Throughout its history, liberalism—the ideology today called “classical liberalism” or “libertarianism”—has suffered from the impression that it is primarily against things. This is not entirely wrong. Historically, liberalism coalesced as a recognizable and coherent...
protectionism
The Year of Living Dangerously: Global Economic Prospects at a Turning Point
by Dan Steinbock | Mar 2, 2023 | Economics, Featured Articles
Recently, Kristalina Georgieva, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), suggested that the year 2023 could "represent a turning point, with inflation declining and growth bottoming out.” She based the prediction on economic assumptions....
TGIF: Fins Left, Right, and Center
by Sheldon Richman | Feb 17, 2023 | Featured Articles, Foreign Policy, Justice, Libertarianism, Politics, Sheldon Richman, TGIF
Th[e] central question is not clarified, it is obscured, by our common political categories of left, right, and center. --Carl Oglesby, Containment and Change You got fins to the left, fins to the right And you're the only bait in town. --Jimmy Buffett, "Fins"...
We’re Governed by the Communist Manifesto
by Kym Robinson | Aug 8, 2022 | Featured Articles
Since its publication the Communist Manifesto has influenced most forms of government. The ideology has mutated from one of utopian ambition to providing a framework that uses the language of egalitarian justice. Marxist ideology no longer has a revolutionary spirit...
Trade Restrictions Are Depriving Our Infants of Formula
by Ryan McMaken | May 16, 2022 | Economics, Featured Articles
For parents who rely on baby formula—whether by choice or due to medical necessity—the nationwide baby formula shortage has become increasingly difficult to ignore. According to the Wall Street Journal, Walgreens, Target, CVS, and Kroger have all begun rationing...
How We Incentivize Peace in the World
by Nolan Miller | Mar 9, 2022 | Economics, Featured Articles, Foreign Policy
If you are reading this, there’s a good chance you are one of the people in the world that wants to see all foreign militaries go home and for governments to focus on their own issues rather than intervening in other countries. Maybe you post news stories on Facebook...
TGIF: Double-Rigging of the Auto Market
by Sheldon Richman | Dec 17, 2021 | Economics, Featured Articles, Foreign Policy, Justice, Libertarianism, Sheldon Richman, TGIF
U.S. government interference with our lives often resembles a Russian matryoshka doll: regulation is nested in more regulation. Take the provision of Biden's pending Build Back Better bill that would create a big tax credit for people who buy U.S.-built electric...
Protectionism: Morally and Economically Dumb
by Jim Bovard | Nov 1, 2021 | Economics, Featured Articles
Protectionism is reviving in Washington on both sides of the political aisle. Democrats are cheering proposals to restrict trade to benefit labor unions and save the environment while some Republicans are reviving Smoot-Hawley style salvation schemes. Protectionist...
Down With Fraudulent ‘Fair’ Trade
by Jim Bovard | Oct 21, 2021 | Economics, Featured Articles
The Biden administration is embracing the same flawed “fair trade” mantra that previous administrations used to sanctify protectionist policies. Biden’s team has “largely dispensed with the idea of free trade as a goal in and of itself,” the New York...
That Time I Swiped the U.S. Tariff Code
by Jim Bovard | Oct 8, 2021 | Economics, Featured Articles
"Nothing so diminishes democracy as secrecy,” as Attorney General Ramsey Clark warned in 1967. As a journalist, I have battled federal agencies for decades to try to discover the sordid details of how Americans’ rights and liberties are being shafted. Most government...
How Shipping Interests Have Rigged the Economic Game for a Century
by Stark Realities with Brian McGlinchey | Jul 1, 2021 | Economics, Featured Articles
There’s a 101-year-old law most Americans have never heard of, one that shaves tens of billions of dollars out of the U.S. economy every year for the narrow benefit of politically-influential shipbuilders, shipyard unions and shipping lines. The Jones Act does that by...
TGIF: What the State Really Is
by Sheldon Richman | Jun 4, 2021 | Economics, Justice, Libertarianism, Sheldon Richman, TGIF
To better understand the nature of government, one can think of it as an agency that sells or, more precisely, rents power to others. The greater the power and the wider its scope, the more opportunities the state's agents will have to sell access to it in return for...
Our Tower of Economic Lies
by William Anderson | May 12, 2021 | Economics, Featured Articles
In a recent issue, Time Magazine boldly declared, “The Free Market Is Dead,” and then added: “What Will Replace It?” Of course, one always can expect Time to be disingenuous at best and dishonest at worst, and as an academic economist, I have come to realize that...
Challenging George Mason University’s Cadre of Patent Enthusiasts
by Stephan Kinsella | Mar 12, 2021 | Featured Articles, Libertarianism
I’ve previously criticized George Mason economist Alex Tabarrok’s views on patents.1 For example, as noted in Patent Policy on the Back of a Napkin, Tabarrok makes a Laffer-curve style argument that patent rights are currently “too strong.” Of course, he is correct...
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The Lesson From Germany and Korea
Institutions are, of course, in some sense the products of culture. But, because they formalize a set of norms, institutions are often the things that keep a culture honest, determining how far it is conducive to good behaviour rather than bad. To illustrate the...
Occupational Licensing Increases Prices and Deprives People of Options
When you shop online, vendors usually give you a bunch of different ways to sort your options. Take Amazon: One popular sorting option – especially for customers with low income – is “Price: Low to High.” You’ve probably used it yourself many times. This...
Free Book: An Anarchist Critique of the COVID Mandates
I’ve had the opportunity to write a short book offering what is essentially an anarchist critique of COVID mandates. This includes the accusation that states did most of the killing rather than the virus. The 123-page book, Measuring the Mandates: Questioning the...
Democratic Socialist Turns Libertarian! #PorcFest2023
https://youtu.be/G2eSuiXNaaQ Once you accept the principle of government, namely that there must be a judicial monopoly and the power to tax, once you accept this principle incorrectly as a just principle, then any idea or any notion of restraining or limiting...
What War Hawks Would Sound Like If They Weren’t Psychopaths
Modern warfare almost always leads to killing lots of innocents; if governments were held to the same standards as individuals, these killings would be manslaughter, if not murder. This doesn’t mean that war is never justified. But the reasonable hawkish mood is...
The Free Market Serves the Masses, Governments Commit Genocide
Amazon is simply the best store that ever existed, by far, with incredible selection and unearthly convenience. The price: cheap. Facebook, Twitter, and other social media let us socialize with our friends, comfortably meet new people, and explore even the most...
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Voluntaryist Handbook
by Keith Knight
Hotter Than The Sun: Time To Abolish Nuclear Weapons
by Scott Horton
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Enough Already: Time to End the War on Terrorism
by Scott Horton