“Milton Friedman” on The Daily Caller

President Obama has appointed three new doves to the Federal Reserve Board, thereby taking command of the nation’s central bank. But there’s a split developing inside the Federal Reserve System: The Reserve Bank presidents, appointed by their own district boards of directors, are increasingly likely to wage a battle royale against the central-bank headquarters in Washington and its free-money, ultra-easy policies. (more)

America’s financial mess and our festering trade crisis were both caused by bad policies that mainstream economics told us were OK. This has made the public cynical about economists, but has produced few specific suggestions on how to actually fix the discipline. So—what should we do to restore its ability to give sound advice? (more)

The debate over free trade is riddled with myth after myth. One that keeps resurfacing again and again, no matter how many times it is discredited, is the idea that protectionism caused the Great Depression. One occasionally even hears that the same protectionism—specifically the Smoot-Hawley tariff of 1930—was responsible in significant part for World War II! This is nonsense dreamed up for propaganda purposes by free traders, and can easily be debunked. (more)

As Americans ponder how to get the U.S. out of its current trade mess, we are constantly warned to do nothing – like impose a tariff to neutralize Chinese currency manipulation – that would trigger a “trade war.”  Supposedly, no matter how bad our problems with our trading partners get, they are less bad than the spiraling catastrophe that would ensue if we walked a single inch away from our current policy of unilateral free trade. (more)

At this writing, we know nothing of the political leanings of [intlink id="714880" type="post"]Hutaree, the paramilitary group arrested by federal authorities for conspiracy to commit sedition[/intlink]. (more)

1. Introduction (more)

Americans everywhere should applaud the Texas Board of Education action to reconstitute a more historically accurate (read: open and balance) traditional stamp on school curriculum taught in the Lone Star State. (more)

So, President Obama wants a presidential commission on the budget deficit. Isn’t that a little bit like W.C. Fields asking for a commission on sobriety? (more)

I must give the climate change lobby credit: they almost got away with it. (more)

Democrats initially sold the Recovery Act as an attempt to resuscitate an economy on the brink of collapse. But a year later critics contend a large slice of the bill’s $500 billion in spending has been used to bolster federal programs that appeal to liberal interest groups. (more)

EDITOR’S NOTE: Ilya Shapiro is currently on the ground in Vancouver and will be sending dispatches throughout the Olympic Games, posted here at The Daily Caller.  (more)

A recent column in which blogger Matt Lewis questioned the conservative credentials of Rep. Paul Ryan, Wisconsin Republican, got a lot of attention on our Web site. A number of Daily Caller readers have commented about Ryan, saying he has cast votes they disagree with, particularly in favor of the $700 billion TARP bailout for Wall Street, the auto bailouts and the taxes on AIG bonuses. (more)

Clearly my education is incomplete.  I thought the ideas of John Maynard Keynes were put to bed by Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher.  I thought even the most hard-headed of thought leaders – higher education – had replaced outdated, irrelevant economics texts with something more reflective of reality – that markets create growth (i.e., jobs). (more)

Abstract: What do conservatives want? To be free, to live virtuous and productive lives, to be secure from threats beyond and within our borders, and to live in a society that sustains and encourages these aspirations: freedom, virtue, safety–goals reflected in the libertarian, traditionalist, and national security dimensions of the conservative movement and coalition. But to achieve these perennial goals, conservatives must communicate in language that connects with the great majority of the American people in all stations of life. Virtually all conservatives hold in common the conviction that there is indeed an "eternal meaning." The recent past has been unsettling to American conservatives, but in the words of William F. Buckley Jr. nearly 50 years ago, "the wells of regeneration are infinitely deep." (more)

One of the most successful pieces of propaganda ever is the myth that the Federal Reserve exists to protect the dollar.  Like all great myths it unifies its believers and shields them from the facts.  But facts are stubborn things, as John Adams observed, and it is a fact that since the creation of the Federal Reserve the dollar has lost 92 percent of its purchasing power.  If you had a nickel and three pennies in your hand, that’s what’s left of the dollar since the Fed took charge.  Imagine if the Fed were in charge of air safety and 92 percent of the flights crashed on takeoff.  That’s how well the Fed has done its purported job. (more)