Stephen W. Carson Archives
The great fiscal stimulus package ... of 1929
Is the myth of the "do nothing" Herbert Hoover dying? Michael Kitchen at MarketWatch writes:
...Herbert Hoover -- only nine months into his presidency -- assembled leaders from the public and private sectors to create an economic-stimulus package. Among the measures, Time magazine reported at the time, was a promise from Congress to offer bipartisan support for a tax-cut package. The proposal called for $160 million in tax relief -- only about $22 billion if adjusted against the gross domestic product at the time, and therefore much smaller than the plan under consideration here in 2008. Read Time's original coverage of the plan.
Also on the table was an assurance from the Federal Reserve that it would provide cheaper credit.
Redistribution vs. Charity
It is a commonplace, for libertarians at least, that coercive redistribution cuts into charity by reducing the funds available for charitable giving. But Arthur C. Brooks, in his book Who Really Cares, points to another effect of redistribution on giving... To be precise, an effect of a belief in redistribution. From an interview with Brooks in the Acton Institute's Religion & Liberty:
...the belief that the role of government is to provide for needs—that belief in and of itself suppresses charitable giving. Ask somebody, "do you think the government should do more to redistribute income?" People who strongly disagree with that give twelve times more money a year to charity than the people who strongly agree with that. You virtually never see differences that are that big. Even when you correct for income and age and education, there are big differences that persist between [those two] groups.
The GI Bill
Garrison Keillor notes the anniversary of the GI Bill on the Writer's Almanac:
It was on this day in 1944 that President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed into law the GI Bill of Rights. It was one of the most important and influential pieces of legislation ever signed by an American president, but the newspapers barely covered the story at the time. They were too busy reporting on the Allied invasion of Europe.
...Before the war, about 10 percent of Americans attended college. After the war, that figure rose to about 50 percent.
...The cost to taxpayers for the GI Bill was about $5.5 billion, but the result was 450,000 engineers, 240,000 accountants, 238,000 teachers, 91,000 scientists, 67,000 doctors, 22,000 dentists, 17,000 writers and editors, and thousands of other professionals. It helped spur one of the greatest economic booms in American history.
Continue reading "The GI Bill" »
If Men Were Angels
June 15, 2007 9:50 AM
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7 Years of Market Revolution in China
May 24, 2007 8:37 AM
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The Greatest Capitalist Innovation?
May 4, 2007 10:49 AM
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Now, Your Journey to the Dark Side is Complete
April 16, 2007 12:55 AM
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Film Page: Sophie Scholl
April 15, 2007 6:54 PM
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Lessons of the Influenza Pandemic of 1918
March 11, 2007 4:22 PM
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Film Page: Amazing Grace
March 5, 2007 9:18 AM
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Science Fiction as a Literature of Freedom
February 23, 2007 11:13 AM
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David Mamet on Central Planning of Culture
February 20, 2007 2:11 PM
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The Pursuit of Happyness
January 5, 2007 2:06 PM
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The Milton Friedman Choir
November 17, 2006 2:40 PM
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Film Page: Stalingrad
November 10, 2006 3:11 PM
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The World Is Not Running Out of Oil
October 20, 2006 5:27 PM
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SEC, Stock Options & Silicon Valley
October 18, 2006 11:37 AM
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Margaret Sanger vs. Ludwig von Mises on the Poor
October 15, 2006 10:48 PM
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Will Work for School Supplies
October 10, 2006 1:21 PM
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Calling Dr. Reisman: Treasure at the Bottom of the Sea
October 5, 2006 11:42 PM
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Film Page: Boom Town
October 2, 2006 2:10 PM
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Chords on a Napkin
August 16, 2006 9:59 AM
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Crushing Innovation: The Case of FM Radio
August 12, 2006 10:17 PM
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Fear of Robots
July 11, 2006 12:02 PM
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Kill the Gatekeepers
June 25, 2006 5:58 PM
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Privatization: The Old, Old Fashioned Way
June 8, 2006 8:21 AM
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Fibonacci and Mises
May 25, 2006 2:22 PM
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Every Breath You Take, Every Call You Make
May 11, 2006 9:00 AM
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A Libertarian Message From the Department of Homeland Security
May 9, 2006 2:18 PM
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Newsflash! Demand Curve Slopes Down!!
April 20, 2006 8:36 AM
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Film Page: V for Vendetta
March 18, 2006 12:25 AM
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The State and the Cubicle
March 9, 2006 5:54 PM
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The Plight of the "Citizen"
February 5, 2006 4:50 PM
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Film Page: The Man in the White Suit
February 5, 2006 4:21 PM
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Film Page: The State vs. The Family
January 8, 2006 11:08 PM
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Film Page: The Pathetic Charade of Elections
January 8, 2006 10:27 PM
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Two word solution: De. Regulate.
December 19, 2005 12:41 PM
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Hate
November 9, 2005 12:20 PM
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Progressives, Eugenics, Women and the Minimum Wage
October 25, 2005 9:05 AM
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Apple compared to "Soviet Russia"
October 20, 2005 2:30 PM
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Serenity
October 9, 2005 9:20 PM
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IP and Global Government
September 23, 2005 5:42 PM
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The Quiet American
September 3, 2005 3:16 PM
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"The Austrian Economists" Blog
August 9, 2005 5:39 PM
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China Secedes From the Dollar
July 21, 2005 11:09 AM
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War, Empire, Conscription: 3 Films For Our Time
July 5, 2005 10:56 PM
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In Defense of Anarchism, Rothbard and the Left
May 26, 2005 12:00 PM
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The State and the Desire for Certainty
May 8, 2005 8:09 PM
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The real purpose of driver's licenses: safe drivers?
May 4, 2005 10:55 AM
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"Money is only paper..."
April 19, 2005 9:27 PM
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Minimum Wage vs. Old Folks
April 5, 2005 9:58 AM
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A Headstart Counts For Nothing
March 12, 2005 10:42 PM
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Free Market Film Discussions
March 10, 2005 8:52 AM
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Dr. Rachel Douchant
February 16, 2005 3:42 PM
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Stop the U.S. Mail
February 7, 2005 11:28 AM
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NYT: Markets Instead of War!
January 28, 2005 2:13 PM
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Why Programmers Should Learn Economics
January 5, 2005 2:11 PM
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Christmas, Private Property and Peace
December 11, 2004 4:13 PM
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The Onion: Dollar Low Against Euro
December 8, 2004 11:00 AM
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Humphrey Bogart, Globalization and "Sweat Shops"
September 20, 2004 9:16 AM
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Paul Samuelson vs. Outsourcing
September 9, 2004 2:09 PM
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Ken Lay On His Show Trial
September 1, 2004 4:41 PM
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Slashdot, Gilligan's Island and the Mises Institute
September 1, 2004 9:11 AM
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A Man For All Seasons
July 29, 2004 2:51 PM
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Vera Smith- The Rationale of Central Banking
July 6, 2004 4:41 PM
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The Mouse That Roared
July 1, 2004 11:06 PM
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Kerry Proposes Raising Minimum Wage
June 18, 2004 3:56 PM
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A Musical About Tax Resistance?!
June 16, 2004 8:49 AM
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Why the FCC should die
June 8, 2004 9:11 AM
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The Road Away From Serfdom
June 2, 2004 10:32 AM
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The Film Page- JFK
May 31, 2004 10:01 AM
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First-Ever Private Spaceport Nears Final Approval
May 24, 2004 5:20 PM
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The Department For Leaving You Alone
May 24, 2004 12:33 AM
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Negative Externalities of Government
May 7, 2004 9:33 AM
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Does The Flag Follow Trade?
April 29, 2004 6:11 PM
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Seeking Riches From the Poor
April 23, 2004 11:56 AM
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Spooks are great investors!
March 3, 2004 10:34 AM
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Films on Liberty and the State
February 9, 2004 4:31 PM
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CAN-SPAM centralizes and makes some exceptions
January 27, 2004 11:54 AM
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