Recently added articles from Independent Review:
Does regulation prevent fraud? The case of Manhattan hedge fund.
Jan 01, 2009; ... Moves to enhance and expand regulation almost invariably follow financial disasters. Losses trigger calls for government action, especially when fraud is suspected. Not only policymakers, but also the media and the wider public see regulation as the natural remedy, perhaps because people ...
The puzzle of local double taxation: why do private community associations exist?
Jan 01, 2009; ... The most important change in local government in the United States in the last quarter of the twentieth century was the rise of the private community association (Dilger 1992; Foldvary 1994; McKenzie 1994; Nelson 2005). From 1980 to 2000, about half the new housing built in the United ...
Health insurance before the welfare state: the destruction of self-help by state intervention.
Jan 01, 2009; ... Social scientists, especially sociologists and economists, are paying increasing attention to the concept of social capital. The expansion of its use has been so rapid that it has led some to warn against its misuse and against overstatement of its importance (see, for example, Portes ...
Kantian individualism and political libertarianism.
Jan 01, 2009; ... Immanuel Kant's political philosophy seems to involve a tension: a commitment to protecting individual agency and independence, yet an endorsement of state powers and duties that may impinge on that independence. The problem arises because Kant endorses a view of the individual human agent ...
Texas treasury notes after the compromise of 1850.
Jan 01, 2009; ... The Republic of Texas issued substantial quantities of debt, including Treasury Notes, bonds, and special loans, from the time of its independence to its annexation and statehood (1837-45). In 1842, Texas repudiated its debt, including its "Red Back" currency (Pecquet and Thies 2007). In ...
Gerrit Smith: a radical nineteenth-century libertarian.(PREDECESSORS)(Biography)
Jan 01, 2009; ... Gerrit Smith (1797-1874), in his day a well-known philanthropist, publicist, orator, abolitionist, temperance advocate, social reformer, and member of Congress, has been overshadowed by some of his better-known acquaintances, such as Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, Lysander Spooner, ...
Fascism: Italian German and American.
Jan 01, 2009; ... National Review contributing editor and Los Angeles Times columnist Jonah Goldberg's Liberal Fascism: The Secret History of the American Left, from Mussolini to the Politics of Meaning might appear at first glance to be another in a line of loud, mean, and often anti-intellectual books by ...
Pufendorf, Grotius, and Locke: who is the real father of America's founding political ideas?
Jan 01, 2009; ... Scholars frequently initiate debates by offering bold claims for their proffered interpretations. The liberal and republican exchange in American political history was first cast as a choice of either/or, but not both. The former claimed all for John Locke and liberalism, whereas the ...
Who was Edward M. House?(Etceteras ...)(In memoriam)
Jan 01, 2009; ... Edward M. House, a man now almost completely forgotten, was one of the most important Americans of the twentieth century. Given the sorry state of historical knowledge in the United States (most high school seniors do not know that the War Between the States was fought sometime between ...
The Wealth of Networks: How Social Production Transforms Markets and Freedom.(Book review)
Jan 01, 2009; ... The Wealth of Networks: How Social Production Transforms Markets and Freedom By Yochai Benkler New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2006. Pp. xii, 515. $45.00 cloth. Yochai Benkler's The Wealth of Networks is a comprehensive, informative, ...
Negative Liberty: Public Opinion and the Terrorist Attacks on America.(Book review)
Jan 01, 2009; ... Negative Liberty: Public Opinion and the Terrorist Attacks on America By Darren W. Davis New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 2007. Pp. xv, 276. $35.00. Wartime almost inevitably calls forth claims to restrict civil liberties in the name of ...
The Myth of the Rational Voter: Why Democracies Choose Bad Policies.(Book review)
Jan 01, 2009; ... The Myth of the Rational Voter: Why Democracies Choose Bad Policies By Bryan Caplan Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2007. Pp. 276. $29.95 cloth. In The Myth of the Rational Voter, Bryan Caplan presents a noteworthy challenge to a ...
Religious Liberty in America: The First Amendment in Historical and Contemporary Perspective.(Book review)
Jan 01, 2009; ... Religious Liberty in America: The First Amendment in Historical and Contemporary Perspective By Bruce T. Murray Amherst, Mass.: University of Massachusetts Press, 2008. Pp. xviii, 213. $80.00 cloth, $19.95 paper. Bruce T. Murray, a former editor ...
Was Keynes a liberal?(John Maynard Keynes)(Essay)
Sep 22, 2008; ... Keynes and Neomercantilism It is now common practice to rank John Maynard Keynes as one of modern history's outstanding liberals, perhaps the most recent "great" in the tradition of John Locke, Adam Smith, and Thomas Jefferson. (1) Like these men, it is generally held, Keynes ...
Property insurance for coastal residents: governments" "ill wind".(Essay)
Sep 22, 2008; ... It's an ill wind that blows nobody any good. --Proverb Living in coastal areas entails the risk of property damage from catastrophic storms, such as hurricanes and northeasters. (1) In recent years, costs associated with such storm damage, which disproportionately ...
"It is by unrule that Poland stands": institutions and political thought in the Polish-Lithuanian Republic.(Essay)
Sep 22, 2008; ... Premodern Poland does not often spring to mind when people think about the history of liberty and limited constitutional government. Although Poland is now a member of the European Union and a relatively wealthy country by world standards, it is still recovering from the severe injuries of ...
Coordination economics, poverty traps, and the market process: a new case for industrial policy?(Essay)
Sep 22, 2008; ... Market failure is the strongest reason for defending an active role for the state in the economy. Among other market-imperfection-based arguments, development economists widely use the theory of coordination failure to define a new case for industrial policy (Matsuyama 1997; Rodrik 1996, ...
Private equity: capitalism's misunderstood entrepreneurs and catalysts for value creation.(Essay)
Sep 22, 2008; ... [T]he problem that is usually being visualized is how capitalism administers existing structures, whereas the relevant problem is how it creates and destroys them. --Joseph Schumpeter, Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy Private-equity partnerships, especially in the ...
Colonialism or something else? A comment on Rafael Reuveny's analysis.(CONTROVERSY)(Critical essay)
Sep 22, 2008; ... The conflict between Palestine and Israel has been long and frustrating, with no end in sight. Rafael Reuveny (2008) has employed the model of colonialism to describe its history and predict its end. His article is rich and occasionally convoluted. He protects himself at several points ...
Colonialism or something else? A reply to Ira Sharkansky's comment.(CONTROVERSY)(Critical essay)
Sep 22, 2008; ... Ira Sharkansky's criticism of my article is emotional and sometimes inflammatory, but it is also unconvincing. Colonialism, he writes, "is one of the ugliest words available to judge a country's history, and therefore it tilts the analysis heavily toward Israel's fault," suggesting that I ...