Daily Articles

Is There a VAT in Our Future?

by Laurence M. Vance August 1, 2021

President Joe Biden’s American Families Plan is expensive, really expensive. According to a White House “Fact Sheet,” this $1.8 trillion plan to “grow the middle class, expand the benefits of economic growth to all Americans, and leave the United States more competitive” includes “an additional four years of free, public education for our nation’s children” in the form of “free ...

Identity Politics and Systemic Racism Theory as the New Marxo-Nazism

by Richard M. Ebeling August 1, 2021

It is very easy to say that we have been and are living in unprecedented times in 2020 and 2021. We have experienced a global pandemic, with government-imposed and mandated lockdowns and shutdowns of much of America’s and the world’s economic activities and social interactions, as well as with governmental debts that cumulatively are almost equal to the global ...

There’s No Such Thing as “Market Fundamentalism,” Part 1

by George Leef August 1, 2021

Part 1 | Part 2 Zealots who want to force others to conform to their beliefs often exhibit a fundamentalist mindset. That is to say, they are utterly certain of the rectitude of their beliefs on the basis of some unchallengeable text, either sacred or secular. They assert what they believe to be true rather than engage in rational ...

More Government Debt as Far as the Fiscal Eye Can See

by Richard M. Ebeling July 30, 2021

  For the last two years, the federal government has been legally at liberty to borrow any amount of money necessary to cover its deficit spending under the Bipartisan Budget Act of August 2019. Unless Congress extends this Act or raises the official debt limit, starting on August 1, 2021 Uncle Sam will only be able ...

Authoritarians Drunk on Power

by John W. Whitehead July 28, 2021

The executive power in our government is not the only, perhaps not even the principal, object of my solicitude. The tyranny of the legislature is really the danger most to be feared, and will continue to be so for many years to come. The tyranny of the executive power will come in its turn, but at a more distant ...

Still Divided, Enslaved & Locked Down

by John W. Whitehead July 22, 2021

A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this government cannot endure, permanently, half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved—I do not expect the house to fall—but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing or all the other. — Abraham ...

Under Biden Free Enterprise Means Government Control

by Richard M. Ebeling July 21, 2021

George Orwell famously coined the term “newspeak” in his 1949 anti-utopian futuristic novel, 1984, in which commonsense words were reversed in their meaning. Thus, “peace” meant “war,” and “love” meant “hate.” In our current world of political correctness, “equal rights” means “privilege,” and “freedom” means “oppression.” Now, with President Biden’s recent executive order on “active” enforcement of antitrust laws, ...

Neither Necessary nor Proper

by Laurence M. Vance July 16, 2021

It was sixteen years ago last month that the U.S. Supreme Court, in the case of Gonzales v. Raich (2005), ruled that the Controlled Substances Act (21 U.S.C. 801) did not exceed the power of Congress under the Commerce Clause as applied to the intrastate cultivation and possession of marijuana for medical use. In this case, Angel ...

Appreciating F. A. Hayek’s Insights on Money and the Business Cycle

by Richard M. Ebeling July 14, 2021

Over the last few months, fears over rising price inflation have, again, become the focus of political policy makers and media pundits. While generally rising prices have a variety of deleterious effects, attention is often not given to how inflationary processes work, their negative effects beneath the surface of measured movements in the “price level.” Ninety years ago, the ...

The Second Amendment’s Right to Bear Arms: What It Means

by John W. Whitehead July 13, 2021

“A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.” — The Second Amendment to the US Constitution You can largely determine where a person will fall in the debate over gun control and the Second Amendment based on their view of government ...

Help Us Defend Our Civil Liberties

by Jacob G. Hornberger July 13, 2021

On the heels of our very successful online Zoom conference in April and May on “The National Security State and the Kennedy Assassination,” we now wish to do another online Zoom conference this fall on the critical importance of “Restoring Civil Liberties in America.” I am writing to see ...

Is School Choice the Answer to Critical Race Theory?

by Laurence M. Vance July 9, 2021

Following the lead of lawmakers in Tennessee and Idaho, my state of Florida has become the latest state to ban the teaching of critical race theory in its public schools. As adopted by the Florida State Board of Education, the amendment banning the teaching of critical race theory states in part: Examples of theories that distort historical events ...