"Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety." Benjamin Franklin's famous words are often quoted because, alas, they are always relevant. Whether Franklin meant what libertarians take him to have...
Sheldon Richman
TGIF: Beware the Regulatory Storm over FTX
by Sheldon Richman | Nov 18, 2022 | Economics, Featured Articles, Justice, Politics, Sheldon Richman, TGIF
The bankruptcy of the cryptocurrency exchange FTX and the alleged fraud by co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried, which has cost customers millions, is tailor-made for anyone who already wants the power of government to expand, especially in the area of financial privacy. For...
TGIF: Midterm Blues
by Sheldon Richman | Nov 11, 2022 | Featured Articles, Libertarianism, Politics, Sheldon Richman, TGIF
As midterm elections go, for champions of individual liberty this one could have been worse. I see two bright spots. The likely slim majority of Republicans in the House could -- maybe -- produce a measure of gridlock on domestic spending and regulation, and the blame...
TGIF: Election Day 2022
by Sheldon Richman | Nov 4, 2022 | Featured Articles, Sheldon Richman, TGIF
Another election day is upon us. We're told that we have a duty to vote because so many Americans gave their lives for that right. But perhaps it ought to be spelled R-I-T-E, as in a religious ritual. Is it a duty or a right? Let's make up our minds. In 21 countries...
TGIF: Free Markets and Greed
by Sheldon Richman | Oct 28, 2022 | Featured Articles, Justice, Libertarianism, Politics, Sheldon Richman, TGIF
"Greed, for lack of a better word, is good." Ever since corporate raider Gordon Gekko, the lead character in Oliver Stone's Wall Street (1987), made that declaration, left-wing opponents of the market economy have regarded that one-liner as the only rebuttal required...
TGIF: Are Bosses like Rulers?
by Sheldon Richman | Oct 21, 2022 | Economics, Featured Articles, Libertarianism, Sheldon Richman, TGIF
What does the libertarian philosophy have to say about business management as an institution? Is it analogous to the state or something entirely different? Since we libertarians generally dislike seeing people being bossed around, whether by the state or anyone else,...
TGIF: Governments Create Problems; Markets Fix Them
by Sheldon Richman | Oct 14, 2022 | Economics, Featured Articles, Libertarianism, Politics, Sheldon Richman, TGIF
My article "Complete Liberalism" prompted an unexpected challenge. An interlocutor, who says he owns a business and thus is not antibusiness, claimed that my article suggested that, unlike government regulators, businesses never get things wrong. Yet business failures...
TGIF: How the State Violated Free Speech during the Pandemic
by Sheldon Richman | Oct 7, 2022 | Featured Articles, Justice, Politics, Sheldon Richman, TGIF
Is anyone shocked by this observation? Public statements, emails, and recent publicly released documents establish that the President of the United States and other senior officials in the Biden Administration violated the First Amendment by directing social-media...