Daily Articles

Lionel Robbins on the Logic of Choice and a Liberal International Order

by Richard M. Ebeling January 1, 2023

It is probably not too much of an exaggeration to say that British economist Lionel Robbins (1898–1984) was one of the most influential economists of the last hundred years without most economists, nowadays, being aware of it. This is all because of a relatively short book that he published over 90 years ago, An Essay on the Nature and ...

The Historical Foundation of Civil Liberties, Part 3

by Tom G. Palmer January 1, 2023

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 This article is from a transcript of the opening presentation of FFF’s September 21, 2021, conference “Restoring Our Civil Liberties.” Let’s examine the contemporary use of the term civil liberties. The use of the term in the way that we’re now accustomed to dates to the repressive measures of World ...

From Totalitarian Paranoia to Authoritarian Madness

by John W. Whitehead December 29, 2022

The danger signs were everywhere in 2022. With every new law enacted by federal and state legislatures, every new ruling handed down by government courts, and every new military weapon, invasive tactic and egregious protocol employed by government agents, we were reminded that in the eyes of the government and its corporate accomplices, “we the people” possess no rights except ...

Spreading the Light of Liberty

by Jacob G. Hornberger December 21, 2022

Imagine a large, dark, windowless room filled with hundreds of people. Then imagine that one person lights a small candle, bringing a ray of light to that dark room. That person uses his candle to light someone else’s candle, bringing a bit more light to the room. Each person with a lit candle then lights someone else’s candle. Before ...

Free Trade Is a Human Right

by Laurence M. Vance December 16, 2022

Did the United States really give China $309 billion this year? Some conservatives think so. Now, it is certainly true, as conservatives regularly point out, that China is no “people’s republic.” According to the U.S. State Department’s 2021 report on human rights practices in China: “The People’s Republic of China is an authoritarian state in which the ...

The Surveillance State Is Making a List, and You’re On It

by John W. Whitehead December 14, 2022

He sees you when you’re sleeping He knows when you’re awake He knows when you’ve been bad or good So be good for goodness’ sake! —“Santa Claus Is Coming to Town” You’d better watch out—you’d better not pout—you’d better not cry—‘cos I’m telling you why: this Christmas, it’s the Surveillance State that’s making a list and checking it twice, and it won’t matter whether ...

The Constitution Has Already Been Terminated

by John W. Whitehead December 9, 2022

“That was when they suspended the Constitution. They said it would be temporary.”—Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid’s Tale If there is one point on which there should be no political parsing, no legal jockeying, and no disagreement, it is this: for anyone to advocate terminating or suspending the Constitution is tantamount to a declaration of war against the founding ...

Why Should Americans Have to Vote to Legalize Marijuana?

by Laurence M. Vance December 2, 2022

In addition to the thousands of candidates running for federal, state, and local offices in the recent midterm election, voters in 37 states also had the option of deciding on 132 statewide ballot measures. Five of those ballot measures were related to marijuana. The federal government classifies marijuana as a Schedule I controlled substance under the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) ...

We Don’t Need No Regulation (or Statist Education)

by Robert E. Wright December 1, 2022

Like the long line of school children who mindlessly marched into Pink Floyd’s meat grinder in The Wall, an estimated one million investors recently fell victim to Sam Bankman-Fried’s crypto grinder. The fiasco’s silver lining is that it proves that Americans need neither statist schooling nor government regulation, two insidiously intertwined institutions. Soon after cryptocurrency exchange FTX failed about a ...

How We Got a National-Security Police State, Part 2

by Jacob G. Hornberger December 1, 2022

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 The coin of the realm in any national-security state is fear. In order to induce people to surrender their rights and freedoms, officials have to inculcate deep fear within them. Thus, national-security officials are constantly coming up with official foreign enemies, opponents, rivals, and adversaries, as well as crises, to ...

Biden’s Bloated IRS Will Skewer Taxpayers

by James Bovard December 1, 2022

The Internal Revenue Service is perhaps the ultimate sacred cow in Washington. It is the “goose that lays the golden eggs” for the city’s power and prestige, delivering trillions of dollars to politicians to work miracles (or at least get reelected). When criticism erupted over the 87,000 new revenooers to be hired thanks to Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, Washington’s ...

The Free Market Can and Should Be Absolute

by Laurence M. Vance December 1, 2022

The 1932 Democratic Party platform advocated “the removal of government from all fields of private enterprise except where necessary to develop public works and natural resources in the common interest.” But since the advent of Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal — a raw deal for Americans that raised taxes; forced most manufacturing industries into cartels with codes that regulated prices; paid ...