Daily Articles

Foreign Policy Failure Everywhere

by Sheldon Richman February 17, 2015

If one tried to design a foreign policy to embroil Americans in endless conflicts that would otherwise be quite remote, one could hardly do better than recent presidents of the United States. What could you do that these men have not done to keep Americans mired in distant turmoil? Signs of apparent failure abound while the ruling elite feigns ignorance of the connection between U.S. ...

Is America Still on F. A. Hayek’s “Road to Serfdom”?

by Richard M. Ebeling February 16, 2015

A little more than seventy years ago, on March 10, 1944, there appeared in Great Britain one of the most amazing and influential political books of the twentieth century, The Road to Serfdom by Friedrich A. Hayek, which forewarned of socialist trends in Britain and America that ran the danger of leading to tyranny if taken to their logical ...

TGIF: The Inherently Humble Libertarian

by Sheldon Richman February 13, 2015

You would think that the advocates of a philosophy of political economy that embraces spontaneous social order, bottom-up rule-making based on peaceful voluntary exchange, and even competing polycentric law at least at some level would be safe from the charge of conceit. How conceited can someone be who forswears compelling other people to live in certain ways, ...

Conservative Hypocrisy on Oliver Stone

by Jacob G. Hornberger February 11, 2015

One year ago, The Future of Freedom Foundation presented what we called “a conference within a conference” at the annual conference of the Students for Liberty, a student-run libertarian group that is, once again, holding their annual conference in Washington, D.C., this coming weekend — February 13-15, 2015. The theme of our mini-conference last year was “Civil Liberties and the ...

Government Maximums and Minimums

by Laurence M. Vance February 11, 2015

The latest crisis that has some Americans calling for government intervention to fix the problem is subprime auto loans to the poor. The New York Times has had a series of articles on the subject. And NPR’s On Point with Tom Ashbrook recently devoted a show to the topic. The working poor with low credit scores ...

Brian Williams Helped Pave the Way to War

by Sheldon Richman February 10, 2015

The scandal of the week is NBC anchor Brian Williams’s shabby bid for self-glorification by falsely claiming he was in a U.S. military helicopter forced to land in the Iraqi desert after being hit by ground fire in 2003. Of course so-called news people shouldn’t make up stuff to look good, but there’s something much worse: uncritically passing along ...

The Morality of Capitalism: Liberty, Honesty, and Humility

by Richard M. Ebeling February 10, 2015

In American culture there is one persistent villain portrayed as the enemy of humanity, the perpetrator of deception, and the agent for social corruption and human harm: the businessman. Whether in news commentaries or on the movie screen, the businessman is presented as a heartless, greedy manipulator so concerned with squeezing the last possible dollar out of anything he does, ...

The Libertarian Angle: Nationalism, Public Schooling, and the National Security State

by Future of Freedom Foundation February 9, 2015

Each week, FFF president Jacob Hornberger and FFF vice president Sheldon Richman discuss the hot topics of the day. This week: nationalism, public schooling, and the national security state. The Libertarian Angle airs weekly. Go to the podcast.

TGIF: The Poison Called Nationalism

by Sheldon Richman February 6, 2015

Serbo-Croatian “Forward, the Light Brigade!” Was there a man dismay’d? Not tho’ the soldier knew Someone had blunder’d: Theirs not to make reply, Theirs not to reason why, Theirs but to do and die: Into the valley of Death Rode the six hundred “The Charge of the Light Brigade,” Alfred, Lord Tennyson The reason for the venom directed at those of us ...

American Sniper: A Model American

by Gerald Celente February 5, 2015

The votes are in and the decision is overwhelmingly clear. Chris Kyle—the Navy SEAL portrayed in the blockbuster movie purported killer of some 200 Iraqis during four tours of duty—is the people’s choice. From record ticket sales to major media accolades, from the halls of Congress to the White House, the nation has spoken: “American Sniper” is all-American. Chris Kyle—the ...

States, United States: America’s James Bond Complex

by Sheldon Richman February 4, 2015

Today, American politicians of both major parties — conservatives, “moderates,” and so-called liberals alike — insist that the United States is an “exceptional,” even “indispensable” nation. In practice, this means that for the United States alone the rules are different. Particularly in international affairs, it — the government and its personnel — can do whatever deemed necessary to carry ...

The Ghosts of Yalta Still Haunt the World

by Richard M. Ebeling February 4, 2015

Seventy years ago, during the week of February 4-11, 1945, the most momentous conference of the Second World War was held at Yalta in the Crimea between Franklin D. Roosevelt, Winston Churchill and Joseph Stalin. Their decisions have affected much of the world ever since. The Scars of the Second World War The Second World War left a permanent scar on ...