Foundation for Economic Education, March 09, 2017 Why Americans Pay Triple the World Price for Sugar by James Bovard Washington is once again massively screwing up the American sugar market. Because American farmers cannot compete with foreign sugar growers, the federal government has maintained an array of sugar import quotas and/or tariffs for most of […]
The Wall Street Journal today published several testy letters responding to my December 11 article, “Living Off the Fat of Washington.” Here they are: Land-Rich Farmers Still Struggle to Survive Dec. 21, 2016 4:40 p.m. ET James Bovard is correct in several of his observations relating to the Agricultural Department’s outdated farm-subsidy programs, but off the […]
Washington Times, August 26, 2016 Politicians and Peanut Pilfering by James Bovard The peanut program is typical of the train wreck of farm subsidies The history of federal peanut policy is the perfect antidote to anyone who still believes that Congress could competently manage a lemonade stand. Federal spending for peanut subsidies will rise eight-fold […]
Barron’s, August 20, 2016 Farmers Should Farm for a Living by James Bovard And politicians should stop dishing out the pork. The U.S. Department of Agriculture forecasts that spending for federal farm-commodity programs will increase eightfold from 2015 to 2017. Since the 1930s, Congress has rarely missed a chance to shower rural America with more […]
From the new issue of the Mises Institute The Austrian newsletter Jan. 2016- How Government Buys Your Support by James Bovard In Iraq and Afghanistan, U.S. military officers routinely handed bundles of cash to local residents to buy influence and undermine resistance to the American occupation. Such payments came in especially handy after US troops […]
Along with Donald Trump, Gov. Chris Christie, the Washington Redskins (with a name that liberals now hate), and reviled pro-Confederate flag protestors, Washingtonian magazine credits me with one of the “17 Moments of Local Outrage That Defined 2015.” Here’s an outtake from the Washingtonian article: July 14: Wall Street Journal vs. Wordless Shakespeare Synetic Theater wins bushels of awards […]
USA TODAY, December 17, 2015 BUDGET BILL LEAVES NO BOONDOGGLE BEHIND by James Bovard Republican congressional leaders are like a football coach who believes the secret to winning is to punt early and often. House Speaker Paul Ryan and others are claiming victory over the 2,000-plus page appropriations bill, but this is a “no boondoggle left […]
