A libertarian manifesto (of sorts)

Small update today: A short draft of a piece I’m currently writing and pondering. a manifesto à la The Sharon Statement and The Port Huron Statement. 1. When a policy requires reformation, we are reformers. 2. If an institution necessitates abolition, we are abolitionists. 3. If tradition or a societal structure preserves voluntary and peaceful action …

Glenn Greenwald: Who are the real “crazies” in our political culture?

Glenn Greenwald has a wonderful post from May 2010 concerning opinions labeled “crazy” and subsequently marginalized in political circles. A good summary of Ron Paul’s opinions and quirks, but more importantly, an analysis on why “intense, fixated mockery of marginalized, powerless people has the benefit of distracting attention from the actions of those who are …

The search for an echo by Leonard E. Read

The Search for an Echo by Leonard E. Read is possibly my favorite article he’s ever written; unfortunately, no electronic form exists. I found the article in Essays on Liberty, Volume VI, a FEE series where they collected essays published over the course of a year (in The Freeman, pamphlets and other publications) and republished them …

A Superfluous Man column aggregation

With my column for The Post ending soon with the quarter, I wanted to aggregate all of them for future reference. Market must be free of government General Electric, the largest corporation in America, paid no taxes for 2010. According to a recent New York Times article, General Electric claimed a tax benefit of $3.2 billion. …

Deflation, Rothbard’s critique of Friedman

Not much original content in this post, but some thins I found to be intellectually advantageous. Deflation, as it is commonly understood, is a confusing concept. The majority of economic thinking presumes it to be universally negative and encourages government action to avert deflation at all costs. However, some economists have noted two distinct forms …

Cliché of socialism #2: “If we had no social security, many people would go hungry.”

This cliché often, but not always, precedes an ad hominem along the lines of the defender of individual liberty being selfish, greedy, callous or worse. However, it fails because of a few assumptions and misunderstandings: it exalts an illusion of security above liberty, presumes individuals cannot save or monitor their financial situations and accuses libertarians …