In the wake of the Supreme Court’s ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, we are witnessing an outpouring of wailing and gnashing of teeth. Progressives emphatically deny that a corporation consists of nothing more than a voluntary aggregation of natural persons and that therefore it has all the rights of speech that its [...]

Although I am reputed to be a cynic, a pessimist, and a bah-humbugger, I am not given to doomsaying in the same way that a growing number of others are. Although I tend to expect, as Thomas Jefferson did, that the natural progress of things will be for liberty to yield and government to gain [...]

Has the recession ended? If not, do “green shoots” foretell a recovery’s advent in the near term? The answer, of course, depends on which indicators we check. Unfortunately, the mainstream economics profession and the public alike place too much emphasis on highly aggregative measures, such as estimates of quarterly GDP and the standard rate of [...]

Writing in today’s Wall Street Journal, Gary S. Becker, Steven J. Davis, and Kevin M. Murphy discuss how the government’s multifaceted efforts to “reform” health care, energy and environmental controls, financial regulation, taxation, monetary policy-making, and various other aspects of the politico-economic order have created such great uncertainty that business people are reluctant to invest [...]

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B002RAR3KG/theindepeende-20/002-6508816-9461647

Copenhagen scam
Snow in Louisiana
Turn up thermostat
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Health care reform hoax
Splendid investment they say
Fog will lift next year
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Afghanistan war
Soldiers in cold winter fight
Widows wearing black
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Change you can believe
Dark clouds on the horizon
Night comes on quickly
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Frightened birds take flight
False hopes fall down suddenly
Foolish citizens
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Democrats on throne
Republicans hunker down
What goes round comes round
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Global warming soon
Peer review makes no mistakes
Cold [...]

Do you believe that the government of the United States considers itself obliged by law to respect anyone’s rights? You are wrong. Read Chris Floyd’s article on a recent Supreme Court decision to let a lower court’s ruling stand, and weep your bitterest tears. If you count yourself among those who believe that this country stands [...]

In preparation for hearings on the government’s contractors in Afghanistan by the Senate Subcommittee on Contracting Oversight, the majority staff has prepared a memorandum, dated December 16, 2009, which gives an overview. I commend this report to your attention with the caveat “read it and weep.”
Not that this information differs in its general contours from [...]

“Higgs is just a pessimist” — how often I’ve come across expressions of that sentiment during the past twenty-five years! In certain circles, I have become the butt of jokes – some good-natured, some not – by virtue of my alleged pessimism.
Okay, maybe I am somewhat pessimistic. My wife, who is confident that she knows more about [...]

An announcement from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology informs us that Paul A. Samuelson died on Sunday, December 13, 2009, at the age of 94. The announcement also gives a good account of why Samuelson was for more than half a century a towering figure in the economics profession and, to some degree, in the [...]