Spring 2009Vol. 4, No. 1

Click to enlarge
Subscribe Now

Articles

Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged and the World Today (accessible for free)

An Interview with Yaron Brook

Explains why, more than fifty years ago, Rand was able to project the kinds of crises we are seeing today. Read the interview.

America’s Unfree Market

Demonstrates the actual nature of the allegedly free market that delivered the current mayhem. Read the opening paragraphs (full article accessible to subscribers).

Altruism: The Moral Root of the Financial Crisis (accessible for free)

Zeros in on the fundamental cause of the problem, showing that widespread acceptance of the morality of self-sacrifice necessitated the kinds of laws, regulations, and decisions that have driven the financial markets into the gutter. Read the article.

Lest We Be Doomed to Repeat It

A Survey of Amity Shlaes’s History of the Great Depression

Provides an essentialized chronology of the era, focusing on the (ominously familiar sounding) policies of Herbert Hoover and Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Read the opening paragraphs (full article accessible to subscribers).

Of Freedom and Fat: Why Anti-Obesity Laws Are Immoral

Discusses efforts at state and federal levels to put Americans on a collective diet by violating the rights of food producers, restaurateurs, and consumers.Read the opening paragraphs (full article accessible to subscribers).

Houston, We Have a (Zoning) Problem

Demonstrates that Houston’s absence of zoning laws is largely responsible for the city’s relative health and prosperity, and urges Houstonians to halt and reverse the encroachments on their property rights before they find themselves zoned. Read the opening paragraphs (full article accessible to subscribers).

Doubt vs. Certainty

Casts certainty on why the movie Doubt is leaving viewers wondering whether they can know anything for sure. Read the opening paragraphs (full article accessible to subscribers).

Religion vs. Subjectivism: Why Neither Will Do

Examines those alternatives and finds them equally life-thwarting and revealingly similar. Read the opening paragraphs (full article accessible to subscribers).

Book Reviews

Greenspan’s Bubbles: The Age of Ignorance at the Federal Reserve,
by William A. Fleckenstein with Frederick Sheehan

Read the opening paragraphs (full review accessible to subscribers).

Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions,
by Dan Ariely

Read the opening paragraphs (full review accessible to subscribers).

Concierge Medicine: A New System to Get the Best Healthcare, by Steven D. Knope, MD

Read the opening paragraphs (full review accessible to subscribers).

Correspondence

We value your thoughts on articles in The Objective Standard, and we welcome your letters to the editor—whether critical, argumentative, or complimentary. Well-written letters will be published in our "Letters and Replies" section toward the front of the journal and, when appropriate, may be accompanied by writers’ responses. Letters may be edited.