Ideas On Liberty March 1999 Vol. 49, No.3

6 To Each His Due by Tom Bethell

10 Just Deserts by Charles W. Baird

16 Crimes of the Mind by Melissa Suarez

18 Mises on Mexico by Eduardo Turrent

, 25 Frontiers: Last, Lost, and Found by Eric Nolte

29 The Great Bequest by Tom G. Palmer

37 The "Savings Crisis" by John Hood

43 The Bully that Acts Like a Hero by Harold B. Jones, Jr.

47 Philosophy 1 On 1 by James R. Otteson

Center NOTES from FEE-Brutes in Suits by Donald J. Boudreaux

14 IDEAS and CONSEQUENCES-Night of the "Living Wage" by Lawrence W. Reed

'23 POTOMAC PRINCIPLES-America's Forgotten War by Doug Bandow

35 PERIPATETICS-Smoke Got in Their Eyes by Sheldon Richman

152 ECONOMIC NOTIONS-Opportunities and Costs by Dwight R. Lee 55 ECONOMICS on TRIAL- Y2K and Entrepreneurial Error by

, 63 THE PURSUIT of HAPPINESS-Illuminating the Unseen by Russell Roberts

2 Perspective-Life Imitates Gilbert by Sheldon Richman

4 Asia Needs Capital Controls? It Just Ain't So! by Lawrence H. White 54 Capital Letters: Vive la Difference? 57 Book Reviews

-For Your Own Good: The Anti-Smoking Crusade and the Tyranny of Public Health by Jacob Sullum, reviewed by John Attarian; Star-Spangled Men: America's Ten Worst Presidents by Nathan Miller, reviewed by Gene Healy; Fantasies of Salvation: Democracy, Nationalism, and Myth in Post-Communist Europe by Vladimir Tismaneanu, reviewed by David L. Prychitko; Out ofOrder by Max Boot, reviewed by George C. Leef; A History ofthe American People by Paul Johnson, reviewed by Burton Folsom. THE F\££MAN PECTIV'E Ideas 011 Lt[JCr1U Life Imitates Gilbert Published by The Foundation for Economic Education In jolly old England Queen Elizabeth II has Irvington-on-Hudson, NY 10533 stripped the hereditary peers of their parlia­ Phone (914) 591-7230 FAX (914) 591-8910 E-mail: [email protected] mentary power in the House ofLords. The act FEE Home Page: http://www.fee.org constitutes the leveling of the dukes, earls, President: Donald 1. Boudreaux marquesses, viscounts, and barons, some of Editor: Sheldon Richman whose titles go back to William the Con­ Managing Editor: Beth A. Hoffman queror, Duke of Normandy, who subdued Editor Emeritus England in 1066 and became William I. Paul L. Poirot For devotees of another William-William Book Review Editor Schwenck Gilbert (1836-191 I)-this all has George C. Leef a familiar ring. Gilbert, of course, was the Editorial Assistant liberal spirit and comic librettist who with Mary Ann Murphy Arthur Seymour Sullivan composed the great­ Columnists Charles W. Baird est collaborative effort by Englishmen ever­ Doug Bandow Monty Python, Lennon and McCartney, Dwight R. Lee and Churchill and Bomber Harris included. Lawrence W. Reed Mencken called Gilbert "even above Mark Mark Skousen Twain, the merrymaker ofhis generation." Walter Williams Gilbert's arsenal ofjibe and joke and quip Contributing Editors and crank was reserved almost exclusively for Peter J. Boettke men of rank. As his alter ego, Jack Point, put Clarence B. Carson it in The Yeomen ofthe Guard: Thomas J. DiLorenzo Burton W. Folsom, Jr. Joseph S. Fulda At peer or prince-at prince or peer, Bettina Bien Greaves I aim my shaft and know no fear! John Hospers Gilbert played with the idea of radical Raymond J. Keating change in the House ofLords in his and Sulli­ Daniel B. Klein van's opera Iolanthe. In synopsis, a band of Wendy McElroy fairies casts a spell on the Lords for coming Tibor R. Machan between a young shepherd and his betrothed, Ronald Nash Phyllis. Magically, Strephon is seated in Parlia­ Edmund A. Opitz ment and "carries every bill he chooses." But James L. Payne the fairies go further. Speaks the Fairy Queen: William H. Peterson Jane S. Shaw Peers shall teem in Christendom, Richard H. Timberlake And a Duke's exalted station Lawrence H. White Be attainable by Com- The Freeman is the monthly publ