Tag Archives | socialism

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Bartering Across East Bloc Borders (Wall St. Journal, 1987)

Wall Street Journal Europe, January 25, 1987. Bartering Across East Bloc Borders by James Bovard Socialism makes bad neighbors. This past summer, a Czech border guard stopped a Polish family leaving Czechloslovakia and ordered a Polish kid to take off his new Czech shoes “because taking children’s shoes out of the country is prohibited.” The […]

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FDR’s Corrupt Concept of Freedom

RealClearHistory, January 6, 2023 FDR’s Corrupt Concept of Freedom The “Four Freedoms” Speech: FDR’s Worst Perversion of Freedom The “four freedoms” offered citizens no security from the state since it completely ignored the rights guaranteed in the original Bill of Rights that restricted government power. by  James Bovard Franklin Roosevelt did more than any other […]

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Jamaica: No Free Market, No Miracle (1987)

This old article popped up in a Google search so I figured I would send it for another lap around the track.  The Freeman, December 1987   (Foundation for Economic Education) Jamaica: No Free Market, No Miracle by James Bovard James Bovard, a widely published writer on economic affairs, writes frequently on international developments. An earlier […]

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Idiot Policies Funnier in Portuguese?

Mises Brasil   [thanks for translating! Original English version is here; my 1987 Wall Street Journal oped is here] Alguns fatos cômicos (e patéticos) sobre o comércio internacional dentro do bloco soviético by James Bovard, November 12, 2019 Quando não estão matando, socialistas são uma comédia de erros Uma das maiores contribuições de Ludwig von […]

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Juni 1988
Berlin (West), die Mauer in Berlin-Kreuzberg

My First Time to East Berlin

MY FIRST TIME IN EAST BERLIN by James Bovard This is the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall — one of the most glorious moments in the modern history of freedom. I first passed through that wall while hitchhiking around Europe in the summer of 1977. After camping in West German woods […]

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Trump’s Biggest BS? No “Government Coercion” in America

Mises Institute, February 7, 2019 Trump’s Absurd Claim that Americans Are Free from Government Coercion by  James Bovard In his State of the Union address Tuesday night, President Trump received rapturous applause from Republicans for his declaration: “America was founded on liberty and independence — not government coercion, domination, and control. We are born free, […]

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World Bank Is Still Bankrolling Tyranny

Jim Yong Kim, the president of the World Bank, announced today that he is quitting to take a better paying job in the private sector.  This is a good opportunity to reconsider the Bank’s long record of bankrolling tyranny – a sordid practice that continued under Kim’s presidency.  For decades, the World Bank has propped […]

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