FEE at 60: Self-Improvement and First Principles

How Leonard Reed Came to Found FEE

MARCH 01, 2006 by RICHARD EBELING

March 7 marks the 60th anniversary of the establishment of the Foundation for Economic Education (FEE) by the late LeonardE. Read, with the assistance of a handful of businessmen, economists, and journalists who were all dedicated to the ideas of individual liberty and the free market. From its beginning FEE has been more than what nowadays is called a policy-oriented think tank. Its work is based on the understanding that right thinking on policy issues is impossible unless people have a clear appreciation of the principles of freedom, private property, free enterprise, the rule of law, and constitutionally limited government.

Book Reviews - 2006/3

MARCH 01, 2006

Fair Trade for All: How Trade Can Promote Development
by Joseph E. Stiglitz and Andrew Charlton Reviewed by Richard M. Ebeling
They Made America: From the Steam Engine to the Search Engine:Two Centuries of Innovators
by Harold Evans Reviewed by George C. Leef
The Harsh Truth About Public Schools
by Bruce N. Shortt Reviewed by David L. Littmann
Tariffs, Blockades, and Inflation: The Economics of the Civil War
by Mark Thornton and Robert B. Ekelund, Jr. Reviewed by John Majewski

It's Always Something

There Is No Shortage of Threats for the Economically Ignorant

MARCH 01, 2006 by RUSSELL ROBERTS

Our economy is in the middle of an extraordinary run of success. Unemployment is low.Personal wealth is near an all-time high. Real wage growth sometimes appears less robust, but when benefits are included, real compensation is healthy. And even with the cries from some that economic mobilityisnt what it once was, legal and illegal immigrants continueto flock to the United States. Evidently being poor here beats being poor elsewhere by a long shot.

"Parent of the Country"

Parents Do Not Freely Choose Their Children's Schools

MARCH 01, 2006 by SHELDON RICHMAN

In November a federal appeals court rejected achallenge to a school-district survey of elementaryschoolstudents that contained privacy-invading,sexually explicit questions.The Palmdale School Districtin Los Angeles County had conducted the survey of children7 to 10 years old.Their parents were told they could opt out, but they were left in the dark about the content.According to the notice parents received, the survey aimed to establish a community baseline measure of childrens exposure to early trauma (for example, violence) and to identify internal behaviors such as anxiety and depression and external behaviors such as aggression and verbal abuse. It turned out that of the 79 questions asked, ten related to the childrens thoughts about sexual matters.