In this week’s column, I’d like to raise two questions suggested by David Beito’s excellent book The New Deal’s War on the Bill of Rights, which I reviewed last week. First, how can it be that Franklin Roosevelt has acquired a reputation among leftist historians as a champion of liberty, with his internment of Japanese Americans during World War II regarded as an aberration, in the face of the manifold violations of civil liberties that occurred during his administration?

Federal laws and policies concerning disabilities have changed substantially since the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) passed over 33 years ago. Were changes in policy towards disabled Americans done in the public interest, or for political purposes?

It certainly isn’t common to find much agreement between the various authors here at the Mises Institute and our favorite metaphorical punching bag: Paul Krugman. But when it comes to the recently resurrected policy corpse of rent control, we have found a common cause.

As Krugman noted back in 2000,

Donald Trump, Julian Assange, Alex Jones, and Rudy Giuliani are in deep trouble with the US state. How about you?

Most likely you feel safe because your voice hasn’t attracted a large following. What would the state’s enforcers gain by attacking a little guy? They’re big-game hunters. Pull the plug on the big guys and their everyday followers float away like bathtub water down a drain.

The news arrived in an email from The New York Times, so it had to be true, given the NYT calls itself the “Newspaper of Record.” (The three young men falsely accused in the infamous Duke Lacrosse Case might differ with the NYT’s adherence to keeping an

Most discussions of affirmative action center on whether it is legal. Can universities give special advantages to groups that are supposed to be “disadvantaged,” especially blacks? From a libertarian standpoint, private institutions should be free to set whatever admission requirements they want. State-run universities raise more complicated issues, but this isn’t what I want to discuss. We need to ask, is affirmative action a good idea?

In the closing days of 2023, the Biden Administration once again announced a large military aid package for Ukraine, this time a “mere” quarter of a billion dollars. Without a new authorization of funds from Congress, it is said to be the last bit of money left over from the more than $100 billion already authorized by Congress for the proxy war with Russia through Ukraine.

Not many teachers would admit they had taught eight or nine murderers and a number of criminals in over four decades on the job. Coach and educator Steve Finesilver makes this confession in his book Hard Knocks & Dirty Socks: Through the Eyes of Coach.

On New Year’s Eve, US Navy helicopters in the Red Sea engaged and sank three boats belonging to Yemen’s Houthis, killing ten. According to US Central Command, the boats were attacking a container ship and fired on the helicopters as they responded to the ship’s distress call. The encounter represents a significant escalation that risks forcing a whole new war on the American public and the Middle East.

What’s in store for 2024? Will the Fed cut rates? If so, will it be because everything is awesome and the fabled soft landing has been achieved? Or will rate cuts just be a small part of a new multi-trillion-dollar bailout package? If the latter, who will bear the brunt of the blame?

Those on Wall Street seem largely unperturbed. On the final trading day of 2023, CNBC reported that: