Botswana: A Diamond in the Rough

Over the past 40 years Botswana has been sub-Saharan Africa’s fastest-growing country and one of the fastest-growing countries in the world. Though it started off as one of the poorest countries in the world, its per capita income now compares favorably with many Mediterranean counterparts. Like most countries, the financial crisis has slowed Botswana’s recent [...]

Libertarianism Through Thick and Thin

To what extent should libertarians concern themselves with social commitments, practices, projects, or movements that seek social outcomes beyond, or other than, the standard libertarian commitment to expanding the scope of freedom from government coercion? Clearly, a consistent and principled libertarian cannot support efforts or beliefs that are contrary to libertarian principles—such as efforts to [...]

Book Reviews – November 2007

• Lenin, Stalin, and Hitler: The Age of Social Catastrophe
  
  by Robert Gellately Reviewed by Richard M. Ebeling
  
• Depression, War, and Cold War
  by Robert Higgs Reviewed by Burton Folsom, Jr.
  
• Great Philanthropic Mistakes
  by Timothy Sandefur Reviewed by George C. Leef
• Elements of Justice
  by David Schmidtz Reviewed by Aeon J. Skoble
  

Prophets 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 [...]

The Shortcomings of Government Charity

Jude Blanchette is a freelance writer living in China. In their book, Myths of Rich and Poor, W. Michael Cox and Richard Alm observe, “Some part of human nature connects with the apocalyptic. Time and again, the pessimists among us have envisioned the world going straight to hell.” To be sure, “pessimists” apparently run most [...]

The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities for Our Time

By Jeffrey D. Sachs Reviewed by Jude Blanchette

The Roots of Poverty in Latin America

Few things stand out in such stark contrast as the economic and social differences between the United States and the countries of Latin America. Since gaining its independence from Great Britain in the late eighteenth century, the United States has offered virtually unlimited opportunity for a growing population, along with a rising standard of living [...]

Social Security and the Insurance Illusion

In 1937, shortly after Franklin Roosevelt threatened to destroy the independence of the Supreme Court by “packing” it with ideological cronies, the Court came to heel and handed down verdicts in three cases affirming that the Social Security Act was, unlike several structurally similar pieces of pre-intimidation New Deal legislation, in accord with the U.S. [...]

No 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.