Politics
Thomas Sowell: From Marxism To The Free-Market
Government programs that are supposed to help minorities end up doing more harm than good.
The Meaning Behind Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” Speech
On Martin Luther King Day–and every day–we should focus on the antidote to racism and alternative to racial thinking: individualism.
When Reason is Out, Violence is In
What explains today’s bi-partisan violence? When reason is out, persuasion and peaceful assembly-protest also are out. What remains is emotionalism – and violence.
Will Trumpism Survive Trump Leaving Office or Getting Impeached?
I fear the answer is “Yes” based on the faith of his followers.
Twitter Permanently Bans Trump
Why Do Hillary Clinton, Jimmy Carter, Harry Reid Get a Pass?
The GOP Should Divorce Trump from the Republican Party
Republicans have to consign Donald Trump to a state of ignominy. There is no other hope if the Republican Party is to stand as an ideological counterweight to the statism of the left.
MARKETS
“Bubbles” and the Grand Selection Mechanism of Financial Markets
Whenever accusations of “bubbles” are thrown about, I think of these extraordinary stories and the grand selection mechanism that is financial markets.
How Does One Apply Rational Egoism in a Mixed Economy, Welfare State?
While the welfare state cannot be transformed into a free-market system overnight, businesspeople can help by speaking up (in forums open to them) when restrictions on freedom of business are being proposed by government and other groups.
Currency Competition May Save the Economy or Even Much More
It should never be illegal to do honest business in America, even if that means a transaction isn’t denominated in U.S. dollars.
Who is Carl Menger?
There are few works in the history of economics that may be truly considered “revolutionary” and “path-breaking,” in its starting premises, its logic, and its implications. But one that is in this category is Carl Menger’s Grundsätze der Volkswirtschaftsliche, his Principles of Economics in its English translation, which marks this year the 150th anniversary of its publication in 1871.
Quent Cordair Fine Art Gallery Demonstrates The Virtue of Independence
If there is a lesson to be learned from the economic lockdowns governments around the world started imposing on businesses in an attempt to contain the coronavirus pandemic, it is the importance of independence.
The Economics, Politics and Morality of Fiat Money: An Interview with Pro-Capitalist Economist Raymond Niles
Professor Niles discusses the economic, political and moral aspects of the U.S. dollar, inflation, gold standard, fiat, money and legal tender laws.
LAW
Deplatforming Trump, “Private Censorship,” and Social Media “Monopolies”: Richard Epstein on Regulating “Big Tech”
There is no reason for government to regulate today’s “dominant” firms — Twitter, Facebook, Google, Amazon –as if they are true and invincible monopolists.
What Is Section 230 and Why Do Trump and His Allies Want to Repeal It?
Section 230 simply says that only internet users are responsible for what they write, not the private companies whose websites host the commenters. Secondly, it affirms what the First Amendment already implies—that private companies don’t have to host speech that violates their values.
Personal Liberty Sacrificed at the Altar of Covid Public Safety
If science had been followed in 2020 – in all fields – we’d be much healthier and wealthier than we now are. But control freaks have used Covid-19 to justify still more government controls, still more statism.
Intellectual Property in an Innovation Economy
How IP is a property right, how it functions as a property right in a free market, and how legally, historically, and economically, IP is essential to a thriving economy and flourishing society.
The History of Thanksgiving: Thanks, Property Rights
This Thanksgiving, I give thanks for something our forebears gave us: property rights.
The Greatest Threat to Free Speech is Not Big-Tech Blocking, But Government Censorship
Real censorship is when the state uses its legal power to use force to determine the content of speech we should engage in (either by banning non-rights violating speech or forcing one to say things one would not do so voluntarily). If the state can arbitrarily determine what Twitter must post, it goes from being the protector of freedom of speech to its censor.
CULTURE
When Public School Teachers Unions Win, Students, Parents, and Taxpayers Lose
It’s revealing that government-run schools fight to stay closed, while most businesses — private schools, restaurants, hair salons, gyms, etc., fight to be allowed to open.
Is Truth Irrelevant?
Who cares about facts anymore, in this age of indoctrination?
Why Do New Year’s Resolutions Typically Fail?
If you want your New Year’s resolutions to be completed, take the steps needed to really commit to it.
Making Resolutions Outlast January
As Ayn Rand put it, a value is something you act to gain or keep. A desire without action then is just a wish.
What is the Meaning of New Year’s?
Your life is in your own hands.
Five Times in 2020 When The New York Times Accidentally Told the Truth
The paper of record in 2020 shifted dramatically to the most illiberal stance possible on the virus, pushing for full lockdowns, and ignoring or burying any information that might contradict the case for this unprecedented experiment in social and economic control.
WORLD
Witnessing Lithuania’s 1991 Fight for Freedom from Soviet Power
We should remember and appreciate episodes in history like those in Lithuania in January 1991, in which a people oppressed by socialist tyranny said, “No,” and insisted upon regaining their freedom.
Where is Jack Ma?
While we should condemn the Chinese government’s actions, we should also be cautious of rising authoritarian tendencies here at home, whether it’s towards our civil rights or our economic freedom.
Middle East Enlightenment
Middle Eastern young people are moving away from fundamentalism.
We Need A Competitive Market for Scientific Expert Advice
Without competition among experts, we can expect more expert failure in the future.
What Would a Biden Presidency Mean for Energy in the Asia-Pacific Region?
What would a Biden victory mean for the energy-importing countries of the Asia-Pacific region?
Lockdowns Have Killed What’s Left of the United Nations’ Credibility
In the year 2020, the United Nations has effectively stood as a bystander and partial accomplice amid the most widespread violations of human rights at any time in its seven-decade history.
SCI-TECH
The Trojan Horse of “Climate Change Catastrophe”
The rhetoric for a “climate change catastrophe” has been around for decades. When warming didn’t happen, the rhetoric changed to threats of freezing, which morphed back to warming.
Covid-19 Vaccines: An Interview with Dr. Amesh Adalja
Elan Journo talks with infectious disease expert Dr. Amesh Adalja about these promising vaccines, ongoing misinformation, and what lies ahead in the pandemic.
The Climate Hustle
Climate change is real. It’s a problem, but I doubt that it’s “an existential threat.” Saying that makes alarmists mad.
Bjorn Lomborg’s “False Alarm: How Climate Change Panic Costs Us Trillions, Hurts the Poor, and Fails to Fix the Planet”
Bjorn Lomborg’s “False Alarm: How Climate Change Panic Costs Us Trillions, Hurts the Poor, and Fails to Fix the Planet” is a true alarm—a call for a re-thinking of climate policy entirely.
We Need A Competitive Market for Scientific Expert Advice
Without competition among experts, we can expect more expert failure in the future.
Climate Catastrophism vs. Capitalism and Human Flourishing
For years, people like Naomi Klein, the author of This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. the Climate, have said that their goal is to destroy capitalism ‒ and climate change just happens to be the best tool and best argument she has found.