Daily Articles

Understanding the Paris Violence

by Sheldon Richman January 14, 2015

Contrary to American officialdom and its stalwart “manufacturers of consent” — the intelligentsia and mainstream media — we will never comprehend the reasons for the slaughter of 17 innocent people in Paris as long as we ignore the history of Western violence against the Muslim world. Perpetrators and cheerleaders of Western violence stifle discussion of what motivates young Muslims to ...

L’affaire Charlie Hebdo and Western Colonialism

by John V. Walsh January 14, 2015

To understand the attack on Charlie Hebdo in Paris last week, we need only invert George W. Bush’s 2005 mantra*, thus: “They will continue to attack us over here so long as we slaughter them by the millions over there.” In a word, this is one more instance of blowback, as Ron Paul tells us in his perceptive essay, “

Lessons for Winning Liberty in a World of Statism

by Richard M. Ebeling January 13, 2015

Friends of freedom often become despondent when it seems that every day brings another growth and intrusion of government over people’s lives. But there is no reason to be disheartened, because there are lessons for winning liberty – from the opponents of freedom. Beginning in the last decades of the nineteenth century, through most of the twentieth century and into ...

Free Trade: The Engine of Revolution

by Wendy McElroy January 12, 2015

To say that a country so remote and insignificant as Korea is our first line of defense is to say that every nation in every part of the world is also our “first line of defense” — a conception which is obviously fantastic and grotesque to the borders of megalomania. —Louis Bromfield, 1954 Louis Bromfield (1896–1956) may ...

The Libertarian Angle: Charlie Hebdo

by Future of Freedom Foundation January 12, 2015

Each week, FFF president Jacob Hornberger and FFF vice president Sheldon Richman discuss the hot topics of the day. This week: the attacks in France on the offices of Charlie Hebdo. The Libertarian Angle airs weekly. Go to the podcast.

TGIF: In Memory of the Charlie Hebdo Victims

by Sheldon Richman January 9, 2015

Words can hardly convey the grief and disgust felt at Wednesday’s executions of the editor, cartoonists, and others — 10 people in all — at France’s satirical weekly magazine, Charlie Hebdo. Two policemen also were killed, and 11 other people were wounded by the three fanatics who reportedly declared they were avenging the prophet Muhammad, founder of Islam. Nothing can justify ...

Rein In the Police, Not Protesters

by Scott McPherson January 9, 2015

My brother once quipped, “The great thing about being a Leftist is never having to say you’re sorry.” He was talking about the propensity of those who erroneously describe themselves as “liberals” to endlessly pat themselves on the back for their allegedly grand intentions, while conveniently ignoring the actual consequences of their failed policies. As P.J. O’Rourke observed, ...

Conservatives Just Don’t Get It on Taxes

by Laurence M. Vance January 8, 2015

Now that the Republicans have regained the control of the Senate that they lost in the 2006 midterm election, conservatives are salivating about the prospect of “real” or “genuine” tax reform. Conservatives believe that reforming the tax code by making it more efficient, more coherent, more transparent, and more equitable; eliminating the double taxation that discourages saving and investment; eliminating ...

A New Year’s Resolution: Becoming a Light of Liberty

by Richard M. Ebeling January 8, 2015

With the beginning of 2015, what might be a “New Year’s resolution” for a friend of freedom? I would suggest that one answer is for each of us to do our best to become “lights of liberty” that will attract others to the cause of freedom and the free society. For five years, from 2003 to 2008, I had the ...

The Ominous Republican Hold on Congress

by Sheldon Richman January 7, 2015

As we face the new year, the biggest concern for peace lovers is Republican control of the U.S. Senate. While Republican votes don’t reach the key number 60, members of the GOP will still be in a strong position to push their belligerent global agenda. I don’t mean to overstate the danger. After all, the Democrats were hardly better. But ...

On the Methodology of Winning Liberty

by Jacob G. Hornberger January 7, 2015

  For the last 25 years of The Future of Freedom Foundation’s existence and even before, the libertarian movement has basically been divided into two wings — those who advocate pure libertarian principles — the “purists” — and those who advocate “reformist” or “gradualist” measures. Throughout that time, it has been assumed that these are simply two alternative ways to advance ...

Why Washington and Wall Street Are Better Off Living Apart (video)

by John Tamny January 6, 2015

On December 18, 2014 John Tamny delivered this talk to a private audience at The Future of Freedom Foundation. John Tamny is Political Economy editor at Forbes, a senior economic adviser to Toreador Research & Trading, and editor of RealClearMarkets.com