Allegiance to Government Schools

Robert Murphy on the Pledge controversy: Those truly concerned about protecting individual dissenters from the tyranny of the majority should lobby for the removal of the word “indivisible” from the pledge. The classical liberal doctrine of self-determination is the only way to achieve limited government and lasting social peace.

The U.S. Economy Is Not Depression-Proof

One of the enduring myths about government is the notion that successful governments are those entities that “provide prosperity” for those who are governed. The real issues involve who receives the blame for causing the calamity--and who benefits from it. Thus, Herbert Hoover is identified (correctly) with causing the Great Depression, while Franklin D. Roosevelt wrongly receives credit for pulling the United States out of the depression.

A September 11 Profiteer

It was September 11, and panicked customers were flocking to the two gas stations Bobbie Jean Harvey owns near Midland, Mich., to top off their tanks in case the supply of gas was disrupted. It became apparent that sales on September 11 were going to be above average. In hindsight, however, Ms. Harvey wishes she had closed her stations.

The Revenge of Reality

Contrary to popular thinking, the stock market does not have causative powers as far as economic activity is concerned. The prices of stocks only reflect individuals’ assessments of economic reality. And while individuals can change their evaluations of economic facts, writes Frank Shostak, they cannot alter the facts themselves.

Regulatory Rot

Gregory Bresiger offers his compassion for the regulatory Quixotes, and says that it is time to think the unthinkable: Forget about the system of regulation; consign it to the garbage bin of history. Close down the SEC, along with myriad other regulatory bodies.

The Legitimacy of Capitalism

Capitalism is not so much a social system, writes Llewellyn Rockwell, but the natural result of a society wherein individual rights are respected, where businesses, families, and every form of association are permitted to flourish in the absence of coercion, theft, war, and aggression. In this way, and despite the current anti-business frenzy, capitalism is an indispensible expression of freedom.

Arbitration on Trial

Arbitration is under fire again, but it remains the best way to settle employer/employee disputes. It is more likely to protect the property rights of the parties to the lawsuit. Government courts, in contrast, principally benefit the lawyers and those who write the laws. Adam Young examines private-arbitration clauses.

The War Over Method

In the midst of the debate between Keynesian and monetarist economists, the positions of these two groups came to be known as “saltwater economics” and “freshwater economics,” respectively. These labels derived from the location of centers of Keynesian thought (MIT and Harvard) near an ocean and the location of the center of monetarist thought (the University of Chicago) near the Great Lakes.

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