When the Soviet Union wanted to take away the rights of Catholics to worship, it confiscated their churches. The Soviets knew that the right to own property is intimately connected to a right of religious freedom. Pope Francis appears to not understand this.
No amount of fantasizing can make fundamental economic realities go away, no matter how much we put our faith in central banks, government regulation, or technologies of the future.
It wasn't long ago that the pundits were talking about Venezuela's "economic miracle" which had proved all the anti-socialist naysayers wrong. But with soaring unemployment, inflation, and deficits, the Venezuelan people are unfortunately having to pay for years of ignoring economic reality.
Robert Shiller, in a new screed against capitalism in The New York Times, asserts that government regulation makes countries rich. He then bolsters this argument by making stuff up.
It was a big week for Bernie Sanders's brand of socialism, and millions of Americans already agree with him. Thanks to unquestioning acceptance of wild claims about the success of socialism in Europe, many Americans are now wishing for some European-style socialism themselves.
International trade grasped headlines with Monday’s announcement that twelve governments have agreement on the Trans-Pacific Partnership. While we should expect to see this celebrated in the editorial pages of the Wall Street Journal, it is unfortunate even libertarian organizations are praising the agreement.
Jeff Deist and Ed Stringham demolish the idea that only the state can manage and adjudicate human conflicts.
Everywhere we look, governments are trying to enhance and extend their own power. So why are so many of those same governments eager to sign on to "free trade" agreements. It's because such agreements have nothing to do with free trade.
Thanks to centuries of government interventionism, Brazil remains mired in a sluggish boom-bust economy, and the government has now squandered the benefits of decades of growth. Fortunately, free-market ideas are growing more popular in Brazil and may someday offer a way out.
Whether its drug prices, crushing debt, or unemployment, government can always come up with someone else to blame. Fortunately though, in spite of the lackluster economy the Fed and the government seem committed to giving us, there's hope for a much better future.
