June 4, 2009--“Neither a borrower, nor a lender be,” Polonius cautions his son Laertes in Act I of Shakespeare’s Hamlet. “For loan oft loses both itself and friend,” he explains, “And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.” Does Shakespeare mean for us to understand that no one should ever lend or borrow money? Surely, this is too timid by half, but the ongoing financial crisis does demonstrate that the business of credit and debt is a risky one. Many people borrowed more than they could repay, and many lent too carelessly. Overall savings rates have plummeted, too. The savings rate in America, for instance, has hovered in the 0-3 percent range for over a decade. As the recession deepens and American icon General Motors files for bankruptcy restructuring this week, it is worth reflecting again upon how we got to this point. Why, exactly, did so many of us throw caution to the wind in recent years?

May 31, 2011

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June 12, 2009 -- Let me begin by congratulating you, the Class of 2009, on this, the day of your graduation. There were struggles along the way, but you persevered and overcame them. You made it! Today is your day to celebrate. Looking ahead, though, you might be forgiven for thinking that the future looks rather grim. The worst global recession in decades drags on month after month. Wars rage in the Middle East with no stable peace in sight. Nuclear weapons seem destined to fall into hands that should by all rights never possess them. And the planet itself, you are told repeatedly, has just about had it with the human race and its hubris. Today may be a day for celebration, but looking ahead, do you, the class of 2009, have any reasons to feel hopeful?

May 31, 2011

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October 3, 2009 – Hypocrisy has never been very inspiring. Anti-tobacco admonishments from parents who smoke always ring a little hollow, as does the promotion of public education by politicians who entrust their own progeny to private schools. Increasingly, U.S. President Barack Obama’s enunciated support for free and open trade is sounding a little disingenuous, too. As The Economist pointed out last week , when the President speaks, he sounds like a free trader, promising to refrain from raising trade barriers and saying he is committed to expanded trade. But his actions do not follow his words. In his first few weeks on the job, he opted not to veto the notorious “Buy American” provisions woven into the gargantuan stimulus bill. He then failed to act when Congress put the kibosh on a project to open the border to Mexican trucks , as was supposed to happen under NAFTA. Most recently, President Obama decided a couple of weeks ago to show just how much he promotes international cooperation by slapping a 35% tariff on imported Chinese tires. “Us” versus “Them”

May 31, 2011

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February 25, 2009 - Here’s a question: How do you decide what to think about a controversial issue? Must you become an expert on the issue? Must you devote thousands upon thousands of hours to poring over the evidence, checking and rechecking every fact through firsthand research and experimentation? Clearly, this is impossible even for an expert, who must accept a whole slew of facts as given. And just as clearly, an expert is an expert in only one area. What about all of the other controversies? One option is merely to refrain from deciding. Sometimes this is perfectly feasible. But in the case of the purported link between childhood vaccines and autism, which was recently in the news again, sitting on the fence is not an option. At least for parents of young children, it is of the utmost importance to decide whether or not to vaccinate. Indeed, it is quite literally a matter of life and death. Vaccines prevent serious illnesses and save lives. But do they also cause autism?

May 31, 2011

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November 10, 2009—President Barack Obama marked the one-year anniversary of his election last week by delivering a talk at James C. Wright Middle School in Madison, Wisconsin . After patting himself on the back for all the good he thinks his administration has done so far, he focused in on the main topic of his speech: reforming education in America. It’s still too early to say for sure, but this might just be one of those rare cases in which this President matches his seemingly good intentions with actual good results.

May 31, 2011

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May 28, 2009 — First, they came for the banks, and a few people spoke out, but nobody listened because banking is mysterious and people hate banks. Then they came for the car companies, and again, a few people spoke out, but still nobody listened because there were so many well-paying jobs at risk. Now, they’re coming for the newspapers. But if they get those, will there be anybody left to speak out when they come for you? Of course, governments have been messing with banks forever. They supported fractional reserve banking, giving birth to the so-called “business cycle” of booms and busts. They created central banks like the Federal Reserve, loosing inflationary policies upon their populaces and making possible a Great Depression unlike any the world had seen. And they abandoned the gold standard, severing one of the final tethers that had kept monetary policies tied to economic reality. The quasi-nationalization of the financial industry is only the most recent intervention, needed to stave off the unintended consequences of previous interventions.

May 31, 2011

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April 3, 2009 -- I nearly fell off my chair when I read that President Barack Obama had fired the CEO of General Motors, Rick Wagoner, last weekend. Granted, his dismissal was just a condition of continued government assistance to the troubled carmaker. GM could have walked way from the deal and retained its independence. Still, the move does set a disturbing precedent. Now, one might ask, why wouldn’t government money come with strings attached? Recipients of taxpayer funds should be held accountable for spending those funds wisely, shouldn’t they? And who better to hold them accountable than taxpayers’ representatives in government, who doled out this largesse in the first place?

May 31, 2011

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In the new year of 1803, America consisted of sixteen states. There were no prairie dogs or grizzly bears. No jackrabbits or bighorn sheep..

May 30, 2011

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Russell La Valle

6 Mins

The scourge of smallpox is ancient—Pharaoh Ramses V is thought to have died of the illness in 1157 B.C. Yet smallpox did not become a major

May 30, 2011

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6 Mins

I received myTNI in the mail today. The look is stunning, far superior to anything I expected, to be quite honest. The layout, graphics,

May 30, 2011

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7 Mins

Editor’s Note: Bob Barr’s wide-ranging career has spanned law and politics, and multiple roles, including CIA analyst (1971-1978)..

May 30, 2011

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Lance Lamberton

10 Mins

August 30, 2002 -- Objectivism distinguishes between errors of ignorance and errors of morality, and libertarianism distinguishes between

May 30, 2011

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8 Mins

Summer 2009 -- Analogies, like fire, are useful servants but dangerous masters. Is the analogy with entrepreneurs a useful guide to the

May 30, 2011

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David Kelley Ph.D

3 Mins

Summer 2009 issue -- President Obama seems to have taken a page from Pastor Rick Warren’s playbook. POTUS is calling us

May 30, 2011

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3 Mins

November 18, 2010 -- The first great post-election policy decision facing the lame-duck, Democrat-dominated Congress is whether or not to allow taxes to skyrocket. Usually referred to as the “Bush tax cuts ,” the rates that have been operative for most of this decade will expire at the end of 2010, reverting to much higher levels. Even President Obama and his Congressional allies agree that a return to the past rates would harm most Americans, forcing them to pay $150 billion or more annually in taxes as they struggle in a depressed economy. The debate is whether to allow higher rates to hit households making over $250,000 annually, a debate that reveals the sordid soul of the left.

May 30, 2011

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Edward Hudgins

Sidebar to Interview with Bob Barr Summer 2009 -- I am not surprised that Bob Barr, who has been a consultant for the ACLU, should take a litigious approach to the current financial crisis. But my own researches into post–World War II prosecutions of businessmen persuade me that such an approach to the crisis would sidetrack the needed investigation into what went wrong and substitute a witch-hunt against innocent people.

May 30, 2011

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Children often behave in an irresponsible, irrational, emotionally charged manner with very bad results—valuables broken, someone hurt..

May 27, 2011

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Edward Hudgins

6 Mins

Citizens, candidates, and commentators must make a crucial distinction between true capitalism and crony capitalism. In the former...

May 26, 2011

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2 Mins

As the director of the Business Rights Center at the fiercely pro-capitalist Atlas Society, I shall not be accused, I think, of harboring

May 20, 2011

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3 Mins

Christianity is particularly prone to such nonsense. After all, the Book of Revelation is all about doomsday, though with details from a....

May 18, 2011

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Edward Hudgins

4 Mins