https://youtu.be/NWssd_IuklE To the extent that the years between the end of World War II and today are a story of competing economic visions, the short version is this: Karl Marx was wrong, and Milton Friedman was right. Market-oriented reforms over the past several decades have cut severe poverty around the world by more than half. As late as 1980, more than 40% of the world’s population lived in severe poverty, according to World Bank figures. Now, that share is less than 10%. There is simply nothing else in the history of the material affairs of the world that can compare to that. -...
policy
The Biggest Lie of American Foreign Policy
https://youtu.be/gPItOqn8apA Then the fighters realized that the gang in the White House could not see things clearly, and that their leader (that idiot they obey) was claiming that we envied their lifestyle — when the truth, which this Pharaoh would like to hide — is that we are attacking them because of their injustice toward the Muslim world, and especially Palestine and Iraq, as well as their occupation of the land of the two sanctuaries. When the fighters saw this, they decided to come out of the shadows and take the fight into their territory, into their homes. – Al Qaeda in Its...
Announcing the Institute’s New Managing Editor: Keith Knight
As we kick off our Spring funddrive, I figure now is a good time to announce the promotion of our great colleague Keith Knight to managing editor of the Libertarian Institute. Keith is a hardcore libertarian and is as devoted to spreading the message of freedom as any man I've ever known or known of. I've been very proud to have him associated with the Institute and will now be very glad to share a masthead with him too. Stay tuned. Keith's new book will be coming out soon! I have also added my good friends and associates Will Porter and Connor Freeman to the team. They are both hardcore...
TGIF: Pursue Your Happiness and Forget the Rest
How about we do something novel in the new year? Let's stop worrying about the stuff most politicians, pundits, and activists want us to worry about and instead think about ourselves, our families, our friends, and whatever communities we choose to be part of. Let's forget about "the country" and the rest of the world. Let's individually pursue happiness. All I'm saying is that it's finally time for the politicians, bureaucrats, and know-it-all intelligentsia, left or right, to get out of the way and let us set our own agendas. Too self-centered? Well, too bad. Much evil results from...
Vaccines, Autonomy, and Mandates: A Libertarian Analysis
Prefatory Note Given the subject matter discussed below, I believe it prudent to state at the outset that I am not at all opposed to vaccinations themselves: indeed, I have received a COVID-19 vaccine, as well as all other normal-course vaccinations recommended for someone my age. Yet there are, it seems to me, interesting, difficult questions surrounding the state’s role in promoting or mandating vaccines. The goal here is to start a conversation not about the effectiveness of vaccines, but about the individual’s sphere of autonomy and what kinds of medical decisions are within it, and...
Salafis Throwing Bombs: How American and British Planners Partnered With Al-Qaeda Affiliated Groups At the Start of the Syrian Civil War
Introduction In the mainstream view, al-Qaeda did not play a role in the Syria conflict until Islamic State of Iraq (ISI) leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi dispatched his deputy, Abu Muhammad al-Jolani, to Syria in August 2011 to establish a wing of the group there, called Jabhat al-Nusra, or the Nusra Front. Additionally, al-Qaeda allegedly did not carry out any military operations until December 2011 and did not announce its establishment until January 2012. However, there is evidence that al-Qaeda affiliated militants were involved in the Syrian conflict much earlier. Saudi intelligence...
Lunatic With a Plan: Erdogan and Turkey’s Economic Woes
Since the first assault on Turkey’s finances in 2018, which I wrote about multiple times (here, here, and here), I’ve been the lone voice telling everyone that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is a lunatic but he’s a lunatic with a plan. That plan is to de-dollarize the economy of a valuable member of NATO geostrategically. Since the first shots across the bow by the Trump administration at Erdogan’s toying with those powers east of the Bosporus (Russia, China and Iran) the Turkish lira has been the primary mode of attack against Erdogan. Erdogan has pursued what has been deemed unorthodox...
For One Day, Protestors Stopped the War Machine
I’ve attended most of the major antiwar protests in Washington since 9/11. At a 2005 protest, a cop tried to whack me on the head with a wooden pole. At a 2007 protest, I snapped a picture showing George W. Bush hanging next to the U.S. Capitol. But my favorite protest was a potent little ruckus that I almost missed. On a sunny late summer day in 2013, I ambled to downtown Washington to hike with a bunch of folks who enjoyed bantering as much as I did. The route for the jaunt started on the National Mall, passing by the Smithsonian, heading toward the World War II Memorial and points...
12/22/21 Gareth Porter on Iran and Afghanistan
Scott celebrates eleven years on the radio by interviewing Gareth Porter about Biden’s first year in office. They discuss the negotiations between the Administration and Iran over a return to the JCPOA. Despite many crossovers with the team that reached an agreement with Iran back in the Obama years, Biden’s people appear set on squeezing more concessions out of the Iranians. But Porter points out that, as he had predicted, the U.S. reluctance to return to the deal led to hardliner victories in Iran’s last elections. But even with a more anti-American regime, Porter sees no evidence...
Inflation Can Become A Political Bitch
"But inflation becomes a political bitch. People – those who work for a living – hate it when they lose purchasing power, and they hate it when their raise gets eaten up by inflation, and they hate it when their dividends and interest income get eaten up by inflation. Putin understands this. Among US policy makers, this understanding has not yet fully sunk in, though they’re signs that it is slowly spreading." More here at Wolf Street...