Freedom

If we ask government to do less, it will naturally shrink. I keep returning to this basic idea of Richard Cornuelle, who dedicated the bulk of his life to spurring private, non-market-based competition with government. The John Locke Foundation’s mission is to “transform government through competition…[and establish] a better balance…

Until a week ago, I had never considered reading V.S. Naipaul, the 2001 Nobel laureate for literature. City Journal editor Brian Anderson gave a brief appreciation of Naipaul’s writing in explaining why The Masque of Africa was on his summer reading list. The discussion pointed to Naipaul’s…

“U.S. social policy is built on a foundation of values,” AEI’s Michael Strain writes at Bloomberg.com in getting to the heart of why reforming most government programs creates such heated debate.  Most discussion of work requirements, eligibility, and the costs and benefits of social programs begs the questions of personal…

David French writes in The New York Times about the social-media platforms' coordinated action this week to remove Alex Jones and Infowars from their sites. French begins by acknowledging the obvious.

Deirdre McCloskey (no) and Jason Furman (yes) will be debating at economist.com over the next week whether capitalism is rigged. Furman opens with a claim about how powerful interests help write regulations. McCloskey begins with the innovation of the past two hundred years. The debate comes down to the…

Michael Tomasky, editor of the journal Democracy, has advice for those who would like fewer socialists. “Stop creating them.” Tomasky outlines a number of ways that cronies in government and business have helped one another without doing much good for the rest of society. Free market supporters from…

New York’s state comptroller divested that state’s pension funds from two private prison companies that operate immigration detention centers. The California State Teachers’ Retirement System faced pressure from “hundreds of educators” among its 933,410 members to do the same, but has opted to keep its investment and “to communicate with…

David French of National Review Online highlights the recent debate over firearms created with 3D printers. One of the most bizarre aspects of the modern gun debate is the extent to which it is still dominated by ignorance and misinformation. One of the most important controversies in American…