From the President
Milton Friedman and the Chicago School of Economics
Milton Friedman, who passed away on November 16 at age 94, once commented that there is no such thing as different schools of economics; there is only good economics and bad economics. While he may have sincerely believed this, Friedman was nonetheless the twentieth century’s most outstanding contributor to what has become known as the [...]
1Dec2006 | Richard M. Ebeling | 8 comments | ContinuedKeynesian Economics and Constitutional Government
Last month 650 economists called for an increase in the federal minimum wage, saying it was the responsibility of the government to “improve the well-being of low-wage workers” by mandating the terms under which people may be employed. Among these economists were five recipients of the Nobel Prize in economics. One of them was Lawrence [...]
1Nov2006 | Richard M. Ebeling | 0 comments | ContinuedPrinciples Must Come Before Politics
Richard Ebeling is the president of FEE. We live in a time of quick fixes and patent medicines. The “physicians” offering to spoon-feed the elixirs for what ails us are the politicians running for office. Rarely do people step back and ask themselves whether there is really any ailment at all, or whether the politicians’ [...]
1Oct2006 | Richard M. Ebeling | 1 comment | ContinuedThe Misplaced Acceptance of Political Leaders
Richard Ebeling is the president of FEE. This is an election year, and as in all past election years we are inundated with promises and proposals from candidates, each hoping to attract our votes. For the most part what they are promising is “leadership.” They tell us all the things they will do for us [...]
1Sep2006 | Richard M. Ebeling | 0 comments | ContinuedNot Losing Sight of the Best in the Pursuit of Liberty
The eighteenth-century French Enlightenment philosopher Voltaire warned that “the best is the enemy of the good.” He meant that in trying to pursue unattainable perfection, we may miss the opportunity to create something better than what we have. There is much wisdom in these words. But there is danger in its opposite: If we allow [...]
1Aug2006 | Richard M. Ebeling | 0 comments | ContinuedFreedom and the Pitfalls of Predicting the Future
The prospects for freedom in America and in many other parts of the world appear dim. Government continues to grow bigger and more intrusive, imposing tax burdens that siphon vast amounts of private wealth. Extrapolating these trends out for the foreseeable future, it would seem that the chances for winning liberty are highly unlikely. There is only one problem with this pessimistic forecast: the future is unpredictable and apparent trends do change.
1Jun2006 | Richard M. Ebeling | 0 comments | ContinuedThe Great Austrian Inflation
Wars always bring great destruction in their
wake. Human lives are lost or left crippled;
wealth is consumed to cover the costs of
combat; battles and bombs leave accumulated capital in
ruins; real and imagined injustices turn men against the
existing order of things; and demagogues emerge to play
on the frustrations and fears in peoples minds.
FEE at 60: Self-Improvement and First Principles
March 7 marks the 60th anniversary of the establishment of the Foundation for Economic Education (FEE) by the late Leonard
E. Read, with the assistance of a handful of businessmen, economists, and journalists who were all dedicated to the ideas of individual liberty and the free market. From its beginning FEE has been more than what nowadays is called a policy-oriented think tank. Its work is based on the understanding that right thinking on policy issues is impossible unless people have a clear appreciation of the principles of freedom, private property, free enterprise, the rule of law, and constitutionally limited government.
Still Neither Left Nor Right
We live in a time when virtually all political parties and candidates stand for the same fundamental ideological idea: state interventionism and compulsory redistribution.This also applies to the mainstream media. Even many who say they adhere to a pro-market view of things in fact turn out to be only more moderate advocates of government regulations and welfare-state programs.
1Jan2006 | Richard M. Ebeling | 0 comments | ContinuedWhy Not Monetary Freedom?
In all of the commentaries that have appeared since President George W. Bush nominated Dr. Ben S. Bernanke as Alan Greenspan
1Dec2005 | Richard M. Ebeling | 0 comments | ContinuedAnother National Disaster in the Making: Government Reconstruction of New Orleans
Hurricane Katrina destroyed much of New Orleans at the end of August. What followed was a further disaster in the form of government incompetence and confusion at the local, state, and
federal levels. Rarely have we seen a better instance of what Austrian economist Ludwig von Mises once rightly called “planned chaos.”
When the Supreme Court Stopped Economic Fascism in America
Seventy years ago, on May 27, 1935, the U.S. Supreme Court said no to economic fascism in America.The trend toward bigger and ever-moreintrusive government, unfortunately, was not stopped, but the case nonetheless was a significant event that at that time prevented the institutionalizing of a Mussolini-type corporativist system in America. (Correction: Contrary to a statement in this column, young men in the Civilian Conservation Corps were not compelled to join.)
1Oct2005 | Richard M. Ebeling | 7 comments | ContinuedAbolishing Social Security–Through REAL Privatization!
If the revenues from the sales of government lands and the accompanying mineral rights were to come even close to their current estimated market values, their privatization would equal the projected present value of all Society Security obligations over the next 75 years.
1Sep2005 | Richard M. Ebeling | 0 comments | ContinuedNo Buts about Freedom
Back in the early 1970s, the late Leonard E. Read, founder and first president of FEE, wrote a short piece in The Freeman called Sinking in a Sea of Buts. He said it was not uncommon or someone to say to him,I agree with you in principle, but . . . The but invariably referred to some exception from the principle of freedom in the form of a desired government intervention. The problem, Read pointed out, is that when everyones exceptions to freedom are added up, well, freedom ends up being sunk by all the buts.
I’d Push the Button—To Establish Freedom Right Now
In April 1946, a month after the late Leonard E. Read established the Foundation for Economic Education, he gave a talk in Detroit called “I’d Push the Button.” He said that if there were a button on the podium that would immediately abolish all controls and regulations on the U.S. economy, he would push it. [...]
1Jun2005 | Richard M. Ebeling | 0 comments | ContinuedAcademic Socialism Versus the Free Market
Academia has long been thought of as the marketplace of ideas, the arena where truth may be pursued through dispassionate discourse and openness to competing views. Yet higher education in America has moved a great distance from this ideal and its practice. (Click title to read more…)
1May2005 | Richard M. Ebeling | 0 comments | ContinuedBeware Democracy without Liberty
A fundamental fallacy of our time is that democracy is the open-sesame to peace, freedom, and prosperity. The recent elections in Ukraine, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia, and the promise of a contested presidential election in Egypt, are hailed as evidence of a new dawn for mankind. And, indeed, maybe they are. But democracy in itself [...]
1Apr2005 | Richard M. Ebeling | 0 comments | Continued-
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I am not going to try to defend JPMorgan Chase for its recent, widely reported financial blunders. ... Read More
For Equality; Against Privilege
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