Daily Articles

Time to End Monetary Central Planning

by Richard M. Ebeling October 6, 2015

There is no way to describe current Federal Reserve policy other than as monetary confusion and misdirection. In a nutshell, Janet Yellen and the other members of the Fed’s Board of Governors have no idea what to do. Do they raise certain interest rates over which they have some direct influence? Do they keep them at their current rock ...

Why We Don’t Compromise, Part 6

by Jacob G. Hornberger October 1, 2015

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 A few days after the 9/11 attacks, I was attending a big libertarian dinner at an area hotel. As I was walking out at the conclusion of the dinner, a longtime libertarian friend approached me and said ...

The Failure of the Americans with Disabilities Act

by James Bovard October 1, 2015

The Americans with Disabilities Act was enacted 25 years ago. It promised a brave new era of equality and freedom. Instead, it has spawned endless lawsuits and absurd federal decrees while harming some of the people it sought to relieve. The original law was badly drafted and subsequent amendments and administrative decrees have made it far worse. The 1990 ADA ...

The Morality of Libertarianism

by Laurence M. Vance October 1, 2015

Libertarianism is a political philosophy that says that people should be free from government interference to live their life any way they desire and engage in any economic activity they choose as long as their actions are peaceful and consensual and they don’t violate the personal or property rights of others. It is that simple. Violence is justified only ...

Free Markets and Human Freedom

by Dean Russell October 1, 2015

There the market is freest, human liberty is highest. If labor is controlled (e.g., slavery), there is neither a free market nor freedom. If capital is controlled (e.g., government ownership), you can’t produce without permission; that’s not freedom. The free-market economy and human freedom are mutually dependent; destroy one, and the other automatically falls…. Governments control people (you and me) ...

The Political Economy of “Exporting” Democracy

by Christopher Coyne October 1, 2015

In 1917, President Woodrow Wilson justified the American entry into World War I on the ground that it was necessary to make the world “safe for democracy.” Since that time, U.S. presidents have used this same line of reasoning to justify military interventions around the world. More than eight decades after Wilson’s decree, George W. Bush stated that “it ...

Two Days in the Life of President John F. Kennedy

by Michael Swanson October 1, 2015

Two Days in June: John F. Kennedy and the 48 Hours That Made History by Andrew Cohen (McClelland & Stewart, 2014), 404 pages.  To Move the World: JFK’s Quest for Peace by Jeffrey Sachs (Random House, 2013), 249 pages. November 22, 2013, marked the passage of fifty years since John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas. The milestone garnered a lot of ...

Two Police State’s War on America

by David S. D'Amato October 1, 2015

Battlefield America: The War on the American People by John W. Whitehead (SelectBooks, 2015), 352 pages. John W. Whitehead is among the most dedicated and articulate civil libertarians of his generation. His latest book, Battlefield America: The War on the American People, is a cogent argument that today the clear and present danger to Americans and their freedom ...

‘Minority Report’ Is 40 Years Ahead of Schedule: The Fictional World Has Become Reality

by John W. Whitehead September 30, 2015

“The Internet is watching us now. If they want to. They can see what sites you visit. In the future, television will be watching us, and customizing itself to what it knows about us. The thrilling thing is, that will make us feel we’re part of the medium. The scary thing is, we’ll lose our right to privacy. An ...

The Libertarian Angle – The Federal Reserve: Audit, Reform, or Abolish?

by Future of Freedom Foundation September 29, 2015

Each week, FFF president Jacob Hornberger and Richard M. Ebeling discuss the hot topics of the day. This week, Jacob and Richard discuss the merits of a free market in money and the pitfalls of centralized monetary planning. The Libertarian Angle airs weekly. Go to the podcast.

Crony Capitalism the Cause of Society’s Problems

by Richard M. Ebeling September 28, 2015

Since the economic downturn of 2008, the critics of capitalism have redoubled their efforts to persuade the American people and many others around the world that the system of individual freedom and free enterprise has failed. These critics have insisted that it is unbridled capitalism, set lose on the world, which is the source of all of our personal and ...

The Crisis of the Now: Distracted and Diverted from the Ever-Encroaching Police State

by John W. Whitehead September 25, 2015

“When a population becomes distracted by trivia, when cultural life is redefined as a perpetual round of entertainments, when serious public conversation becomes a form of baby talk, when, in short, a people become an audience and their public business a vaudeville act, then a nation finds itself at risk: culture-death is a clear possibility.”—Author Neil Postman Caught ...