Latest Articles
Case Study: How Uruguay Resisted the Pandemic and Saved Its Economy
We are not talking enough about Uruguay. That small South American country boasts impressive results in its handling of the coronavirus. It is also signaling that it wants to prosper and that it understands more freedom might be the way to go about it. Under President...
The Federal Reserve is Getting Desperate
In a sign that the Federal Reserve is growing increasingly desperate to jump-start the economy, the Fed’s Secondary Market Credit Facility has begun purchasing individual corporate bonds. The Secondary Market Credit Facility was created by Congress as part of a...
5 Things I Learned Debating the Harvard Prof Who Called for a ‘Presumptive Ban’ on Homeschooling
It's not just about homeschooling. On Monday, I debated the Harvard professor who proposes a “presumptive ban” on homeschooling. Thousands of viewers tuned in to watch the live, online discussion hosted by the Cato Institute. With 1,000 submitted audience questions,...
Democrats & Jim Crow: A Century of Racist History the Democratic Party Prefers You’d Forget
The history of Jim Crow in the American South is a history one the Democratic Party would rather you forget.
If I Were a Racist…
Protests across the nation following the murder of George Floyd have inspired discussions beyond just police brutality, shining a spotlight on issues like “social justice” and “systemic racism.” But the divisive rhetoric on racism serves to distract from the statism....
The Irredeemable Racism of the Death Penalty
When confronted with overwhelming evidence of a discriminatory state practice, a decent society responds in one of two ways: by trying to remove discrimination from the practice, or by scrapping the practice altogether. In the context of capital punishment, the...
Getting the Police Issue Right
Now that folks are coming around on the idea that law enforcement needs serious structural transformation in this country, let's make our argument a little more robust. The tiniest fraction of people get killed by police. It is not useful to think of this problem as...
The ‘Thorny Question’ of Public Property
In a recent Mises Wire article, Jeff Deist commented on the squatting of Capitol Hill in Seattle. Contrasting Hans-Hermann Hoppe’s and Walter Block’s respective libertarian approaches to public property, Deist asked if the residents of the ‘CHAZ’ (Capitol Hill...
Supreme Court Refuses To Reconsider Its Doctrine of ‘Qualified Immunity’ for Police
The U.S. Supreme Court today refused to hear eight separate cases that had presented opportunities to reconsider its doctrine of “qualified immunity.” That doctrine, created by the Supreme Court in 1982, holds that government officials can be held accountable for...
Women: Reject Victimhood, Embrace Your Individualism
As a teenager I lived on the streets for as short a period as I could manage. This one experience brought more violence into my life than I care to remember, let alone describe, but it did not define me. I mention the experience for one reason; it is not ignorance or...
How ‘Wandering Cops’ Exacerbate Police Abuse
In a previous post, I discussed how fired police officers are often able to get their jobs back by appealing their termination to independent arbitration and thus how only time will tell if the officers involved in the arrest and death of George Floyd will remain...
Saudi Airstrike Kills 13 Yemeni Civilians, Including Children
An airstrike from the U.S.-backed Saudi-led coalition hit a vehicle carrying civilians in north Yemen on Monday. The airstrike killed 13 people, including four children. The same day, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres removed the Saudi coalition from a global list...
Qualified Immunity: An Invention of Judicial Activism
Qualified immunity is a legal doctrine that shields cops from liability for actions taken in the line of duty unless they violate rights “clearly established” by existing judicial precedent. No statute exists granting qualified immunity. It evolved over time based on...
Her Name Was Breonna Taylor: The Deadly Consequences of No-Knock Warrants
mid the nationwide focus on the death of George Floyd, another tragedy has unfortunately fallen by the wayside. We should not forget the death of Breonna Taylor—or the dire need to abolish the “no-knock” warrants that caused her death, trample property rights, and...
