FEE President Lawrence W. Reed delivered these remarks, compiled from other articles and speeches, to mark the final event at FEE’s original headquarters in Irvington, New York, on Saturday, August 23, 2014. I begin with this remark of the celebrated Roman historian Livy, written 2,000 years ago: There is an exceptionally beneficial and fruitful advantage […]
A myth runs through most of America today, and it goes like this: Big business hates government and yearns for an unregulated market. But the reality is the opposite: Big government can be highly profitable for big business. Many regulations restrict competition that would otherwise challenge existing firms. At the same time, government institutions—many created […]
Hard to believe, but Britain’s student loan problem is worse than the Yanks’. In late 2010, tens of thousands of British students took to the streets of London. They protested government plans to cut direct funding of higher education and raise the cap on tuition from £3,290 ($5,500) to £9,000 ($15,000). Some of them occupied […]
Defenders of police militarization such as that on display in Ferguson, Missouri, often claim that it’s necessary to provide military gear to cops, given how dangerous law enforcement has become. Indeed, in the name of the War on Terror and the War on Drugs, the federal government has provided thousands of pieces of military-grade body armor, mine-resistant armored personnel carriers, […]
1. The mainstream media have been lagging libertarians and citizen journalists on the issue of domestic militarization and police abuse for years. Only with the police shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, has police abuse become a “story.” Thankfully it is. But where were the mainstream media when Radley Balko was reporting on police militarization in […]
It’s an old Western movie trope. The harassed sheriff needs help against Desperado D. Blackhat and his gang of gunslingers. He goes into the saloon, finds the gambler who was once the most feared crack shot this side of the Pecos, and makes him his deputy. Together, they run Blackhat and his gang out of […]
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There are two basic prisms through which we can see, study, and prescribe for human society: individualism and collectivism. These worldviews are as different as night and day, and they create a great divide in the social sciences. That’s because the perspective from which you see the world will set your thinking down one intellectual […]
It’s about time. We’ve tried everything else. The New York Times wonders if the libertarian moment has arrived. Maybe, suggested an article in the Sunday magazine. Supporters of Rand Paul and father Ron think so. Award-winning economist turned left-wing pundit Paul Krugman is not convinced. Unfortunately, there have been false starts before. Ronald Reagan’s election […]
Ever argued public policy with people whose State is in fantasy land? Our problem is that we have to fight unicorns. Unicorns, of course, are fabulous horse-like creatures with a large spiraling horn on their forehead. They eat rainbows, but can go without eating for years if necessary. They can carry enormous amounts of cargo […]
The Feds attack FedEx on behalf of Big Pharma and expand the police state. The Wall Street Journal recently reported that the FedEx Corp. pleaded not guilty in a San Francisco federal court “on 15 charges related to transporting painkillers and other prescription drugs that had been sold illegally.” The “illegal drugs” do not refer to cocaine or meth […]
“World War II got us out of the Great Depression.” Many people said that during the war, and some still do today. The quality of American life, however, was precarious during the war. Food was rationed, luxuries removed, taxes high, and work dangerous. A recovery that does not make—as Robert Higgs points out in Depression, War, […]
Life Is Improv: How Art, Culture, and the Free Market Make the World Beautiful, held at Agnes Scott College in Decatur, Georgia, focused on the intersection of art and economics. Forty-five participants came together for three days of camaraderie, networking, and learning. Loyola professor of economics Dan D’Amico began the seminar by showing that economics […]
For Islamic State (IS), terrorism is a business. Just days before IS (formerly ISIS, the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant) captured the Iraqi cities of Mosul and Tikrit, intelligence officials obtained flash drives from the hideout of the group’s head military council. Yielding a great deal of information about the structure and management the militant Islamic […]
Are the Art of War and the Art of Enterprise two edges of the same sword? Sun Tzu’s The Art of War is justly known as one of the great works in strategic thinking. But although the text nominally concerns warfare, through the centuries it’s often been used as a business handbook more than as a military […]