The Free Market 15, no. 12 (December 1997) When the Soviet Union’s central planners failed year after year to produce a respectable grain harvest, they blamed “bad weather.” If only the weather could be controlled, Moscow dreamed, communism might be made to work. Officially, communism is dead, but the bureaucratic obsession with controlling the
The Free Market 15, no. 12 (December 1997) ‘Seizing power is the essence of government as we know it. It’s not as easy as it once was. As public trust in government has plummeted, and resistance to central rule has grown, officials invent ever-new rationales. Here are just a few of the newest benefits the central state promises us if we
The Free Market 16, no. 1 (January 1998) Everyone knows about the class-action lawsuit against Hooters, the restaurant featuring waitresses in shorts and tight t-shirts. In the settlement, Hooters paid $2 million to the men who were denied the opportunity to serve as Hooter Girls, another $1.75 million in lawyer’s fees, and created three new
The Free Market 16, no. 3 (March 1998) President Bill Clinton called on nine opponents of affirmative action during his manipulative “national dialogue on race,” and asked a reasonable question. “What do you think we should do?” The right answer is nothing. Do nothing at all. To achieve that ideal, government must get out and stay out of the
The Free Market 16, no. 5 (May 1998) For years I received the Publisher’s Clearing House Sweepstakes mailing and just tossed it. No way would I waste my time for what amounts to a minuscule chance to win a bundle of dough. Sure, some folks win, but they are extremely few. The gimmicks were too obvious. (”When you win, do you want a red, green,
The Free Market 16, no. 6 (June 1998) I was one of only two non-socialists who managed to gain an invitation to Hillary Clinton’s “White House Conference on Child Care.” As I entered The Presidential Palace, it was like entering a carnival house-of-mirrors, a place where all was not as it seems, where reality grows distorted in grotesque ways.
The Free Market 16, no. 6 (June 1998) Bill Clinton has long enjoyed the support of prominent feminists. They not only know a political ally when they see one; they recognize that many of Clinton’s detractors are actually attacking sexual harassment laws. But, in light of the Clinton sexual scandals, some, like Anita Hill, fear the laws may be
The Free Market 16, no. 10 (October 1998) In 1944, Ludwig von Mises published one of his least-known masterworks: Omnipotent Government: The Rise of the Total State and Total War . Drawing on his prewar experience in Vienna, watching the rise of the National Socialists in Germany (the Nazis), who would eventually take over his own homeland, he
The Free Market 17, no. 3 (March 1999) If there were justice in the world, Joan Claybrook, the head of the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration during the Carter administration, would be handcuffed to the steering column of a Volkswagen Beetle while an air bag was repeatedly blown up in her face. While in the government
The Free Market 17, no. 4 (April 1999) The journalist, television commentator, and former presidential candidate Patrick J. Buchanan has been sharply criticized by his fellow Republicans for allegedly betraying Republican party “free-market” principles in his new book, The Great Betrayal. In the book Buchanan argues for protectionism and claims
What is the Mises Institute?
The Mises Institute is a non-profit organization that exists to promote teaching and research in the Austrian School of economics, individual freedom, honest history, and international peace, in the tradition of Ludwig von Mises and Murray N. Rothbard.
Non-political, non-partisan, and non-PC, we advocate a radical shift in the intellectual climate, away from statism and toward a private property order. We believe that our foundational ideas are of permanent value, and oppose all efforts at compromise, sellout, and amalgamation of these ideas with fashionable political, cultural, and social doctrines inimical to their spirit.