William Shughart | Friday August 7, 2009 at 8:00 AM PDT | 5 Comments
News reports suggest that the Obama administration’s “Cash for Clunkers” program has been an unalloyed success. Eligible for a rebate of up to $4,500 if they trade in their old (but not too old) gas-guzzlers, it is not surprising that the owners of qualifying vehicles have rushed to their local auto dealers to claim...
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Tags: Bailouts, Barack Obama, Economics, fuel-efficient cars, gas-guzzlers, Nationalization, P. T. Barnum, political pork, profligacy, Property Rights, The State, Transportation
Robert Higgs | at 7:59 AM PDT | 1 Comment
As the race for the presidency began to get rolling in 1928, the editors of Life magazine (at that time an outlet for satirical writing) prevailed on my fellow Cherokee Oklahoman Will Rogers, arguably the best known and best loved man in the country, to run for the office as the candidate of the...
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Tags: Amelia Earhart, American History, Babe Ruth, Barack Obama, Calvin Coolidge, Elections, Henry Ford, Humor, Politics, Presidential Power, prohibitionism, Will Rogers
Peter Klein | at 6:26 AM PDT | 1 Comment
My old friend John Chapman channels Bastiat in a new op-ed: A lesson from the parable is that government spending cannot create wealth; it can at best redistribute it, often accompanied by waste. The clunkers program certainly helps auto manufacturers, sellers and participating buyers, today; this is what’s seen. But it hurts used-car buyers,...
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Tags: automobiles, Bailouts, Barack Obama, Budget and Tax Policy, Economics, Environment, Frederic Bastiat, Government waste, political pork, profligacy, Transportation, Urban Issues, welfare state
