Daily Articles

The Inextricable Link between Economic Freedom and Individual Liberty

by Walter Block May 2, 2014

NOTE: THIS TALK WAS DONE BY SKYPE. UNFORTUNATELY, WE ENCOUNTERED AUDIO RECORDING DIFFICULTIES DURING THE TALK THAT COULD NOT BE RESOLVED. WE APOLOGIZE FOR THE INCONVENIENCE. On April 28, 2014 Walter Block presented the above speech, entitled "The Inextricable Link between Economic Freedom and Individual Liberty: Government Reduces Liberty through Economic Assault" as part of the ...

Why the U.S. Blew a Chance to Reconcile with Iran

by Sheldon Richman May 1, 2014

In the late 1980s the U.S. government had an opportunity to change its relationship with Iran from hostile to nonadversarial. It had been hostile since 1979, when the Islamic revolution overthrew the brutal U.S.-backed Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and Iranians held 52 Americans hostage for more than a year. The relationship deteriorated further when the Reagan administration helped Iraq after ...

The U.S. Embrace of Monetary Tyranny, Part 1

by Jacob G. Hornberger May 1, 2014

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 The rise of Bitcoin as an alternative currency raises some important questions about America’s monetary system. Why does the United States have a fiat-money system — that is, a system of irredeemable paper currency? Why aren’t Americans free to use any money they want? What is the role ...

Libertarianism: The Moral and the Practical

by Sheldon Richman May 1, 2014

If I say that a government activity — “public” schooling, perhaps, or the war on selected drug merchants and users — helps turn the inner cities into hellholes and otherwise makes people’s lives miserable, is that a moral objection or a practical (utilitarian or generally consequentialist) objection? Some libertarians are inclined to say it’s a utilitarian objection, but I’ve long ...

FDR Farm-Folly Lessons for Obamacare

by James Bovard May 1, 2014

As the Obama administration wreaks further havoc on health care, many people expect the politicians to recognize their follies and relent. However, history indicates that rulers will continue seizing new power regardless of how much wreckage results. The farm policy of Franklin Roosevelt exemplifies how politicians “double down” on their most brazen follies. Roosevelt’s Brain Trust agricultural planners had unlimited ...

Class Theory, Part 1: Modern Conservative Class Analysis

by Anthony Gregory May 1, 2014

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 Since the 2008 financial collapse, class rhetoric has arisen on both prevalent sides of the U.S. political spectrum. The grassroots “base” in both the Republican and Democratic party has become animated by a new or invigorated perception of class struggle. The politicians in each party have echoed these ...

A Treacherous Undertow

by David S. D'Amato May 1, 2014

American Coup: How a Terrified Government Is Destroying the Constitution by William M. Arkin (Little, Brown and Company 2013), 368 pages. Among the philosophy of liberty’s core ideas is the well-known precept that a free society must be one of laws and not of men, that the rule of law should stand above the arbitrary caprice of some empowered ...

Broken

by Matthew Harwood May 1, 2014

They Were Soldiers: How the Wounded Return from America's Wars — The Untold Story by Ann Jones. (Haymarket Books/Dispatch Books 2013), 191 pages. Members of the American armed forces are props. They wave from convertibles as Independence Day parades make their way down Main Street U.S.A. They are trotted out at football games to bless the proceedings as some ...

The Nationals Should Not Celebrate the Military

by Bart Frazier April 30, 2014

I really wish that the Washington Nationals would stop glorifying the American military. I love baseball and nothing beats going to Nationals Park to see a ballgame. But to integrate the nation’s military into the game detracts from the experience and degrades our culture. A baseball game is one of my favorite places to be. As a libertarian, ...

The Conservative Phony War

by Laurence M. Vance April 29, 2014

“There is something phony about this war,” said U.S. Sen. William Borah (R-Idaho) about the relative lack of military action by the Allies during the early months of World War II after Germany invaded Poland. “You would think that Britain and France would do what they are going to do now while Germany and Russia are still busy in ...

The Libertarian Angle: Cliven Bundy and Gun Control

by Future of Freedom Foundation April 28, 2014

FFF president Jacob Hornberger and FFF vice president Sheldon Richman discuss the gun control and events at the Cliven Bundy ranch. The Libertarian Angle airs weekly. Go to the podcast https://libertarianangle.libsyn.com/.

TGIF: What Should Libertarians Do?

by Sheldon Richman April 25, 2014

If the libertarian movement is to be the vehicle — actually, collection of vehicles — for the advancement of liberty, then libertarians need to master the art of persuasion. That’s hardly news, but it’s easily forgotten. I start from the assumption that we don’t want merely to feel good by making hard-core libertarian declarations about abolishing this or that government ...