December 2009

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Editor's Notes

• Are Tea Parties Racist?

  Matt Welch

  Sifting through the anti-Obama-hysteria hysteria

Columns

• How to Get Ahead in Law

  Radley Balko

  Bernard Baran served 22 years on dubious child molestation charges, but the prosecutor who convicted him was promoted to judge.

• Where’s That Inflation?

  Veronique de Rugy

  The monetary base has ballooned, yet inflation remains far off. Or does it?

• Glenn Beck's Experimental Melodrama

  Greg Beato

  The Fox News star terrifies America with his realistic news theater.

Features

• The Salvia Ban Wagon

  Jacob Sullum

  How does terrible drug policy get made? The mad rush to criminalize a psychedelic herb provides a textbook case.

• Bernanke’s Philosopher

  Penn Bullock

  The Fed chairman is portrayed as a follower of John Maynard Keynes, but his real inspiration is Milton Friedman.

Interviews

• Globalization With a Human Face

  Shikha Dalmia

  Jagdish Bhagwati on the trouble with protectionism, how to deal with climate change, and why NAFTA was bad for free trade.

Culture & Reviews

• Will Everyone Please Stop Freaking Out Over Ayn Rand?!?

  Peter Bagge

• She’s Back!

  Brian Doherty

  Ayn Rand is bigger than ever. But are her new fans radical enough for capitalism?