Daily Articles

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, ...

Progressives Believe in Money Magic

by Sheldon Richman April 2, 2013

It’s hard to believe that in the 21st century, educated people believe the government can produce real wealth by creating money. It’s especially ironic that the main preachers of this superstition fancy themselves progressives and are the first to accuse their opponents of being against science. What could be more antiscience than the alchemic proposal to create wealth ...

Living Economics (video)

by Peter J. Boettke April 2, 2013

The Future of Freedom Foundation is pleased to present "Living Economics," a talk by Peter J. Boettke with comments from FFF vice president Sheldon Richman and Chris Coyne, F.A. Harper Professor of Economics at George Mason University. This panel took place on March 27, 2013 at George Mason University at Arlington in Founder's ...

The Libertarian Angle: April 1, 2013

by Future of Freedom Foundation April 1, 2013

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

Golden State Gun Grab Lays Groundwork for Mass Disarmament

by Michael Tennant April 1, 2013

A recent news story demonstrates the dangers of letting the government know who owns guns and determine who is permitted to own them. The state of California “requires most weapons sales go through a licensed dealer and be reported,” writes Bloomberg, and it sends agents around to confiscate weapons from people the state has decided are unfit ...

Chile’s Gun-Control Lesson for Americans

by Jacob G. Hornberger April 1, 2013

One of the popular arguments for gun control is that people don’t need assault rifles, high-capacity magazines, and certain types of high-powered pistols to shoot deer. That argument, however, ignores the primary rationale for the Second Amendment, which was to ensure that people retained the means to resist tyranny at the hands of the federal government. Statists give short shrift ...

James Buchanan’s Subjectivist Economics

by Sheldon Richman April 1, 2013

James Buchanan, the Nobel laureate who died at 93 in January, was well known for his pioneering work in Public Choice (the application of economic principles to politics), constitutional economics (as a device for limiting government power), and many other key subjects in political economy. His voluminous work has long been of interest to libertarians and classical liberals for ...