Daily Articles

Economic Ideas: Adam Smith on Moral Sentiments, Division of Labor and the Invisible Hand

by Richard M. Ebeling December 12, 2016

Much of Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations is an attack on mercantilism. Adam Smith is, without doubt, the most famous member of that group of Scottish Moral Philosophers who contributed to the development of social and economic understanding of the market economy and how economic liberty makes human ...

Power to the People: John Lennon’s Legacy Lives On

by John W. Whitehead December 9, 2016

“You gotta remember, establishment, it’s just a name for evil. The monster doesn’t care whether it kills all the students or whether there’s a revolution. It’s not thinking logically, it’s out of control.” — John Lennon (1969) Militant nonviolent resistance works. Peaceful, prolonged protests work. Mass movements with huge numbers of participants work. Yes, America, it is possible to use occupations ...

Trump Sends Property Rights Up in Flames

by Laurence M. Vance December 8, 2016

Alongside of Catholicism and Protestantism, the primary religion in the United States is not Islam or Judaism but the American civic religion. The Pledge of Allegiance is the creed of this religion and the American flag is its chief symbol. In the American civic religion, the worst sin that an American can commit is to refuse to pledge allegiance to ...

The Libertarian Angle: Trump’s Cabinet Picks

by Future of Freedom Foundation December 7, 2016

FFF president Jacob Hornberger and Richard Ebeling talk about the choices that president-elect Donald Trump has been making for his cabinet. Go to the podcast.

James Bovard: Time to End the War on Drugs

by James Bovard December 6, 2016

Watch FFF policy adviser James Bovard present his perspectives on why America needs to end the war on drugs. This presentation is part of FFF’s Drug War Video Project, whose aim is to accelerate the end of this immoral and destructive government program.

Economics Ideas: David Hume on Self-Coordinating and Correcting Market Processes

by Richard M. Ebeling December 5, 2016

David Hume was one of the most prominent of the Scottish Moral Philosophers. He is particularly famous as a philosophical skeptic, who, in his book, An Inquiry Concerning Human Understanding (1748), questioned whether man’s reason and reasoning ability could successfully apprehend reality with any complete degree of certainty. He also argued that reason followed men’s “passions,” rather than reason ...

The Tyranny at Standing Rock

by John W. Whitehead December 2, 2016

“We must, indeed, all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately.”— Benjamin Franklin, as quoted in The Works of Benjamin Franklin Divide and conquer. It’s one of the oldest military strategies in the books, and it’s proven to be the police state’s most effective weapon for maintaining the status quo. How do you conquer a nation? Distract them with football games, political ...

David S. D’Amato: Time to End the War on Drugs

by David S. D'Amato December 1, 2016

Watch FFF policy adviser present his perspectives on why America needs to end the war on drugs. This presentation is part of FFF’s Drug War Video Project, whose aim is to accelerate the end of this immoral and destructive government program. Go to the podcast.

Patriotism and Conscience: The Edward Snowden Affair

by Jacob G. Hornberger December 1, 2016

The Edward Snowden case provides a good example of how the conversion of the federal government from a limited-government republic to a national-security state has warped and perverted the morals, values, principles, and consciences of the American people. Snowden is the former NSA official who revealed the national-security establishment’s top-secret surveillance scheme to the American people and the rest of ...

How Food Stamps Subverted Democracy, Part 1

by James Bovard December 1, 2016

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 The federal government is now feeding more than 100 million Americans. The vast increase in dependency fundamentally changes the relationship of Washington to the citizenry. The more Americans rely on handouts, the more difficult it becomes to roll back politicians’ power over those who do not. There was no ...

Workplace Smoking

by Laurence M. Vance December 1, 2016

While making a brief trip recently to a place of business in a local outdoor mall in central Florida, I noticed that a new sign had been posted on the information board in the middle of one of the sidewalks: “Smoking in Workplaces Is Prohibited by Law.” The sign was gone the next week, replaced by an ad for ...

The New Deal, Part 2: Foreign Policy

by Joseph R. Stromberg December 1, 2016

Part 1 | Part 2 As noted in part 1, the New Deal was in serious political trouble by 1937. (See Frederic Sanborn, “Collapse of the New Deal,” in W.A. Williams, ed., Shaping of American Diplomacy, II.) Agriculture Secretary Henry Wallace’s book New Frontiers (1934) was an early sign of the administration’s turn toward foreign markets as ...