In Washington, words such as “cost,” “tax,” “subsidy,” “spending,” and other fiscal terms have no fixed meaning. For example, it is considered costly to cut taxes, and a subsidy to provide a tax break. This morning, we read that Bush wants to provide a tax break to low income people who buy private coverage, while taxing people “for some workers
I find Iraq news painful to read so I was glad for this summary of the current situation in Iraq, from Antiwar.com, but can you believe that author’s claim that “cuts to state subsidies” for industry contributes to inflation? Oh well, it still contains good information. Nowhere on Earth is there a worse refugee crisis than in Iraq today. According
The Free Market 20, no. 1 (January 2002) In the post-attack world, in which politicians attempt to impose the national security state at home and wage war abroad, a simple point has been obscured: it all started with a multiple hijacking. The theft of the planes was made possible not with grenades or heavy explosives but with box cutters—the
The Free Market 20, no. 7 (July 2002) As the war on terror drags on, many people calling themselves libertarians have decided that it’s not such a bad thing after all. What, they ask, is the point of government if not to bomb those who would threaten our safety? The trouble is that real life works a little differently from the civics-text ideal
The Free Market 12, no. 7 (July 1994) Did 12 years of Reagan-Bush corrupt the Right? “Whatever they might say in their after-dinner speeches or in their op-ed pieces,” writes former Wall Street Journal editorialist David Frum in his new book Dead Right , conservatives have “effectively thrown in the towel on government spending” and given up the
The Free Market 13, no. 1 (January 1995) The phrase “End Welfare As We Know It” is a classic Clinton evasion. It sounds bold and “neoliberal” at first, but on close examination it collapses into nothingness. Almost any change in a policy qualifies as ending it “as we know it.” It could mean cuts. It could also mean more spending and
The Free Market 13, no. 3 (March 1995) The Republican leadership and their advisers are confirming Murray Rothbard’s doubts. Writing in the Washington Post , Rothbard noted the vast ideological divide between the voters and those who control the Republican Congress. His prediction: the leadership will defend the old order of government control
The Free Market 13, no. 6 (June 1995) The Nafta “debate” was hardly that at all. The treaty text—the blueprint for North America’s Maastricht—didn’t appear until very late. A handful of smart economists read the text, and concluded it was an unwise political and financial merger, not free trade. Assorted groups of populists, greens, and
Fortune takes note of the “crumbling infrastructure “ and suggests that Randian capitalists might come to the rescue (the article is confused and meandering so no reason to ponder the thesis completely). But it does remind me of the book I just read last week, one I thought was just over-the-top wonderful: The Driver, by Garet Garrett . It is set
John Derbyshire explains why he is tempted by Ron Paul’s views on government but must ultimately reject them. His argument seems to be that if government is small, it’s fine to favor small government. But if it is vast and imperial, we should favor that too. Doesn’t this reduce “conservatism” to nothing but status quo cheering of the state? I
What is the Mises Institute?
The Mises Institute is a non-profit organization that exists to promote teaching and research in the Austrian School of economics, individual freedom, honest history, and international peace, in the tradition of Ludwig von Mises and Murray N. Rothbard.
Non-political, non-partisan, and non-PC, we advocate a radical shift in the intellectual climate, away from statism and toward a private property order. We believe that our foundational ideas are of permanent value, and oppose all efforts at compromise, sellout, and amalgamation of these ideas with fashionable political, cultural, and social doctrines inimical to their spirit.