Daily Articles

The Libertarian Angle: April 15, 2013

by Future of Freedom Foundation April 15, 2013

The Libertarian Angle features FFF vice president Sheldon Richman and president Jacob Hornberger. The Libertarian Angle airs weekly.

TGIF: The Market Is a Beautiful Thing

by Sheldon Richman April 12, 2013

Market advocates tend to respect the intellect of their fellow human beings. You can tell by their reliance on philosophical, moral, economic, and historical arguments when trying to persuade others. But what if most people’s aversion to the market isn’t founded in philosophy, morality, economics, or history? What if their objection is aesthetic? More and more I’ve come to think ...

Can We Have a Discussion about Releasing the Majority of the Guantánamo Prisoners?

by Andy Worthington April 12, 2013

With the prisonwide hunger strike at Guantánamo now entering its third month, conditions at the prison have come under sustained scrutiny for the first time in many years, and media outlets, both domestic and international, have learned, or have been reminded, that 166 men remain at the prison. They remain imprisoned despite Barack Obama’s promise to close Guantánamo, ...

Saber Rattling in Korea: Cui Bono?

by Tim Kelly April 11, 2013

North Korea has announced plans to restart a nuclear reactor that will enable production of weapons-grade plutonium. The announcement coincides with Pyongyang ratcheting up its rhetoric, issuing threats to wage atomic war against South Korea and Japan, and even to target American cities with long-range nuclear missiles it does not yet possess. For decades, North Korea has used its ramshackle ...

The Absurdity of “Universal” Background Checks

by Sheldon Richman April 10, 2013

Those who favor “universal” background checks on gun buyers make some ridiculous arguments. For example, opponents correctly point out that gun buyers with criminal intent will always find channels that require no background check. Gunrunning is among the oldest professions, and the black market will always be with us. Thus the promise of universal background checks — even if ...

Decriminalization, Legalization, or Freedom?

by Laurence M. Vance April 9, 2013

In between drug prohibition and drug freedom are two concepts that are often confused. Drug prohibition is the criminalization of the production, distribution, and possession of drugs as currently exists in the United States on the federal level and in most of the 50 states. Drug freedom is the complete absence of federal and state laws and regulations concerning drugs ...

Fixing the Broken Federal Budget (Video)

by David M. Primo April 9, 2013

On April 1, 2013, David Primo gave the following speech at The Future of Freedom Foundation’s Economic Liberty Lecture Series. The speech can viewed above in its entirety.

The Libertarian Angle: April 8, 2013

by Future of Freedom Foundation April 8, 2013

The Libertarian Angle features FFF vice president Sheldon Richman and president Jacob Hornberger. The Libertarian Angle airs weekly.

TGIF: The Myth of Market Failure

by Sheldon Richman April 5, 2013

In the language of economics, a market failure is, as David Friedman writes, “a situation where each individual correctly chooses the action that best accomplishes his objectives, yet the result is worse, in terms of those same objectives, than if everyone had done something else.” As a rule, the pursuit of individual good in the market ...

The Criminal Iraq War

by Tim Kelly April 4, 2013

Much ink (or bandwidth) has been expended writing about the tenth anniversary of the U.S. government’s invasion of Iraq. That is justified, for the Iraq war was an act of naked aggression and a crime against humanity. While apologists for the Bush administration have cited “bad intelligence” or even incompetence as an excuse for what the late Major General William ...

All Taxation Is Theft

by Laurence M. Vance April 3, 2013

Portuguese When it comes to governments the world over, bad economic policies usually beget more bad economic policies. That is especially true when it comes to taxes. The eyes not just of Europe but of the world were on Cyprus recently when, as part of a proposed bailout package, ordinary bank depositors were to be taxed ...

Nativism, the Citizenship Union, and Barriers to Movement

by Fergus Hodgson April 3, 2013

The day is rapidly approaching when the epithet “nativist” will carry as much power as “racist.” Not only is nativism — the practice of favoring the established inhabitants of a country over recent immigrants — hateful and based on a fallacy; its destructive consequences are becoming more apparent by the day. Nativism, and its manifestation in debates over American citizenship, ...