Ideas and Consequences
Presidents and Precedents
America’s 44th president has embarked on a massive expansion of the federal establishment that, if accomplished, will dwarf all previous welfare states in its spending and debt. Americans will largely depend on politicians and their underlings for a significant portion of their heavily mortgaged livelihoods. It’s a path to national suicide that would horrify most [...]
24Feb2010 | Lawrence W. Reed | 13 comments | ContinuedWhere Have All the Monetary Cranks Gone?
“Monetary crank” was never exactly a household phrase, but I know for certain it was much more widely used and understood a century ago than it is today. If you had nutty ideas about money, you were a monetary crank.
22Feb2010 | Lawrence W. Reed | 8 comments | ContinuedPrincipled Parties
Imagine a political movement that says it’s committed to “equal rights”—and means it. Not just equality in a few cherry-picked rights but all human rights, including the most maligned, property rights. Imagine a movement whose raison d’être is to oppose any and all special privileges from government for anybody. When it comes to political parties, [...]
1Jan2010 | Lawrence W. Reed | 5 comments | ContinuedThe Sound of Freedom
When I have the chance, I often pose this question to people who have become advocates for liberty: “What was it that first turned you on to these ideas?” It’s an important question that always produces revealing answers and sometimes some fascinating stories. Liberty, keep in mind, is not automatic or guaranteed. Few people who [...]
18Nov2009 | Lawrence W. Reed | 3 comments | ContinuedChild Labor and the British Industrial Revolution
Profound economic changes took place in Great Britain in the century after 1750. This was the age of the Industrial Revolution, complete with a cascade of technical innovations, a vast increase in production, a renaissance of world trade, and rapid growth of urban populations. Where historians and other observers clash is in the interpretation of [...]
23Oct2009 | Lawrence W. Reed | 7 comments | ContinuedA Tribute to the Polish People
The cause of liberty saw memorable highs and unconscionable lows in 1989. Surely that year will be best remembered as the year Soviet hegemony over central Europe disintegrated, paving the way for the dissolution of the Soviet Union itself in 1991. Free people everywhere should toast the brave people of one nation in particular–Poland–for the [...]
23Sep2009 | Lawrence W. Reed | 7 comments | ContinuedIn the Grip of Madness
“Thank God we had the federal government last week to bail out the private sector!” That is what a rather statist friend of mine declared a year ago as the economy tanked, almost gleeful that the financial crisis seemed to be proving how much we all need a massive federal establishment to both regulate and [...]
19Aug2009 | Lawrence W. Reed | 37 comments | ContinuedGive Up? Are You Kidding?
We should not squander a second feeling bad for ourselves. This is a moment when our true character, the stuff we’re really made of, will show itself. If we retreat, that would tell me we were never really worthy of the battle in the first place. But if we resolve to let these tough times build character and rally our dispirited friends to new levels of dedication, we will look back on this occasion someday with pride at how we handled it.
17Jun2009 | Lawrence W. Reed | 13 comments | ContinuedTwo Cheers for Transparency
If citizens knew more about how their governments really worked and what they spent other people’s money on, it would not only make for better-informed citizens but for better (and hopefully less) government at the same time. That’s the theory behind a growing movement spearheaded by think tanks from coast to coast and in Canada. [...]
21May2009 | Lawrence W. Reed | 6 comments | ContinuedWho Owes What to Whom?
Note: This column first appeared in the February 2002 issue of The Freeman. For a society that has fed, clothed, housed, cared for, informed, entertained, and otherwise enriched more people at higher levels than any in the history of the planet, there sure is a lot of groundless guilt in America. Manifestations of that guilt [...]
24Apr2009 | Lawrence W. Reed | 8 comments | ContinuedGlobal Warming Revisited
In the May 2001 Freeman I published “Unprecedented Global Warming?” which noted that climate change (global warming and global cooling) is a continuing phenomenon and that what we’ve witnessed in the last 25 years is “by no means unprecedented.” The Medieval Warm Period (800-1300), which took place without SUVs, power plants, or factories, was warmer [...]
24Apr2009 | Michael Heberling | 13 comments | ContinuedThe Sage of Tampa
“The natural progress of things,” according to Thomas Jefferson, “is for government to gain ground and for liberty to yield.” But this lament does not suggest that the primary author of the Declaration of Independence was resigned to inaction. He also said, “A little rebellion now and then is a good thing, and as necessary [...]
1Apr2009 | Lawrence W. Reed | 0 comments | ContinuedRecycling Discredited Ideas
The current financial crisis has fueled a frenzied recycling of discredited Keynesian ideas. We are hearing again of the need for “public works,” of the need to “stimulate” the economy. The Federal Reserve is frantically inflating the supply of money. We are laying the groundwork for a disaster reminiscent of the 1970s—if not worse.
1Apr2009 | Peter Lewin | 11 comments | ContinuedWhat We Believe
The Foundation for Economic Education, publisher of this magazine since 1956, is now in its seventh decade, and I am now in my seventh month as its president. As we expand the outreach of our programs and publications, now is a good time to remind our readers who we are and what we believe in. [...]
2Mar2009 | Lawrence W. Reed | 8 comments | ContinuedA Man Who Knew the Value of Liberty
[This column was adapted from one published first by the Mackinac Center for Public Policy on its website in February 2007.] A television audience in the millions will feast on the glitz and glamor of Hollywood when the 81st Annual Academy Awards are bestowed February 22. My thoughts will be elsewhere that Sunday night—on a [...]
20Jan2009 | Lawrence W. Reed | 7 comments | Continued
Mr. President, Meet Mr. Smith
Since it’s obviously possible for people to reach the pinnacle of politics without seeming to know much about either economics or Smith, perhaps we’re overdue for a little reminder about both.
1Dec2008 | Lawrence W. Reed | 4 comments | ContinuedWhy “Inflation” Is Back
“Government,” observed the renowned Austrian economist Ludwig von Mises, “is the only institution that can take a valuable commodity like paper, and make it worthless by applying ink.” Mises was describing the curse of inflation, the process whereby government expands a nation’s money supply and thereby erodes the value of each monetary unit—dollar, peso, pound, [...]
1Nov2008 | Lawrence W. Reed | 9 comments | Continued-
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