The Right Not To Testify

[This originally appeared in Libertarian Review in November 1978.]

Libertarians surely favor freedom of speech, that is, the right to speak without being hampered by the government. But the right to speak implies the right not to speak, the right to remain silent. Yet libertarians have themselves been strangely silent on the many instances of compulsory speech in our society.

Tuesday’s UK Vote Chaos: Will Brexit Never Happen?

We are closing in on the third anniversary of the UK’s referendum to exit the European Union. The decision by the British people on June 23, 2016, was overdramatically called by many as revolutionary, but it was significant without a doubt. In theory, Britain is set to leave the EU in a little more than two weeks — on March 29. Nonetheless, there might not have been a time since the vote in 2016 that Brexit actually happening was so much in doubt as today.

Capitalism Turns Luxuries Into Necessities

Bashing the rich is all the rage these days. In a clear appeal to envy, Democratic leaders are trying to outdo each other with escalating bids on how much of rich’s wealth should be stolen by government.

In one tweet, Elizabeth Warren called out a billionaire NFL owner for paying $100 million for a “superyacht,” insisting that instead he should be paying Warren’s proposed “Ultra Millionaire Tax” to those less wealthy.

Will the Trade War End in a Rural Bloodbath?

By the end of March, Presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping are scheduled to meet at a formal signing ceremony to ratify a historic trade agreement between the world’s two largest economies . It has been one long year since the United States fired the first salvos in the trade war, leading to months of tit-for-tat tariffs, endless deliberations, and investors riding their hopes up and down with every little report, comment, and analysis.

Central Banks Are Messing with Your Head

Human action and the interest rate

People value present goods more highly than future goods. For instance, an apple available today is considered more valuable than the same apple available in, say, one month. This is expressive of time preference — which is an undeniable fact, a category of human action.

The sentence “Humans act” is a logically irrefutable truth. It cannot be denied without causing a logical contradiction. By saying “Humans can not act”, you act and thus contradict your very statement.