Photo: With Raghavendar (Ravi) Askani in Atlanta on June 10, 2025, celebrating the translation of “I, Pencil” into Telugu. An estimated 96 million people, mostly in central and southeastern India, speak the language. Leonard Read would be very proud. Ravi is co-founder with Venkatesh Geriti of the Swatantrata Center, publisher of this edition.

FDR’s New Deal of the 1930s was not a carbon copy of Wang Anshi’s New Policies of the 1070s, of course, but they share an activist, centralizing tendency noted by FDR's own Vice President and Agriculture Secretary. Pictured: sketch of Song Dynasty hydraulic grain mill (Wikimedia). Spanish version here: https://informeorwell.com/opinion/las-similitudes-del-new-deal-de-roosevelt-en-1933-y-el-fracasado-programa-economico-chino-de-la-dinastia-song/

What the barbarians did to Rome, hoodlums on a smaller scale did to Minneapolis, New York, Portland, and Chicago in 2020, but for this significant difference: The ones who assaulted Rome were foreigners.

No taxpayer funds financed those 2-1/2 billion books. A remarkable project of private, voluntary, civil society action by genuinely good people.

Under authoritarian czars, followed by totalitarian communists, followed by the fascist Putin, Russian kleptocracies have incurred the lasting hatred of their neighbors because they won’t leave them alone.

When the captive peoples of Beijing’s tyranny are someday liberated, we will look back and likely credit Teng’s music for contributing to the revolutionary spirit that finally got the job done. My latest at FEE.

Some might say the prisoners at Kengir embarked on a fool’s errand when they rose in righteous fury against the regime that tormented them. Their heroism was not in vain.

As FEE looks to its 80th anniversary in 2026, we can be proud that in 1967, Leonard Read reinforced the importance of moral principles to the freedom philosophy.

To millions of Americans, he might have been better known for things he said than for the game he played. He remains a great and unforgettable American.

Leo XIV should show understanding of America’s situation before he moralizes as Francis did on American immigration policy.

Don’t trust any outfit that doesn’t trust you.

It should surprise no one that the murdering megalomanic, Mao Zedong, hated both Christ and Confucius.

The greatest harm the HMS Phoenix inflicted on America was accomplished with paper, not gunpowder.

Ottoman rulers routinely engaged in the debasement of money. It prompted a revolt in 1589.

Federal spending plummeted by 75 percent. Millions re-entered the private job market. Yet unemployment remained lower than it is today, and the economy took off.

Worrying about the balance of trade is misplaced. Basing a nation’s trade policy on it is worse; it’s dumb and destructive.

Since 1890, Brazilians have celebrated Tiradentes Day on April 21 to honor a man whose ideas and courage have inspired them for more than two centuries.

I would give anything to spend even a moment with centenarians who fought for America’s liberty. Thank you, Rev. E. B. Hillard, for doing that very thing so long ago.

How many Revolutionary War veterans were still alive in 1864? Find out here.

So far as I know, from the reports of the many who knew him personally, Billy Graham was the real thing, through and through. Never a hint of pretense or prevarication. Honest, candid, principled, incorruptible, steadfast.