Recently added articles from Freeman:
Hands Off "Windfall" Profits
Jul 01, 2008; Richman, Sheldon ... You don't have to like the oil companies to reject the windfall-profits tax. All you have to know is that if you tax something, you'll get less of it. No one can seriously dispute this piece of common sense. That leaves the strong suspicion that the motive for the tax is punitive: those ...
Character, Liberty, and Economics
Jul 01, 2008; Reed, Lawrence W ... Over four decades I've written scores of articles, essays, and columns on economics; taught the subject at the university level; and given hundreds of speeches on it. In recent years the nexus between the economics of a free society and individual character has worked its way into my writing, ...
The Fed Should Inflate to End the Financial Crisis? It Just Ain't So!
Jul 01, 2008; Pongracic, Ivan Jr ... The current housing and financial crisis has many people blaming "greed and market forces" for unleashing a panoply of evils on the unsuspecting middle class. This has led to many bad proposals to solve the crisis, such as the April 14 Wall Street Journal op-ed "The Inflation Solution to the ...
Whom Should We Thank for High Gas Prices?
Jul 01, 2008; Heberling, Michael ... I am writing this after having just filled my tank with gasoline at $3.99 per gallon. oil is over $125 a barrel. Big oil and their CEOs are the hands-down favorite to win the Snidely Whiplash People's Choice Award. Since Big oil is our favorite villain, no one really wants to hear about the ...
Too Much Freedom
Jul 01, 2008; Cordato, Roy E ... It's been said that when the only tool you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail. For politicians, bureaucrats, and many activists, when the only tool they have is coercion, the cause of every problem looks like too much freedom. Make no mistake: if you are committed to ...
On Baseball and Capital Markets
Jul 01, 2008; Grunewald, Donald F ... Baseball is a game of rules. These rules are not excessively complex for the simple reason that overregulation and overspecification would hamper the enjoyment of the game. How so? Consider the placement of the defensive players. Other than the pitcher and catcher, who must stand at ...
Net Neutrality or Government Brutality?
Jul 01, 2008; Summers, Adam B ... Over the past six years or so, network neutrality, or "net neutrality," has risen from an obscure techie buzz phrase to a bona fide political issue and rallying cry for some strange political bedfellows. The current debate comprises competing views on economics, regulation, free speech, property ...
Psychiatry Versus Liberty
Jul 01, 2008; Szasz, Thomas ... For millennia, slavery-involuntary servitude-was a universally accepted social institution. Today, psychiatric slavery-involuntary "treatment for mental illness"-is such an institution. Psychiatric incarceration and forced psychiatric treatment are integral parts of modern medical practice and ...
Government Workers Are America's New Elite
Jul 01, 2008; Greenhut, Steven ... As a child, I would ask my mother on Mother's Day or Father's Day: "Why isn't there a Children's Day?" After she stopped laughing, Mom explained: "Every day is Children's Day." I didn't understand the joke then, but now that I'm the father of three children, her answer makes perfect ...
Big Brother Is Watching as He's Never Watched Before
Jul 01, 2008; Akers, Becky ... The Transportation security Administration (TSA) has installed millimeter-wave scanners at checkpoints in about a dozen airports nationwide. It's threatening to inflict these gizmos on every commercial concourse in the country. Millimeter waves bombard passengers with beams that ...
The Recurring Crisis
Jul 01, 2008; Davies, Stephen ... Recently the governor of the Bank of England announced that the "nice" times had come to an end. (In the Bank's lexicon, NICE = "Non-Inflationary Constant Expansion"). This news will not come as any shock to the many Americans who have had their homes repossessed recently, but it does appear to ...
Libertarianism Through Thick and Thin
Jul 01, 2008; Johnson, Charles ... To what extent should libertarians concern themselves with social commitments, practices, projects, or movements that seek social outcomes beyond, or other than, the standard libertarian commitment to expanding the scope of freedom from government coercion? Clearly, a consistent and ...
Torture and Liberty
Jul 01, 2008; Bovard, James ... Is torture compatible with liberty? Unfortunately, this is no longer a hypothetical question. Many Americans who claim to support individual freedom also favor permitting the government to torture suspected terrorists or other purported enemies of the United States. This ...
A Farewell to Alms: A Brief Economic History of the World
Jul 01, 2008; Callahan, Gene ... A Farewell to Alms: A Brief Economic History of the World by Gregory Clark Princeton University Press * 2007 * 420 pages * $29.95 Reviewed by Gene Callahan Economic historian Gregory Clark has written a fascinating book offering a serious challenge to the currently predominant ...
The Conceit of the Regulators
Jul 01, 2008; Stossel, John ... Unless the government watches closely, the airlines will kill you. That seems to be what many reporters and politicians believe. "The result of inspection failures and enforcement failure [by the Federal Aviation Administration] has meant that aircraft have flown unsafe, ...
Freedomnomics: Why the Free Market Works and Other Half-Baked Theories Don't
Jul 01, 2008; Murphy, Robert P ... Freedomnomics: Why the Free Market Works and Other Half-Baked Theories Don't by John Lott Regnery Publishing * 2007 * 275 pages * $27.95 Reviewed by Robert P. Murphy Lately economists have been making it onto the bookshelves of Barnes & Noble with breezy volumes for the lay ...
Our First Revolution: The Remarkable British Upheaval that Inspired America's Founding Fathers
Jul 01, 2008; Wooster, Martin Morse ... Our First Revolution: The Remarkable British Upheaval that Inspired America's Founding Fathers by Michael Barone Crown/Three Rivers Press * 2007/2008 * 270 pages * $25.95, hardcover; $14.95, paperback Reviewed by Martin Morse Wooster In the mid-1980s Michael Barone, a columnist ...
Nanny State: How Food Fascists, Teetotaling Do-Gooders, Priggish Moralists, and Other Boneheaded Bureaucrats Are Turning America Into a Nation of Children
Jul 01, 2008; Leef, George ... Nanny State: How Food Fascists, Teetotaling Do-Gooders, Priggish Moralists, and Other Boneheaded Bureaucrats Are Turning America Into a Nation of Children by David Harsanyi Broadway Books * 2007 * 236 pages * $24.95 Reviewed by George Leef Several years ago I drove a colleague to ...
Correction
Jul 01, 2008; Anonymous ... Correction: We regret that credit for the May 2008 Freeman cover photo was omitted. The ...
Freedom, Drugs, and the Workplace
Jul 01, 2008; Henderson, David R ... Imagine that you work for an employer whom you respect, and you like your job. Then you find out that your employer uses marijuana for a medical condition. On further inquiry, you learn that he uses it completely legally and, as far as you can tell, it doesn't affect his performance as an ...