The reopening of the U.S. stock market was an operation tinged with the same anxieties as grips a delinquent student on opening his exam results, or a driver with a criminal record being pulled over by the State’s most feared tax-gatherers, the traffic cops. Whatever direction the market may take in the future, its opening day was a time for
With a new book out on the portrayal of globalization in four American television programs (see Gilligan Unbound ), I have found myself drawn into the debate over how the events of September 11 may change popular culture in the United States. In the weeks immediately following the World Trade Center and Pentagon disasters, commentators were quick
The European Union cannot achieve its stated goals of prosperity and social harmony. In an attempt to explain why, I want to touch more specifically upon one of the issues that obstructs these goals -- namely, feminism--or, in the term that is used in Europe, “gender mainstreaming.” In 1996, the European Commission issued a document entitled
In his inauguration address, President George W. Bush exhorted Americans to act as “citizens” and to demonstrate the virtues necessary for good citizenship. Of course, the usual crowd thought that was great, especially following the narcissistic presidency of Bill Clinton. However, maybe it is time to look again at these demands made by the
According to the latest government statistics, the “heroic consumer” is keeping us out of recession, or at least is making our economy grow. That was the lead story on “NBC Nightly News” recently, which meant I was not much interested in hearing how it ended. Myths are myths, whether told by storytellers or by Tom Brokaw. At least Aesop’s
Although I am hardly a television junkie, I am quite aware of the grand success enjoyed by the new NBC Wednesday-night drama, “The West Wing.” At the recent Emmys, it received more awards than any other drama, and it apparently has a huge and faithful following. The star of the show is Martin Sheen, who plays President Josiah Bartlett, a left-wing
As trial lawyers continue to shake down U.S. businesses for conducting legitimate commercial practices, life insurers are now squarely in the crosshairs of the bar. According to The Wall Street Journal, about seventy-five life insurance companies face government probes for having had “race-based” premiums for their policies. The firm that is
The college football national championship is decided--in large part--by computer programming, not on the field. While the format of major college football’s method of deciding the national champion has been debated for eons (polls or playoffs?), the current method of choosing a champion suffers from the same fate as modern economic methodology,
I have no reason to celebrate the transfer of more than one hundred Canadian newspapers, including half-ownership of the National Post , from Conrad Black’s Hollinger Inc. to Izzy Asper’s CanWest Global Communications Corp. Shortly after the CanWest media acquisition flurry, I was fired by the new owner of the Vancouver-based North Shore News ,
In a much-missed series of columns for the Ludwig von Mises Institute , Professor Walter Block mused about the hijacking of honest English words by “the forces of socialism, statism . . . and political correctness,” rendering them unfit for use by those outside this camp. Third-Way leaders in particular, like Gerhard Schroeder, Tony Blair, and
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.