Everyone seems to agree that Reagan slashed the size and scope of government. Murray N. Rothbard exposes the truth.

The traditional family has for many centuries and in most countries been the core unit of society. It has been the foundation and even the ultimate purpose in many people’s lives. It has provided a stable framework to bring children into the world, to raise them, to teach them manners and how to become productive and happy human beings. It has been relied upon for emotional and financial support, and in many other regards.

All this is changing now.

Two excellent pieces from The Free Market archives, written by Sheldon Richman:

• The Sad Legacy of Ronald Reagan
• Ronald Reagan: Protectionist

CNET news.com, the popular (top 100 web site) tech news site issues a fatwa against the FCC: It’s true that imagining a telecommunications world without the FCC is not easy. But imagining a telecommunications world not dominated by Ma Bell was difficult two decades ago, and it was not easy for the Eastern European countries to imagine life without the Soviet Union.

Noam Chomsky says: “I doubt very much that you met a capitalist who believes in free trade. To my knowledge, that is close to a non-existent category.”

What “free trade” was he talking about? Certainly not WTO, NAFTA, etc. They are remote from any notion of free trade.

Rothbard on Reagan’s economics: “Amidst the intellectual confusion, however, a few dominant tendencies, legacies from their glory days, remain among Keynesians: (1) a penchant for continuing deficits, (2) a devotion to fiat paper money and at least moderate inflation, (3) adherence to increased government spending, and (4) an eternal fondness for higher taxes, to lower deficits a wee bit, but more importantly, to inflict some bracing pain on the greedy, selfish, and short-sighted American public.

In a recent speech to the UBS Financial Services Conference, Fannie Mae CEO Franklin Raines described the role of the GSEs in a way that sounds very analagous to what central banks do. (This quote was reported by The GSE Report).

How did hundreds of millions of dollars in new bills find their way to the Iraqi central bank during a period of extreme economic sanctions? This probing NYT story provides no final answers but following the trail proves fascinating enough.

Morgan Stanley economist Stephen Roach provides some of the more interesting economic commentary coming out of the large financial firms. Although he is not an Austrian he often reaches some similar conclusions as many of the analysts on the Mises site.