We live in dangerous times -- and not just medically and economically. Government executives all over the world -- with a few honorable exceptions -- are exercising autocratic power, that is, power without legislative or constitutional authority, in the name of...
Libertarianism
Will Coronavirus End the Fed?
September 17, 2019 was a significant day in American economic history. On that day, the New York Federal Reserve began emergency cash infusions into the repurchasing (repo) market. This is the market banks use to make short-term loans to each other. The New York Fed...
Flunk the State!
Knowledgeable people (Bill Gates among them) had warned for years that governments were ill-prepared for serious pandemics. The US government was not just ill-prepared; it also maintained regulatory obstacles -- in the name of public health -- to others who were...
Liberty and Slavery
Among the common beliefs of libertarians, opposition to slavery is one of the least controversial. Yet, the moral argument against slavery is one of libertarian philosophy’s most enlightening topics. Considering the “why” of libertarian opposition to slavery is...
No Case for Closed Borders
Anyone who thinks the coronavirus pandemic destroys the case for open borders hasn't thought the matter through terribly far. Bryan Caplan explains here. Just to give a taste, in the name of excluding viruses from our shores, the government would have to stop...
An Approach to Collective Problems
Libertarian political philosophy, as a practical matter, does not offer a prefabricated set of solutions to collective problems. Rather, it's a liberty-based approach to ameliorating collective problems that begins by acknowledging (among other things) the dispersion,...
TGIF: Libertarianism in Emergencies
Libertarians have always acknowledged that emergencies -- severe extraordinary conditions of limited duration -- can justify actions that would be unacceptable under normal circumstances. This doesn't mean that all the rights-based rules disappear, only that some...
TGIF: Despite Appearances, ‘Price Gouging’ Helps People in Distress
[This article originally appeared on the American Institute for Economic Research website on September 12, 2017.] Critics of the free economy often complain that the market fails to “behave” as economic theory predicts. Hence the voluminous literature on “market...
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