Pelatiah Webster: America’s Adam Smith and a Forgotten Founder
In 1776, the same year the Declaration of Independence appeared in America, Pelatiah Webster started publishing a series of essays on economic matters
BY LAWRENCE...
How Marx Got on the Wrong Side of History
BY RICHARD M. EBELING
Those who speak about being on the “right side of history” have, knowingly or not, adopted a central element in Karl...
Three Cheers for Trade and None for TPP
BY MARK W. HENDRICKSON
Last month, retired Rep. John Linder wrote a clear-headed article about the benefits of trade. A week-and-a-half later, FedEx founder and CEO, Frederick...
5 Ideas at the Heart of Socialism
LAWRENCE W. REED, THE FREEMAN
The good news is that more millennials are skeptical of economic intervention than trust the government to improve anything. The...
Bernie the Bigot?
BY MARK HENDRICKSON
I abhor the name calling that degrades our political discourse, especially in election years; hence, the question mark in the title. I...
Is the Federal Minimum Wage Unconstitutional?
BY MARK HENDRICKSON
It’s a familiar political scenario: Behind the fig leaf of compassion and fairness, progressives and the union-dominated Democratic Party want the federal...
The Fed’s Lack of Appreciation for the Healing Power of Markets
DANIEL L. THORNTON, CATO INSTITUTE
In my recent Cato Institute policy analysis, “Requiem for QE,” I analyze the transcripts of the 2008 and 2009 Federal...
The ‘Phishing For Phools’ Book That Should Have Been Written
BY MARK HENDRICKSON
“Phishing for Phools: The Economics of Manipulation and Deception,” is a trivial work from two bright, kindly, likable scholars, Nobel Prize-winning economists,...
Today’s Progressives Want To Take Us Back To The 16th Century
BY MARK HENDRICKSON
Life in the 16th century was bleak. Unless you were lucky enough to have been born into the sliver of the population...
Restraints Upon Foreign Imports Of Goods Produced At Home
An Inquiry Into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations
by Adam Smith, 1776
2013 - 2015 Internet Edition (with occasional explanatory notes) by...
How Many People Can Planet Earth Sustain?
Why the 'Population Bomb' is a Dud
ROBERT P. MURPHY, THE FREEMAN
Asked whether or not the growing world population will be a major problem, 59%...
On Freedom and Order
BY LEONARD E. READ, THE FREEMAN
Originally published by The Freeman: Ideas On Liberty, January 1965
My purpose in this essay is to throw some light...
The Gig Economy Makes Karl Marx’s Dreams Come True
And It's All Capitalism's Doing
MAX BORDERS, THE FREEMAN
When Joe Average steps out of his car after completing his shift for Lyft, he does so...
The Need to Balance the Budget and Reduce Federal Debt
CHRIS EDWARDS, CATO INSTITUTE
Committee on the Budget
United States House of Representatives
Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, thank you for inviting me to testify....
How to Outsource Your Compassion to the Government
Economic Intervention Punishes Those Who Help Most
ROBERT P. MURPHY, THE FREEMAN
I saw the mom and her two little kids camped out in the shopping...
Capitalist Theory Is Better Than Socialist Reality
In This Case, Turnabout Is Fair Play
SANDY IKEDA, THE FREEMAN
Tell someone on the left that crony capitalism is not the same as the free...
Inequality: The Rhetoric and Reality
JAMES A. DORN, THE FREEMAN
The publication of Thomas Piketty’s bestseller Capital in the Twenty-First Century has led to widespread attention on the rising gap...
Socialism is War and War is Socialism
STEVEN HORWITZ, THE FREEMAN
" planning does not accidentally deteriorate into the militarization of the economy; it is the militarization of the economy.… When the...
Bastiat: God, ‘The Law’, and the Rights of Man
LIBERTY LETTERS WITH STEVE FARRELL
Sometimes secularism sounds legitimate.
One of the more thoughtful arguments used by proponents of a secular state, or of a state...
Bastiat: God, 'The Law', and the Rights of Man
LIBERTY LETTERS WITH STEVE FARRELL
Sometimes secularism sounds legitimate.
One of the more thoughtful arguments used by proponents of a secular state, or of a state...
Misdiagnosing Inequality And The Cause Of Middle-Class Woes
Responding to Nobel Economist Joseph Stilitz's Yahoo.com Interview
BY MARK W. HENDRICKSON
In an interview posted on Yahoo.com (April 23), Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz spoke...
Wisconsin's Right To Work Law And The Fatal Flaws Of Unionism
BY MARK W. HENDRICKSON
When even historically progressive Wisconsin adopts a right to work law—making employee payments to a union voluntary instead of mandatory—it’s a...
Wisconsin’s Right To Work Law And The Fatal Flaws Of Unionism
BY MARK W. HENDRICKSON
When even historically progressive Wisconsin adopts a right to work law—making employee payments to a union voluntary instead of mandatory—it’s a...
Ownership Must Be Tempered by Sharing
LAWRENCE W. REED, THE FREEMAN
Clichés of Progressivism, Part 16
Progressives have a problem with ownership, especially when it’s yours. The very notion seems to conjure...
Unionism's Fatal Flaws, Part Two: Double Standards
BY MARK W. HENDRICKSON
Quite predictably, my article last week about Wisconsin adopting a right to work law elicited comments pro and con. I didn’t...
Unionism’s Fatal Flaws, Part Two: Double Standards
BY MARK W. HENDRICKSON
Quite predictably, my article last week about Wisconsin adopting a right to work law elicited comments pro and con. I didn’t...
On the Centennial of the Birth of a Giant
LAWRENCE W. REED, THE FREEMAN
April 25, 2015, marks a century since John James Cowperthwaite entered the world. It’s a birthdate that deserves celebration everywhere.
I...
Adam Smith: Free Private Enterprise Vs. The Folly of Human Laws
FREE ENTERPRISE ZONE: FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES
1776
The natural effort of every individual to better his own condition, when suffered to exert itself with freedom and security...
Wisconsin’s Right to Work Law and the Fatal Flaws of Unionism
MARK W. HENDRICKSON
When even historically progressive Wisconsin adopts a right to work law—making employee payments to a union voluntary instead of mandatory—it’s a sign...
Wisconsin's Right to Work Law and the Fatal Flaws of Unionism
MARK W. HENDRICKSON
When even historically progressive Wisconsin adopts a right to work law—making employee payments to a union voluntary instead of mandatory—it’s a sign...