Ludwig von Mises's 1927 path-breaking work in political theory speaks to the current generations. In section 5 of his introduction to Liberalism: The Classical Tradition, Mises sounds impeccably relevant in describing how the opponents of liberalism and the market...
Economics
TGIF: The Income Stagnation Myth
by Sheldon Richman | Mar 21, 2025 | Economics, Featured Articles, Justice, Libertarianism, Politics, Sheldon Richman, TGIF
Many people, including some free-market advocates, think Americans are materially worse off today than they were in the 1970s. Some subscribers to that view blame globalization, that is, free trade in goods, which means in labor services. By any reasonable measure,...
You’ve Been Living Under Fascism for Decades
by Thomas Eddlem | Mar 19, 2025 | Economics, Featured Articles
The late, great essayist Joe Sobran once coined the sardonic idea of what I’ve come to call Sobran’s Law, which, if I may paraphrase it, states: “The U.S. Constitution poses no threat to our current system of government.” (The New York Times wrongly worries...
DOGE and the Futility of Reform
by Joseph Solis-Mullen | Mar 19, 2025 | Economics, Featured Articles, Politics
When President Donald Trump announced the creation of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), led by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, it was heralded as a game-changer. The goal was ambitious: cut $1-2 trillion in federal spending by 2026, eliminating waste,...
TGIF: Say No to a Sovereign Wealth Fund
by Sheldon Richman | Mar 14, 2025 | Economics, Featured, Justice, Libertarianism, Politics, Sheldon Richman, TGIF
Donald Trump wants to create a sovereign wealth fund (SWF). It's a bad idea if your standard is freedom, free enterprise, and free markets. That's not Trump's standard, but we already knew that. A sovereign wealth fund is a government-run investment program. Where...
Contra Krugman (Redux)
by Joseph Solis-Mullen | Mar 12, 2025 | Economics, Featured Articles
In a recent conversation with the Libertarian Institute’s Keith Knight, we broke down a 2012 article by everyone’s least favorite economist, the former New York Times pundit Paul Krugman. In it, Krugman makes all the familiar and mistaken arguments about why we...
What I Learned from Ross Perot
by James Jones | Mar 12, 2025 | Economics, Featured Articles, Politics
In 1992, I was just a kid sitting in front of the TV, flipping through channels, looking for something—anything—to watch. No cartoons. No sitcoms. Just golf on one channel and an old businessman sitting at a desk on another. He had that Southern drawl, the kind that...
TGIF: A New Washington Post?
by Sheldon Richman | Mar 7, 2025 | Economics, Featured, Justice, Sheldon Richman, TGIF
If Jeff Bezos is as good as his word, the advocates of full liberty will owe him a standing ovation. As everyone knows by now, Amazon.com founder Bezos, one of the greatest entrepreneurs of all time—a man whose profit-making activities have benefitted mankind...