Freedom Daily Archive

A Pox on Many Houses in Ukraine

by Jacob G. Hornberger August 1, 2023

When Russia invaded Ukraine, it immediately became an easy decision for today’s interventionists. Their position was both simple and simplistic: Ukraine is a sovereign and independent country. Russia initiated a war against Ukraine by invading the country. Therefore, Russia is bad and should be condemned. Moreover, the U.S. government, as well as NATO, should come to Ukraine’s defense by ...

Macaulay and My 75-Cent Epiphanies, Part 1

by James Bovard August 1, 2023

Part 1 | Part 2 Fearing that my writing style was becoming anemic, I recently sought a literary booster shot from my bookshelves. Happily, a dozen volumes of Thomas Macaulay awaited me. Macaulay made history mesmerizing, and I have been captivated by his speed, grace, and wit for 40 years. Nobody would mistake my shelf of Macaulay books for leather-bound ...

“Tax Expenditures” Is a Misnomer

by Laurence M. Vance August 1, 2023

The April 18 deadline for Americans to file their 2022 income tax returns had hardly passed before House Republicans began to talk about reviving three tax breaks for businesses that had lapsed or begun to phrase out under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) that the Republican-controlled Congress passed, and President Trump signed into law, in 2017. The TCJA The ...

George Goschen on Laissez-Faire and the Dangers of Government Interference

by Richard M. Ebeling August 1, 2023

The counterrevolution against the classical liberalism of the nineteenth century has been at work for more than 150 years. In the 1840s, 1850s, and 1860s, the triumph of a philosophy of individual rights and liberty, impartial rule of law, private property, freedom of trade and enterprise domestically and in international relations, and attempts to mitigate, if not end, wars ...

The Real Lessons from the Iraq War, Part 2

by Jacob G. Hornberger July 1, 2023

Part 1 | Part 2 Our nation was founded as a limited-government republic. It was a type of government whose powers were few and limited. That’s the way our ancestors wanted it. They believed that the greatest threat to their freedom and well-being lay not with some foreign threat but rather with their very own government. Our ancestors were fiercely ...

Biden’s Wrecking Ball Benevolence for Homebuyers

by James Bovard July 1, 2023

When did being creditworthy become a federal crime? The Biden administration is intentionally punishing homebuyers with good credit scores to subsidize people with shaky histories of paying their debts. But the latest salvation scheme ignores the sordid history of federal policymakers ravaging homeowners they promised to rescue. As of May 1, a Biden administration decree requires adjusting mortgage calculations to ...

Too Far, or Not Far Enough?

by Laurence M. Vance July 1, 2023

In his October 22, 2020, column in the New York Times, titled “When Libertarianism Goes Bad,” establishment economist Paul Krugman bemoaned the “libertarian rhetoric” he was hearing from Republican politicians while they questioned the usefulness of wearing face masks during the “pandemic.” This rhetoric he described as “a lot of talk about ‘freedom’ and ‘personal responsibility.’” But in addition to ...

The Dangerous Pursuit of Empire: Russia, China, and the United States

by Richard M. Ebeling July 1, 2023

Giving up the reality, the nostalgia, or the dream of empire is very difficult for those in political power, and even for those citizens who have bought into their government’s indoctrination and propaganda. Historically, empire-builders and political leaders often seem to hold certain attitudes and ideas in common. First, they believe that they and their group or nation are on ...

Everyone Should Have the Same Freedom to Contract — or Not

by George Leef July 1, 2023

The Supreme Court recently heard oral arguments in a case, 303 Creative v. Elenis, that seems to turn on the meaning of the First Amendment. In my view, this is indeed an important case, but casting it as a free speech dispute is mistaken. The real issue is whether all Americans enjoy freedom of contract, or if, instead, some ...

The Real Lessons from the Iraq War, Part 1

by Jacob G. Hornberger June 1, 2023

Part 1 | Part 2 Twenty years ago — March 19, 2003 — the U.S. government launched its invasion and war of aggression against Iraq. It was a deadly intervention, one that resulted in the deaths and injuries of hundreds of thousands of Iraqi people and thousands of U.S. soldiers. The invasion and resulting occupation also succeeded in destroying ...

The Iraq War Was a Systematic Atrocity

by James Bovard June 1, 2023

Media coverage of the twentieth anniversary of the start of the Iraq War mostly portrayed the war as a blunder. There were systematic war crimes that have largely vanished into the memory hole, but permitting government officials to vaporize their victims paves the way to new atrocities. On the eve of the 2003 invasion of Iraq, former First Lady Barbara ...

Jeremy Bentham, Usury Laws, and the CFPB

by Laurence M. Vance June 1, 2023

The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear arguments in a case that challenges the constitutionality of the funding of the federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), “a 21st century agency that implements and enforces Federal consumer financial law and ensures that markets for consumer financial products are fair, transparent, and competitive.” The agency was created by the Dodd-Frank ...