The combination of collapsed pensions and accounting scandal is operating like the collapse of a dam, unleashing a torrent, not of water, but of hatred--hatred of capitalism and its most visible and valuable representatives: big businessmen. George Reisman counters propaganda with analysis.
The show put on in Manhattan the other day was unnecessary, in fact or in law, says James Ostrowski. "Let John Rigas answer in court his actions, if he is convicted, but making a 78-year-old, ex-combat infantryman in World War II the scapegoat for a failing administration and failing economy leaves a bad taste in my mouth."
Special-interest-group pleading often tries to hide behind supposedly economic arguments. It is important to debunk such arguments as they arise so that the interest group politics can be seen for what it is. In the spirit of Bastiat's Economic Sophisms, Gene Callahan offers the following.
The same politicians who cannot remember the names of major corporations pretend to understand accounting while they are preening before the television cameras, writes James Sheehan. If these solons really knew how misleading corporate accounting was, surely they would have acted to correct the problem before now.
Don't want to press a claim to vindicate your own rights? Never mind, a bureaucrat will decide whether the "public interest" requires a claim to be brought on your behalf. David Dieteman examines the expanding power of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
Robert Murphy on the Pledge controversy: Those truly concerned about protecting individual dissenters from the tyranny of the majority should lobby for the removal of the word "indivisible" from the pledge. The classical liberal doctrine of self-determination is the only way to achieve limited government and lasting social peace.
There is a way out of the current economic mess, writes William Anderson: Stop the government merry-go-round. Malinvested resources must be permitted to be liquidated, government spending must be cut back, and the central bank must not try to "reflate" the currency or the stock market.
It was September 11, and panicked customers were flocking to the two gas stations Bobbie Jean Harvey owns near Midland, Mich., to top off their tanks in case the supply of gas was disrupted. It became apparent that sales on September 11 were going to be above average. In hindsight, however, Ms. Harvey wishes she had closed her stations.
Contrary to popular thinking, the stock market does not have causative powers as far as economic activity is concerned. The prices of stocks only reflect individuals' assessments of economic reality. And while individuals can change their evaluations of economic facts, writes Frank Shostak, they cannot alter the facts themselves.
