Senator Jack Reed (D-RI) was asked “Specifically where in the Constitution does Congress get its authority to mandate that individuals purchase health insurance?”  He couldn’t cite a specific section, but noted that Congress has required individuals to do lots of things in the past.
As a practical matter, Senator Reed is right.
Originally, the Constitution created a [...]

In the current issue of Books & Culture, Professor Paul Harvey (not to be confused with the late radio icon) takes aim at my “imagined” (read: invented) tradition of classical liberalism on race. You can read his full review here.
Harvey concedes that Race and Liberty in America rediscovers “understudied authors.” Then he quickly moves on [...]

In a recent commentary titled “Diagnostics and Therapeutics in Political Economy,” I endeavored to show that an analytical understanding of past growth in the government’s size, scope, and power does not permit us to prescribe effective means of stopping or slowing this growth, particularly any simple “silver bullet” remedy, and I specifically disclaimed any personal [...]

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 [...]

A new political thriller from PBS, “Endgame,” provides the little-known, true back story of apartheid’s end in South Africa, with credit given to a for-profit mining company. Foreseeing that deteriorating conditions in South Africa would likely result in a total loss of their assets, Consolidated Goldfields initiated secret discussions between representatives of the [...]

In a recent op-ed for the Wall Street Journal, Rush Limbaugh defends his record (“I am not a racist”) and further points out the double standard allowing left-liberals off the hook for statements that are clearly racist.
Limbaugh’s defense highlights several problems for libertarians and conservatives:
First, playing defense 24/7 is no way to move forward. It [...]

On Sunday, leading Obama officials criticized Wall Street, complaining about high bonuses, blaming business for high unemployment and seemingly protesting that financial institutions have both taken on too much risk and yet have not lent out enough money. The administration is not accepting much blame on its own for the unemployment and economic slump. Meanwhile, [...]

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 [...]

[Crosspost from commentary section: http://www.independent.org/newsroom/article.asp?id=2623 ]
When Barack Obama dumped Rev. Jeremiah Wright during the presidential campaign, he explained that the Reverend was a man lost in another time, when hard-core white racism required hypersensitivity to issues of race.
Likewise, former President Jimmy Carter seems lost in the hypersensitive radicalism of the late 1960s. In controversial remarks, the [...]

Judging from the previews, Michael Moore’s latest, “Capitalism: A Love Story,” ought better be titled as above. Someone, quick, give him a copy of Adam Smith’s A Wealth of Nations and explain to him that the best way to stop corporations from taking advantage of government largesse distributed at the expense of the politically impotent [...]