Daily Articles

Moritz J. Bonn: A Classical Liberal Voice in a Collectivist World

by Richard M. Ebeling February 1, 2021

Ninety years ago, the United States and most of the rest of the Western industrial world was in the throes of the Great Depression. Usually demarcated as having begun with the U.S. stock market crash of October 1929, the Depression is most often dated as having reached bottom at the end of 1932 and the early part of 1933. Unemployment, ...

On the Wrong Track

by Lance Lamberton February 1, 2021

Romance of the Rails. Why the Passenger Trains We Love Are Not the Transportation We Need by Randal O’Toole (Cato Institute, 2018); 376 pages. If ever there was an example of how government intervention in the marketplace creates unintended consequences and makes a situation it was intended to solve infinitely worse by virtue of being involved in it in the ...

Free Labor Markets vs. Biden’s Push for Compulsory Unionism

by Richard M. Ebeling January 29, 2021

We have now entered the Joe Biden presidency in the United States. Calling for a restored unity among the American people, the new president has come out of the starting gate with a plethora of executive orders and legislative policy proposals being sent to the Democratic Party-controlled Congress. Virtually all of them involve increased government spending, regulation, and planning ...

The Right to Refuse Service Should Be Universal and Absolute

by Laurence M. Vance January 27, 2021

From New York to Florida, businesses are asserting what they believe is their right to refuse service. It brings up a number of questions. Do these businesses have such a right? Should they have such a right? Should such a right be universal? Should such a right be absolute? What about discrimination? What about fairness? What about equality? What about ...

Trump’s Fall and the Rise of the Tribal Collectivists

by Richard M. Ebeling January 20, 2021

It has often been said that religious wars are the most unforgiving because one or both protagonists are absolutely, if not fanatically, certain that “the” truth is on their side. This is threatening to become the situation in America today with the ideological dogmatism seen in the mindset and extremism of the identity politics warriors and cancel culture crusaders, ...

Should We?

by Laurence M. Vance January 19, 2021

Every president since George Washington has delivered an inaugural address. Beginning with William McKinley, the address has taken place after the swearing in of the new president instead of before. There have been some notable inaugural addresses. William Henry Harrison’s inaugural address in 1841 was almost two hours long. He delivered the address in freezing weather without a ...

Witnessing Lithuania’s 1991 Fight for Freedom from Soviet Power

by Richard M. Ebeling January 13, 2021

Individual liberty and representative democracy as complementary forms of personal and political self-government are precious aspects of shared social life. Given the political and economic events surrounding the recent presidential election and the restrictions on personal freedom due to the government-imposed lockdowns in the face of the coronavirus, it seems appropriate to recall a real fight for a free ...

Conservative Hypocrisy on Foreign Aid

by Laurence M. Vance January 5, 2021

After initially threatening to veto it, Donald Trump signed into law a $2.3 trillion, 5,593-page spending bill that no member of Congress had read. The “Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021” (H.R.133), which is a combination of twelve annual funding bills, COVID-19 relief, and pounds and pounds of pork, passed the House in two separate votes ...

Freedom versus Paternalism in the Coming Decade

by Richard M. Ebeling January 4, 2021

We are not only standing at the beginning of a new year in 2021, but at the entrance of the third decade of the 21st century. With a fifth of this latest century now behind us, what have we learned so far? I, personally, fear that the answer to that is little that is right and true, as I ...

Salvador Allende and the JFK Assassination, Part 1

by Jacob G. Hornberger January 1, 2021

On September 11, 1973, Chilean Air Force Hawker Hunter jets attacked the National Palace in the nation’s capital, Santiago. The planes fired missiles into the palace with the aim of assassinating the nation’s democratically elected president, Salvador Allende, who, along with several of his supporters, was defending himself against the attacks on his life. The attack on Allende has profound ...

The Deadly Precedent of the Waco Whitewash

by James Bovard January 1, 2021

The easiest way to achieve sainthood in Washington is to cover up a federal atrocity. Thus, it is no surprise that former senator John Danforth continues to be treated by the Washington Post as a visionary statesman. The Post showcased Danforth’s attack on Donald Trump in October after Trump derided the Commission on Presidential Debates. Danforth, a permanent member ...

Non-Issues in the 2020 Election

by Laurence M. Vance January 1, 2021

In one of his trenchant commentaries written about a month before the election, Future of Freedom Foundation president Jacob G. Hornberger asked the question, “Where Are Open Borders in the Presidential Race?” He then made these observations: Unfortunately, but not surprisingly, immigration is not a big burning issue in the presidential race. There is a simple reason for that: Both ...