By Lawrence W. Reed If a posthumous Nobel Prize were to be awarded to just one person for crystal-clear writing and masterful storytelling in economics, no one would be more deserving of it than Frédéric Bastiat (June 30, 1801–December 24, 1850). He set the standard over a century and a half ago. This remarkable Frenchman was…
Category: Federal Reserve
Generous with Someone Elseâs Money
By Doug Bandow What could be more magnanimous than a cafeteria worker giving out free lunches? Or an education official writing off school loans? In both cases, the recipients of the largess must see a champion. Yet, in neither case is the person acting as a beneficent philanthropist paying the costs of the apparent charity….
A Fighter on Many Fronts
By Lawrence W. Reed Each week, Mr. Reed will relate the stories of people whose choices and actions make them heroes. See the table of contents for previous installments. If you remember the famous 1938 fight for the world heavyweight boxing title between Detroit’s Joe Louis and Germany’s Max Schmeling, you’ve been around awhile. If you don’t, there’s…
A Motorcycle Salesman Looks Back
By Jonathan Travelstead Gone are the post-war dinosaurs whose death roars leaked from their slash-cut pipes like twenty-weight crude. Gone, too, is friction’s golden age, and the epoch of hub and greased axle when the sprocket’s teeth were chained, worn smooth as the piston’s wearisome slap. Machines are passing from our lives. The new models…
Those Who Shape Us, the Lives We Touch
By Sandy Ikeda Earlier this month, my 67-year-old sister, Virginia Ikeda, “Ginger” to me and my family, died peacefully after a long illness. I rarely write here about my personal life, let alone family matters. But I feel moved to share some thoughts on Ginger’s passing with you because of the impact she had on…