The Free Market 15, no. 1 (November 1997) For fifteen tedious years, Republicans demanded that Congress give the president the “line-item veto.” Reaganites concocted this policy gimmick as a diversionary tactic. It allowed them to blame Congress when the budget wouldn’t balance and spending soared. If only the president could eliminate pork,
The Free Market 15, no. 12 (December 1997) ‘Seizing power is the essence of government as we know it. It’s not as easy as it once was. As public trust in government has plummeted, and resistance to central rule has grown, officials invent ever-new rationales. Here are just a few of the newest benefits the central state promises us if we
The Free Market 16, no. 1 (January 1998) Competition is a process, the Austrian economists have long said, not a moment frozen in time. Today’s dominant company could be tomorrow’s rubble. Whether the winner can stay on top is dependent on its management, its ability to innovate, and, above all, the will of the consuming public. But since the
The Free Market 16, no. 2 (February 1998) The conventional wisdom on the defeat of Fast Track trade legislation is dead wrong. As the press would have it, the failure of Fast Track reflects the rise of grass-roots protectionism. The vote in Congress to deny Clinton the authority to negotiate trade deals is a response to constituent pressure.
The Free Market 16, no. 3 (March 1998) President Bill Clinton called on nine opponents of affirmative action during his manipulative “national dialogue on race,” and asked a reasonable question. “What do you think we should do?” The right answer is nothing. Do nothing at all. To achieve that ideal, government must get out and stay out of the
The Free Market 16, no. 4 (April 1998) The Clinton administration, applying its theory that all good things should be subsidized with tax dollars, proposes new spending to upgrade the Internet. But it’s not the government that has turned this medium into the most promising venue for free-market exchange in our time. It’s the astounding power of
The Free Market 16, no. 5 (May 1998) When the three top dogs of the U.S. global empire went to Ohio University, hoping to explain why we needed to drop bombs on Iraq, they were met with fierce resistance. This event, broadcast worldwide, caused the Clinton administration to rethink its bombs-away strategy. A war was averted and untold numbers of
The Free Market 16, no. 6 (June 1998) G.K. Chesterton called the family an anarchistic institution. He meant that it requires no act of the state to bring it about. Its existence flows from fixed realities in the nature of man, with its form refined by the development of sexual norms and the advance of civilization. This observation is consistent
The Free Market 16, no. 7 (July 1998) When Clinton declared he would use budget surpluses to “fix” Social Security, the ruse was obvious. He was trying to forestall the only moral use of any surplus: cutting taxes. But a few days later, a very strange trend began to develop. Clintons words were endorsed and echoed by D.C. conservatives and
The Free Market 16, no. 8 (August 1998) Janet Reno couldn’t get the hang of computers. By her own account, she couldn’t tell “what was on the hard drive, what was on the soft drive.” So she prefers “paper and pencil.” Then she arrogantly sets herself up as Americas computer czar, claiming to know better than tens of millions of consumers about
What is the Mises Institute?
The Mises Institute is a non-profit organization that exists to promote teaching and research in the Austrian School of economics, individual freedom, honest history, and international peace, in the tradition of Ludwig von Mises and Murray N. Rothbard.
Non-political, non-partisan, and non-PC, we advocate a radical shift in the intellectual climate, away from statism and toward a private property order. We believe that our foundational ideas are of permanent value, and oppose all efforts at compromise, sellout, and amalgamation of these ideas with fashionable political, cultural, and social doctrines inimical to their spirit.
