Posted by Daniel J. Mitchell on July 29, 2010
By Daniel J. Mitchell
The “appearance of impropriety” is often considered the Washington standard for corruption and misbehavior. With that in mind, alarm bells began ringing in my head when I read this Washington Times report about Jacob Lew, Obama’s nominee to head the Office of Management and Budget. A snippet:
President Obama’s choice to be the government’s chief budget officer [...]
Categories: Politics, Tax and Budget Policy |
Tags: Beltway Elite, big government, corruption, Finance, Banking & Monetary Policy, Government and Politics, government intervention, government spending, Health, Welfare & Entitlements, lobbying, Political Philosophy, regulation, Regulatory Studies, Sleaze, taxation, Washington Insiders | 
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Posted by David Boaz on July 19, 2010
By David Boaz
Last week Washington Post columnist and former George W. Bush speechwriter Michael Gerson took one of his periodic potshots at libertarianism. Tom Palmer and I responded in the Post’s letters column. Since the published letter was shortened for space, here’s a more complete version:
Michael Gerson, who wrote the words that created the George W. Bush administration and thus led [...]
Categories: Politics |
Tags: big-government conservatism, Government and Politics, libertarianism, Michael Gerson, Political Philosophy | No Comments »
Posted by David Boaz on July 16, 2010
By David Boaz
The estimable Francisco Marroquin University in Guatemala has just posted 15 hours of interviews with F. A. Hayek, conducted in 1978, four years after he won the Nobel Prize for Economics.
You know the interviewee is important when the interviewers include James M. Buchanan, Robert Bork, Armen Alchian, Axel Leijonhufvud, and Leo Rosten. Along with the streaming [...]
Categories: Politics |
Tags: axel leijonhufvud, earhart foundation, f a hayek, francisco marroquin university, guatemala, International Economics and Development, Political Philosophy, robert bork | No Comments »
Posted by Julian Sanchez on July 14, 2010
By Julian Sanchez
There’s an interesting back-and-forth between Dan Foster at National Review and Ezra Klein at the Washington Post over whether there’s a symmetry between libertarian (or conservative) preference for smaller government and progressive advocacy for a larger or more active one. Ezra wants to maintain that the former is “philosophical”—one might use the more loaded “ideological”—in [...]
Categories: Politics |
Tags: Ezra Klein, philosophy, Political Philosophy, rhetoric | No Comments »
Posted by Jason Kuznicki on July 13, 2010
By Jason Kuznicki
Political scientist Larry Arnhart heads this month’s Cato Unbound. He argues that libertarians need to integrate biological evolution into their thinking about human cultures and even politics.
More provocatively, he claims that the “a Darwinian science of human evolution supports classical liberalism.” This is the case, he argues, even though
market competition differ[s] [...]
Categories: Politics |
Tags: classical liberalism, daniel dennett, evolutionary biology, free markets, Government and Politics, herbert gintis, human evolution, karl popper, lionel tiger, market competition, Political Philosophy, pz myers, social darwinism | No Comments »
Posted by David Boaz on July 11, 2010
By David Boaz
Establishment intellectuals are in high dudgeon at the use of terms like “socialism” and “fascism” to describe President Obama’s program of government takeovers of automobile companies; the extension of federal control over banking, financial services, local schools, energy production, health care, and the internet; and “spread the wealth” tax-and-spend policies. But Herbert Hoover and Ronald [...]
Categories: Politics |
Tags: General, Government and Politics, Political Philosophy | No Comments »
Posted by David Boaz on July 5, 2010
By David Boaz
The goal of a new Chinese government campaign is to “eradicate all social evils” and “advocate a healthy, civilized and high-minded lifestyle,” according to the Washington Post. Some elements of the state just don’t like the way the Chinese people are using their newfound freedom.
On a different level, we face the same arguments here in [...]
Categories: Politics |
Tags: China, International Economics and Development, libertarian, lifestyles, nanny state, paternalism, Political Philosophy | No Comments »
Posted by David Boaz on July 2, 2010
By David Boaz
At Politico Arena, the question of the day is:
A new Siena College poll ranks Barack Obama as the 15th best U.S. president (landing him below Bill Clinton, ahead of Ronald Reagan). Franklin Delano Roosevelt earned top honors, while Andrew Johnson was last. Pollsters say Obama is high on imagination, communication and intelligence, but weak on [...]
Categories: Politics |
Tags: Barack Obama, franklin delano roosevelt, George W. Bush, Government and Politics, grover cleveland, martin van buren, Political Philosophy, presidential scholars, ronald reagan, rutherford b hayes | No Comments »
