The Miracle of the Free Market by Richard M. Ebeling December 17, 2019 One of the great fallacies arrogantly believed in by those in political power is the notion that they can know enough to manage and command the lives of everyone in society with better results than if people are left to live their own lives as they freely choose. The fact is, there is far more in the world that successfully manages and “regulates” itself without the controlling hand of the government than many of us pause to reflect on or understand. Have you ever stopped to think about how much of the world around us we take for granted? How often do any of us reflect on the law of gravity that keeps the moon revolving around the earth or on the chemical workings of our internal organs after we have eaten a meal? The Physical and Biological Worlds Don’t Need Government Yet whether we think about or even understand the law of gravity or the processes of chemical reactions, the moon continues ...
Wasserman’s Twisted Tale About the Austrian School of Economics by Richard M. Ebeling December 12, 2019 The Austrian School of Economics has been one of the most original and insightful approaches to economic understanding over the last century and a half. The Austrian School is also widely identified with the classical liberal ideal of individual liberty and free markets. Indeed, several of the Austrian economists have been considered to be among the most consistent and persuasive defenders of personal and economic freedom. It is of note, therefore, when a book appears that is devoted to tracing out the history of these Austrian economists and their ideas from the founding of the School in 1871 to the present time. Janek Wasserman, a professor at the University of Alabama, undertakes this task in his recent work, The Marginal Revolutionaries: How the Austrian Economists Fought the War of Ideas (Yale University Press, 2019). The author attempts to blend brief intellectual biographies of several of these Austrian economists with an interpretation of the social, political and economic ...
A Progressive Case for Free Trade and against Protectionism by Laurence M. Vance December 9, 2019 Conservative free-traders who support Donald Trump don’t talk about trade much anymore. To do so would mean that they have to criticize the president — an economic nationalist with a mercantilist mindset whose ignorance and incoherence on trade knows no bounds — and risk being labeled “Never Trumpers.” Since Trump’s election and the imposition of his protectionist trade policies, other conservatives, who have always made veiled criticisms of free trade in their writings, have begun to openly denigrate free trade and advocate protectionism. They simplistically view exports as intrinsically good and imports as intrinsically bad, think exports create jobs and imports destroy them, and liken trade to a national game in which one country wins and another loses. How refreshing it is to see a Progressive make the case for free trade and against protectionism! Kimberly Clausing is the Thormund A. Miller and Walter Mintz Professor of Economics at Reed College. She is the author of Open: The Progressive Case for Free ...
Socialism and the Green New Deal are Economically Impossible by Richard M. Ebeling December 6, 2019 The Spanish philosopher, George Santayana (1863-1952) is usually credited with the phrase, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” Nowhere is this truer than with the renewed idea and demand for the establishment of a socialist economic system. A noticeable number of intellectuals inside and outside the ivy tower of academia, as well as a vocal ...
Why I Am So Passionate about Ending the Drug War by Laurence M. Vance November 1, 2019 Since 2009, I have written about ninety articles on the subject of the drug war, many of them for the Future of Freedom Foundation, and some of them for this very publication. I have maintained throughout these articles that the war on drugs is a monstrous evil that has ruined more lives than drugs themselves; that the war on ...
Examples of Dedication to Freedom by Richard M. Ebeling November 1, 2019 When Austrian economist Friedrich A. Hayek (1899–1992) wrote his famous book The Road to Serfdom (1944) in the midst of the Second World War, he mentioned in the preface that he had often been told by his socialist colleagues that he would, no doubt, hold an important position in a future planned society, if only he would come around ...
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 ...
Price Controls Attack the Freedom of Speech by Richard M. Ebeling September 18, 2019 We increasingly live in a new “dark age” of economic ignorance, and even stupidity. Few things exemplify this trend as much as the call for price controls over the interactions of multitudes of people in the marketplace of supply and demand. There are few government interventionist policies as likely to disrupt, distort, and imbalance the actions of tens of millions, indeed, ...
Friends of Freedom, Do Not Despair by Richard M. Ebeling September 5, 2019 Friends of freedom can easily become despondent when they look at what appear to be the ideological and political trends that fill the media day in and day out. Government spending keeps growing, national debts pile up, and regulations and redistributions seem to be narrowing the arenas of market and personal freedoms of choice. Anti-liberal demagogues abound, seemingly everywhere. ...
The Case for Open Immigration by Jacob G. Hornberger September 1, 2019 Every American living today has lived his entire life under an immigration crisis. That shouldn’t surprise anyone. America’s system of immigration controls is based on the concept of central planning, which is a core feature of socialism, which, as anyone from North Korea, Cuba, and Venezuela will attest, always produces crises. Government officials centrally plan the movements of millions ...
The Specter of Communism Is Haunting Illinois by Laurence M. Vance September 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. ...
Should Libertarians Support Trump’s Immigration Raids? by Jacob G. Hornberger August 12, 2019 Libertarian supporters of immigration controls are remaining conspicuously silent about President Trump’s latest immigration raids. What’s up with that? Wouldn’t you think that people who support America’s system of immigration controls would be praising such raids? Actually, it’s a good thing such libertarians are remaining silent, just as they remain silent about the other enforcement measures ...
