The Libertarian Angle: Obamacare, Contraceptives, and Immigrant Children by Future of Freedom Foundation July 7, 2014 FFF president Jacob Hornberger and FFF vice president Sheldon Richman discuss the hot topics of the day. This week: the Hobby Lobby ruling and the influx of immigrant children on the southern border. The Libertarian Angle airs weekly. Go to the podcast.
Misguided Beliefs in Political Leaders by Richard M. Ebeling July 7, 2014 This is an election year and as in all past election years we are inundated with promises and proposals from candidates, each hoping to attract our votes. For the most part what they are promising is “leadership” and political solutions to our personal, social and economic problems. They almost always fail to remind us, however, that in the political ...
A Message from Jacob G. Hornberger by Jacob G. Hornberger July 3, 2014 Dear Friend of Freedom, If you’re a radical for liberty like me then you’ll want to read this letter and help. We here at The Future of Freedom Foundation don’t compromise — and sometimes we have to pay a price for our uncompromising moral defense of freedom. Sometimes we walk away from donations because the money or the idea would sacrifice ...
The Transportation “Fiscal Cliff” by Laurence M. Vance July 3, 2014 Every few months in Washington, D.C., there is some perceived crisis that headlines newspapers for a few weeks before fading away or being overcome by the next crisis. They are generally crises of the government’s own making and are due to its reckless spending and continued operation of unconstitutional agencies and programs. This time it is the transportation “fiscal cliff.” The ...
Hobby Lobby Ruling Falls Short by Sheldon Richman July 2, 2014 As far as it went, the Supreme Court generally got it right in the Hobby Lobby-Obamacare-contraception case. Unfortunately it didn’t go nearly far enough. The court ruled that “closely held corporations” whose owners have religious convictions against contraceptives cannot be forced to pay for employee coverage for those products. I wish the court could have said this instead: (1) No one ...
The U.S. Embrace of Monetary Tyranny, Part 3 by Jacob G. Hornberger July 1, 2014 Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 In 1933, in one of the most shocking events in the history of the United States, Franklin Roosevelt issued a series of executive orders, backed by Congress, that required the American people, on pain of fine and imprisonment, to surrender their gold coins to the federal government, for ...
What Social Animals Owe Each Other by Sheldon Richman July 1, 2014 If I were compelled to summarize the libertarian philosophy’s distinguishing feature while standing on one foot, I’d say the following: Every person owes it to all other persons not to aggress against them. This is known as the nonaggression principle, or NAP. What is the nature of this obligation? The first thing to notice is that it is unchosen. I never ...
How Early U.S. Trade Policy Spurred Wars and Injustice, Part 2 by James Bovard July 1, 2014 Part 1 | Part 2 In 1845 the Democrats took over the White House and began working for tariff reduction. Secretary of the Treasury Robert Walker issued a report in 1845 on the nature and effects of the tariff, observing, “At least two-thirds of the taxes imposed by the present tariff are paid, not into the treasury ...
Class Theory, Part 3: Libertarian Class Analysis Revisited by Anthony Gregory July 1, 2014 Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 The Left has long dominated the basic idea of two classes in society — the common people and the power elite — each with its own, usually conflicting, interests. When the Left speaks that way, the Right tends to accuse it of “class warfare,” even though conservatives have ...
The Bundy Ranch Standoff: the Bad and the Ugly by Kevin Carson July 1, 2014 The Bundy ranch saga has been the subject of heated good guy/bad guy framing by both mainstream liberals and mainstream conservatives, who differ only on which roles to assign to Bundy and the feds, respectively. But I can’t really see any good guys in this. The respective echo chambers for the two sides differ on whether the land in question ...
The Economics of Foreign Policy by John Glaser July 1, 2014 Doing Bad by Doing Good: Why Humanitarian Action Fails by Christopher Coyne (Stanford Economics and Finance 2013), 272 pages. In the aftermath of the carnage wrought by World War II, Harry Truman committed America to humanitarian action. In his 1949 inaugural address, he pledged to “continue our programs for world economic recovery” and “embark on a bold new ...
The Libertarian Angle: World War I by Future of Freedom Foundation June 30, 2014 FFF president Jacob Hornberger and FFF vice president Sheldon Richman discuss the hot topics of the day. This week: the centenary of World War I. The Libertarian Angle airs weekly. Go to the podcast.