A Free Capitalist Society Moderates the Passions. “Unbridled avarice is not in the least the equivalent of capitalism, still less its ‘spirit’.” — Max Weber[1] Recently greed has become a popular term of endearment. There’s even a TV game show by that name. In 1987, Oliver Stone released a popular movie called Wall Street, in which Gordon Gekko, […]
Prof. Williams delivered the following to an audience in Irvington, New York, on June 28, 2014. Williams’ lecture is one in a series designed to share ideas, honor FEE’s rich tradition, and say goodbye to the Irvington property. Let us begin with a discussion of a working definition of markets. Markets are simply millions upon […]
Central banking has taken interest rate reduction to its absurd conclusion. If observers thought the European Central Bank (ECB) had run out of room by holding its deposit rate at zero, Mario Draghi proved he is creative, cutting the ECB’s deposit rate to minus 0.10 percent, making it the first major central bank to institute […]
America’s federal executive branch has met some setbacks as of late. Two recent Supreme Court rulings have constrained the administration’s impulse to act as it wishes. Yet, the mere fact that the administration has overreached as it has—and would have continued to do so had the court not stopped it—should send us a clear warning: […]
By Max Borders – You probably don’t know me, but unlike you, I am one of the 99 percent, a proud and unapologetic advocate of free and open markets. I’m writing you because your letter to other rich guys has gone viral. Each time I saw it, I thought, “Somebody should respond to this guy.” I got […]
Recently, a friend asked a group of us, “If you had one wish to make the world a better place, what would you wish for?” Some people gave the standard answers: world peace, the end of hunger, that sort of thing. Not me. You see, I know that wishes come from genies and, in my […]
Do Cities Cause Their Own Sprawl? “Location, location, location!” When my husband and I bought our first home back in 2004, we heard that phrase a lot. Since we were young newlyweds with no children, we interpreted it to mean proximity to great restaurants and fun cultural attractions. But later—after learning the word “escrow” and […]
Many people wander unwittingly into socialism, gulled by assumptions they have not tested. One popular but misleading assumption is that security and freedom are mutually exclusive alternatives—that to choose one is to forego the other. In the United States during the past century, more people achieved greater material security than their ancestors had ever known […]
The government, with its accomplices in the food lobby, has helped to make and keep us fat. Through subsidies and misguided food suggestions, Congress, the FDA, and the USDA have made it more difficult for Americans to make smarter dietary decisions. It’s not as if we don’t care. Americans spend $33 billion annually on weight-loss […]
The regulatory consequences of the farm bill and other interventions. According to the United States Department of Agriculture, 23 million Americans live in so-called food deserts. A food desert is defined as an urban neighborhood or rural town without access to fresh, healthy, and affordable food. The argument goes that lack of access leads to poor dietary […]
When federal and state taxes are accounted for, The United States has the highest corporate tax rate in the world. When it comes to the top marginal rates—including state taxes—of individual earners, many Americans are seeing more than half their income simply taken away. It’s no surprise, then, that some of the most productive citizens are leaving for […]
When the housing bubble burst in 2008 and brought much of the economy down with it, the more thoughtful analysts explained that government was hardly an innocent bystander. Its housing agencies, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, played the roles of Bonnie and Clyde. Congress and the White House drove the getaway car (by endlessly pushing […]
When Thomas Piketty’s Capital in the 21st Century was released in English earlier this year it sparked vigorous debate on the issue of wealth inequality. Despite the prominence of the word in the title, however, capital has not itself become a hot topic. Apparently none of his defenders have taken the opportunity to explore capital theory, and, with […]
Naomi Brockwell, also known as Bitcoin Girl, is an actor, producer, journalist, and program officer at the Moving Picture Institute. She’s one among a number of rising personalities in the liberty community who are breaking the mold and setting a new tone. Brockwell is also an opera singer, Reason TV correspondent, policy associate at the NYC Bitcoin […]
We all have to be good stewards of liberty’s intellectual commons. The directions in which young libertarians are taking the movement seem to have caused a backlash among some of the libertarians of my generation, threatening to turn us into the old guys telling the kids to get off our lawn. The problem is that […]