Harry Anslinger, the first appointed Commissioner of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics starting in 1931, led an ardent anti-marijuana campaign in the U.S. during the 1930s. In his July 1937 article, “Marijuana, Assassin of Youth,” Anslinger laid out numerous case claims of people who had smoked “the weed” and simultaneously lost control of their actions [...]
The history of the Drug War is a long, complex, and fascinating piece of U.S. policy that combines controversial ethical and legal arguments in its defense. Beginning with an anti-marijuana campaign in the 1930s, cumulating in the creation of the Drug Enforcement Administration in 1973, and spreading its reach to more than 50 countries around [...]
When President Franklin Roosevelt signed the National Industrial Relations Act on June 16, 1933, the National Recovery Administration (NRA) was created. The NRA, one of the major components of Roosevelt’s “New Deal” legislation, was created in response to accusations of “cutthroat competition” and the need for “fair competition.” Economic historian Thomas DiLorenzo explains the “NRA [...]
Today it was announced that banks foreclosed on 288,345 houses in the past three months, the highest amount of foreclosures in any three-month period since 2006. It’s estimated that 1.2 million homes overall will be foreclosed in 2010. Well, gee, looks like government bailouts of the financial industry have paid off! Despite hundreds of billions [...]
When reading Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck, one is painted a picture of corporate abuses over helpless people who are finally saved after years of struggle by the government. Steinbeck blames banks and the invention of the tractor and other machinery for displacing thousands of “Okies” who were no longer needed to attend to [...]
It’s hard to not go gaga over the ideas and intentions of “stimulus packages” and ramped up government programs. After all, won’t it create a lot of jobs, boost the economy, and lift us out of a rough spot? This is what we’ve constantly heard from politicians and the media especially over the past couple [...]
The Great Depression has become one of the most misunderstood events in U.S. history. Many people believe the free market to be culprit that caused the incredible economic downturn, that the government didn’t do enough to stop it, and that it was largely President Hoover’s fault for not intervening enough into the economy. Today, to [...]
The Federal Reserve is, without a doubt, one of the most difficult entities to understand and grasp today. Legally we do not have the right to know what goes on behind the closed doors of the Fed. Yet, we place in them the overwhelming power, control, and ability of a monopoly over money and credit. [...]
