Daily Articles

The Sordid History of IRS Political Abuse

by James Bovard September 1, 2013

The power to tax has long conferred the power to destroy one’s political opponents. When the latest IRS politicization scandal erupted in May, many commentators talked as if the abuses were a novelty in American history. But, as David Burnham noted in his masterful 1990 book, A Law Unto Itself: The IRS and the Abuse of Power, “In almost ...

U.S. Government to Blame for Somalia’s Misery

by Scott Horton September 1, 2013

At the beginning of May the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET), a U.S.- and U.K.-government-financed organization that monitors various food crises around the world, released a new report detailing the horrific consequences of the Somali famine of 2011. According to FEWS NET, “An estimated 4.6 percent of the total population and 10 percent of children under 5 died ...

Gabriel Kolko Revisited, Part 1: Kolko at Home

by Joseph R. Stromberg September 1, 2013

Part 1 | Part 2 An earlier generation of libertarians was interested in Gabriel Kolko, a historian of the Left. Who was he? Born in 1932 in Paterson, NJ, historian Gabriel Kolko studied at Kent State, the University of Wisconsin, and Harvard University (PhD: 1962). From 1970 until his retirement he taught history at York University in Toronto, ...

America’s Surveillance State

by Wendy McElroy September 1, 2013

J. Edgar Hoover and the Anti-Interventionists: FBI Political Surveillance and the Rise of the Domestic Security State, 1939-1945, by Douglas M. Charles (Ohio State University Press, 2007), 197 pages. The domestic surveillance state is sometimes called the electronic police state. Those in political power use law enforcement to closely monitor the opinions and peaceful behavior of citizens in order ...

Manufacturing Terrorists

by Matthew Harwood September 1, 2013

The Terror Factory: Inside the FBI’s Manufactured War on Terrorism by Trevor Aaronson (Ig Publishing, 2013), 272 pages. Predators stalk Muslim-American communities across the nation today. They talk of brotherhood and of sacrifice. They talk of jihad and the duty of fellow Muslims to come to the defense of the faithful. Often they prey on the most vulnerable within ...

TGIF: Obama and King

by Sheldon Richman August 30, 2013

Portuguese The irony was striking. There was President Barack Obama on Wednesday, standing in front of the Lincoln Memorial to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.’s remarkable “I Have a Dream” speech. The irony lay not in Obama’s banality, but in the fact that as he spoke, his war council was planning ...

U.S. Has No Moral Standing to Condemn Assad

by Sheldon Richman August 28, 2013

Whether or not Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad used chemical weapons, President Obama has no legitimate grounds to intervene. U.S. airstrikes, intended to punish and deter Assad and degrade his military but not overthrow his regime, would deepen the U.S. investment in the Syrian civil war and increase the chances of further intervention. Obama’s previous intervention is what has brought us to this ...

Libertarian Angle: Manning, Debt, and the Middle East

by Future of Freedom Foundation August 26, 2013

Jacob Hornberger and Sheldon Richman discuss Bradley Manning, federal debt, and tensions in the middle east. The Libertarian Angle airs weekly.

TGIF: Heroic

by Sheldon Richman August 23, 2013

Bradley Manning (who wishes to be known as Chelsea Manning) sure was naïve. During the sentencing phase of Manning’s court martial, Alexa O’Brien reports, a forensic psychiatrist said, Well, Pfc Manning was under the impression that his leaked information was going to really change how the world views the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and future ...

Why We Should Not Raise the Minimum Wage

by Laurence M. Vance August 21, 2013

The federal minimum wage has been $7.25 an hour since July 24, 2009. Although this is a long way from the first federal minimum wage of $0.25 an hour in the 1930s, it is not high enough according to some members of Congress, a group of over one hundred professional economists, President Obama, the executive director of the National ...

Delete the Fed

by Sheldon Richman August 20, 2013

Who should run the Federal Reserve System when chairman Ben Bernanke’s term expires next year: Vice Chair Janet Yellen or former Obama adviser Lawrence Summers? Neither. Who then? No one. The fact is, we need the Federal Reserve like we need a hole in the head. Contrary to folklore, the Fed is not needed to stabilize the economy or to prevent unemployment. As ...

FFF Webinar: The Myth of Market Failure (video)

by Sheldon Richman August 19, 2013

On Wednesday, August 14, 2013 FFF vice president and editor Sheldon Richman hosted a free, interactive online webinar entitled “The Myth of Market Failure." The webinar was an interactive experience with Sheldon and was limited to 24 participants. Download the audio here. Subscribe to the FFF podcast RSS feed.