Lina Khan is a Washington, D.C., rock star. She is not only President Joe Biden's celebrated chief of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC); she's also a favorite of J. D. Vance, Donald Trump's pick for vice president. This Lina Khan must really have something going for...
TGIF
TGIF: Democracy as Religion
by Sheldon Richman | Aug 2, 2024 | Economics, Featured Articles, History, Justice, Libertarianism, Politics, Sheldon Richman, TGIF
During a conversation with someone who loves representative democracy but hates America's current political situation, I pointed out a problem with his view. The current situation, I said, is a product of representative democracy. So you can't have the system without...
TGIF: Damn Consumers!
by Sheldon Richman | Jul 26, 2024 | Economics, Featured Articles, Foreign Policy, Justice, Libertarianism, Politics, Sheldon Richman, TGIF
Global free trade is about individual, not national, freedom—for consumers and producers who import raw materials, tools, and semi-finished products. Aside from its role as an aspect of personal liberty, free trade's efficiency benefits have been well-established...

TGIF: The Populist Trap
by Sheldon Richman | Jul 19, 2024 | Economics, Featured Articles, Foreign Policy, Justice, Politics, Sheldon Richman, TGIF
If you care about individual freedom and general prosperity, you'll want to avoid all shades of populism like the plague. It is economic illiteracy proudly proclaimed and writ large. As an alternative to libertarianism, it is bad in its own right—freedom is not on its...

TGIF: Culture without Romance
by Sheldon Richman | Jul 12, 2024 | Economics, Featured Articles, Foreign Policy, Politics, Sheldon Richman, TGIF
"The entire history of the human race, the rise of man from the caves, has been marked by transfers of cultural advances from one group to another and from one civilization to another." So said economist, social philosopher, and historian Thomas Sowell in a 1990...

TGIF: On the Pursuit of Happiness
by Sheldon Richman | Jul 5, 2024 | Featured Articles, History, Justice, Libertarianism, Politics, Sheldon Richman, TGIF
The most remarkable phrase in the Declaration of Independence, whose anniversary we just celebrated, is the pursuit of happiness. Looking back 248 years, that phrase may strike the modern ear as strange for a political document. But it apparently did not seem that way...
TGIF: No Cheers for Decolonization(R)
by Sheldon Richman | Jun 28, 2024 | Economics, Foreign Policy, History, Justice, Libertarianism, Politics, Sheldon Richman, TGIF
How can a libertarian oppose decolonization? Colonization not only oppressed conquered peoples, as the staunchest early classical liberals never tired of pointing out, but also burdened the taxpayers of the home country, who were forced to pay through the nose for...
TGIF: What Free Market in Health Care?
by Sheldon Richman | Jun 21, 2024 | Economics, Featured Articles, Politics, Sheldon Richman, TGIF
Contrary to a popular article of faith, America has no free market in health care—far from it. Consider this: the largest lobby in Washington, D.C., is—wait for it—the health care and health insurance industries. Last year, they spent 5.8 times the amount the...