Charles Koch: Why We Fight For Economic Freedom

Big governments "are inherently inefficient and harmful."    In 1990, the year before the collapse of the Soviet Union, I attended an economic conference in Moscow. Like my father during his visits to the U.S.S.R. in the early 1930s, I was astonished and appalled by what I saw. Simple necessities, such as toilet paper, were in short supply. ... MORE

Tom Vellner: The TSA Needs To Be Put In Check

Security measures or offensive power trips?    What do you get when you mix racial profiling and sexual assault? The Transportation Security Administration, apparently. After more than 30 TSA agents claimed that coworkers were targeting Hispanics, blacks, and those of Middle Eastern descent during security checks at Logan International   ... MORE

VIDEO: Ayn Rand - Conflicts Of Interest

The Inevitable Future Of Electronic Medical Records

by Cynthia J. Koelker, MD.    For the past year now I’ve been using an Electronic Health Record (EHR) and believe the writing is on the wall. These computerized medical records are not about improving health care; they are about control of both the physician and patient. Beginning in 2013, doctors who don’t prescribe electronically will be penalized financially.   ... MORE

Joe Carter: Why People Prefer Government To Markets

Economic illiteracy is a problem.    "People do not love markets,” says Pascal Boyer of the International Cognition & Culture Institute, “there is a lot of evidence for that.” Sadly, Boyer is right and I suspect he’s right about the cause too: People do not like markets because people seem not to understand much about market economics. We don’t fully   ... MORE

VIDEO: Remy - The Equality Song

Moms Risk Arrest To Take Stand For Voluntary Exchange

by Adam Helfer. Two groups of activists known as the ‘Raw Milk Freedom Riders’ and ‘Lemonade Freedom Day’ are taking their raw milk and lemonade to the lawn of the US Capitol to celebrate what they call their right to voluntary exchange. Recent shut downs of children's lemonade stands and swat-style raids on small farmers have inspired  ... MORE

Jacob Sullum: Funeral Rights And Free Speech

Sacrificing liberty in an ostentatious display of patriotism.   On June 21, 1989, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a Texas law that made flag burning a state crime, ruling that it violated the First Amendment right to freedom of speech. A month later, Rep. Jack Brooks (D-Texas) introduced a bill that made flag burning a federal crime. Approved by     ... MORE

Amy Payne: Taxpayers' Auto Bailout Losses Mounting

UAW the winners, taxpayers the predictable losers. Taxpayers will lose even more on the auto bailout than previously thought, as the Treasury has just revised its estimate upward to $25 billion. This may still underestimate the losses to come—yet President Obama plans to tout the auto bailout as a key accomplishment of his Administration.   ... MORE

Andrew Napolitano: November's Choices

We are in terrible straits this presidential election.    We have a choice between a president who has posed more of a danger to personal freedom than any in the past 150 years and a Republican team that wants to return to Bush-style big government. President Barack Obama has begun to show his hand at private fundraisers and in unscripted      ... MORE

VIDEO: John Stossel - Corporate Freeloaders

Caroline Baum: Flying With Milton Friedman

Milton proved ideas matter. As I was leaving the house for a full day of travel, I wanted something to read during airport holdovers and almost certain delays. My only prerequisite was that the book be small enough to fit in my purse. Whether I grabbed Milton Friedman’s Capitalism and Freedom because of recent tributes to the Nobel laureate — he    ... MORE

Ayn Rand's Long Journey To The Heart Of American Politics

by Jennifer Burns.    In the heyday of her celebrity, it often seemed that the only appropriate public response to Ayn Rand was dismissal. In 1961, Newsweek magazine sent a reporter to investigate the growing circle of devotees clustered around the right wing novelist. Visiting the New York City headquarters of Rand’s Objectivist movement, the reporter declared ... MORE

VIDEO: Voting Libertarian For One Election

Some In GOP Argue For Repeal Of 17th Amendment

The way to return to states' rights.  A Senate candidate's comment about repealing the 17th Amendment has some people thumbing through their Constitutions and others talking about the issue of states' rights. Pete Hoekstra, a Republican, is a former House of Representatives member who is running in Michigan against an incumbent, Senator Debbie    ... MORE

Europe's Worst Police State: 'Thought Criminals' Targeted

by Santiago Alvarez.     Every year the German government proudly promotes its persecution of peaceful dissidents, which it lumps together with violent criminals as “enemies of the [German] constitution.” Never mind that Germany doesn’t even have a constitution. On July 18 of this year, the German government released the figures of government persecution ... MORE

Mike Riggs: Obama Is Making It Difficult To Get Pain Meds

The administration declares war on pain relief.    In July 2011, the Office of National Drug Control Policy released its longterm plan for reducing prescription drug abuse. One of the bullet points in that report was this: "Write and disseminate a Model Pain Clinic Regulation Law within 12 months." Twelve months later, the ONDCP has yet to (publicly)   ... MORE

John Stossel: There Ought Not To Be A Law

Free individuals do everything better.    I’m a libertarian in part because I see a false choice offered by the political left and right: government control of the economy -- or government control of our personal lives. People on both sides think of themselves as freedom lovers. The left thinks government can lessen income inequality. The   ... MORE

VIDEO: Thomas DiLorenzo - Myth Of The Robber Barons

Rick Dewsburry: U.S. Government Is Spying On Everyone

Details released by Wikileaks.    Anyone who takes a photograph at high-risk locations is logged as a suspected terrorist on a vast network of secret spy cameras linked to the U.S. Government, according to leaked emails. People pointing cameras in New York are regarded as suspicious and the facial recognition images of them from the civilian CCTV are   ... MORE

Kenneth P. Green: Subsidy-Powered Vehicles

Continuing the long history of failure.     Even with modern technology, electric cars are not capable of satisfying consumer desires. Policymakers should end their wasteful counter-market pursuit of vehicle electrification. Environmentalists have long wished for the electrification of passenger vehicles. As Professor Vaclav Smil points out in      ... MORE

VIDEO: The TSA Stands Outside The Free Market

New Jersey Puts Money On Legalizing Sports Betting

by Colton Totland. Sports fans who have longed to back their favorite teams with their gambling dollars — legally — may soon get their chance as New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie leads a challenge to laws that have limited legal betting on sports to a small handful of states. The long-running, high-stakes battle over betting on sports in America is coming to a     ... MORE

Gall & Smith: Red Tape Shackles Small-Business Owners

Why should we stifle entrepreneurs?    A Michigan teen and his mother are living in a shelter for the homeless after a city shut down the teen’s hot-dog stand. Thirteen-year-old Nathan Duszynski saved $2,500 to start his own business and then diligently secured permission from both the state and city hall to operate downtown. Nathan hoped to use the  ... MORE

Richard Rahn: Economic Lessons From The Olympics

Reward, not envy is the American way.  Do you admire what the Olympic athletes have been able to accomplish, and do you think they should be applauded for their outstanding performances? Most people in the world would answer the question in the affirmative. Most people also admire and applaud great musicians and artists. We celebrate   ... MORE

Thomas Sowell: The Paul Ryan Choice

A return to reality.  Governor Mitt Romney's choice of Congressman Paul Ryan as his vice-presidential running mate is one of those decisions that seem obvious — if not inevitable — in retrospect, even though it was by no means obvious to most of us beforehand. Anyone who wants to get a quick sense of who Paul Ryan is should watch a short video of a February  ... MORE

VIDEO: John Stossel - Freeloader Nation

Constant Surveillance System Turns NYC Into Police State

Government eyes permeate the Big Apple.    New York City has taken the next step towards becoming a police state. It wasn’t enough to prevent New Yorkers from drinking in parks, or to have the police remove Occupy Wall Street protesters. Now things are getting technological. On Wednesday, the NYPD unveiled a new     ... MORE

Walter E Williams: Obama's Educational Initiative

It's all about enriching the educational establishment. President Barack Obama recently wrote an executive order that established a White House initiative on educational excellence for black Americans that will be housed in the Department of Education. It proposes "to identify evidence-based best practices" to improve black achievement in     ... MORE

VIDEO: The Moral Case for Capitalism


An interview with Whole Foods CEO John Mackey.

Rep. Tom Graves: Obama Increases Dependency

It’s called “mountain pride.”     For generations, it has pulsed through the bloodstream of just about every resident in the Appalachian hills of North Georgia, the place where I grew up and still call home. Mountain pride is defined by self-reliance. It means that when times get tough, families persevere, turning quietly only to a church or a neighbor for help. ... MORE

Legalizing Pot Could Bring Big Bucks To Washington State

If the feds say out, that is.    The initiative to legalize, tax and regulate marijuana in Washington was estimated on Friday to raise up to $1.9 billion in new tax revenue over five years — or zero. The wild swing, included in an analysis by the state Office of Financial Management, reflects broad uncertainty about the potential federal       ... MORE

Steven Greenhut: Why Asset Forfeiture Abuse Is Rising

Government power and the profit motive. Few groups of “sinners” were singled out in biblical accounts more than “tax collectors,” who were not merely state agents collecting revenues that taxpayers rightfully owed to the government. They were the source of particular loathing because they were extortionists, who profited personally by shaking down as much ... MORE

Katie Kieffer: TSA Is A Carcinogenic Petting Zoo

Why aren't our bodies treated like private property?    The TSA is effectively an unconstitutional, carcinogenic petting zoo. Deep down, we all feel that the airport security system is an FDA-approved rubdown and radiation parlor. But we are busy, rushing to catch flights, and we tell ourselves it is for our “safety.” So, like sheep, we comply.        ... MORE

VIDEO: Milton Friedman - Principles Of Trade


Professor Friedman on imports, exports and exchange rates.

R. Dennis Hansen: Losing Our Privacy At A Rapid Rate

Not just the night has a thousand eyes.     I work for a resource management agency. Last year, I attended a government-mandated class on the use of computers during work hours. The instructor pointed out that emails that leave our agency’s network are being scanned for content. Our Internet usage is also being monitored. What they are looking     ... MORE

Rep. Paul Ryan: Empowering Individuals Or Bureaucrats

The choice and the contrast in health care. In March, as the Supreme Court considered the constitutionality of President Obama's partisan health care law, the American people saw an event that could mark the end of bureaucrat-controlled health care. At the same time, just across the street in the halls of Congress, they witnessed a powerful reaffirmation of    ... MORE

VIDEO: Obama That I Used To Know

Woman Strip Searched At Roadside For Running Stop Sign

Suit claims cops subject woman to public humiliation.    A Florida mother who was pulled over by police for driving through a stop sign claims she was then subjected to a nightmarish strip search where her tampon was forcibly removed by an officer. Leila Tarantino is now suing Citrus County Sheriff's Office claiming that she was strip searched  ... MORE

Next From The EPA: Four-Gallon-Minimum Gas Purchases

Another "ridiculous and unworkable mandate."       The Environmental Protection Agency is going to require all consumers to buy at least four gallons of gasoline from certain gas pumps after the new E15 ethanol-gasoline blend is introduced into the market. The new regulation was revealed in an Aug. 1 letter to the American Motorcyclist     ... MORE