The main political divide of our time is between those who trust the state and those who do not. We can argue without end about economics, regulation, trade, and war, but we have not touched the core issue until we address the questions: what is the state, and how much, if any, faith should we put in it? Alberto Mingardi is our guide through the literature.
With the average American spending more to fund government than to buy food, clothing, and shelter combined, the greatest impact the government has on those of us for whom it "cares so much" is through the huge gap it creates between the value of our productive contribution to others in the workplace and what we actually take home.
The main victims at the World Trade Center were, after all, working for the private sector. They were traders and merchants, people dedicated to economic enterprise. In an ironic tribute to their value, these people were targeted because the terrorists hoped to cripple the US economy. It would appear that the terrorists understood something that even our own elites do not understand.
At a time when the foundations of freedom are again threatened by collectivist hysteria, we need more books like the new one by Ed Younkins, that do away with the fallacies and reaffirm the tenets of a "just and proper political and economic order that is a true reflection of the nature of man and the world properly understood."
In economics literature, the rhetoric about "market failure" too often serves as a mask for boundless faith in the power of the state. D.W. MacKenzie examines the case of Joseph Stiglitz, who is always hopeful that government will change under his guidance.
The Scana Corporation is a government-created monopoly that provides electricity to most of the state of South Carolina. Like all regulated corporations, it is pressured by regulators to promote politically correct causes and policies--or else. Thomas DiLorenzo highlights the absurd results.
Martha Stewart, one of our most productive citizens, is being targeted for destruction by our most unproductive entity, the federal government. To understand the law of insider trading, writes James Ostrowski, you have to be a real insider. Yet, ignorance of the law is no excuse (unless you are a judge).
Don't expect Amtrak to go away any time soon, despite the facts that its demise would be a cause of rejoicing for most of the country and that there is no justification for federal involvement in transportation found anywhere in the Constitution. The power of entrenched bureaucrats to create dependents of both politicians and their voters underscores a major reason why.
The Federal Reserve is continuing to experiment with new, more counterfeit-proof paper money. Recently, it was big faces, along with the introduction of a variety of other difficult-to-counterfeit characteristics into our Federal Reserve Notes. Next, maybe, it will be color. Or, writes Clifford Thies, perhaps the real issue is not the color on the back of the money, but money’s real backing.
The trouble with lowering the interest rate, writes Frank Shostak, is not that the Fed may lose a tool to fight a further downturn; the problem is that a lower rate now will make things much worse rather than better. Fifty years of experience suggest it will set in motion a much more painful economic adjustment in the months ahead.
