Interventionism

Frank Shostak rebuts the claim that markets are driven to unsustainable highs by waves of investor enthusiasm. Actually, the Fed itself is the real culprit.

When one thinks of "death by government," either those killed by armed members of the state or the millions who have perished in the vast gulags and prisons run by governmental agents usually come to mind. However, government has demonstrated far more creativity in eliminating people than just by shooting or starving them to death. It also has successfully drowned them while destroying property to the tune of billions of dollars. Here are a couple of horror stories.

The essential element in monopoly is forcible exclusion and forcible reservation, not the number of producers.

Fair disclosure: how much did Netscape pay Robert Bork to become an apologist for the most destructive government action of our time? 

People's complaints about the rising price of drugs are both mistaken (no, more government controls won't help) and justified (patents do indeed restrict competition)

Contrary to the propaganda, the EPA has done little or nothing to improve the quality of life and much to diminish it. 

The meltdown on Wall Street can't be corrected through intervention; if it is headed down further, it needs to run its course.

In a fine case study of interventionism, regulators finally give in and reversed their previous mandates that led to an environmental mess.

In a display of amazing ignorance or brazen political grandstanding, he strode up to a gas station and berated the owner for charging too high a price.

Higher prices have unleashed a torrent of economic fallacy, from boycotts on gas stations to agitations for price controls. Paul Cwik responds.