Daily Articles

Protectionism Is Central Planning

by Laurence M. Vance December 9, 2014

At the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum last month in China, Barack Obama championed the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement, which, if enacted, would be the world’s largest trade agreement, accounting for more than 40 percent of world GDP. “What we are seeing,” Obama told those in attendance at the APEC summit’s opening session, “is momentum building ...

No Compromise Is the ONLY Way to Achieve Freedom

by Jacob G. Hornberger December 8, 2014

There is one way — and only one way — to achieve the free society: by strictly hewing to libertarian principles. While compromising libertarian principles might seem to be a more palatable and more practical way to achieve freedom, nothing could be further from the truth. In response to our end-of-year letter seeking people’s financial support for The Future of Freedom ...

The Libertarian Angle: Foreign Policy Blowback and Police Tyranny

by Future of Freedom Foundation December 8, 2014

FFF president Jacob Hornberger and FFF vice president Sheldon Richman discuss the hot topics of the day. This week: foreign blowback and police tyranny . The Libertarian Angle airs weekly. Go to the podcast.  

The ONLY Way to Achieve Freedom (video)

by Jacob G. Hornberger December 5, 2014

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TGIF: Tackling Straw Men Is Easier than Critiquing Libertarianism

by Sheldon Richman December 5, 2014

Maybe I’m being unreasonable, but I think it behooves a critic to understand what he’s criticizing. I realize that tackling straw men is much easier than dealing with challenging arguments, but that’s no excuse for the shoddy work we find in John Edward Terrell’s New York Times post, “Evolution and the American Myth of the Individual.” In his ...

The Ferguson Distraction

by Sheldon Richman December 4, 2014

Ironically, the shooting death of unarmed black 18-year-old Michael Brown by white Ferguson, MO, police officer Darren Wilson is a distraction from the racist police brutality that ravages America. Whether or not Wilson shot Brown unjustifiably, and whether or not Brown provoked the shooting by grabbing for Wilson’s gun, the police — and the government officials who employ and arm ...

The Libertarian Angle: Obama’s Immigration Decree

by Future of Freedom Foundation December 2, 2014

FFF president Jacob Hornberger and FFF vice president Sheldon Richman discuss the hot topics of the day. This week: immigration policy. The Libertarian Angle airs weekly. Go to the podcast.

Hayek’s Warning: The Social Engineer’s Pretense of Knowledge

by Richard M. Ebeling December 2, 2014

Forty years ago, on December 11, 1974, Austrian economist, Friedrich A. Hayek, formally received that year’s Nobel Prize in Economics at the official ceremonies in Stockholm, Sweden. He delivered a lecture called, “The Pretense of Knowledge,” which forcefully challenged all those who believe that government has the wisdom or ability to successfully plan the economic affairs of society. His primary ...

The U.S. Executions of Charles Horman and Frank Teruggi, Part 3

by Jacob G. Hornberger December 1, 2014

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 As soon as World War II ended, the U.S. government proceeded to convert the Soviet Union from a wartime partner and ally to a new official enemy of the United States, one that Americans were told posed a greater threat ...

Bastiat on the Socialization of Wealth

by Sheldon Richman December 1, 2014

That … veil which is spread before the eyes of the ordinary man, which even the attentive observer does not always succeed in casting aside, prevents us from seeing the most marvelous of all social phenomena: real wealth constantly passing from the domain of private property into the communal domain. Wealth marvelously passing from the private to the communal domain? ...

The Food-Security Charade

by James Bovard December 1, 2014

Federal spending on food aid has skyrocketed in recent decades, and the feds are now feeding more than 100 million Americans. Yet, according to the Agriculture Department (USDA), far more Americans are “food insecure” now than before the mushrooming of subsidized feeding programs. But rather than seeing this as evidence of a government failure, a chorus of activists and ...

The Origins and Intentions of Copyright

by Joseph S. Diedrich December 1, 2014

In a victory for media Goliaths, the Supreme Court recently ruled that TV-streaming service Aereo “perform ... copyrighted works publicly” and therefore violated copyright law. The ghost of Grokster haunts us. Napster rolls in its grave. Copyright’s muscular hands have once again strangled innovation. What is the purpose of copyright law? Conventional wisdom asserts that it protects the rights of ...