Summer 2009Vol. 4, No. 2

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Articles

An Interview with a “Capitalist Pig”

Jonathan Hoenig on Hedge Funds, the Economic Crisis, and the Future of America

Discusses the nature and value of hedge funds, the ill effects of economic regulations, and how to fight for free markets. Read the opening paragraphs (full article accessible to subscribers).

Justice Holmes and the Empty Constitution (accessible for free)

Thomas A. Bowden

Examines the meaning and consequences of Oliver Wendell Holmes’s famous dissent in Lochner v. New York, showing how and why it has devastated American jurisprudence, and indicating what future jurists must grasp and do in order to begin reversing the damage. Read the article.

Energy at the Speed of Thought:
The Original Alternative Energy Market

Alex Epstein

Surveys the history of the U.S. energy industry, with special emphasis on oil as the lifeblood of the modern world and on freedom as the condition that enabled oilmen to make it flow. Read the opening paragraphs (full article accessible to subscribers).

A Brief History of U.S. Farm Policy and the
Need for Free-Market Agriculture

Monica Hughes

Shows how the USDA has grown from a small, seemingly innocuous bureau promoting agricultural research to today’s freedom-thwarting, rights-violating, market-crushing behemoth. Read the opening paragraphs (full article accessible to subscribers).

The Is–Ought Gap: Subjectivism’s Technical Retreat

Craig Biddle

Examines the prevalent claim that moral principles cannot be derived from observable facts, and finds the problem in desperate need of a solution. Read the opening paragraphs (full article accessible to subscribers).

Book Reviews

Animal Spirits: How Human Psychology Drives the Economy, and Why It Matters for Global Capitalism, by George A. Akerlof and Robert J. Shiller

Reviewed by Eric Daniels

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

Life Without Lawyers: Liberating Americans From Too Much Law,
by Philip K. Howard

Reviewed by David Littel

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

Fooling Some of the People All the Time Updated and Revised: A Long Short Story, by David Einhorn

Reviewed by Daniel Wahl

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

The Box: How the Shipping Container Made the World Smaller and the World Economy Bigger, by Marc Levinson

Reviewed by Heike Larson

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

Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity, by David Allen

Reviewed by Amy Peikoff

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

Correspondence

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The Objective Standard (print ISSN 1559-1905, online ISSN 1559-1913) is published quarterly by Glen Allen Press, LLC, P.O. Box 5274, Glen Allen, VA 23058. Although The Objective Standard publishes articles by writers from the Ayn Rand Institute, the two organizations are entirely separate and distinct. The views expressed in any given article in The Objective Standard are those of the author of that article and do not necessarily reflect the position of the journal or of the Ayn Rand Institute. The Ayn Rand Institute retains copyrights to articles by its writers. Copyright ©2009 by Glen Allen Press. All rights reserved. Material on this website may not be reproduced in whole or in part, in any form or manner, without prior written permission from the publisher. To request permission, please Craig Biddle.