May 28, 2015
Back in September, Nathan Goodman clarified the idea of “the invisible hand” in response to those who “misconstrue the concept as a form of magical thinking or religious fundamentalism.” Here, I’d like […]
May 22, 2015
The standard narrative regarding slavery in the United States suggests that slavery was legal until a bloody civil war was fought over it, after which the 13th Amendment was passed, which prohibited […]
May 19, 2015
Libertarians are a persistent community. Ever since we started developing theories about free markets, non-aggression, and human flourishing, we have necessarily been interested in how we get from here to there. While our […]
May 14, 2015
To avoid confusion I want to clarify some terms and my usage of them. Pacifism has commonly been used to refer to two different concepts. The first is the view that violence […]
May 6, 2015
SPOILER ALERT: This post contains major spoilers for the third season of House of Cards! The release of House of Cards’s third season this past February marked a clear break in theme. […]
April 4, 2015
On April 4th, 1951, Don Lavoie was born. He was one of the most fascinating economists in the Austrian school, writing brilliant critiques of central planning, insightful papers on philosophy and social science, […]
March 24, 2015
Earlier in this series, I argued that punishment, prisons, and criminal law are inherently unjust, and that a purely restitution-focused system of tort law would be a suitable replacement. Even those who end up agreeing may still wonder […]
March 16, 2015
March 16th marks Open Borders Day, which George Mason University law professor Ilya Somin describes as “an international event created to celebrate the ideal of freedom of movement across international boundaries.” Naturally, this […]
March 10, 2015
One common rebuttal to those of us who criticize the police is “Don’t like cops? Next time you’re in trouble, call a crackhead.” The argument behind the joke is clear: Those of […]
March 6, 2015
Many libertarians favor constraining the State to a limited set of powers, typically to the maintenance of police, courts, prisons, and security services designed to protect individual rights. This “protective state” or […]
March 2, 2015
Murray Rothbard was born on this day in 1926. In 1935, according to Rothbard’s fourth grade teacher, “Murray seems so exceedingly happy that it is sometimes difficult to control his activities in […]
February 20, 2015
The idea of safe spaces, traditionally associated with feminist and LGBTQ communities, refers to areas designed for marginalized people to feel free from the kinds of intolerant social norms, bigoted harassment, and […]