Daily Articles

Free-Market Liberalism vs. Corrupted “Capitalism” and La-La Land Socialism

by Richard M. Ebeling October 14, 2019

One of the issues that confronts the friends of freedom is how best to make the case for liberty as a political idea and ideal and as a policy proposal.  A central element in that is making sure that we know what it is that we are advocating and why, and what it is that we oppose and why. ...

Progressivism Is An Imposter

by Richard M. Ebeling October 11, 2019

What we’ve got here is a failure to communicate.” This became an often-repeated popular line after its use in the 1967 movie Cool Hand Luke. A 1950s Florida prison warden (played by actor Strother Martin) says those words after an insolent remark by one of the prisoners (played by Paul Newman) results in the warden lashing that prisoner with ...

The Letter That CEOs Ought to Be Writing

by Laurence M. Vance October 10, 2019

The mass shootings in August at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, and at a bar in Dayton, Ohio, prompted the CEOs of more than a hundred large and small corporations to write a letter to the members of the U.S. Senate about “a public health crisis that demands urgent action” — gun violence. Says the

John Lennon vs. the Deep State

by John W. Whitehead October 8, 2019

“You gotta remember, establishment, it’s just a name for evil. The monster doesn’t care whether it kills all the students or whether there’s a revolution. It’s not thinking logically, it’s out of control.”—John Lennon (1969) John Lennon, born 79 years ago on October 9, 1940, was a musical genius and pop cultural icon. He was also a ...

Is Federal Gun Licensing Constitutional?

by Laurence M. Vance October 7, 2019

Cory Booker (D-N.J.) is living proof that anyone in America can become a U.S. senator. According to Article I, Section 3, Clause 3 of the Constitution, there are three qualifications to be a U.S. senator: No Person shall be a Senator who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty Years, and been nine Years a ...

Guns for Hire

by John W. Whitehead October 4, 2019

“Of all the enemies to public liberty war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes… known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few.… No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of ...

Impeachment at Home and Climate Hysteria Abroad

by Richard M. Ebeling October 3, 2019

Two events filled the television-news airwaves and social media as September 2019 was coming to an end: the decision of the Democratic leadership in the House of Representatives to go forward with an impeachment investigation over President Donald Trump’s July 2019 telephone conversations with the president of Ukraine; and the public utterances of Greta Thunberg, the 16-year-old Swedish poster ...

The Specter of Communism Is Haunting Illinois

by Laurence M. Vance October 1, 2019

A specter is haunting Illinois — the specter of communism. Although the governor of Illinois, Jay “J.B.” Pritzker, said earlier this summer, upon signing the state’s $40 billion budget for the 2020-2021 fiscal year, that the budget was balanced “for the first time in decades,” according to the state’s own actuarial calculations, the budget is actually billions in the red. ...

Welfare Checks Turn Deadly

by John W. Whitehead September 30, 2019

“Anyone who cares for someone with a developmental disability, as well as for disabled people themselves every day in fear that their behavior will be misconstrued as suspicious, intoxicated or hostile by law enforcement.”—Steve Silberman, The New York Times Think twice before you call the cops to carry out a welfare check on a loved ...

My Life as an Austrian Economist and a Classical Liberal

by Richard M. Ebeling September 27, 2019

I suppose I can date my interest in both classical liberalism and Austrian economics to the day I was born. The doctor grabbed me by my little feet, turned me upside down and spanked my tiny bottom. I began to cry out. That is when I realized the fundamental “Austrian” axiom that “man acts.” In addition, I appreciated that what ...

Senator Warren’s Plan Shows the True Nature of Social Security

by Laurence M. Vance September 26, 2019

Sen. Elizabeth Warren has a plan. Although her plan is about expanding Social Security, it is a strange coincidence that she released her plan on the very day she would be appearing onstage at a Democratic presidential debate alongside two other Democratic candidates near the top of the pack: the former vice president and senator Joe Biden and the ...

The Sham of Government Transparency

by James Bovard September 23, 2019

The Supreme Court in June ruled that the federal government can keep secret the food-stamp sales totals of grocery stores. By a 6 to 3 vote, the Court declared that such business records are exempt from disclosure under the federal Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). This case, started eight years ago by the Argus Leader, a South Dakotan newspaper, ...