Daily Articles

Liberty, Law and the Market Economy

by Richard M. Ebeling January 15, 2018

The history of liberty and prosperity is inseparable from the practice of free enterprise and respect for the rule of law. Both are products of the spirit of classical liberalism. But a correct understanding of free enterprise, the rule of law, and liberalism (rightly understood) is greatly lacking in the world today. Historically, liberalism is the political philosophy of individual ...

Justice Denied: The Government Is Not Going to Save Us

by John W. Whitehead January 10, 2018

“The warlords of history are still kicking our heads in, and no one, not our fathers, not our Gods, is coming to save us.”— Journalist Ta-Nehisi Coates The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled: it will not hear the case of Young v. Borders. Despite the fact that a 26-year-old man was gunned down by police ...

The Libertarian Angle: Freedom Frauds (video)

by Future of Freedom Foundation January 9, 2018

Is government really providing liberty? Do politicians protect our freedom? FFF president Jacob Hornberger, Richard Ebeling, and special guest FFF policy adviser James Bovard discuss freedom frauds. Go to the podcast.

State of the Nation: Progressives, Conservatives, and Trump

by Richard M. Ebeling January 8, 2018

Anyone reading the news and especially the political “liberal” and conservative commentaries might easily conclude that he is living in a world of two parallel political universes. It is as if modern American liberals and conservatives are, respectively, occupying alternative realities about how they look at the economy and culture of the country, and evaluate Donald Trump and his ...

Why Not End Both Programs?

by Laurence M. Vance January 4, 2018

Wisconsin’s governor, Scott Walker, wants to make Wisconsin the first state to mandate drug testing for able-bodied adults who apply for food stamps. Wisconsin’s Republican-controlled legislature approved the idea more than two years ago, but nothing came of it because of concerns about its constitutionality and its conflict with federal rules that prohibit states from imposing ...

Capitalism and How Expectations Coordinate Markets

by Richard M. Ebeling January 2, 2018

Open, competitive markets have a resilient capacity to successfully coordinate the actions of, now, billions of people around the world. With an amazing adaptability to changing circumstances, the actions and reactions of multitudes of suppliers and demanders are brought into balance with each other. Yet, none of this requires government planning, regulation or directing control. But how does this ...

The Lies and Hypocrisy of the Civil War

by Jacob G. Hornberger January 1, 2018

More than 150 years after the Civil War, the nation is engulfed in controversy over statues of people who fought for the Confederacy. Many people want the statues taken down. The statues, they say, depict men who were slaveowners, slavery proponents, and traitors. Those who want the statues to stay in place are said to be racists. The feelings ...

Red-Green Delusions on Soviet-Bloc History

by James Bovard January 1, 2018

The New York Times is running a series of “Red Century” articles extolling some of the virtues of communism on the 100th anniversary of the Russian Revolution. Last August, the Times showcased a Yale University lecturer rhapsodizing about the Soviets’ environmental record in a piece headlined, “Lenin’s Eco-Warriors.” The piece hailed Lenin as “a longtime enthusiast for hiking and ...

Paycheck Plus Welfare

by Laurence M. Vance January 1, 2018

Just as a rose by any other name would still smell just as sweet, so welfare by any other name still reeks of dependency, taxation, wealth redistribution, fraud, redundancy, inefficiency, and income- transfer payments. Yet, pleas to maintain the welfare state never cease. And some even want to expand it. Like MDRC, “a nonprofit, nonpartisan education and social policy research ...

Limited Government and a Free Society, Part 2

by Gregory Bresiger January 1, 2018

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 Unfortunately, the classical-liberal tradition that Carl Schurz represented is almost gone today. The men and women who supported it were consistent opponents of the imperial presidency, no matter the party in power. (Schurz, for example, was a Republican who broke with the Republican Grant administration.) That’s because the ...

Exporting Roosevelt’s New Deal through Aid, Investment, and Threat of War

by Wendy McElroy January 1, 2018

The Marshall Plan is more than a historical event — it has become a modern myth. As such, it may be mostly true or mostly false, but it exercises a powerful hold over reality. And the perceived success of the Marshall Plan has influenced American policy since the late 1940s. — Tyler Cowen The European Recovery Program, known as the Marshall ...

The Founding Fathers’ “Great Rule” for U.S. Foreign Policy

by Elizabeth Cobbs January 1, 2018

People who don’t get heard have a tendency to shout. Eventually they get mad. For too long, foreign-policy experts have stuck their fingers in their ears when confronted by citizens ambivalent about playing global police officer. Republican Donald Trump is channeling their voices through his electric bullhorn, whipping up the crowd and questioning the validity of institutions like NATO. Regardless ...