Explore Freedom

Debt and Financial Repression

by Tim Kelly September 1, 2011

Despite all the Sturm und Drang surrounding this summer’s debate concerning the debt limit, there was never any doubt that Congress would vote to increase it. It was all political theater because there was never the political will on Capitol Hill to impose the kind of spending cuts that would have been necessary had it not been raised. So the ... [click for more]

Paul Krugman and Military Keynesianism

by Tim Kelly August 30, 2011

The Princeton economist Paul Krugman recently appeared on CNN’s GPS hosted by Fareed Zakaria and offered up this pearl of economic wisdom: It’s very hard to get inflation in a depressed economy. But if you had a program of government spending plus an expansionary policy by the Fed, you could get that. So, if you think about using all of ... [click for more]

The Unessential Air Service Program

by Laurence M. Vance August 30, 2011

During the Great Depression, the New Deal program known as the Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA) paid certain farmers not to grow corn, wheat, cotton, rice, peanuts, and tobacco in order to control their supply and drive up their prices. The money paid to farmers came from a tax imposed on processors of farm products. In the Soviet Union that ... [click for more]

Restoring Freedom, Peace, and Prosperity, Part 1

by Jacob G. Hornberger August 30, 2011

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 Now that the celebrations over the killing of Osama bin Laden have died down, reality is setting in for the American people. It is slowly dawning on them that the killing wont make any difference whatsoever and, in fact, might even make things worse for them. The occupations of Iraq ... [click for more]

Can Kuwait Break the Guantánamo Deadlock?

by Andy Worthington August 30, 2011

As the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks approaches, those hoping for the closure of the “War on Terror” prison at Guantánamo, which was and remains the most notorious emblem of the Bush administration’s excessive and misguided response to the attacks, are wondering how the prison will ever close. Because of a combination of cowardice on the part ... [click for more]

Pressing the Statist Quo

by Rich Schwartzman August 29, 2011

The question was blunt: “Why are libertarians so off-putting?” I’m not sure what I said exactly in response or how I said it. I was too busy forcing myself to be polite. It happened at last year’s Thanksgiving dinner at my sister’s and the question came from my sister’s mother-in-law. I had the urge to scream that members of the ... [click for more]

After bin Laden

by Sheldon Richman August 28, 2011

Osama bin Laden is gone, yet controversy will rage for a long while. There are many questions, and complete answers are not likely to be forthcoming. Was the shooting necessary, or could bin Laden have been taken alive? What exactly were the orders given to the Navy SEALs? The operation appears to have been a military mission rather than a ... [click for more]

Memorial Day Reflections and Revisionism

by James Bovard August 26, 2011

On Memorial Day, the media do their usual sacralizing of war. Instead, it should be a day for the ritualized scourging of politicians. During the last 60 years, their lies have resulted in the unnecessary deaths of almost 100,000 thousand American soldiers and millions of foreigners. And yet, people still get teary-eyed when politicians take the stage to talk ... [click for more]

Federal Reserve Grabs New Powers

by Sheldon Richman August 25, 2011

While inflation hawks understandably keep a close watch on the Federal Reserve’s money-creation activities, an equally worrisome Fed activity is taking place right under their noses. Under cover of addressing the financial crisis and recession, the Fed has become the central allocator of credit. As San Jose State University economics professor Jeffrey Rogers Hummel points out in The Independent Review ... [click for more]

The Next Quagmire: Sanctions and Syria

by Fergus Hodgson August 24, 2011

If trade promotes peace, and it does, then trade sanctions stifle it. That may be simple logic, but it continues to go unnoticed with Washington officials. The latest nation on the receiving end of economic provocation is Syria. On August 18, Barack Obama froze all Syrian government assets within U.S. jurisdiction and banned American investment in, ... [click for more]

The Road to the Permanent Warfare State, Part 4

by Gregory Bresiger August 24, 2011

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 |Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 |Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 |Part 12 |Part 13 <em>That, in my mind was the turning point of U.S. policy, the Greek Turkish ... [click for more]

The Kennedy Autopsy, Part 1

by Jacob G. Hornberger August 23, 2011

The Kennedy Assassination Series: The Kennedy Casket Conspiracy, by Jacob G. Hornberger The Shot That Killed Kennedy, by Jacob G. Hornberger The Kennedy Autopsy, Part 1, by Jacob G. Hornberger The Kennedy Autopsy, Part 2, by Jacob G. Hornberger The Kennedy Autopsy, Part 3, by Jacob G. Hornberger The Kennedy Autopsy, Part 4, by Jacob G. Hornberger The Kennedy Autopsy, ... [click for more]