Independent Review articles from January 2009

Independent Review archives from January 2009

Does regulation prevent fraud? The case of Manhattan hedge fund.
January 1, 2009... Moves to enhance and expand regulation almost invariably follow financial disasters. Losses trigger calls for government action, especially when fraud is suspected. Not only policymakers, but also the media and the wider public see regulation...

The puzzle of local double taxation: why do private community associations exist?
January 1, 2009... The most important change in local government in the United States in the last quarter of the twentieth century was the rise of the private community association (Dilger 1992; Foldvary 1994; McKenzie 1994; Nelson 2005). From 1980 to 2000, about...

Health insurance before the welfare state: the destruction of self-help by state intervention.
January 1, 2009... Social scientists, especially sociologists and economists, are paying increasing attention to the concept of social capital. The expansion of its use has been so rapid that it has led some to warn against its misuse and against overstatement of...

Kantian individualism and political libertarianism.
January 1, 2009... Immanuel Kant's political philosophy seems to involve a tension: a commitment to protecting individual agency and independence, yet an endorsement of state powers and duties that may impinge on that independence. The problem arises because Kant...

Texas treasury notes after the compromise of 1850.
January 1, 2009... The Republic of Texas issued substantial quantities of debt, including Treasury Notes, bonds, and special loans, from the time of its independence to its annexation and statehood (1837-45). In 1842, Texas repudiated its debt, including its "Red...

Gerrit Smith: a radical nineteenth-century libertarian.(PREDECESSORS)(Biography)
January 1, 2009... Gerrit Smith (1797-1874), in his day a well-known philanthropist, publicist, orator, abolitionist, temperance advocate, social reformer, and member of Congress, has been overshadowed by some of his better-known acquaintances, such as Frederick...

Fascism: Italian German and American.
January 1, 2009... National Review contributing editor and Los Angeles Times columnist Jonah Goldberg's Liberal Fascism: The Secret History of the American Left, from Mussolini to the Politics of Meaning might appear at first glance to be another in a line of...

Pufendorf, Grotius, and Locke: who is the real father of America's founding political ideas?
January 1, 2009... Scholars frequently initiate debates by offering bold claims for their proffered interpretations. The liberal and republican exchange in American political history was first cast as a choice of either/or, but not both. The former claimed all...

Who was Edward M. House?(Etceteras ...)(In memoriam)
January 1, 2009... Edward M. House, a man now almost completely forgotten, was one of the most important Americans of the twentieth century. Given the sorry state of historical knowledge in the United States (most high school seniors do not know that the War...

The Wealth of Networks: How Social Production Transforms Markets and Freedom.(Book review)
January 1, 2009... The Wealth of Networks: How Social Production Transforms Markets and Freedom By Yochai Benkler New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2006. Pp. xii, 515. $45.00 cloth. Yochai Benkler's The Wealth of Networks is a...

Negative Liberty: Public Opinion and the Terrorist Attacks on America.(Book review)
January 1, 2009... Negative Liberty: Public Opinion and the Terrorist Attacks on America By Darren W. Davis New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 2007. Pp. xv, 276. $35.00. Wartime almost inevitably calls forth claims to restrict civil liberties...

The Myth of the Rational Voter: Why Democracies Choose Bad Policies.(Book review)
January 1, 2009... The Myth of the Rational Voter: Why Democracies Choose Bad Policies By Bryan Caplan Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2007. Pp. 276. $29.95 cloth. In The Myth of the Rational Voter, Bryan Caplan presents a...

Religious Liberty in America: The First Amendment in Historical and Contemporary Perspective.(Book review)
January 1, 2009... Religious Liberty in America: The First Amendment in Historical and Contemporary Perspective By Bruce T. Murray Amherst, Mass.: University of Massachusetts Press, 2008. Pp. xviii, 213. $80.00 cloth, $19.95 paper. Bruce T....