The Free Market 15, no. 5 (May/June 1997) On the presidential campaign trail, Bob Dole spoke often about his own private charity, the Dole Foundation. He used it to showcase his personal compassion for those in need, particularly people with disabilities. In televised debates, he conjured up images of himself and his wife digging into their
The Free Market 17, no. 9 (September 1999) Making splashy headlines, the National Marriage Project of Rutgers University reported this summer that marriage rates are at an historic low. Americans are waiting longer to get married and are choosing alternative arrangements to marriage. Data showing that divorce is on the decline turn out to be
And thus does the deficit soar to $427 billion . Whenever news stories dig up Fed officials, politicians, or bureaucrats who express grave concern about the deficit trend, we might imagine a group of thieves with a back up printing press worry about their spending habits. So long as they get away with it and believe they can evade the
This piece by Charles Wheelan, by the economics editor of Yahoo Finance, is provocatively titled “ Taxes Can Be Good for You .” So we read and read to find out precisely how it is the case that having some of our earnings and property taken from us by force can actually be good for us as individuals. In the course of his argument he makes silly
Well, this is interesting. The IRS here says that: “If you steal property, you must report its fair market value in your income in the year you steal it unless in the same year, you return it to its rightful owner.” (See page 90 under “”Stolen Property.” I wonder what implications this has for the tax returns of, for example, Members of Congress.
In Washington, words such as “cost,” “tax,” “subsidy,” “spending,” and other fiscal terms have no fixed meaning. For example, it is considered costly to cut taxes, and a subsidy to provide a tax break. This morning, we read that Bush wants to provide a tax break to low income people who buy private coverage, while taxing people “for some workers
A Clever Tax Strategy May Backfire - New York Times is an impressive reporting job by Flloyd Norris. I can only vaguely understand this tax-avoidance strategy but, regardless, who could possibly symphathize with the hunters as opposed to the hunted? The Strategy as Norris presents it: An investor with a large block of stock does an options collar
Lawrence Kotlikoff has responded to Laurence Vance’s criticism of the FairTax idea. So that it doesn’t get lost in the ever-longer thread here, here it is as a separate post. It seems to me that that his whole response underscores what a great job Vance did. Smoke and mirrors indeed! Reviewing Laurence Vance’s Book Review “There’s No Such Thing as
The hurricane sirens went off this evening in Auburn, which they seem to do every time there is any wind or rain within 60 miles. And every time I’m reminded of that day, about 10 years ago, when a bureaucrat from FEMA called our offices. He was furious about some editorial we had published attacking FEMA policies. We defended our position. He
From Portfolio.com : No matter how you view them, the numbers inspire shock and awe. According to the Congressional Research Service, the combined cost of the Iraq war (Operation Iraqi Freedom, in Pentagon jargon) and its companions, Operation Enduring Freedom, in Afghanistan, and the Global War on Terror, could easily top $600 billion this
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.