The Free Market 20, no. 7 (July 2002)

As the war on terror drags on, many people calling themselves libertarians have decided that it’s not such a bad thing after all. What, they ask, is the point of government if not to bomb those who would threaten our safety? The trouble is that real life works a little differently from the civics-text ideal of government. Government uses war—and sometimes foments it—in order to expand its power over its own people or to expand its imperial power. 

The Free Market 20, no. 7 (August 2002)

The June 3, 2002, issue of The Nation heralds the 2001 Nobel Laureate Joseph Stiglitz as a “rebel with a cause.” That characterization is certainly a stretch for an economist, who is former senior vice president of the World Bank and who adheres to orthodox Keynesian doctrine, the dominant economic paradigm of mainstream political and economic theory for the past 50 years.

The Free Market 20, no. 7 (August 2002)

During a recent debate with Harry Jaffa on the topic of my book, The Real Lincoln, Jaffa invoked the Lincoln mythology to declare that September 11 “proves” more than ever that we need a strong federal government.

The Free Market 20, no. 8 (August 2002)

The Free Market 20, no. 9 (September 2002)

The Enron scandal fueled the drive for campaign finance reform well enough for a campaign finance reform (CFR) bill to get signed into law. However, immediately after this occurred, various interest groups presented legal challenges to the new legislation based on its questionable compliance with the First Amendment.

The Free Market 20, no. 9 (September 2002)

So long greenbacks; hello pinkbacks. So says the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, which promises to start changing the color of money next fall, beginning with the $20 bill. 

This bill already received a makeover four years ago. By inflating Andrew Jackson’s head, giving him a vague postmodern look, and moving him to the side of the bill, the Bureau managed to turn a perfectly respectable looking currency into something odd indeed. 

The Free Market 20, no. 9 (September 2002)

When a politician talks of ”reform,” grab your wallet. As in “welfare reform,” for example. For as any hardened inside-the-Beltway observer of dark Washington ways can tell you, “welfare reform” is typically a spin for tightening the screws on the taxpayer and easing welfare access.

The Free Market 20, no. 9 (September 2002)

Whether to distract the American public from the current set of hearings into the national security breakdowns that led to the September 11 attacks or just to be doing something, President George W. Bush has announced plans to create a new Cabinet-level monstrosity ostensibly aimed at making all of us safe from terrorist attack. 

The Free Market 20, no. 10 (October 2002)

A Days Inn on Long Island was fined on December 26, 2001 for having engaged in “price gouging” following the September 11 terrorist attacks. With the nation’s airports closed, stranded passengers created a sudden and unexpected rise in demand for lodging.

Under these circumstances, the Hicksville hotel raised its room rates by 185 percent—an “unconscionable” increase, according to State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer. 

The Free Market 20, no. 10 (October 2002)

What a sight: the legislative and executive branches of government celebrating as they impose new criminal codes against corporate fraud, each politician trying to outdo the other in their moral outrage against business. These are people who created and guard what is perhaps the greatest financial fraud of all time, the $2 trillion federal budget.