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New Online Courses on Liberty
With the very exciting, rapid development of online learning, I am delighted that new programs to provide excellent courses in economics and history have recently been launched by scholars who have...
View ArticleAbandoning My Pre-9/11 Mentality
On the eve of September 10, 2001, I went to sleep a libertarian, distrustful of the state, holding both major political parties in contempt, seeing the federal government as the primary enemy of the...
View ArticleOnce More, with Feeling: Our System Is Not Socialism, but Participatory Fascism
I continue to encounter many discussions in which the author or speaker bemoans the economic order’s drift toward socialism or, in some cases, its actual existence as such. If this characterization...
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A Tale of Two Abolitionists
An excellent movie released six years ago, “Amazing Grace,” depicted the life of William Wilberforce and his ultimately successful efforts to abolish, first, the British Slave Trade in 1806, and then...
View ArticleJames Madison Analyzed Regime Uncertainty in 1788
In Federalist 62, published in the Independent Journal, February 27, 1788, James Madison writes as follows: It will be of little avail to the people, that the laws are made by men of their own choice,...
View ArticleA December 1941 Speech that FDR Never Delivered
On or about December 5, 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt (probably with the aid of one or more speech writers) prepared a speech on U.S. relations with the Far East, in general, and with Japan, in...
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A Bogus Example of Controlling Inflation with Price Controls
As the U.S. government prepared for and then engaged fully in World War II, it made increasingly stringent efforts to control inflation by imposing price controls. Late in 1942, these controls were...
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The Salmon Trap: An Analogy for People’s Entrapment by the State
A salmon trap (also known as a pound net) is a setup for catching salmon as they return to their spawning places in the gravel beds of shallow inland streams. Such traps were used in Washington and...
View ArticleJames M. Buchanan: 1919-2013
James M. Buchanan, who was awarded the Nobel Prize in economics in 1986 for his pioneering work that developed the field of public choice, passed away on January 9, 2013, at age 93. Buchanan’s work has...
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Don’t Know Much About History: Colleges Teach U.S. History with Politics Left...
The National Association of Scholars (NAS) has released an in-depth study of the assigned readings used in required American history survey courses at University of Texas-Austin and Texas A&M. The...
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Supreme Court Rules: Social Security is NOT a Binding Contract
This post was prompted by all-too-common opinions expressed in Randall Holcombe’s recent “Federal Government Debt Undermines the Programs It Finances” blog. The respondents passionately insist that...
View ArticleRepeal the 17th Amendment
The 17th Amendment is in its centennial year, having been ratified in 1913. The Amendment mandates the direct election of senators. Prior to its passage, Article I, Section 3 of the Constitution...
View ArticleThe Delusion of Money
French president Francois Hollande’s statement saying that the euro should not fluctuate according to the mood of the market; the complaint by Eurogroup president Jean-Claude Juncker about the euro...
View ArticleThe 16th Amendment: A Transfer of Power from the States to the Federal...
This is the centennial year of the 16th Amendment — the income tax amendment — which was ratified in 1913. While often associated with the growth in government spending, its biggest effect has been to...
View ArticleThe Federal Reserve’s First Century
One factor often cited as contributing to the decline of the Roman Empire was the debasement of the currency. In a period of about 150 years following Emperor Nero’s reign (from 54 to 68 AD) the value...
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Fascinating Questions from The Independent Review
The Spring 2013 issue of The Independent Review—the Independent Institute’s flagship scholarly journal, edited by Robert Higgs—is hot off the press. Below you’ll find links to articles and book reviews...
View Article1913—The Final Days of the Old Regime in the United States
In 1913, exactly a century ago, the United States was a flourishing, economically advanced country. Its real output per capita was the world’s highest. It produced a great abundance of agricultural...
View ArticleThe State—Crown Jewel of Human Social Organization
Since the earliest stage of human history (say, the time of Cain and Abel), human beings have been homicidal maniacs. Yet, for untold ages, something was missing, something with the capacity to raise...
View Article“There Were Giants in the Earth in Those Days.”—Genesis 6:4
There are now many more libertarians in the world than there were fifty years ago. Libertarian writing has increased greatly, and the readership of libertarian literature has increased substantially,...
View ArticleNationalism—the Bane of the Modern Age
Everyone, it seems, has a hollow space in his makeup. Perhaps he has no faith, no hope, no charity; no sense that he is basically a lord or a priest or a peasant; no comfort in knowing his personal...
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