The longer the recession goes on, the more people are catching on to incredible fictions we’ve been told for five years. The political class and its allies said that they could make all things better if they created more debt, spent more money, printed trillions in phony money, made credit as cheap as possible, and […]
Laissez-Faire Today
Can You Learn with a Gun to Your Head?
School is back and so is the grim reality that whatever the government touches, it wrecks. Government has done more than touch education, moreover; it has deeply embedded itself at all levels, leaving just enough in the way of freedom to allow families to breath but not thrive. And the situation isn’t getting better. Without […]
The Murray I Knew
The harder you work, the luckier you get: You never know when serendipity will smile. This week, the Laissez-Faire Club is offering for free download Murray Rothbard’s Education: Free and Compulsory and I’m reminded of one of the great fortunes of my life. After moving to Las Vegas in 1986, and the tiniest of stints […]
Will the Jobless Masses Storm the Barricades?
Many political pundits doubt that an incumbent president can win re-election with an unemployment rate over 8% After all, we are told, no American president has been re-elected in the last 50 years when unemployment was above 7.2%. Is that predictive or not? I say: not. Unemployment is the focus of the government policy from […]
The 15 Best Videos on Commerce and Entrepreneurship
The web is packed with some of the greatest educational material on entrepreneurship and enterprise, material that didn’t exist a decade ago and is now within the mouse-click reach of vast swaths of humanity. Are we taking advantage of it? Doug French and I set out to collect the top 15 videos on entrepreneurship — […]
Fifty Shades of Government
On a flight the other day, I noticed that a third of the passengers were reading a certain best-selling book. It got me thinking. Every politically active group wants something from government, and government is happy to oblige. It’s even more obvious in the election season, and it’s only going to get worse as we […]
Kill Private Capital, Kill Civilization
Capitalism and entrepreneurship make the difference in the world. Whether a country is rich or poor depends on both. The evidence is all around us, and the explanations are a click away. An example is the video below. Anthony Bourdain is a fascinating person, a great chef and also world traveller. He has his own […]
Let’s Build a Self-Managed World
The books we remember most are the ones that change our minds or redirect our thoughts. Most readers consume books and ideas that only confirm their existing worldview. Instead of seeking enlightenment, many readers wish only to satisfy themselves that they are already smart. And the books they read confirm it. But today’s world is […]
Is Austerity Killing Us?
The European economy is turning from stagnation to contraction. Financial journalists are concluding that “austerity” is the reason. They say that forced reduction in government services is sending not only the continent, but the U.K. into an economic tailspin and — heaven forbid — the same could happen to the United States. Look and panic: […]
Rand Paul’s Tea Party Manifesto
Politics is a lagging indicator of social-cultural trends. Politics doesn’t lead change; it chases it, incompetently and long after the underlying reality is impossible to deny. This is why it makes no sense to put faith in politics. By the time politics catches up, the rest of the world has moved on. That said, I’ve […]