The Battle over Conscription
We must face the fact, once and for all, that the argument of economists against the draft, though correct as far as it goes, is hopelessly narrow and inadequate.
Trotsky: The Ignorance and the Evil
For intellectuals with no access to other critics of Stalinism — classical liberal, anarchist, or conservative — Trotsky’s writings in the 1930s opened their eyes to some aspects at least of the charnel-house that was Stalin’s Russia.
The Balanced-Budget Question
From the Libertarian Review, May 1979, Rothbard provides a well-rounded discussion of the strengths and weaknesses of a balanced-budget amendment.
BP to go BK?
BP PLC just announced it was canceling its dividend for this year in order to fund $20 billion in compensation to those harmed by the spill. Matt Simmons, author of Twilight in the Desert: The Coming Saudi Oil Shock and the World Economy says BP has
Revisiting that Rwanda Slaughter
Tonight at the Acton University, I heard a lecture by Immaculée Ilibagiza, a Tutsi refugee from the Rwandan slaughter from 1994, when tribal genocide left some one million people dead. In particular, it was the Hutus who were killing the Tutsis and certainly she was among the targets. She survived by living 91 days in a tiny bathroom, hiding with other women, emerging weighing 65 pounds to hear news that her entire family had been hacked to death. By now, she is rather famous, having been interviewed on 60 Minutes, CNN, and many other places.
The Brilliant but Confused Radicalism of George Orwell
He was a permanently confused but authentically and radically antiauthoritarian democratic socialist. He was the kind of modern leftist few modern-day libertarians would have any trouble getting along with, making common cause with, collaborating with.
WSJ Letter Writers on Gold as Money
Yesterday two readers of the Wall Street Journal weighed in against hard money. Steve Connor rejects the idea of a gold-backed dollar because the supply of gold can’t be controlled, using the hypothetical example of “a technological breakthrough enabling inexpensive extraction of gold from seawater,” with the result being a a gold-water hyperinflation, I guess. Mr. Conner is also concerned that untrustworthy foreigners have all the gold and control its supply.
Living Outside the Statist Quo
The state makes a mess of everything it touches. Examples from the book include how and why the “hot” water in our homes became lukewarm and what can be done about it, and how traffic laws became a racket for extracting wealth from the population.
Hazlitt’s Battle with Bretton Woods
There is a forgotten episode in monetary history that teaches us lessons today. It concerns the controversial role that Henry Hazlitt played in battling the Bretton Woods monetary system. From the very beginning, Hazlitt saw it all coming and warned against Bretton Woods.
The Grandiose Failure of François du Noyer
If monopoly companies for specific products or specific areas of trade were good, reasoned François du Noyer, sieur de Saint-Martin, why not go one better? Why not one big company, one gigantic monopoly for virtually everything?
