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Liberty and Power

  • Mar 30, 2004

    Stagflation Once More

    by Liberty and Power

    With all due respect to William's experiences, I simply don't believe the data support the sort of negative picture of the economy that he and Wendy are painting. Again, I'm not a Pollyana here, and I can think of a whole bunch of ways the Bush administration has made matters worse than they could be (e.g., out of control spending, trade barriers, resources devoted to destruction here and abroad), and I can think of lots of ways things could get worse down the road, but

  • Mar 30, 2004

    No, Steven, It's My Stagflation to Have to Deal With

    by Liberty and Power

    I have several questions about the arguments offered by Steven Horwitz. If the inflation rate is really so low, one would think the government would be doing more to publicize this"wonderful" situation. The Bush Adm. has had no difficulty in repeating a great deal of questionable data with respect to Iraq as detailed in the latest Report offered by Congressman Henry Waxman.

    My understanding is that there is no"fixed" basket, but that the government has shifted the mix with items which d

  • Mar 30, 2004

    Teller (or is it Penn?) for President

    by Liberty and Power

    We need something to make this presidential race interesting. Imagine seven more months of Bush, Kerry, and Nader!

    My suggestion (inspired by a conversation with Deborah Katz Hunt) is that the Libertarian party run magicians Teller and Penn (both libertarians) as its presidential and vice presidential candidates. The campaign commercials would show a stone-silent Teller standing next to the talkative Penn. Penn would say something like"our candidate, Mr. Teller, wants you to know...."

  • Mar 30, 2004

    This is Not Your Father's Stagflation

    by Liberty and Power

    It's easy to find lots of economic problems to blame on over-reaching government, but I think the issues raised by Wendy are more complex than the overall tone makes it appear.

    First, when we talk about prices going up, we also need to consider wages. As the work of Cox and Alm and others has argued, the prices of nearly all goods and services have been falling when calculated in terms of the labor-time needed to purchase them at the average industrial wage. Stuff's

  • Mar 30, 2004

    The Only Directly Elected Leader in the Middle East?

    by Liberty and Power

    His name is Yassir Arafat, so says Noam Chomsky. Well, I am not a Chomsky fan but he does have a point on this. As to whether Arafat provides a good model for Bush's master plan to bring Wilsonian democracy to the Middle East, I will let others comment on that.
  • Mar 30, 2004

    Index of Economic Freedom

    by Liberty and Power

    The Heritage Foundation and The Wall Street Journal has published the 10th annual 'Index of Economic Freedom,' and the U.S. has dropped from being tied for 6th place worldwide to being alone in 10th. [Click on nation's name at the ranking list to access detailed description]

    Under the heading Monetary Policy for the US, the Index states,"From 1993 t

  • Mar 30, 2004

    The Real Offense

    by Liberty and Power

    Ever since former anti-terrorism specialist Richard Clarke publicly apologized, on behalf of himself and the U.S. government, for the security lapses that let 9/11 happen, debate has raged over whether a government apology is appropriate. It certainly seems that the multibillion-dollar"security" apparatus we are forced to pay for failed us—and not one head has rolled. Heck, no one has even been denied a promotion on account of the blunders. But an important point is being overlooked. There
  • Mar 30, 2004

    Pot Calls Kettle Black, Then Shuts It Down

    by Liberty and Power

    Now let me get this straight: the U.S. occupiers have closed a popular newspaper in Baghdad for, as the New York Times put it,"printing lies that incited violence." That is undoubtedly more serious than issuing lies to justify violence.
  • Mar 30, 2004

    Yankee Come Home!!!

    by Liberty and Power

    Spring is here ... a time of life, renewal, and resurrection. And there sure is a lot of resurrection going around. Even in theaters,"The Passion of the Christ" is still playing to full crowds, though it was displaced last weekend by"Dawn of the Dead." (Sarah Polley, star of"Dawn," thought it appropriate:"It makes sense that we beat 'em out. I mean, we've got more people rising from the dead. They've got one. We
  • Mar 30, 2004

    No Pity, No Praise - Part 2

    by Liberty and Power

    [cross-posted at Austro-Athenian Empire]

    In a previous post I expressed ambivalence about the conflict between the villainous Microsoft and the still more villainous E.U. Now it turns out that the E.U.'s regulatory policies may actually benefit Microsoft more than they hurt it; thanks to Charles Johnson for sending me a link to
  • Mar 29, 2004

    Radical Feminism: Some Thoughts on Long’s Defense

    by Liberty and Power

    Roderick Long claims that feminism can’t be productively divided into individualist and collectivist categories. At least, not in the way that I was proposing do it. For that, Roderick says, requires an illegitimate commitment: to the proposition that either something is a proper item of feminist concern and “therefore” an object of legislation, or not a proper item of feminist concern and “therefore” not an object of legislation.

  • Mar 29, 2004

    With the Bush Team's "Nation-Building" in "Darkest" Afghanistan

    by Liberty and Power

    For the latest example of America's skill at"nation-building," check out the article below:

    Financial Times March 28 2004

    UN warns on Afghanistan reverting to terrorism

    By Hugh Williamson in Berlin and Farhan Bokhari in Islamabad

    A United Nations body will warn this week that Afghanistan is in danger of reverting to a"terrorist breeding ground" with an economy dependent on the illegal drug trade unless the international community significantly increases developm

  • Mar 28, 2004

    Chernobyl Ghost Town Site

    by Liberty and Power

    I'm not a big believer in posting links to web stories, because one's appreciation of them is so subjective. However, this narrative, with pictures, of a motorcycle ride to the ghost town near Chernobyl that remains frozen in time when it was evacuated on April 26, 1986, is nothing short of amazing. Perhaps it's been posted elsewhere on the web before, and if so, my apologies for treating it as brand new. You can make political p
  • Mar 28, 2004

    The University of Southern Mississippi: Still a Solid Mess

    by Liberty and Power

    Just over a week ago the Mississippi State College Board made a half-hearted gesture to resolve the impasse at the University of Southern Mississippi. The institution plunged into crisis when President Shelby Thames decided to fire two tenured professors, Frank Glamser and Gary Stringer, in the middle of a semester. Their offense apparently consisted of revealing that one of his hand-picked administrative cronies, the Vice President for Deve
  • Mar 28, 2004

    Airports and privacy round-up

    by Liberty and Power

    The Washington Times states that major US airports are considering"the option of using private companies beginning Nov. 19 if they can demonstrate security would not diminish." The first question that occurs to me: would these private citizens have the same right to fine me for my attitude as the government security officers currently do? Again from
  • Mar 28, 2004

    Two Dissenting Justices: “The Road to Hell”

    by Liberty and Power

    Check out this latest assault by Power on Liberty:

    Channel 6 New Orleans

    Court Opens Door To Searches Without Warrants

    POSTED: 3:55 pm CST March 26, 2004 UPDATED: 4:36 pm CST March 26, 2004

    NEW ORLEANS -- It's a ground breaking court decision that legal experts say will affect everyone: Police officers in Louisiana no longer need a search or arrest warrant to conduct a brief search of your home or business.

    Leaders in law enforcement say it will provide safet

  • Mar 28, 2004

    Rice Takes to Airwaves in Counterattack

    by Liberty and Power

    March 28, 2004 -- (Reuters) - Sensing a threat to President Bush's re-election, his national security adviser Condoleezza Rice will step into the arena where her former aide first made incendiary charges that Bush ignored pre-Sept. 11 warnings about al Qaeda. Rice will be interviewed on CBS's"60 Minutes" -- the influential television news program where counterterrorism expert Richard Clarke a week ago accused Bush of mishandling the terror threat.

  • Mar 27, 2004

    Another Whistle Blower

    by Liberty and Power

    Salon.com March 26, 2004 

    "We should have had orange or red-type of alert in June or July of 2001"

    By Eric Boehlert 

    A former FBI wiretap translator with top-secret security clearance, who has been called"very credible" by Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, has told Salon she recently testified to the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States that the FBI had detailed information prior to Sept. 11, 2001, that a terrorist attack involving airplanes was being

  • Mar 27, 2004

    Dick Clarke: The Ultimate Anonymous Source?

    by Liberty and Power

    Washingtonian.com 3/26/04

    Clarke’s Coziness With the Media Might Help Him Win War With Bush

    By Harry Jaffe

    If you want the real book on Richard Clarke—minus the Bush-administration attacks and Clarke’s self-promotion—read Ghost Wars, Steve Coll’s new book on the CIA in Afghanistan.

    “His enemies regarded him as not only mean, but dangerous,” writes Coll, managing editor of the Washington Post. “So palpably did he thrive on an air of sinister mystery,” Coll writes, that C