Click here For The Institute for Humane Studies - Give Me A Break

The Institute for Humane Studies - Give Me A Break: "The popular culture was unusually receptive to libertarian ideas during that period (stretching roughly from the first year of the Newt Gingrich-led Congress to just before the September 11 attacks). The stock market was booming, talk of budget cuts was socially acceptable albeit rarely acted upon, military issues were on the back burner, and technological innovation was popular with everyone from Wall Streeters to nose-ringed club kids. It was a perfect time for Stossel to do pro-market hours with titles like The Trouble with Lawyers, Freeloaders, Greed, and Is America #1?

But Stossel knows Americans are wary of radicalism of any stripe. So, in most of his broadcasts, he prefers the role of moderate skeptic, faced with absurd regulations and boondoggles that would alarm anyone possessing common sense, regardless of faction. In his book, for instance, he recounts on-air expos�s of the Department of the Interior's loss of some $2 billion (and then-Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt's complete loss of composure while being interviewed about it by Stossel), Donald Trump's attempt to force an old woman out of her house through eminent domain, and the death-by-regulation of an effort to bring public pay toilets to New York City. He describes government licensing boards' tendency to function as de facto shakedown artists, safety regulations that kill more people than they save, and a $330,000 outhouse the Parks Department built in Pennsylvania."