Daily Articles

Happy 90th Birthday, Professor Israel Kirzner!

by Richard M. Ebeling February 19, 2020

Even in an era when modern medicine and technologies are adding to people’s lifetimes, along with the gains in general human economic betterment, it still stands as a notable event when someone marks their 90th birthday. On February 13th, renowned “Austrian” economist, Israel M. Kirzner, celebrated his reaching of that important milestone. It is difficult to imagine the revival of ...

The Long Shadow of World War I and America’s War on Dissent, Part 2

by Danny Sjursen February 18, 2020

Part 1 Upon U.S. entry into the war, in 1917 the Wilson administration proposed and a compliant Congress almost immediately passed the Espionage Act, a direct attack on American press freedom. The law criminalized newspaper journalists who dared to oppose the war, question the official narrative, or encourage dissent. Massive fines and stiff prison sentences were dealt out with ...

Defending the Foundations of Freedom for 30 Years

by Richard M. Ebeling February 17, 2020

This January 2020 marks the 30th anniversary of The Future of Freedom Foundation’s monthly publication, Future of Freedom, which at its beginning was called Freedom Daily. Three decades means a total of 360 issues, containing even more hundreds of articles. Virtually every important policy issue, foreign and domestic, was written about as those months and years went by. The world ...

A Case for Not Giving Up on the American Dream

by John W. Whitehead February 14, 2020

“We must, indeed, all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately.”—Benjamin Franklin Listen: we don’t have to agree about everything. We don’t even have to agree about most things. We don’t have to love each other. We don’t even have to like each other. And we certainly don’t need to think alike or dress alike or worship alike or vote ...

The New Totalitarians

by Richard M. Ebeling February 12, 2020

This year marks the 75th anniversary of the end of the Second World War. The defeat of Nazism in Europe was seen as not only a victory over tyranny, terror, and mass murder, but a triumph for the preservation of many of the most cherished human freedoms, including freedom of speech and the press, and free association. Such freedoms ...

The Impeachment Hearings Inadvertently Show the Insidious Nature of U.S. Foreign Policy

by Laurence M. Vance February 11, 2020

Although many Americans may not know what a quid pro quo is, any American would have to be living under a rock not to know that House Democrats impeached President Donald Trump for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress stemming, they alleged, from his temporarily delaying the release of U.S. military aid to Ukraine to pressure the Ukrainian ...

Compulsory Education – The Bane of Learning and Freedom

by Christine Smith February 10, 2020

Approximately 50-million students, bound by state compulsory attendance laws, are trapped in what is essentially a prison of their bodies and minds. Most Americans never question school compulsory attendance laws itself but instead focus on what occurs inside the classroom. Public schools, which can also be called government schools, are notorious for a wide array of problems. From class size ...

He Who Pays the Piper Calls the Tune

by Laurence M. Vance February 7, 2020

Public education has survived another National School Choice Week. Since 2011, National School Choice Week (NSCW) has been celebrated the last week in January. During NSCW “schools, homeschool groups, organizations and individuals plan tens of thousands of independent events” to “raise public awareness of the different K-12 education options available to children and families while also spotlighting the benefits ...

The Mixed Economy Is a Mess

by Richard M. Ebeling February 5, 2020

Election years tend to polarize people’s views about political parties, proposed social and economic policies, and the candidates running for high governmental office. This presidential election cycle is not only no different, it is far more so.  This shows itself especially in how many younger Americans view the political, economic and social system under which they live. According to a ...

Ice and Fire

by Laurence M. Vance February 4, 2020

The relationship between conservatism and libertarianism is a tenuous one. However, such was not always the case. Fellow travelers of both groups were united in opposing Roosevelt’s New Deal. The work of the late economist Murray N. Rothbard (1926–1995) on the “Old Right” is indispensable here. After World War II, the political right was generally opposed, not only to ...

U-Haul’s New Hiring Policy Should Be the Norm

by Laurence M. Vance January 30, 2020

They’re everywhere, and have been for as long as I can remember: U-Haul trucks, trailers, towing devices, moving boxes, and self-storage units are ubiquitous. U-Haul International, the creator of the do-it-yourself moving industry, has “a network of 22,000 locations across all 50 states and 10 Canadian provinces.” The company’s fleet has grown “to approximately 167,000 trucks, ...

FDR and Stalin Planned the Future of the World

by Richard M. Ebeling January 28, 2020

Seventy-five years ago, during the week of February 4-11, 1945, the most important Allied conference during the Second World War was held at Yalta on the Crimean Peninsula in the Soviet Union, between U.S. president, Franklin D. Roosevelt, British prime minister, Winston Churchill, and Soviet leader, Joseph Stalin. Their decisions determined the fate of tens of millions of people ...