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Liberty and Power

  • Dec 6, 2010

    Macroeconomic Booms and Busts: Déjà Vu Once Again

    by Liberty and Power

    Consider the following commentary on the economic situation:

    Foolhardy procedures which are divorced from economic realities, or whose economic implications are not understood by their promoters, do not perforce become sanctified and wise merely by designating them as “action”; tilting at windmills does not draw water.

    [W]hen a recovery program, which, while it may appear effective, depends for its efficacy upon much the same kind of “cheap money” inflation which . .

  • Dec 6, 2010

    Rose Wilder Lane as Champion of Laissez-faire Antiracism

    by Liberty and Power

    My article for the Independent Review (co-authored by Linda Royster Beito),"Selling Laissez-faire Antiracism to the Black Masses: Rose Wilder Lane and the Pittsburgh Courier," is now available. Lane (who was the daughter of Laura Ingalls Wilder,

  • Dec 1, 2010

    Send In The Clown

    by Liberty and Power

    The good people of Brazil, too, are cursed with a rather vile political elite, but at least they know that if you are going to have someone steal, lie, and throw obstacles in your path every step of the way you may as well get a laugh out of it.
  • Nov 30, 2010

    U.S. Embassy Cables

    by Liberty and Power

    Simon Jenkins explains that"The job of the media is not to protect power from embarrassment. If American spies are breaking United Nations rules by seeking the DNA biometrics of the UN director general, he is entitled to hear of it. British voters should know what Afghan leaders thought of British troops. American (and British) taxpayers might question, too, how most of the billions of dollars going in ai
  • Nov 27, 2010

    The False Dichotomy of the Status Quo and “Privatizing” the TSA

    by Liberty and Power

    In a column in Saturday’s Guardian, Amanda Marcotte tries to play, in her words, “Mercutio” in the ongoing TSA drama by being part of the “progressive civil libertarians” who object to the TSA’s new procedures but who are not in favor of “privatizing” them.  Her dismissal of the conservative criticisms as mere cover for outsourcing to private companies what the TSA is doing igno

  • Nov 24, 2010

    Stan and Ollie Create a Government

    by Liberty and Power

    "Utopia" is Laurel and Hardy's last movie. While not their best by a long shot, it does have one golden scene (about 6 minutes into the clip).

    Stan and Ollie and other castaways decide to form a government. They write a constitution which stipulates that there will be no taxes, laws, and money. After doling out all the top positions, such as president and foreign minister, however. Stanley is upset because he does not get an appoitnment. Ollie reassures him with the classic line:

  • Nov 23, 2010

    Reason Papers vol 32

    by Liberty and Power

    The paper version will be available in a couple weeks, but the online version is available now at ReasonPapers.com. There is a lot of interesting content - see the table of contents here. Also of possible interest is the notification that after a decade, I am stepping aside as editor-in-chief. Here is the editorial:

    The editorial to volume 26 of Reason Papers began with this: Reason Papers wa

  • Nov 22, 2010

    The Greatest Central Banker of Our Time

    by Liberty and Power

    In life, justly earned rewards are often never delivered and proof of it is a man named Riad Salameh, the greatest central banker of our time. If you are scratching your head because the name doesn't ring a bell, no need to fret. You're not alone.

    Dr. Salameh has been Lebanon's central bank governor since 1993, steering her through multiple foreign invasions, civil war, political assassinations, and the greatest credit bubble the world has ever seen. Unique among all central bankers
  • Nov 21, 2010

    North Korea? Really?

    by Liberty and Power

    I’d admire our country’s world straddling empire with a bit more enthusiasm if it were less of an out and out playground bully, and a cowardly one at that, always strolling up to the weakest kid and threatening “what’d you say ta me!?!?”

    A land of terror and famine which has deliberately cut itself off from the outside world, North Korea is once again being
  • Nov 19, 2010

    A Well Cast Ballot

    by Liberty and Power

    In the four previous elections I supported the Libertarian presidential candidate, however, in 2008 I felt the party disrespected Dr. Ron Paul and what he had accomplished, so I did not cast my ballot for their contender. Instead, I voted for Ralph Nader because every time I saw him on television he talked about our wars saying things I very much agreed with. After reading Nader’s thoughts on George Bush’s recent reemergence in to the public spotlight in an article titled