Social Insecurity
You may think that Social Security is a bad deal for me, and it is, but it is going to be much worse for those who are younger than I. At least I still get a positive rate of return.
Unintended Consequences of Trade Sanctions
The greatest hope for Iranian democracy is being squashed, not by the repressive military of the local overbearing authoritarian government, but by the bootheels of the self-styled beacon of liberty.
Politics Versus Markets
One of the most important differences between the political process and the market process is that they provide totally different feedback mechanisms. Had the politicians largely responsible for the housing crisis done their dirty deeds while working for private firms, they would have been fired, likely prosecuted, and memorialized in cautionary tales in business ethics casebooks from here until eternity. Instead, they’re busy crafting 2,319 page pieces of legislation aimed at increasing their power over the marketplace.
Police State, USA
There are early signs that the Washington Post blockbuster Top Secret America could actually make some difference. Both the left and the right built this ghastly apparatus and it is going to take massive public outrage to dismantle it. The series makes a contribution to building that outrage.
ACTA: The War on Progress, Freedom, and Human Civilization
[An MP3 audio file of this article, read by the author, is available for download.]
Turning Bread into Stones
As Kevin Dowd and Martin Hutchinson chronicle in their wonderful new book, there’s been plenty of government regulation lately, and as regulations grow, financial booms and panics grow in step.
Wilhelm von Humboldt
[New Individualist Review, 1961]
Socialist Calculation
[This article is excerpted from chapter 7 of Individualism and Economic Order.]
Without some such central control of the means of production, planning in the sense in which we have used the term ceases to be a problem. It becomes unthinkable. This would probably be agreed by the majority of economists of all camps, although most other people who believe in planning still think of it as something that could be rationally attempted inside the framework of a society based on private property.
The Making Up of a President
Ranking presidents is something of a cottage industry among the intellectual elite, but who should care about the ratings they give presidents?
Should the Fed Pump Even More?
Some Fed officials and various commentators, such as Professor Paul Krugman, are of the view that the US central bank should be ready to consider additional steps to boost the US economy in the wake of a visible softening in key economic data. For instance, the yearly rate of growth of retail sales, after climbing to 8.5% in March, have fallen to 4.8% in June.
