Trump is either contentedly ignorant of the things he talks about or callously scornful of his adoring fans, whom he sees as rubes eager to swallow whatever he says. He could be both. Above all, Trump is a Trump supremacist. Does he believe in NATO or not? (Believe in...
Sheldon Richman
TGIF: Tariffs Tax Consumers
by Sheldon Richman | Feb 9, 2024 | Economics, Featured Articles, Foreign Policy, Libertarianism, Politics, Sheldon Richman, TGIF
We seem to forget that a tariff is a tax. It is formally levied on importers, not on foreigners or things, but since it can usually be passed along, it ends up as an indirect tax on consumers. The point of tariffs is to protect certain domestic businesses and their...
TGIF: Autocracy — Boo! Democracy — Hiss!
by Sheldon Richman | Feb 2, 2024 | Featured Articles, Libertarianism, Politics, Sheldon Richman, TGIF
Here's why democracy is a dubious idea. Government decisions are high stakes. It decides matters of war and peace, prosperity and poverty, freedom or oppression. Yet we let incompetent people steer the ship of state. Most voters are ignorant and process what little...
TGIF: Without the State, Who’d Drag Us into Other People’s Wars?
by Sheldon Richman | Jan 26, 2024 | Featured Articles, Foreign Policy, Justice, Libertarianism, Politics, Sheldon Richman, TGIF
This article was posted shortly before the International Court of Justice ruled provisionally that Israel's Gaza military operation can plausibly be described as acts outlawed by the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. The ICJ...
TGIF: Milei at Davos
by Sheldon Richman | Jan 19, 2024 | Economics, Featured Articles, Justice, Libertarianism, Politics, Sheldon Richman, TGIF
Javier Milei, the newly elected president of Argentina, spoke the other day at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. The WEF is essentially a group of people who want world affairs centrally planned by political authorities. They are...
TGIF: Smells like Genocide
by Sheldon Richman | Jan 12, 2024 | Featured Articles, Foreign Policy, Sheldon Richman, TGIF
If it looks like genocide, sounds like genocide, and smells like genocide, chances are it's genocide. The International Court of Justice (ICJ) will rule provisionally on whether that is what Israel is committing against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip. The...
TGIF: The Right to Move
by Sheldon Richman | Jan 5, 2024 | Economics, Featured Articles, Foreign Policy, Justice, Libertarianism, Sheldon Richman, TGIF
If people individually own themselves and have a right to be free of aggressive force, then they have a right to change their location in ways consistent with other people's rights. Whether you call this moving around relocating, emigrating, or immigrating, doesn't...
TGIF: Beware Elitists in Populist Clothing
by Sheldon Richman | Dec 22, 2023 | Economics, Featured Articles, History, Justice, Libertarianism, Sheldon Richman, TGIF
We're led to believe that today's political struggles are largely a contest between populists and elitists. But something besides libertarians is missing from that simple tale: the elitists in populist clothing, or elitist populists. We have no better example than a...