Last week I modestly attempted to show that no injustice takes place when A sells B the opportunity to pitch its product to C. This is the principle behind print, television, and radio advertising, and it is no different in the era of social networks like Facebook. In...
Economics
My Appearance with Nate the Voluntaryist
by Sheldon Richman | Mar 22, 2021 | Blog, Economics, Libertarianism
Nate the Voluntaryist and I talked about free markets and capitalism on his podcast. Listen here.
TGIF: What’s Wrong with the Welfare State
by Sheldon Richman | Mar 19, 2021 | Economics, Libertarianism, Sheldon Richman, TGIF
Let's start with what is not wrong with the welfare state. Much criticism of the welfare state focuses on how it encourages dependence not only on the government, but dependence on others per se. In some circles the wish for a social safety net is disparaged as a...
TGIF: U(nspeakably) S(adistic) Foreign Policy
by Sheldon Richman | Mar 12, 2021 | Economics, Foreign Policy, Justice, Sheldon Richman, TGIF
If you had set out to construct a foreign policy designed to impose indescribable suffering on millions of innocent people around the world, you'd have a tough time coming up with anything more systematic and effective than U.S. foreign policy. An inventory of U.S....
How Wind Power Froze Texas
by Robert Murphy | Mar 10, 2021 | Economics, Featured Articles
In the wake of February’s tragic power outages in Texas, during which 4.5 million households suffered service interruptions, partisans on both sides have been quick to interpret the events as confirmation of their preferred energy policies. With news images of...
Can Libertarians Oppose Short Selling?
by Robert Murphy | Feb 25, 2021 | Economics, Featured Articles
Amid the controversy over GameStop, many cynics argued that something sinister was clearly afoot because the hedge funds had shorted 138 percent of the outstanding shares. In this article I’ll review that particular claim, as well as another seemingly dubious...

Prepare for Negative Interest Rates
by Daniel Lacalle | Feb 19, 2021 | Economics, Featured Articles
Negative rates are the destruction of money, an economic aberration based on the mistakes of many central banks and some of their economists, who all start from a wrong diagnosis: the idea that economic agents do not take more credit or invest more because they choose...

Bitcoin is King
by Tom Luongo | Feb 16, 2021 | Economics, Featured Articles
Bitcoin is winning. Period. In fact, it may have already won and the people arrayed against it, no matter how powerful, are finally beginning to realize this. This week saw a slew of major announcements which all point in this direction. Of course the big news...