Daily Articles

The Case for Freedom in Ludwig von Mises, F.A. Hayek, and Ayn Rand

by Richard M. Ebeling January 1, 2021

Three names are widely associated with the cause of human freedom and economic liberty in the twentieth century: Friedrich A. Hayek, Ludwig von Mises, and Ayn Rand. Indeed, it can be argued that Hayek’s Road to Serfdom (1944) and Constitution of Liberty (1960), Mises’s Socialism (1936) and Human Action (1949), and Rand’s novels The Fountainhead (1943) and Atlas Shrugged ...

End Subway Socialism in New York City

by Gregory Bresiger January 1, 2021

The misery will continue for New York subway riders, who don’t understand how previous subway reforms have failed. State and city officials concede things will worsen. “There is no question our subways are in crisis after decades of underinvestment and inaction,” wrote New York City Comptroller Scott Stinger in a recent report. “The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA),” writes New York State ...

Business Regulations

by Laurence M. Vance December 29, 2020

Business regulations are of two kinds: government-imposed regulations on businesses and business-imposed regulations on employees and customers. From the standpoint of liberty and property, the first kind of regulation is always bad and the second kind of regulation is always good, even when the regulations are bad. Let me explain. First of all, there are government-imposed regulations on businesses. These can ...

Help Us Light the Darkness

by Jacob G. Hornberger December 29, 2020

 There is one light shining through the darkness of the ever-increasing tyranny under which we live. That light is libertarianism. We must continue doing everything we can not only to keep that light lit, but also to increase its intensity and brightness. That’s what we ...

Private Charity versus the Political Grinches

by Richard M. Ebeling December 28, 2020

Christmas is a time of good cheer, gift-giving, and hopes for the New Year. This year, 2020, has been a hard and disturbing one for virtually all of us due to the coronavirus and, especially, the government’s heavy-handed shutdown and lockdown responses. What Christmas time also represents is a time of benevolence and generosity to family, friends, and others ...

What If the Christ Child Had Been Born in the American Police State?

by John W. Whitehead December 23, 2020

“When the song of the angels is stilled, when the star in the sky is gone, when the kings and princes are home, when the shepherds are back with their flocks, the work of Christmas begins: to find the lost, to heal the broken, to feed the hungry, to release the prisoner, to rebuild the nations, to bring peace ...

Unhinged…..And Then Some!

by David Stockman December 21, 2020

Jerome Powell puts you in mind of the boy who killed both of his parents and then  threw himself on the mercy of the court on the grounds that he was an orphan! That’s what JayPo essentially did in his presser yesterday while trying to explain that the  most hideous equity market bubble in history is actually not that at ...

Opponents of Liberty Remain Misguided Sore Winners

by Richard M. Ebeling December 18, 2020

The 2020 presidential election has been the most divisive in many people’s living memory. Not only has there been the anger and fury over whether Donald Trump or Joe Biden should occupy the White House come January 20, 2021, there have been concerns and controversy about whether democracy itself is under attack in America. One indication of people’s concerns about ...

Carl Watner, RIP

by Wendy McElroy December 16, 2020

It is with deep sorrow that I announce the death of Carl Watner, who was the primary hand in founding the modern Voluntaryist movement in the early 1980s. He worked tirelessly and without complaint, day in and day out for decades, expressing his principles through his prolific writing, his  character, and his actions. I will never meet his like ...

Another Conservative Social Security Reform Plan

by Laurence M. Vance December 15, 2020

Just reading the title is enough to make a libertarian cringe. “How Social Security Reform Could Make a Popular Federal Program Better,” by Rachel Greszler and Ilana Blumsack, was published last month by the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank that, for almost fifty years, claims to have “advanced the principles of free enterprise, limited government, ...

Mandatory Vaccination and Liberty

by Christine Smith December 14, 2020

Compulsory vaccination has no place in a free society. On December 4, 2020, a bill ( ) was introduced to the New York State Legislature which would, if passed and enacted, result in mandatory Covid-19 vaccinations. The pertinent text from the bill, "If public health officials determine that sufficient immunity has not been developed, this legislation will allow the Department ...

Why Hayek was Right About Nazis Being Socialists

by Richard M. Ebeling December 11, 2020

Words are powerful things in that they enable us to share a common world of understanding with our contemporaries and, in the written form, with generations long past. But too often words can just as easily cause confusion, misunderstanding, and conflict among people in any society. One such word that keeps causing this type of confusion and conflict is ...