Articles in the The Goal Is Freedom Category
The Power to Tax is the Power
Posted in The Goal Is Freedom on 27 November 2009
Stats: 0 views and No Comments It would be nice if we could count on the court, at the very least, to forbid Congress from achieving a goal by means that violate freedom if means are available that do not. But let’s hold our breath.
Posted in The Goal Is Freedom on 27 November 2009
Stats: 0 views and No Comments It would be nice if we could count on the court, at the very least, to forbid Congress from achieving a goal by means that violate freedom if means are available that do not. But let’s hold our breath.
Let’s Ignore Congress
Posted in The Goal Is Freedom on 6 November 2009
Stats: 0 views and No Comments I spent a good part of Wednesday night closely skimming — my conscience won’t let me type “reading” — the Republicans’ alternative healthcare “reform” bill. It’s 219 pages of legalese. I know it’s one-tenth the size of Speaker Pelosi’s bill, but that doesn’t make for easier navigation. Figuring out how ...
Posted in The Goal Is Freedom on 6 November 2009
Stats: 0 views and No Comments I spent a good part of Wednesday night closely skimming — my conscience won’t let me type “reading” — the Republicans’ alternative healthcare “reform” bill. It’s 219 pages of legalese. I know it’s one-tenth the size of Speaker Pelosi’s bill, but that doesn’t make for easier navigation. Figuring out how ...
Getting in Deeper
Posted in The Goal Is Freedom on 23 October 2009
Stats: 0 views and No Comments In what the Wall Street Journal calls "a watershed moment for government intervention in the private sector," the Federal Reserve announced yesterday it will regulate executive compensation at all banks so that they will not have incentives to take on too much risk. The term "pretence of knowledge" comes to mind.
Posted in The Goal Is Freedom on 23 October 2009
Stats: 0 views and No Comments In what the Wall Street Journal calls "a watershed moment for government intervention in the private sector," the Federal Reserve announced yesterday it will regulate executive compensation at all banks so that they will not have incentives to take on too much risk. The term "pretence of knowledge" comes to mind.
Frustrating Michael Moore
Posted in The Goal Is Freedom on 16 October 2009
Stats: 116 views and 25 Comments If Michael Moore would study a little political economy he might turn into a potent champion of individual liberty. As we see in Moore's new movie, Capitalism: A Love Story, Moore is offended by some truly offensive things: banks engaging in wild speculation without concern for the risk, taxpayer bailouts ...
Posted in The Goal Is Freedom on 16 October 2009
Stats: 116 views and 25 Comments If Michael Moore would study a little political economy he might turn into a potent champion of individual liberty. As we see in Moore's new movie, Capitalism: A Love Story, Moore is offended by some truly offensive things: banks engaging in wild speculation without concern for the risk, taxpayer bailouts ...
Liberty versus Social Engineering
Posted in The Goal Is Freedom on 9 October 2009
Stats: 14 views and 6 Comments So David Brooks, the New York Times' resident conservative intellectual, must think he's a pretty clever fellow. In trying to characterize "the choices we face on issue after issue," he presumes to enlist the aid of philosophers Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832) and David Hume (1711-1776). Considering that Bentham ...
Posted in The Goal Is Freedom on 9 October 2009
Stats: 14 views and 6 Comments So David Brooks, the New York Times' resident conservative intellectual, must think he's a pretty clever fellow. In trying to characterize "the choices we face on issue after issue," he presumes to enlist the aid of philosophers Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832) and David Hume (1711-1776). Considering that Bentham ...
Being for the Free Market Isn’t Enough
Posted in The Goal Is Freedom on 2 October 2009
Stats: 22 views and 13 Comments Harold Meyerson, an op-ed columnist for the Washington Post, this week launched a devastating attack on what he calls "mainstream economists." Observe: Has any group of professionals ever been so spectacularly wrong? Pre-Copernican astronomers and cosmologists, I suppose, and for the same reason, really: They had an ...
Posted in The Goal Is Freedom on 2 October 2009
Stats: 22 views and 13 Comments Harold Meyerson, an op-ed columnist for the Washington Post, this week launched a devastating attack on what he calls "mainstream economists." Observe: Has any group of professionals ever been so spectacularly wrong? Pre-Copernican astronomers and cosmologists, I suppose, and for the same reason, really: They had an ...
Bastiat in Poland
Posted in The Goal Is Freedom on 25 September 2009
Stats: 20 views and 13 Comments Last week I mentioned that I traveled to Warsaw, Poland, to participate in the Liberty Weekend Devoted to the Life and Legacy of Frédéric Bastiat. I can report now that the conference, sponsored by PAFERE, the Polish-American Foundation for Economic Research and Education, was a smashing ...
Posted in The Goal Is Freedom on 25 September 2009
Stats: 20 views and 13 Comments Last week I mentioned that I traveled to Warsaw, Poland, to participate in the Liberty Weekend Devoted to the Life and Legacy of Frédéric Bastiat. I can report now that the conference, sponsored by PAFERE, the Polish-American Foundation for Economic Research and Education, was a smashing ...
Monsieur Bastiat, Call Your Office
Posted in The Goal Is Freedom on 18 September 2009
Stats: 12 views and 8 Comments Tomorrow I'll lecture at the Liberty Weekend Dedicated to Frédéric Bastiat, sponsored by the Polish-American Foundation for Economic Research and Education (PAFERE) in Warsaw. Preparing for my visit, I reread Bastiat's great book The Law (online in PDF format here and for sale here). Oh ...
Posted in The Goal Is Freedom on 18 September 2009
Stats: 12 views and 8 Comments Tomorrow I'll lecture at the Liberty Weekend Dedicated to Frédéric Bastiat, sponsored by the Polish-American Foundation for Economic Research and Education (PAFERE) in Warsaw. Preparing for my visit, I reread Bastiat's great book The Law (online in PDF format here and for sale here). Oh ...
ObamaCare: Status Quo on Steroids
Posted in The Goal Is Freedom on 11 September 2009
Stats: 24 views and 10 Comments Let's begin by noting that the so-called health-insurance companies deserve little sympathy. As they exist today, they are very much creatures of the State. In fact, there's a sense in which it can be said that if we didn't have health-insurance companies, we wouldn't need them. Economist ...
Posted in The Goal Is Freedom on 11 September 2009
Stats: 24 views and 10 Comments Let's begin by noting that the so-called health-insurance companies deserve little sympathy. As they exist today, they are very much creatures of the State. In fact, there's a sense in which it can be said that if we didn't have health-insurance companies, we wouldn't need them. Economist ...
From 1944 to Nineteen Eighty-Four
Posted in The Goal Is Freedom on 4 September 2009
Stats: 19 views and 9 Comments I'm inclined to think of George Orwell and F. A. Hayek at the same time. Both showed great courage in writing the truth, undaunted by the consequences awaiting them. Both valued freedom, though they understood it differently. Orwell, a man of the "left," could not remain silent in the face ...
Posted in The Goal Is Freedom on 4 September 2009
Stats: 19 views and 9 Comments I'm inclined to think of George Orwell and F. A. Hayek at the same time. Both showed great courage in writing the truth, undaunted by the consequences awaiting them. Both valued freedom, though they understood it differently. Orwell, a man of the "left," could not remain silent in the face ...
