have failed and should be reviewed.
The cords that bind the Union together are weaker than they have been in more than a century. Many states are entering into political revolt against federal encroachment. But this situation is no departure from American tradition. Revolting against consolidated government has been a key to keeping the government in check.
A poll in March reported that most people would prefer "deficit reduction" to "tax cuts." Polls and the media lie all the time, but this one refutes itself. If people really wanted to be taxed, they would pay up without being threatened by audits, fines, special agents, and jail terms.
The events of March 1995 could be a watershed in international monetary affairs. Beginning with the Bretton Woods agreement 50 years ago, the Federal Reserve system has been the global monetary regulator. The collapse of the dollar is a no-confidence vote that may have brought this role to an end.
You're looking for a job. You want to get paid several times your worth, come and go when you please, work only when you feel like it, take as long a lunch as you want, and get ten paid holidays per year and six weeks paid vacation per year. There's only one way to go: work for the federal government.
