I’ve wondered why state governors and legislators haven’t been more vocal opponents of the healthcare reforms being drawn up in Washington.  All these proposals would put huge financial burdens on the states.
I haven’t seen much in the news until this article appeared, reporting that two Florida state senators are proposing that the state examine dropping [...]

In Newsweek, November 16, 2009, p. 20, Fareed Zakaria says, “There are two general health-care crises in America — one involving coverage and the other cost.  The Obama plan appears likely to tackle the first but not the second.  This is bad economics but also bad politics: the crisis of cost affects 85 percent of [...]

“That government is best which governs not at all,”
Said Henry David Thoreau,
But what did he know?
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“Liberty:  not the daughter but the mother of order,”
Declared Pierre-Joseph Proudhon,
And then he passed on.
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“When the government is too intrusive, people lose their spirit,”
Noted Lao-tzu,
As I would, too.
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“Great men are almost always bad men,”
Declared Lord Acton
―some wisdom to act on.
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“Let [...]

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 [...]

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)

In a November 3 article, the Wall Street Journal reports that corporate cash holdings have reached extraordinary levels:
Stung by the financial crisis, companies are holding more cash — and a greater percentage of assets in cash — than at any time in the past 40 years.
In the second quarter, the 500 largest nonfinancial U.S. firms, [...]

I’ve subscribed to Newsweek for more than 30 years.  I started subscribing in the 1970s, partly because I wanted a magazine that summarized the week’s news (plenty of choices there) and partly because Newsweek ran a monthly column by Milton Friedman.
When I started subscribing I didn’t notice what some might call a liberal bias in [...]

John Stossel (who’s leaving ABC to join the Fox Business Network) gave a well-received talk at my university yesterday titled “Freedom and Its Enemies.”  Several times during the talk he referred to himself as a libertarian.
Sometimes the libertarian label seems like a liability for people who are both (1) serious about substantially reducing the scope [...]

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 [...]