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Lawrence W. Reed

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bill of rights.jpg

The Holiday That Isn't →

December 15, 2014

A “Bill of Rights Day” is not on the calendar, but a free people don’t have to wait for Congress to declare a holiday to celebrate one. On December 15, take a moment to reread the Bill of Rights and reflect on its importance. Call it to the attention of friends and family. 

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Myth: Government is an Inflation Fighter →

December 12, 2014

A currency’s value is not bottomless. Its erosion must cease either because government stops its reckless printing or prints until it wrecks the money. 

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The 1932 Bait-and-Switch →

November 21, 2014

The 1932 election is perhaps the best example of the rule that prevails all too often in the political world: You get what you voted against.

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The Myths of the Balance of Trade →

September 19, 2014

By this logic, draining the country of all goods and accepting none from abroad would be the best possible trade news. We wouldn’t be able to celebrate, however, because we’d all starve. But at least the government’s books would register one heck of a trade surplus.

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Obama's Student Loan Plan A Dud →

June 24, 2014

Don't expect Washington to fix the fundamentals when it's time horizon ends with the next election. In the perverse world of politics, problems don't get solved as much as they get perpetuated. 

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Myth: Capitalism Fosters Greed and Government Policy Must Temper It →

May 23, 2014

There’s nothing about government that makes it less “greedy” than the average guy or the average institution. Indeed, there’s every reason to believe that adding political power to natural self-interest is a surefire recipe for magnifying the harm that greed can do. 

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Myth: Economic Equality Serves the Common Good →

May 2, 2014

Coercive measures that aim to redistribute wealth prompt the smart or politically well-connected “haves” to seek refuge in havens here or abroad, while the hapless “have-nots” bear the full brunt of economic decline. 

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Good Businesses Respond to Facts, Not Ads →

March 10, 2014

Which is better for business, a friendly overall environment with no special favors or an unfriendly environment offset by “incentives” for particular firms or certain activities?

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A Slogan Worth Your Bumper? →

February 7, 2014

Statism can be summed up and slapped on the back of a car. Can the freedom philosophy?

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Socrates and the Minimum Wage →

February 3, 2014

Whoever warned us to beware of Greeks bearing gifts apparently never met a congressman.

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Rules for Advancing Liberty →

December 30, 2013

The history of progress in ideas provides few examples of wrong-on-everything transforming into right-on-everything in a momentary leap. We must be patient, inviting, and understanding.

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Personal Character and the Political Environment →

August 21, 2013

You don’t check your character at the door when you go to work for the government. That means that the legal-political system is itself a reflection of the character of those who made the laws and those who are employed to carry them out.

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Special Laws for Special Friends →

April 29, 2013

How about just getting a few basics right, like protecting the peace and punishing wrongdoers, and stopping this business of creating special privileges aimed at a select few?

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Warnings from the Wise About the Welfare State →

March 21, 2013

If you declare at a party, "Guzzle with glee, you'll feel great!" but fail to say a word about tomorrow's hangover, in what subject are you an "expert"? You're not even tuned in to the long-run consequences of your own advice.

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The Little Red Hen Goes to Re-Education Camp →

March 19, 2013

I think the original Little Red Hen story was just fine the way it was. 

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Lincoln's Good Advice →

February 12, 2013

Whatever your assessment of his presidency might be, you will likely appreciate the sentiments he expressed in a long-forgotten letter he wrote to his stepbrother John D. Johnston on January 2, 1851.

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James A. Garfield: A Most Reluctant President →

February 8, 2013

If not for a bullet, the man who least wanted to be President may well have become widely known as one of our better ones. 

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Big Government = Bad Government: It Can't Be Otherwise

January 25, 2013

If you've supported the monstrous expansion of the federal government in recent decades, or if you've got a laundry list of things you want it to do because you think it's not yet big enough, then don't blow smoke about clean and honest politics. You're part of the problem.

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Remembering 1813 →

January 4, 2013

It turns out that 1813 was such a ho-hum year that triskaidekaphobians would have a tough time making a fuss of it.

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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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