Real Tax Reform

Individual income taxes could painlessly be eliminated if federal spending was simply reduced to about the level it was at the beginning of the previous administration. Unfortunately, writes Laurence Vance, no recent tax reform proposal even addresses the issue of giving the federal government less money to spend. All of these plans are doomed from the beginning as a solution to the wealth-destroying, redistributionist, success-punishing, social engineering, welfare state-funding tax code because they ignore the real problem.

Murray N. Rothbard: In Memoriam

“It is not likely that we shall ever have another scholar of Murray’s breadth,” writes Robert Higgs of in his memorial for Murray Rothbard. “I hold him to have been one of our century’s great intellectual figures, whose neglect by mainstream academicians is inexcusable.” In addition to his scholarship, which “spanned an enormous range, including philosophy, methodology, economic theory, the history of economic and political thought, economic history, economic policy, law, and contemporary politics,” Higgs recalls Rothbard’s unflagging optimism and his fabulous sense of humor: “He was a truly entertaining conversationalist and lecturer, and his letters contained priceless witticisms and hilarious descriptions. He delighted in “calling a spade a spade and not a ‘triangular implement for digging.’”

Tax Day

An unsigned editorial, written by Murray N. Rothbard, appeared in the April 15, 1969 issue of The Libertarian (soon to become The Libertarian Forum). In it, Rothbard emphasized: The first great lesson to learn about taxation is that taxation is simply robbery. No more and no less. Those who claim that taxation is, in some mystical sense, really “voluntary” should then have no qualms about getting rid of that vital feature of the law which says that failure to pay one’s taxes is criminal and subject to appropriate penalty.

The Housing Bubble: Whose Fault?

Now that the housing bubble is starting to burst, it’s time to address the really important questions: whose fault was it? And who will wind up paying the bill? Congress has begun to line up on this issue.

It is now becoming clear that a substantial fraction of the mortgages issued over the last few years will go into default, along with the issuesrs. Foreclosures are increasing and the mortgage lender implode-o-meter is currently at 55.

The Individual in Society

Mises writes: What impels every man to the utmost exertion in the service of his fellow men and curbs innate tendencies toward arbitrariness and malice is, in the market, not compulsion and coercion on the part of gendarmes, hangmen, and penal courts; it is self-interest.... A man whose fate is determined by the plans of a superior authority, in which the exclusive power to plan is vested, is not free in the sense in which the term “free” was used and understood by all people until the semantic revolution of our day brought about a confusion of tongues.

Sirens for what?

The hurricane sirens went off this evening in Auburn, which they seem to do every time there is any wind or rain within 60 miles. And every time I’m reminded of that day, about 10 years ago, when a bureaucrat from FEMA called our offices. He was furious about some editorial we had published attacking FEMA policies. We defended our position. He shot back: “And is this the way you repay us for giving you that alarm system you have in Auburn?!” or words to that effect. It was a strange and unforgettable moment.

Drop Errors and The Trouble with Peer Review

In product development there are two kinds of errors. A “go” error occurs when the green light is given to a product that eventually fails. The Edsel, a $250 million write-off by the Ford Motor Company in 1959, is one example. The “drop” error occurs when an idea that could have been highly profitable is eliminated from further consideration. How do we know that the idea could have been profitable? In a free market dropped ideas have the habit of being picked up by someone else.

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