VOLUME XIV, NUMBER 2 Exposing New Books on the Government Scams Drug War & Tenure he Independent Institute recently held In- he U.S. government spends more than $33 T dependent Policy Forum events on gov- T billion and arrests 1.5 million people an- ernment scams, the USA PATRIOT Act, and nually to enforce drug prohibition. Drug pro- medical marijuana. hibition, its advocates say, is worth the cost • CONFESSIONS OF A MEDIA MAVER- because they believe it reduces health problems, ICK: Exposing Hucksters, Cheats, and Scam traffic accidents, industrial accidents, crime and Artists (Jan. 30): Television journalist John poverty. But, is this accurate? Stossel (Host, ABC-TV’s “20/20” and “John Stossel Specials”) shared his insights about consumer protection, government failure, reckless lawsuits, and media bias, drawing upon his best-selling book, Give Me a Break. ABC-TV’s John Stossel addresses the Independent Policy Forum on hucksters, cheats and scam artists. Stossel recounted his evolution from an Emmy-award-winning consumer-affairs re- porter to America’s best-known skeptic of gov- ernment regulation. What seems strange to him (continued on page 3) According to economist Jeffrey Miron (Bos- ton University) most of the ills typically attrib- uted to drug consumption are due not to drugs per IN THIS ISSUE: se but to drug prohibition. In his new Independent Institute book, Drug War Crimes: The Conse- Independent Policy Forum................ 1 quences of Prohibition, Miron shows that prohi- New Books: Drug War Crimes and bition exacerbates many of the problems it alleg- Faulty Towers .................................. 1 edly solves—by increasing violence, creating new President’s Letter ............................... 2 health risks for drug users, enriching criminals, Independent Institute in the News ... 4 and diminishing civil liberties. Prohibition, he ar- gues, is a poor method of reducing drug use and The Independent Review .................... 5 not an appropriate goal for government policy. Alvaro Vargas Llosa Honored .......... 8 (continued on page 3) Ind 14-2.pmd 1 2/25/05, 2:43 PM 2 The INDEPENDENT EXECUTIVE STAFF DAVID J. THEROUX, Founder, President and Chief Executive Officer MARTIN BUERGER, Vice President and Chief Operating Officer MARY L. G. THEROUX, Vice President and Secretary ALEXANDER TABARROK, Ph.D., Research Director BRUCE L. BENSON, Ph.D., Senior Fellow IVAN ELAND, Ph.D., Senior Fellow ROBERT HIGGS, Ph.D., Senior Fellow RICHARD K. VEDDER, Ph.D., Senior Fellow K. A. BARNES, Controller JOHN CAMPBELL, Development Director CARL P. CLOSE, Academic Affairs Director RAY MASSIE, Publications Director PAT ROSE, Public Affairs Director JONAH STRAUS, Sales and Marketing Director BOARD OF DIRECTORS ROBERT L. ERWIN, Chairman, Large Scale Biology Corporation JAMES D. FAIR, III, Chairman, Algonquin Petroleum Corporation JOHN S. FAY, President, Piney Woods Corporation President’s Letter: PETER A. HOWLEY, Chairman, Western Ventures BRUCE JACOBS, President, Grede Foundries, Inc. WILLARD A. SPEAKMAN, III, President, Speakman Company W. DIETER TEDE, President, Audubon Cellars & Winery We Were the First DAVID J. THEROUX, Founder and President, The Independent Institute MARY L. G. THEROUX, former Chairman, Garvey International PETER A. THIEL, Founder, PayPal, Inc. SALLY VON BEHREN, Businesswomen and Philanthropist to Tell You So BOARD OF ADVISORS MARTIN C. ANDERSON Keith and Jan Hurlbut Senior Fellow, Hoover Institution HERMAN BELZ Has the “Era of Really Big Government” now ar- Professor of History, University of Maryland THOMAS BORCHERDING rived? Since 2001, despite low inflation, federal Professor of Economics, Claremont Graduate School BOUDEWIJN BOUCKAERT spending has increased by a massive 28.8%—with Professor of Law, University of Ghent, Belgium JAMES M. BUCHANAN Nobel Laureate in Economic Science, George Mason University non-defense discretionary growth of 35.7%—produc- ALLAN C. CARLSON President, Howard Center for Family, Religion, and Society ing the largest deficits in U.S. history and the high- ROBERT D. COOTER Herman F. Selvin Professor of Law, University of California, Berkeley ROBERT W. CRANDALL est rate of government growth since the Vietnam Senior Fellow, Brookings Institution RICHARD A. EPSTEIN War–era presidencies of Nixon and Lyndon Johnson. James Parker Hall Distinguished Service Professor of Law, University of Chicago A. ERNEST FITZGERALD Author, The High Priests of Waste and The Pentagonists Starting with our prophetic 9/14/01 press release, B. DELWORTH GARDNER Professor of Economics, Brigham Young University Independent Institute Senior Fellow Robert Higgs, GEORGE GILDER Senior Fellow, Discovery Institute NATHAN GLAZER author of such key books as Crisis and Leviathan Professor of Education and Sociology, Harvard University WILLIAM M. H. HAMMETT and our new Against Leviathan, predicted such an Former President, Manhattan Institute RONALD HAMOWY Emeritus Professor of History, University of Alberta, Canada explosion of government power in the aftermath of STEVE H. HANKE Professor of Applied Economics, Johns Hopkins University 9/11, as politicians have again taken full advantage RONALD MAX HARTWELL Emeritus Professor of History, Oxford University of a frightened American public. JAMES J. HECKMAN Nobel Laureate in Economic Science, University of Chicago H. ROBERT HELLER During this period, President Bush has become the President, International Payments Institute WENDY KAMINER first full-term president since John Quincy Adams Contributing Editor, The Atlantic Monthly LAWRENCE A. KUDLOW Chief Executive Officer, Kudlow & Company (1825–1829) not to have vetoed a single bill! Yet, in JOHN R. MacARTHUR Publisher, Harper’s Magazine response, John Kerry has been calling for even higher DEIRDRE N. McCLOSKEY Distinguished Professor of Liberal Arts and Sciences, University of Illinois at Chicago J. HUSTON McCULLOCH taxes and spending. The result is that we now have Professor of Economics, Ohio State University FORREST McDONALD record pork and corporate welfare in agriculture, edu- Distinguished University Research Professor of History, University of Alabama THOMAS GALE MOORE Senior Fellow, Hoover Institution cation, Medicare, energy, etc. At the same time, fed- CHARLES MURRAY Senior Fellow, American Enterprise Institute eral agencies have been given new powers to secretly WILLIAM A. NISKANEN Chairman, Cato Institute search anyone’s property and intercept phone, MICHAEL NOVAK Jewett Chair in Religion and Public Policy, American Enterprise Institute JUNE E. O’NEILL Internet, and other communications, as well as all Director, Center for the Study of Business and Government, Baruch College CHARLES E. PHELPS health and financial records (for example, see details Provost and Professor of Political Science and Economics, University of Rochester PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS Chairman, Institute of Political Economy of the USA PATRIOT Act, p. 3). NATHAN ROSENBERG Fairleigh S. Dickinson, Jr. Professor of Economics, Stanford University Meanwhile, there has been near silence from most SIMON ROTTENBERG Professor of Economics, University of Massachusetts PAUL H. RUBIN think tanks and the media. According to former Con- Professor of Economics and Law, Emory University BRUCE M. RUSSETT gressional Budget Office director Rudolph Penner, Dean Acheson Professor of International Relations, Yale University PASCAL SALIN Professor of Economics, University of Paris, France “I don’t remember a time when there’s been so little ARTHUR SELDON Founder-Director, Institute of Economic Affairs, London commentary on it, and I can’t really explain it.” WILLIAM F. SHUGHART II Robert M. Hearin Chair and Professor of Economics, University of Mississippi VERNON L. SMITH Throughout, the Independent Institute has spoken Nobel Laureate in Economic Science, George Mason University JOEL H. SPRING out uniquely and consistently in major events (p. 1), Professor of Education, State University of New York, Old Westbury RICHARD L. STROUP publications (pp. 1, 5), and media programs (p. 4) Professor of Economics, Montana State University THOMAS S. SZASZ Emeritus Professor of Psychiatry, State University of New York, Syracuse on real solutions to Washington’s latest power-and- ROBERT D. TOLLISON Robert M. Hearin Chair and Professor of Economics, University of Mississippi money grab. Finally, we are now seeing the climate ARNOLD S. TREBACH Professor of Criminal Justice, American University GORDON TULLOCK of opinion change as polls show that the country is University Professor of Law and Economics, George Mason University GORE VIDAL beginning to awaken to the truth regarding Author, Burr, Lincoln, 1876, The Golden Age, and other books RICHARD E. WAGNER Hobart R. Harris Professor of Economics, George Mason University politicians’ profligate spending and abuse of liberties. SIR ALAN WALTERS Vice Chairman, AIG Trading Corporation Now, there is real reason for hope—if we can PAUL H. WEAVER Author, News and the Culture of Lying and The Suicidal Corporation WALTER E. WILLIAMS continue to expand the impact of our cutting-edge Distinguished Professor of Economics, George Mason University CHARLES WOLFE, Jr. program. Please help us do so by joining with us as Senior Economist and Fellow, International Economics, RAND Corporation THE INDEPENDENT (ISSN 1047-7969): newsletter of The an Independent Associate Member (please see the Independent Institute. Copyright © 2004, The Independent Institute, 100 Swan Way, Oakland CA 94621-1428 • 510-632-1366 • Fax 510- attached envelope). 568-6040 • Email