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 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 …

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 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 — …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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: …

Excerpts from an Interview with the Daily Bell: Daily Bell: Give us some background on yourself. Where did you grow up? Jeffrey Tucker: My family has generally lived in the Southeast region of Texas since 1830, when an idealistic son of a Congregationalist minister bailed out of his homestead in Massachusetts. He was seeking a …

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 …

Corn prices are officially through the roof, spiking to record highs. It’s been headed this way through six years of crazy volatility. Now the spike is undeniable. At the same time, crop yields are lower they have been since 1995. Everyone blames the drought, as if the market can’t normally handle a supply change. The …

In 1946, oil baron William F. Buckley Sr. sent his extremely bright son Bill to Yale University. The father wanted to pass on one book to prepare him to think independently. His household had thousands of books on hand. The book he chose was Memoirs of a Superfluous Man, by a family friend named Albert …

Not too long ago, it was conventional wisdom: Personal wealth comes not from wages, but from return on investments. Stocks are for the long run. Houses always go up in value. That works so long as the economy works. But then the financial roof fell in, and the Fed came along and decided to abolish …

In the final segment of my appearance on Capital Account last week, the hosts mentioned that plenty of Americans don’t know the names of the president or vice president. Is that awful? Most people think so. But I said in response that this is not a terribly bad thing. It might be evidence that people …

Why do people love competition so much in the field and in the pool, but fear and hate it in the business world? The analogies between Olympic fare and life in a free market are very close, closer than people realize. yet we celebrate competition in one sector and try to ban the other. Consider …

Before the third of the Batman trilogy hit theaters, I had heard that The Dark Knight Rises was a film without hope, with a long and dreary narrative that never loosens its grip. It leaves the viewer without a sense of answers. I saw it and left confused. It saw it again, and left confused …

In my town this week, two tribes shouted each other down, each claiming that the other is destroying the country. At issue: whether to eat or not eat a chicken sandwich from Chick-Fil-A. Yes, this is what democracy has been reduced to. People have so little effective control over their own lives and their political …

Is a blowout bust coming for high-flying Internet stocks? There was the disappointing Facebook IPO, but many people wrote that off as due to managerial errors at the Nasdaq. But those errors must have persisted, because the stock has been down nearly 40%, reaching a low point. Every talking head is muttering about the problem …

After Sept. 11, the American system of government became crazy obsessed with security. The implementation has not only been brutal and contrary to human liberty; it has completely lacked creativity. Instead of real security, we get what’s called “security theater,” and at the expense of the customer, who feels the brunt of all the new …

In today’s political climate, the more implausible the claim, the more likely it is to stick. One that seems to be sticking now is that government today is small by historical standards and constantly shrinking. Run that one by the man on the street — looted by the tax man, harassed by police, hounded by …

While attending the Agora Financial Symposium in Vancouver, I became aware that Americans enjoy some rights that Canadians do not: among them, the limited ability to carry weapons. Even private security guards seem unable to be armed in Canada.This does not make me feel safer. Quite the reverse. Private people who carry guns make me …

If they had listened to Mises in 1927, the world might have been saved. There would have been no Holocaust, Gulag, bombing of civilians, prolonged Depression and vast human suffering. That was then. What can we do now? We can revisit his great work Liberalism, drink deeply from its wisdom and apply it in our …

Real economic growth has slowed to stall, even according to the official data. What will the central bank do now? Ben Bernanke says,”the FOMC (Federal Open Market Committee] made clear at its June meeting that it is prepared to take further actions as appropriate to promote a stronger economic recovery and sustained improvement in labor …