Discussions on economic development in developing countries often overlook a critical factor: technology transfer. Yet, history demonstrates that technological diffusion is essential to economic growth. While innovators undoubtedly shape industries, it is often the imitators who reap the greatest rewards. These late-comers learn from pioneers, adopting and refining existing technologies to enhance productivity.
Several schools of thought dominate geopolitical discourse in the chaotic world of international relations. Interventionists of all labels wish for the United States to police the world to some extent while warning of the perils of “isolationism.” At the same time, the United States shirks that same authority when the rules-based order conflicts with the whims of Washington. The libertarian should have a healthy skepticism of the state and recognize attempts to further expand its geographical jurisdiction as an assault on liberty.
One of my favorite sections of Ludwig von Mises’s majestic treatise Human Action (1949) is a rather short one titled “The Fight Against Error.” Its main theme is to show how mankind’s problems come down to errors arising from flawed economic ideologies.
In Chapter 11 of The Constitution of Liberty, Friedrich Hayek offers a sweeping genealogy of liberty, locating its true birth in the constitutional evolution of seventeenth-century England. “Individual liberty in modern times,” he writes, “can hardly be traced back farther than the England of the seventeenth century.” This claim has shaped generations of classical liberals and libertarians who have looked to the Glorious Revolution, common law, and Parliament as the fountainhead of modern freedom.
We can feel the winds of warmongering blowing through Europe as the continent raises the specter of war with Russia. Recently, the European Commission unveiled a series of measures to strengthen the defense of EU member states, most notably through the ReArm Europe plan. The plan—which was endorsed by the Extraordinary European Council on March 6, 2025—aims to mobilize €800 billion for the EU’s defense capabilities. It includes a redirection of public funds, but not only: it also includes the use of public savings.
We often read of a variety of schemes put forward by pundits and politicians as a good way to pay down the national debt, even while ignoring the fact the federal government continues to rack up trillions more in debt every year.
Most contemporary political philosophers, unfortunately, are not libertarians. Nicholas Wolterstorff—best known as a founder of “reformed epistemology” but a philosopher of extraordinary range—is no libertarian either—far from it. In Understanding Liberal Democracy (Oxford, 2012) though, he assails a vastly influential school of thought in a way that libertarians will find useful.
It is not uncommon to hear people make the one-sided case for a minimum wage policy by arguing that a minimum wage ought to be implemented so that people get paid more. To be fair, there is some truth in their argument—a higher minimum wage would mean higher nominal wages for the people paid minimum wage after the policy is implemented.
