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Lawrence W. Reed

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incentives.jpg

If Incentives Matter, We Might Be In Trouble →

October 3, 2012

The future world we are creating will surely be shaped by the incentives and disincentives we are putting in place today. 

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Comment

Cleveland Passed The Test of Character and Statesmanship →

June 27, 2012

Time and again he refused to do the politically expedient. For example, as a mayor, governor, and president, he rejected the spoils of victory and appointed the best people he could find—often earning the wrath of friends and party bigwigs because they didn’t get the nod.

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Statists.jpg

An Open Letter to Statists Everywhere →

April 26, 2012

Why is it that you statists never seem to learn anything about government? You see almost any shortcoming in the marketplace as a reason for government to get bigger, but you rarely see any shortcoming in government as a reason for it to get smaller.

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Comment

Where Are The Omelets? →

April 1, 2012

It is a telling conclusion that statists have no successful model to point to, no omelet they can hold up as the pièce de résistance of their cuisine. Not so for those of us who believe in freedom.

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humility.jpg

Wanted: A Healthy Dose of Humility →

November 30, 2011

A message that humbles the high and mighty and pricks the inflated egos of those who think they know how to mind everybody else’s business. 

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Comment

Liberty and the Power of Ideas →

May 25, 2011

The outcome of the struggle between freedom and serfdom depends entirely on what percolates in the hearts and minds of men. At the present time the jury is still deliberating.

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competition.jpg

Competition and Monopoly: A Refresher →

April 21, 2011

In economics, competition is not the antithesis of cooperation; rather, it is one of its highest and most beneficial forms. 

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Comment
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Realignments to Remember →

October 26, 2010

Realignment elections demonstrate that Americans don’t much care for endless wars in faraway places, a sagging economy, spending and taxing binges, or politicians otherwise behaving badly.

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Comment

Free Markets Blossom in Vietnam →

July 7, 2010

Downtown Hanoi even boasts a three-story luxury shopping mall, and the people shopping in it are not predominately foreigners.

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Good Economists, Bad Economists and Walmart →

June 29, 2010

The anti-Walmart campaigns of today are eerily reminiscent of the Luddite crusades against chain stores seven decades ago—proof of the old adage that the more things change, the more they remain the same.

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Plunkitt.jpg

George Washington Plunkitt and Honest Graft →

April 19, 2010

The forgotten robber barons of Tammany Hall.

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Comment
Win.jpg

How We'll Know When We've Won →

April 19, 2010

We’ll know we’ve won the future for liberty when “public service” is regarded as what one naturally does in the private sector.

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Your Daily Liberty Checklist →

February 23, 2010

Put a check mark next to any that apply.

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Comment
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Where Have All the Monetary Cranks Gone? →

February 22, 2010

They’re now wearing pinstripe suits and instead of selling inflation per se, they’re hawking “stimulus” and “full employment.”

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Comment
Leggett.jpg

The Locofocos: When Democrats Were Principled and Respectable →

January 1, 2010

If you’re unhappy that today’s political parties give lip service to equal rights as they busy themselves carving yours up and passing out the pieces, don’t blame me. I’m a Locofoco.

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Comment
Julie.jpg

The Sound of Freedom →

November 18, 2009

Some say The Sound of Music was corny, but for me it was an epiphany. It’s my favorite film, and it always will be.

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Comment

Child Labor and the British Industrial Revolution →

October 23, 2009

Child labor was relieved of its worst attributes not by legislative fiat but by the progressive march of an ever more productive capitalist system.

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Poland.jpg

A Tribute to the Polish People →

September 23, 2009

To all those millions of Polish freedom fighters who ushered communism into the dustbin of history, thank you for your courage, your perseverance, your vision, and your example.

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Comment

Two Cheers for Transparency →

May 21, 2009

If citizens knew more about how their governments really worked and what they spent other people’s money on, it would not only make for better-informed citizens but for better (and hopefully less) government at the same time.

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jindal.jpg

All the News that's fit to Tint →

April 6, 2009

What amazing magical powers our benevolent government has! It stimulates when it spends, unlike what happens when the rest of us spend.

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Comment
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Recent “Best of Web”

Featured
Investors Force Uncle Sam to Confront Debt Addiction
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Investors Force Uncle Sam to Confront Debt Addiction
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Lawmakers marked the $40 trillion milestone by pointing fingers at each other while failing to look in the mirror and acknowledge their own culpability. Thanks to author Ryan Meilstrup for the shout-out in this article.

Read more →
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The Age of Big Spending Republicans is Here
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The Age of Big Spending Republicans is Here
August 20, 2026

Merrill Matthews writes, “Republicans used to be serious about controlling federal spending, but that was before Trump and the age of big-spending Republicans. We may soon find voters and the economy demanding they return to their conservative roots.”

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Making the Pregnant Woman Take the Stairs: The Problem with Minimum-Quality Regulation
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Making the Pregnant Woman Take the Stairs: The Problem with Minimum-Quality Regulation
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Raymond Niles asks, “Which apartment would you rather live in? One with a larger bedroom or a tiny bedroom, a large living room with a window that lets in natural sunlight, or a dingy room facing an air shaft? A tall skyscraper with an elevator, or a five-story walkup? A building with parking or one with no parking lot?”

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Recent Quotes

Featured
Murphy on America
February 11, 2025
Murphy on America
February 11, 2025

“The true meaning of America, you ask? It’s in a Texas rodeo, in a policeman’s badge, in the sound of laughing children, in a political rally, in a newspaper. ... In all these things, and many more, you’ll find America. In all these things, you’ll find freedom. And freedom is what America means to the world. And to me” — Actor, poet, and the most decorated American of World War II, Audie Murphy.

Read more →
February 11, 2025
Mill on Freedom
February 1, 2025
Mill on Freedom
February 1, 2025

“The only freedom which deserves the name is that of pursuing our own good in our own way, so long as we do not attempt to deprive others of theirs, or impede their efforts to obtain it. Each is the proper guardian of his own health, whether bodily, or mental and spiritual. Mankind are greater gainers by suffering each other to live as seems good to themselves than by compelling each to live as seems good to the rest.”

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Best-Selling Japanese Novelist Eiji Yoshikawa on Do-Gooders
March 20, 2023
Best-Selling Japanese Novelist Eiji Yoshikawa on Do-Gooders
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“There’s nothing more frightening than a half-baked do-gooder who knows nothing of the world but takes it upon himself to tell the world what’s good for it — from his book, Musashi.

Read more →
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Recent Blogs

Featured
Defending the Constitution
September 1, 2026
Defending the Constitution
September 1, 2026

The state legislatures during the War for Independence and from its conclusion in 1783 until 1787 were not models of limited and responsible, republican government.

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September 1, 2026
Books I Recommend for Late Summer/Fall 2026 Reading
August 31, 2026
Books I Recommend for Late Summer/Fall 2026 Reading
August 31, 2026

Lots of good history here!

Read more →
August 31, 2026
How Principles, Faith & Courage Forged America
August 29, 2026
How Principles, Faith & Courage Forged America
August 29, 2026

Doug Stuart of the Libertarian Christian Institute interviews me on the key ideas, events, and people of the American Revolution.

Read more →
August 29, 2026