Daily Articles

America’s Fiscal Follies are Dangerously in the Red

by Richard M. Ebeling September 10, 2020

The Congressional Budget Office has recently issued a federal “Budget Outlook Update” for the next ten years in the context of the government’s fiscal condition in the face of the coronavirus and Washington’s spending spree. The message: the deficit for fiscal year 2020 is huge, and the national debt is getting bigger, faster than had been projected before ...

Mile Markers of Tyranny: Losing Our Freedoms on the Road from 9/11 to COVID-19

by John W. Whitehead September 9, 2020

“No one ever seizes power with the intention of relinquishing it. Power is not a means; it is an end.”—George Orwell You can map the nearly 20-year journey from the 9/11 attacks to the COVID-19 pandemic by the freedoms we’ve lost along the way. The road we have been traveling has been littered with the wreckage of our once-vaunted liberties, especially ...

Cryptocurrency and Libertarianism

by Wendy McElroy September 8, 2020

“The desire of gold is not for gold. It is for the means of freedom and benefit.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson The impact of cryptocurrency on libertarianism has been profound, especially among the younger generation. To many, the appeal is a mystery because they view crypto as a scam or a delusion of the madding crowd. Austrian economists invoke the ...

Law And Order Howling

by David Stockman September 3, 2020

When all else fails, Fake Republicans like Richard Nixon back in the day and Donald Trump today turn to “Law & Order” demagoguery to incite the electorate in their direction. So doing, they conveniently abandon the real job of the Conservative Party in American democracy, which is to fight against the Government Party (usually the Dems) in behalf of free ...

A Catastrophic Misconception and Omission

by Laurence M. Vance September 2, 2020

“Legalizing pot is a catastrophic mistake,” says self-proclaimed marijuana expert Kevin Sabet in an opinion piece in Newsweek. The fact that thirty-three states have legalized the medical use of marijuana and eleven states have legalized the recreational use of marijuana, all without catastrophic results, says otherwise. The only thing catastrophic is the misconception and omission in Sabet’s article. Sabet ...

Trump’s “American Greatness” Also Political Paternalism

by Richard M. Ebeling September 1, 2020

Mind your own business. Every one of us has thought or said words to this effect when others have told us how to live our lives. Who our friends should be, what career we should pursue, where we should live, the person we should marry, how we should spend our money, or even what clothes we should wear or ...

Socialism, American Style, Part 5

by Jacob G. Hornberger September 1, 2020

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 The Federal Reserve System is another prime example of American socialism, because it is based on central planning, a core element of socialism. Government officials plan, in a top-down, command-and-control manner the monetary affairs of hundreds of millions ...

The Korean War’s Forgotten Lessons on the Evil of Intervention

by James Bovard September 1, 2020

This year is the 70th anniversary of the start of the Korean War, a conflict from which Washington policymakers learned nothing. Almost 40,000 American soldiers died in that conflict that should have permanently vaccinated the nation against the folly and evil of foreign intervention. Instead, the war was retroactively redefined. As Barack Obama declared in 2013, “That war was ...

A Four-Point Plan for Government

by Laurence M. Vance September 1, 2020

In July 2010, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), in conjunction with the U.S. Department of Justice’s Nationwide Suspicious Activity Reporting (SAR) Initiative (NSI), launched the “If You See Something, Say Something” national campaign to raise “public awareness of the indicators of terrorism and terrorism-related crime, as well as the importance of reporting suspicious activity to state and local ...

Free Trade, Liberalism, and Peace

by Richard M. Ebeling September 1, 2020

The classical liberals of the nineteenth century were certain that the end of the older mercantilist system — with its government control of trade and commerce, its bounties (subsidies) and prohibitions on exports and imports — would open wide vistas for improving the material conditions of man through the internationalization of the system of division of labor. They also ...

The Tortured Legacy of the Mexican-American War, Part 6

by Danny Sjursen September 1, 2020

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4  | Part 5 | Part 6 But she goes not abroad, in search of monsters to destroy.… the fundamental maxims of her policy would insensibly change from liberty to force.… She might become the dictatress of the world.

The Police State’s War on Weed and Backyard Gardens

by John W. Whitehead August 27, 2020

They came again this morning at about 8:00 o’clock. A large cargo-type helicopter flew low over the cabin, shaking it on its very foundations. It shook all of us inside, too. I feel frightened … I see how helpless and tormented I am becoming with disgust and disillusionment with the government which has turned this beautiful country into a ...