Independent Review articles from December 1999

Independent Review archives from December 1999

The Endangered Species Act: Who's Saving What?
December 22, 1999... Environmental policy in general and the Endangered Species Act (ESA) in particular are far removed from our roots in limited government, individual freedom, and personal responsibility. At their core are increasing coercion, expanding...

Freedom of Speech: Constitutional Protection Reconsidered.
December 22, 1999... Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government...

Did Adam Smith Retard the Development of Economic Analysis?: A Critique of Murray Rothbard's Interpretation.
December 22, 1999... In the first volume of a two-volume work, An Austrian Perspective on the History of Economic Thought (1995), Murray N. Rothbard attempts to make the case that Adam Smith perverted the development of sound economic analysis by failing to advance...

The Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions: Guideposts of Limited Government.
December 22, 1999... In 1885 Woodrow Wilson noted that criticism of the Constitution had ceased upon its adoption and "an undiscriminating and almost blind worship of its principles" had developed (Wilson 1885, 4). A survey of American political discourse after the...

Five Market-Friendly Nobelists: Friedman, Stigler, Buchanan, Coase, and Becker.(Milton Friedman, George J. Stigler, )(James M. Buchanan, Ronald H. Coase, )(and Gary S. Becker)
December 22, 1999... The Nobel prizes were initiated in 1901 in physics, chemistry, medicine or physiology, literature, and peace. In his will, Alfred Nobel stipulated that prizes in the first three categories should be given to those who have made the most...

A Carnival of Taxation.
December 22, 1999... Taxes are what we pay for civilized society. --Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. Au contraire. --Robert Higgs To determine whether a certain entity is a government, one might first ask: Does it have the power to tax? By this test,...

Tax Reform.
December 22, 1999... Two principles are basic to every discussion of tax reform. First, tax reform consists of more than changes in those items that are called taxes. The real cost of government--the total tax burden--equals what government spends plus the cost...

Forbidden Fruit: When Prohibition Increases the Harm It Is Supposed to Reduce.
December 22, 1999... Various activities, such as drinking alcohol, smoking tobacco, and using psychoactive drugs, have been prohibited by governments at various times. Ostensible motives for the prohibitions have included helping people to lead "good" lives (in the...

Two Lucky People: Memoirs.(Review)
December 22, 1999... Two Lucky People: Memoirs By Milton Friedman and Rose D. Friedman Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998. Pp. vi, 660. $35.00 cloth. When interviewing student candidates for prestigious national scholarships, my favorite question runs...

Rational Risk Policy.(Review)
December 22, 1999... Rational Risk Policy By W. Kip Viscusi New York: Oxford University Press, 1998. Pp. 138. $21.95 cloth. Most Americans have probably heard or read about regulations whose costs far exceed any discernible, or even optimistically predicted,...

For Your Own Good: The Anti-Smoking Crusade and the Tyranny of Public Health.(Review)
December 22, 1999... For Your Own Good: The Anti-Smoking Crusade and the Tyranny of Public Health By Jacob Sullum New York: Free Press, 1998. Pp. xiv, 338. $25.00. Jacob Sullum's book is a good and carefully documented piece of critical journalism, which...

Butter and Guns: America's Cold War Economic Diplomacy.(Review)
December 22, 1999... Butter and Guns: America's Cold War Economic Diplomacy By Diane B. Kunz New York: The Free Press, 1997. Pp. x, 422. $30. Butter and Guns: America's Cold War Economic Diplomacy Until the early 1970s, post-World War II America experienced...

The Political Economy of Dictatorship.(Review)
December 22, 1999... The Political Economy of Dictatorship By Ronald Wintrobe Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998. Pp. x, 390. (ISBN 0-521-58329-2) It is much safer for an academic to write a flawless work on a picayune topic than to explore an...

Africa in Chaos.(Review)
December 22, 1999... Africa in Chaos By George B. N. Ayittey New York: St. Martin's Press, 1998. Pp. xvi, 399. $35 cloth. George B. N. Ayittey's latest book, together with his previous ones (Indigenous African Institutions [Dobbs Ferry, N.Y.: Transnational...

The Growth of the Liberal Soul.(Review)
December 22, 1999... The Growth of the Liberal Soul By David Walsh Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1997. Pp. 386. $39.95 cloth. "There is first of all the difficulty of being heard at all," David Walsh writes in the introduction to his new book on the...