George Reisman's News Commentaries

Click on the titles below to read the commentaries.

For the most recent news commentaries and essays, please see www.georgereisman.com/blog/

March 2008

• Our Financial House of Cards and How to Start Replacing It With Solid Gold, March 22, 2008.

February 2008

• The Nature of Environmentalism, February 21, 2008. A Word to Environmentalists, February 19, 2008.
   

• A Word to Environmentalists, February 19, 2008.
   

• Environmentalism Is Recycled Communism and Nazism, February 17, 2008.
   

• Standing Keynesian GDP on Its Head: Saving Not Consumption as the Main Source of Spending, February 13, 2008.
   

• Re: A Creditors' Protection Bill: The Legitimacy of Inserting a Gold Clause in Existing Contracts, February 3, 2008.

January 2008

• A Creditor’s Protection Bill, January 27, 2008

• Credit Expansion, Economic Inequality, and Stagnant Wages, January 12, 2008

December 2007

September/November 2007

• If Abortion Really Were Murder, Friday, November 30, 2007.
   

• Would Hillary’s Election Violate The Two-Term Limit?, November 8, 2007
   

• In Support of the Concept of Intellectual Property,, November 7, 2007.
   

• Deflation and the Gold Standard, November 5, 2007.
   

August 2007

• The Housing Bubble and the Credit Crunch, August 10, 2007. 

June/July 2007

• Gore: Ignorant or Dishonest?, July 1, 2007.

May 2007

• Global Warming Is Not a Threat but the Environmentalist Response to It Is (Full Version), May 30, 2007.
   

• Environmentalism in the Light of Menger and Mises, May 27, 2007.
   

• The Arithmetic of Environmentalist Devastation, May 23, 2007.


 

• Environmentalist Bugaboo Loses Support, May 19, 2007.


 

• Some New York Times’ Thoughts for the Day Concerning Capitalism, May 15, 2007.
   

• The Scandalous Student Loan Scandal, May 13, 2007.


 

• Environmentalist Zen, May 12, 2007.


 

• After the Hideous Light Bulbs, May 8, 2007.

• Say No to the Hideous Light Bulbs, May 3, 2007.

April 2007

• No Representation for Taxation, April 20, 2007.

• Keeping Up With the Party Line at The New York Times/Pravda, April 18, 2007.

• An Update to Henry Hazlitt’s “Uruguay: Welfare State Gone Wild." April 17, 2007.

March 2007

• Global Warming: Environmentalism’s Threat of Hell on Earth, March 13, 2007.

• Global Warming Is Not a Threat But the Environmentalists' Response to It Is, March 5, 2007.

February 2007

• Hugo Chavez: Collectivist Throwback, February 18, 2007.

• The Environmentalist Noose Is Tightening, February 9, 2007.

January 2007

• The State Against Economic Law: the Case of Minimum Wage Legislation, January 21, 2007.

• The New York Times Pushes the Doctrine of Class Warfare, January 12, 2007.

• The New York Times Pushes the Green Party Line, January 6, 2007.

December 2006

• Where The New York Times Is Coming From, December 29, 2006.

• More on Pinochet and Marxism: The Necessity of Evil Means to Achieve Socialism, December 21, 2006. 

• General Augusto Pinochet Is Dead, December 16, 2006.

• You Can’t Have Trans Fats Because They’re Bad for You, December 8, 2006.

• Pick Your Gender and We’ll Enforce Your Choice, Says New York City’s Board of Health, December 1, 2006.

November 2006 

• Penn and Teller Send Recycling to the Dump, November 25, 2006.

• Globalization: The Long-Run Big Picture, November 17, 2006.

• Standards of Environmental Good and Evil: Why Environmentalism Is Misanthropic, November 16, 2006.

• Two Ice Ages, With Up to 16 Times the Carbon Dioxide in the Atmosphere, November 8, 2006.

• Freedom of Choice in New York City: Diet, No; Gender, Yes, November 7, 2006.

• Britain’s Stern Review on Global Warming: It Could Be Environmentalism’s Swan Song, November 1, 2006.

October 2006

• The Green Business Racket: Con Customers, Cut Corners, Boost Profits, October 24, 2006.

• Saving Versus Hoarding, October 17, 2006.

• A Root Cause of the Failure of Contemporary Education, October 10, 2006.

• Stiglitz in The Times: A Study in Confusion, October 3, 2006.

September 2006

• Ludwig von Mises: Defender of Capitalism, September 29, 2006.

• Armed and Dangerous, September 24, 2006.

• Britain’s Royal Society Seeks to Squelch Opposition to Greens on Global Warming, September 23, 2006.

• Betting California, September 16, 2006.

• The Looming Lactation-Station Crisis and How to Solve It, September 9, 2006.

• Competition, European Style, September 8, 2006.

• Intertwined Insanities, September 4, 2006

August 2006

• Incitement to Class War at The New York Times/Pravda, August 28, 2006.

• More from Böhm-Bawerk on Cost of Production as a Determinant of Prices, August 22, 2006.

• The Austrian Economics that Most of Today’s “Austrians” Don’t Know, August 15, 2006.

• Mining for the Next Million Years, August 14, 2006.

• Free-Market Science vs. Government Science, August 7, 2006.

July 2006

• Wage Rates and Purchasing Power, July 31, 2006.

• How Environmentalism Raises Profits at the Expense of Wages, July 24, 2006.

• How Government Budget Deficits Reduce Wages and Raise Profits, July 17, 2006.

• No Fourth of July Celebration at The New York Times/Pravda, July 4, 2006.

June 2006

• CO2 Science’s Finding on Global Warming: A Marxist-Type Response, June 29, 2006.

• An Important Study Challenging the Connection Between CO2 and Global Warming, June 28, 2006.

• The New York Times: It Just Can’t Stop Hating Success and the American Way of Life, June 24, 2006.

• Mutualism’s Support for the Exploitation of Labor and State Coercion, June 23, 2006.

• Mutualism: A Philosophy for Thieves, June 18, 2006.

• Freedom Is Slavery: Laissez-Faire Capitalism Is Government Intervention, A Critique of Kevin Carson’s Studies in Mutualist Political Economy, June 14, 2006.

• Not Feldstein’s Gasoline Rationing Scheme but Economic Freedom Will Improve the Environment and Promote National Security, June 7, 2006.

• Something to Cheer at The New York Times, June 6, 2006.

• The Flagellation of the Pursuit of Happiness, June 5, 2006.

• Nocera Replies, June 4, 2006.

• Does the Name “Ayn Rand” Ring a Bell? June 3, 2006.

May 2006

• The Sorry State of Our Union, May 28, 2006.

• Platonic Competition, Part II, May 18, 2006.

• Platonic Competition, Part I, May 17, 2006.

• Is Bernanke An Admirer of Galbraith? May 11, 2006.

• Gasoline at 10 Cents a Gallon and Falling, May 10, 2006.

• Bolivian Gas Nationalization OK According to The New York Times, May 8, 2006.

• “Price Gouging”: Setting the Record Straight, May 7, 2006.

• Today’s New York Times’ Headline: “Energy Crisis: Many Paths but No Solutions,” May 3, 2006.

• Where Has “Austrian” Economics Eliminated Poverty? May 2, 2006.

• Does Krugman Read The New York Times? May 2, 2006.

• Galbraith's Neo-Feudalism, May 1, 2006.

April 2006

• The Real Friends and Enemies of Wage Earners: An Intellectual Challenge to the Left, April 26, 2006.

• Graphic Artistry, April 21, 2006.

• Where Would General Motors Be Without the United Automobile Workers Union?, April 19, 2006.

• The Actual Nature of Offshoring and of Our Balance of Trade Deficits, April 13, 2006.

• Immigration Plus Welfare State Equal Police State, April 10, 2006.

• First, Witchcraft Trials; Now, Impending Health Insurance Fiasco: Massachusetts Leads the Way, April 5, 2006.

• They Still Don’t Know What They’re Doing, But They Want to Do It at the Point of a Gun, April 1, 2006.

March 2006

• Different Flag, Different Lyrics, But the Same Old Tune, March 31, 2006

• Collectivism, Climate Change, and Economic Freedom, March 28, 2006

• The Environmentalists Are Trying to Frighten the Natives, March 25, 2006

• My Pepperdine Syllabi, One "Micro" and One "Macro," March 23, 2006

• Production Versus Consumption, March 17, 2006

• Debunking a Reported Defiance of Economic Law in South Korea, March 16, 2006

• In the U.S. Senate the Guilty Interrogate the Innocent, March 15, 2006

• Devastation and Recovery: Reconciling Contrary Observations in Biloxi, Mississippi, March 14, 2006

• The Global Warming Bugaboo, March 8, 2006

• Ayn Rand Answers, The Best of Her Q&A, Edited by Robert Mayhew, New American Library, 2005. x + 241 pp., March 4, 2006

• Answer to Krugman on Economic Inequality, March 1, 2006

February 2006

• Papiere, Bitte (Papers, Please), February 21, 2006

• Why Socialized Medicine Leads to the Prohibition of Private Medicine, February 20, 2006

• Double Takes in Reading Yesterday’s (February 17, 2006) New York Times, February 18, 2006

• Socialized Medicine and Rationing, February 16, 2006

• Under Siege: Voting Rights of Felons or Property Rights of Citizens? February 10, 2006

• Who Offends Islam?, February 9, 2006

• Ready to Kill Over Cartoons, February 5, 2006

• Dictator Mentality at The New York Times,  February 07, 2006

• Fiscal Schizophrenia—As Reported in The New York Times of Today, Feb. 4, 2006

• Oil, Big Business, and "Monopoly," February 2, 2006

January 2006

• "Record Profits Spark New Backlash Against Big Oil"—An Economic Analysis, January 31, 2006

• To Fight Corruption, Limit Government, January 30, 2006

• The New York Times on Health Care Costs, January 30, 2006

2005

• The Union Hunt for More Victims, July 05, 2005

• Envy Unleashed at the New York Times.  June 6, 2005.

• Kill the Prescription Drug Benefit. March 1, 2005.

• Social Security Reform: A Free-Market Alternative. February 21, 2005.

2004

• Reducing Poverty by Reducing Government. October 11, 2004.

• Reply to Schumer and Roberts, January 9, 2004

2003

• Sins of Businessmen, Crimes of Politicians.  September 22, 2003.

• The Free Market and Job Safety. January 22, 2003.

2002

• News Report: California’s Blackouts Caused by Demons, September 24, 2002.

• Worldcom as Piker: Profit Inflation by the U.S. Government. August 12, 2002.

2001

• A Simple Super-Weapon Against Middle-East Terrorism: Economic Freedom for the U.S. Energy Industry. September 16, 2001.

• Greens Versus Energy. This article was originally published on the web site of the Ludwig von Mises Institute. It was subsequently reprinted, in slightly abridged form, in The Orange County Register on June 10, 2001, under the title "Environmentalists assume role of pests in our society.

• A Free Market Would Avoid Blackouts Now. This article originally appeared on May 2, 2001, on the web site of the  Ludwig von Mises Institute under the title "Avoid Blackouts Now" and was subsequently reprinted in The Orange County Register, on May 6, 2001, under the title "Raise prices now to avoid blackouts."

• A Wage Earner’s Case for Repealing the Inheritance Tax (February 14, 2001).  This article simultaneously appeared on the web site of the Ludwig von Mises Institute under the title "A Wage Earner Against the Estate Tax" and was subsequently published in The Orange County Register, on Feb. 18, 2001, under the title "A Wage Earner's Plea for `Death Tax' Repeal."

2000

• California Screaming, Under Government Blows (December 22, 2000)
  This article originally appeared on line on the on the web site of the Ludwig von Mises Institute. An abridged version, under the title "California's Energy Meltdown," subsequently appeared in the March  issue of the von Mises Institute's The Free Market. The original title of the article was inspired by Paul Krugman’s New York Times piece "California Screaming." 

• Soaring Electric Rates in Southern California (July 25, 2000)
  This article subsequently appeared in The Orange County Register, on Aug. 13, 2000, under the title “Free Market in Electricity Is As Yet Untapped.” The reprint appears in Adobe Acrobat format.

• The Meaning of the Government’s Proposal to Break Up Microsoft (April 30, 2000)
  This article subsequently appeared in The Orange County Register, on May 8, 2000, under the title "The Breakup of Microsoft."

• Why the Price of Oil Is Surging (April 2, 2000). This article appeared in the Commentary Section of The Orange County Register, Sunday, April 2, 2000.

• A Brief for Microsoft, Part Two. This article appeared in The Orange County Register, March 14, 2000.

• A Brief for Microsoft, Part One. This article appeared in The Orange County Register, March 13, 2000.

• Is the U.S. Government Cheating in the Consumer Price Index? (March 6, 2000). This article also appeared in The Orange County Register, on the editorial page, on Wednesday, March 8, 2000, under the title “Paying the price.”

• Update to When Will the Bubble Burst?: It May Be Bursting Now, and Faulty
  Economic Analysis Could Cost Investors Dearly (February 26, 2000).

1999

• When Will the Bubble Burst? (August 7, 1999).

• No Imperial Presidency (January 22, 1999)

1998

• Microsoft and Its Enemies: Which Is the Monopolist? (Sept. 27, 1998)

• Global Crisis and the Survival of Capitalism (Sept. 6, 1998)

• The Line-Item Veto Is A Bad Idea (Feb. 14, 1998)

1997

• A Gold Standard Today (June 23, 1997)

• Only A Gold Dollar Will End Deficits (Feb. 17, 1997)

• Social Security Rescue Plans Mean Government Ownership of Business (Jan. 11, 1997)

• Environmentalism's Malaria Holocaust (Jan. 11, 1997)