I got this email yesterday morning from my former colleague Mark McMahon, a Rhodes legend who retired after my first year here and a wonderful mentor: I finally figured out what Bush is up to! I just couldn’t see how he could praise capitalism as he did in his recent speech on the benefits...
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The Federal Reserve has now moved to escalate even further its inflationary jihad in a vain and highly dangerous attempt to “stimulate” the economy. As reported in the New York Times: The Federal Reserve entered a new era on Tuesday, lowering its benchmark interest rate virtually to zero and declaring that it would now...
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I have just read an excellent report by Bill Stacey and Julian Morris called “How Not To Solve a Crisis,” which is being distributed by the Lion Rock Institute and the International Policy Network and reached me via the Wynnewood Institute. Although I do not endorse every element of this analysis, I recommend it highly...
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With the widespread confusion about the huge federal bailouts for the current financial crisis and recession, here is Senior Fellow Robert Higgs being interviewed at EconTalk on the real lessons from Great Depression, the New Deal, and the effect of World War II on the American economy. Drawing upon his award-winning* Independent Institute book...
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[Cross-posted at Organizations and Markets] Last week’s WSJ carried an op-ed from SEC Chair Christopher Cox, “We Need a Bailout Exit Strategy.” The op-ed was nothing special (mostly defending the SEC, of course, though there was a nice Hayekian line about “decentralized decision-making, in which millions of independent economic actors make judgments using their...
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Over the years, as I have defended my hypothesis about the ratchet effect of national emergencies in U.S. history since the Progressive Era (when the ideological conditions for the full operation of this effect were established), I have encountered many doubters and critics. My fellow economists have been especially disposed to reject my hypothesis....
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Although developments are changing rapidly, as an update to the Second Amendment Book Bomb, our book The Founders’ Second Amendment: Origins of the Rights to Bear Arms, by Independent Institute Research Fellow Stephen P. Halbrook, has skyrocketed to the following category rankings at Amazon.com: #1: Law #1: Civil Rights and Liberties #1: Constitutions #1:...
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For some reason, I couldn’t get the expression “cue laugh track” out of my head after reading the following comment from Obama: “We have to reclaim a tradition of public service that is about people and their lives and their hopes and their dreams, and it isn’t about what’s in it for me.” This...
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Although speculation continues as to who will become the Car Czar in a bailout of Detroit’s Big Three auto makers—and indeed as to whether a bailout will even occur—the leading candidate for the czar position has been identified by super-sleuth investigative reporter Sheldon Richman, who has come up with a photo of this shadowy figure.  

Monday, December 15, marks America’s Bill of Rights Day, the anniversary of the ratification of the Bill of Rights of the U.S. Constitution. Beginning on this day, we have created the Second Amendment Book Bomb, a unique and powerful way to communicate the importance of the Bill of Rights’ Second Amendment for the protection...
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