Big Government

In recent years, some economists, contrary to long-established and widely-accepted economic theory, have been claiming that increases in the minimu

Government will be so much better if we just adopt the latest fads in government reform, we’re told. Needless to say, modest reforms have a long record of total failure and the only answer is to make radical cuts to every government program.

Federal spending has soared by almost 20 percent since 2008. Yet, to hear Mr. Obama, one would think federal employees are forced to sell pencils on Constitution Avenue to raise funds to finance their bureaucratic salvation missions.

Politicians are telling us that we need the government to ensure "neutrality" in how broadband resources are allocated. However, not only is neutrality in allocation impossible, the effort to do so only hands more power over to the politicians while rendering consumers powerless.

Many have tried to create a division between "political freedom" and "economic freedom." But all freedoms ultimately depend on economic freedom, and our view of economic exchange dictates our view of politics.

In 2001, the Mises Institute published Reassessing the Presidency: The Rise of the Executive State and the Decline of Freedom, by John V Denson, which examines the role of the US presidency in warmaking, police powers, and a variety of attacks on private property and human rights.

Free markets have provided an abundance of goods and comforts for even low-income households.

Free markets have provided an abundance of goods and comforts for even low-income households. But constant government intervention in the work, lives, and incomes of the poor continues to create many barriers to economic success.

Now that the gross federal debt has surpassed $18 billion—six times the amount that troubled us back in 1990—we can clearly answer the two questions posed by the symposium's organizers: yes, a large and growing federal debt does matter; and no, we can do nothing about it.

In recent years, some economists, contrary to long-established and widely-accepted economic theory, have been claiming that increases in the minimum wage do not increase unemployment. But both logic and the data say otherwise.