Ideas and Consequences
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 | ContinuedThe Holiday That Isn’t
I know it’s only October, but that’s late enough in the year for most people to have already begun thinking of the holidays just around the corner. We will each observe the traditional ones according to our personal wishes—a precious right won for us by past and present patriots. Allow me to advise you, however, [...]
1Oct2008 | Lawrence W. Reed | Comments Off | ContinuedFreedom or Free-for-All?
Lawrence Reed became the president of FEE on September 1. To honor the occasion, we reprint his first “Ideas and Consequences” column, which was originally published in The Freeman in April 1994. Imagine playing a game—baseball, cards, “Monopoly,” or whatever—in which there was only one rule: anything goes. You could discard the “instruction book” from [...]
1Sep2008 | Lawrence W. Reed | 0 comments | ContinuedCharacter, Liberty, and Economics
Over four decades I’ve written scores of articles, essays, and columns on economics; taught the subject at the university level; and given hundreds of speeches on it. In recent years the nexus between the economics of a free society and individual character has worked its way into my writing, speaking, and thinking with increasing emphasis. [...]
1Jul2008 | Lawrence W. Reed | 11 comments | ContinuedHistory for Sale: Why Not?
Sold!” cried the Sotheby’s auctioneer on the night of December 18, 2007, as one of history’s oldest political documents changed hands. It was Magna Carta, or rather a copy of it that dated to 1297. The buyer was not a government but an individual, a Washington lawyer named David Rubenstein. He paid $21.3 million for [...]
1May2008 | Lawrence W. Reed | 0 comments | ContinuedThe Times that Tried Men’s Economic Souls
Two hundred and thirty years ago this month in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, the brutal and storied winter of 1777–78 came to a long-awaited close. Nearly a quarter of George Washington’s Continental Army troops encamped there had died—victims of hunger, exposure, and disease. Almost every American knows that much, but few can tell you why Congress [...]
1Mar2008 | Lawrence W. Reed | 0 comments | ContinuedProphets of Property
In 1800, fewer than 1 million people lived in London; a century later, well over 6 million. As the 20th century dawned, London had already been the most populous city on the planet for seven decades. Britain’s population as a whole soared from 8 million in 1800 to 40 million in 1900. In the previous [...]
1Jul2007 | Lawrence W. Reed | 0 comments | ContinuedThe Love of Power vs. the Power of Love
Lawrence Reed is president of the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, a free-market research and educational organization in Midland, Michigan. “We look forward to the time when the power of love will replace the love of power. Then will our world know the blessings of peace.” So declared British Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone [...]
1May2007 | Lawrence W. Reed | 2 comments | ContinuedA Tribute to a Polish Hero
One year ago the world lost a gifted science fiction writer and critic of totalitarianism when Poland’s Stanislaw Lem died in March 2006. Lem was best known internationally as author of the classic Solaris—twice adapted for the silver screen—but the majority of his fiction featured damning allegories against the suppression of the human spirit. Bruce [...]
1Mar2007 | Lawrence W. Reed | 0 comments | ContinuedTwo Who Made a Difference
In 20 years of traveling to 67 countries I’ve come across some pretty nasty governments and some darn good people. To be fair I should acknowledge that I’ve also encountered some rotten people and a half-decent government or two. The ghastliest of all worlds is when you have rotten people running nasty governments, a combination [...]
1Dec2006 | Lawrence W. Reed | 0 comments | ContinuedGovernment Putts
Mark Twain once said that the game of golf was nothing more than “a good walk spoiled.” But to avid golfers, such impertinence obscures a cardinal truth: The sport is infinitely complex and not for everybody. Golf requires patience, concentration, and forbearance. Distractions must be ignored or compensated for by careful planning. A serious player [...]
1Aug2006 | Lawrence W. Reed | 3 comments | ContinuedFree-Market Moments on the Silver Screen
If you believe in capitalism, going to the movies is all too often a painful exercise. Even those you expect to be apolitical turn up gratuitous dialogue that peddles Hollywood’s pervasive but infantile anti-market sentiments. Apparently there’s a lot of money to be made criticizing the very marketplace that enables even its most superficial critics [...]
1May2006 | Lawrence W. Reed | 5 comments | ContinuedA Supreme Court to Be Proud Of
In the closing months of the current U.S. Supreme Court session, pundits of every stripe will be assessing the impact of recent changes in the Court’s composition. If the justices themselves are interested in how they measure up, there may be no better standard than the Court’s record under Chief Justice Melville W. Fuller. It’s a [...]
1Mar2006 | Lawrence W. Reed | 0 comments | ContinuedPresidents and Poverty
Conventional wisdom holds that fighting poverty
has only lately been a concern of American
presidents, and that before Franklin Roosevelt
it was hardly a concern at all. This stubborn error
persists.
A Student’s Essay That Changed the World
As a former university professor, I read thousands of student-authored essays through the years—sometimes joyously, but probably just as often, painfully. Occasionally, the process of researching and writing exerted significant influence over a student’s future interests, thinking, and perhaps even behavior. But of all the student essays ever written anywhere, I doubt that any had [...]
1May2005 | Lawrence W. Reed | 0 comments | ContinuedThe Golden Calf of Democracy
“Democracy,” H. L. Mencken once said, “is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard.” He also famously defined an election as “an advance auction sale of stolen goods.” Mencken was not opposed to democracy. He simply possessed a more sobering view of its limitations [...]
1Dec2004 | Lawrence W. Reed | 0 comments | Continued-
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