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Author Archive

Obama’s Stimulus Credibilty Gap on Unemployment »

The House Republican Conference has just released the following graph on the unemployment effects of Barack Obama’s “stimulus” package:
Also, please see the following, award-winning Independent Institute book:
Out of Work: Unemployment and Government in Twentieth-Century America, Updated Edition
By Richard K. Vedder and Lowell E. Gallaway, Foreword by Martin Bronfenbrenner
(New York University Press)

Robert Higgs on Fox News: The Folly of Obama’s Spending Spree »

Independent Institute Senior Fellow Robert Higgs is interviewed here by Judge Andrew Napolitano on Fox News’ program, “Freedom Watch,” regarding the utter folly of the gigantic federal spending programs first started under George W. Bush and now enormously expanded by Barack Obama and the U.S. Congress. Prolonging the recovery amidst enormous economic confusion and new [...]

Biological Determinism, as with Marxist Determinism, is Folly »

James Montanye’s recent posting on reciprocal rights theory and altruism provides the standard evolutionary biological (evo-devo) view, but as such fails to explain pure altruism or “radical altruism” and is inadequate to defend any consistent system of political economy and morality, including natural law and natural rights, individual liberty and the rule of law. [...]

Robert Higgs on Barack Obama as Herbert Hoover’s True Heir »

Independent Institute Senior Fellow Robert Higgs is interviewed on Fox News’ “Freedom Watch with Judge Andrew Napolitano” on how Barack Obama is Herbert Hoover’s true “Progressive” heir as an economic interventionist, corporatist and protectionist. Hoover’s policies caused the Great Depression and Franklin Roosevelt then continued and greatly expanded such policies as his New Deal, deepening [...]

Anti-Big-Government DC Demonstration Draws Huge Crowd: “Don’t Tread on Me” »

According to ABC News, Washington D.C. police initially estimated that a crowd of 60-70,000 people traveled from across the U.S. to participate in a massive demonstration (in the rain) not just against ObamaCare but the overall, huge explosion of federal power, spending and debt. Updated estimates (see London Daily Mail and San Francisco Examiner) place [...]

Why Does Health Insurance Cost So Much? »

In direct contrast to Barack Obama’s nationally televised talk on his government-mandated health care plan, here is John Stossel’s recent, very incisive, special segment on ABC-TV’s 20/20, “Health Care Mystery: What’ll That Cost?”, in which he examines government-created third-party payers and asks why it is so hard to find out what health care actually costs:

Inglourious Basterds: “An Eye-for-an-eye” Makes the Whole World Blind »

In a recent article in the Wall Street Journal, “Inglourious Basterds and the Problem of Revenge,” Jordana Horn incisively examines the theme of Quentin Tarantino’s new, fictional, revenge film, Inglourious Basterds, in which German soldiers and others in World War II are targeted by an elite Jewish-American commando unit to be killed, scalped, tortured, beaten [...]

Onion News Network: U.S. Stages Fake Coup to End National Debt »

The Onion News Network hilariously and insightfully satirizes the escalation of the gigantic spending, debt, and disregard for constitutional law by the U.S. government, “U.S. Government Stages Fake Coup to Wipe Out National Debt:”
U.S. Government Stages Fake Coup To Wipe Out National Debt
To understand the folly of Barack Obama’s New, New Deal, see the following [...]

Remake of The Prisoner to Air on AMC »

After forty years, AMC is remaking a six-hour version of The Prisoner, the late Patrick McGoohan’s clever, libertarian, metaphysical, TV mini-series. With the ominous rise of statism and collectivism now in the United States and elsewhere, this program could not be more timely in addressing such issues as privacy and government surveillance, propaganda and mind [...]

Silverglate on Letting Torturers Off »

Attorney Harvey Silverglate is unfortunately not a reliable source to defend the natural rights of the citizenry from the abuse of government agents. Like most “liberal” attorneys, Silverglate’s views are a mixed bag, even when his intent may be to defend habeas corpus. Incredibly enough, given his critique of the Cambridge, Mass., police in arresting [...]