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• Eye on the Ball
  fee.org > resources > eye-on-the-ball
  David Veksler | Friday, September 1, 2006

  Like clockwork, the New York Times has produced another page-one story purporting to show that living standards for many Americans have fallen, this time because wages in recent years have failed to keep up with inflation. This has been happening, write Times reporters Steven Greenhouse and David Leonhardt, despite rising productivity and even taking into account the shift from cash to noncash benefits, such as medical insurance. Meanwhile, profits are up.
  
  In other words, workers aren’t getting their fair share of economic growth. More . . .

  A NEW article by Sheldon Richman

   

• To Be (in Congress) Is to Spend, Study Shows
  fee.org > resources > to-be-in-congress-is-to-spend-study-shows
  FEE.org Web Bot | Monday, August 28, 2006
  “Members of Congress like to talk about holding down government spending but continue to attach their names to very few proposals that would do so, a prominent interest group contends. . . . The National Taxpayers Union analyzed sponsorship of all bills that would have made at least $1 million difference in spending. The nonprofit group, which advocates limited government and low taxes, has been tracking such matters for 15 years. . . . [NTU] said the studies, which began in 1991, all point to the same thing: Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle spend more time thinking up ways to spend money than doing anything else.” (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Monday)
  
  It's what they do.
  
  FEE Timely Classic
  “Deficits Do Matter” by Hans F. Sennholz
• Double Standard
  fee.org > articles > double-standard
  Sheldon Richman | Friday, August 25, 2006
  When the market (apparently) fails, choruses immediately sing out for a government takeover of the particular function. When government fails, do we ever hear calls for a takeover by the competitive sector? Almost never. More . . .

  A NEW article by Sheldon Richman

• The Goal Is Freedom: Double Standard
  fee.org > resources > the-goal-is-freedom-double-standard
  Sheldon Richman |
  When the market (apparently) fails, choruses immediately sing out for a government takeover of the particular function. When government fails, do we ever hear calls for a takeover by the competitive sector? Almost never. More . . .

  A NEW article by Sheldon Richman

• G8 Leaders Pledge Energy Security
  fee.org > resources > g8-leaders-pledge-energy-security
  FEE.org Web Bot | Monday, July 17, 2006
  “'The need to protect the environment and to tackle climate change' is front and center in the Global Energy Security statement jointly issued today by the world's eight largest industrial nations, the G8, meeting here for their annual summit. 'Ensuring sufficient, reliable and environmentally responsible supplies of energy at prices reflecting market fundamentals is a challenge for our countries and for mankind as a whole,' the leaders said.” (Environment News Service, Monday)
  
  These are the last people we should be looking to for energy security.
  
  FEE Timely Classic
  “Can Industrial Policy Work?” by Frank W. Bubb
• Kelo Stands Firm on First Anniversary of Supreme Court Ruling
  fee.org > resources > kelo-stands-firm-on-first-anniversary-of-supreme-court-ruling
  FEE.org Web Bot | Friday, June 23, 2006
  “It's been one year since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of the city of New London's attempt's to take private property through eminent domain for an economic development and two of the last remaining plaintiffs in the landmark case remain in a stalemate with the city and state. Gov. J. Jodi Rell set deadline for Thursday for the two to either settle with the city, or lose the chance at extra funds that Rell authorized as an incentive to resolve the standoff. The deadline passed with no apparent deals by late Thursday night.” (Hartford Courant, Friday)
  
  Liberty v. Power.
  
  FEE Timely Classic
  “A Popular Insurrection on Property Rights” by Richard A. Epstein
  
  Read more on the Kelo case in in this special issue of The Freeman
• Fireworks Over Fireworks
  fee.org > resources > fireworks-over-fireworks
  FEE.org Web Bot | Wednesday, June 21, 2006
  As we approach July 4 each year, the bureaucratic busybodies kick into high gear, warning us against a hallowed tradition and its immense fun. “Fireworks are a wonderful way to celebrate Independence Day,” New York City's Mayor Michael Bloomberg admitted on June 8, “but it's critical that we leave it to the professionals. . . . In the hands of an untrained individual, fireworks can have deadly consequences.” Apparently, John Adams's famous exhortation that untrained individuals celebrate the country's birthday with “Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other” cuts no ice with the mayor and his ilk. On this, as on so many matters, poor John's advice is far too radical for our safety-cap-and-security-camera age. More . . .

  A NEW article by Becky Akers

• THE GOAL IS FREEDOMGovernment by Obfuscation
  fee.org > resources > the-goal-is-freedomgovernment-by-obfuscation
  FEE.org Web Bot | Friday, June 16, 2006
  Back when Americans were arguing over whether they should trade the Articles of Confederation for the newly drafted Constitution, the people called “Antifederalists” (the real Federalists, that is) warned that a complicated centralized political structure would obscure what the government does and expose the people's liberties to usurpation. Simplicity and transparency, they said, were bulwarks of freedom.
  
  I was reminded of that when I read a Washington Post article Tuesday by business columnist Allan Sloan. The upshot of his column is that among people who expect to inherit property, those he calls the “small rich” would be worse off if the estate tax were repealed permanently in 2010 than if the 2009 tax rules remained in effect. Here, in what Mencken called the “land of the theoretically free,” this is outrageous. More . . .

  A NEW article by Sheldon Richman

• Natural, Not National, Rights
  fee.org > resources > natural-not-national-rights
  FEE.org Web Bot | Friday, May 26, 2006
  Somewhere in my reading about immigration, someone made the deceptively simple point that it's not immigration we should be talking about but migration. That's another way of saying the focus has been on “us,” when it should be on the people coming to the United States. The discussion has proceeded as if they have no rights in the matter but we do. We will let them come here if and only if we have a use for them. And “we” doesn't refer to a group of free individuals, but rather to a collective Borg-like entity with rights superior to any held by its constituents. The collectivist, and therefore statist, nature of the discussion indicates how far we've drifted from our individualist and voluntarist moorings. More

  A NEW article by Sheldon Richman

• FEMA's Not the Only Problem
  fee.org > resources > femaaposs-not-the-only-problem
  FEE.org Web Bot | Tuesday, May 2, 2006
  My heart skipped a beat at the USA Today headline: “'Abolish' FEMA, says bipartisan Senate panel.” Yes! But I should have remembered that this is the Senate, after all. Leviathan is hardly altruistic enough to advise amputating its limbs, and the story's finer print revealed the truth. The Senate merely wants to replace FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) with — no surprise here — “a powerful new organization.” More

  A NEW article by Becky Akers