Year: 2009

February 18, 2009

Reed’s classic piece on Hoover, FDR, and the Great Depression

Brief excerpts from Lawrence Reed’s classic 1981 article on the Great Depression, published in The Freeman and now republished by the Mackinac Center for Public Policy (which I just received in the mail)… Reed divides the GD into four phases: To properly understand the events of the time, it is appropriate to view the Great Depression as not one, but four consecutive depressions rolled into one. Continue Reading...
February 18, 2009

Divorcing Marriage

A staggering piece by Stephen Baskerville in Touchstone… I’ve written at length that marriage has been damaged much moreso by divorce than by calls for (or movements toward) “same-sex” marriage. Baskerville expands on that and discusses the initial “grand experiment” on marriage– the policies behind the move toward easier divorce. Continue Reading...
February 18, 2009

Acton Commentary: The Abracadabra Stimulus Plan

In this week’s Acton Commentary, Anthony Bradley exposes the “legislative incantations” designed to artificially create consumer demand (where none exists) via the stimulus bill. “Real needs must be permitted to create real demand, and thus truly sustainable jobs,” he writes. Continue Reading...
February 17, 2009

PBR: Dangerous Deficit Spending

In response to the question, “What are the moral lessons of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA)?” One of the gravest moral issues related to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act is the matter of dangerous deficit spending. Continue Reading...
February 17, 2009

PBR: Something for Nothing

In response to the question, “What are the moral lessons of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA)?” The ARRA makes clear that we have not learned one great moral lesson: You can’t have something for nothing. Continue Reading...
February 16, 2009

PBR: Do We Need a New New Deal?

In response to the question, “What are the moral lessons of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA)?” Perhaps the most effective historical trope in pushing through the massive stimulus package on Capitol Hill has been the notion that if only the New Deal of the 1930s hadn’t had to wait more than three years for the election of FDR, the Great Depression might have been avoided. Continue Reading...
February 13, 2009

An Alternative Stimulus

Washington is all atwitter about the “Stimulus,” which is currently being pushed through Congress (without being read by most members). Acton’s own Michelle Muccio has come up with a plan of her own, and did a bit of independent research to see if her proposal would find any support: Continue Reading...