One of the dangers facing anyone who has come to believe in a certain philosophy or approach is the temptation to ignore or reject useful contributions from those not “pure” enough in their adherence to those principles. Believers in liberty face this particularly starkly with those whose actions contradict their alleged devotion to human freedom.

Reichsführer Perry is mad with power. How else can you explain his executive order mandating that Texas girls ages 11 and 12 receive the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine before entering the sixth grade starting in September 2008?

The principled Libertarian view is that Perry’s order is an aggression on the bodies of these young girls. But, of course, all forms of compulsory vaccination are an aggression on the body of those vaccinated against their will.

[Editor’s Note: This essay, a prescient blast at the then growing problem of Marxism in literary criticism, was published as an appendix in Henry Hazlitt’s 1933 book The Anatomy of Criticism: A Trialogue. The same arguments, of course, apply to claims used in criticism that certain literature is worthless because it supports “the patriarchy” or other modern stand-ins for “the bourgeoisie.”]

Actually, the headline reads: “Wal-Mart, Unions Unite on Health Care.” For years Wal-Mart has been falsely accused of shifting the cost of health care for its employees to taxpayers because the company’s high premiums and deductibles keep many Wal-Mart employees from participating in the company health plan—as if Wal-Mart is to blame for the welfare state instead of Congress. Wal-Mart has thrown in the towel:

Odds are that you have never heard of this book, much less own it, for it is exceedingly rare and I’ve hardly ever seen a mention of it, though it is just brilliant. It is The Anatomy of Criticism: A Trialogue, by Henry Hazlitt. It is now available for free download or in print on demand. (And it was a big sacrifice to give up my personal copy for the sake of the common good here!)

In my opinion, given the current political and cultural climate, the two biggest threats to economic liberty are environmentalism and trade protectionism.

Children of Men director Alfonso Cuaron, writes in the Guardian of a borderless state of freedom with regard to film-makers that perhaps presages a wider movement in many other markets:

[This article first appeared in The Review of Economic Statistics, November, 1937.]

The purpose of this article is to state a proposition which underlies the modern “monetary over-investment theories” of the trade cycle in a form in which, as far as I know, it has never before been expressed but which seems to make this particular proposition so obvious as to put its logical correctness beyond dispute.