Subjects I discussed in this April 2019 interview for the Startup Societies Foundation include the medieval Republic of Ragusa, contract cities, and educating for freedom.

Commemorating one of the long-forgotten corners of Europe whose liberties and independence Napoleon crushed, the Septinsular Republic.

After Adam Smith and the Enlightenment, the pseudo-science of Egonomics gave way to the genuine science of Economics. To apply Hayek again, this time with a little license, the curious task of Egonomics was to fool men into believing far more than they know about what they dreamed they could plan, whereas “it’s the curious task of Economics to demonstrate to men how little they really know about what they imagine they could design.”

Slavery was common around the world in the Middle Ages, as it had been since ancient times. Ragusa abolished it in 1416. This was a place that appreciated the vital importance of private enterprise and encouraged it by leaving it alone to invent, innovate, and prosper. Ragusa had a bias for the entrepreneurial.

Have courage. Be principled. Keep your character high. Master your subject and the ability to communicate it. Be persistent and relentless. You can change your country and you can change the world. Friends of liberty in all corners of the globe are with you and are counting on you.

You will be moved by this 11-minute audio story of Wuilly Arteaga, a courageous violinist and opponent of the rotten socialist kleptocracy of Nicolas Maduro.

A wide-ranging, February 15, 2019 interview with Crusoé magazine in Brazil.

The idea that children are an amorphous blob to be deployed for “the greater good” has been used to justify the most awful collectivist disasters, from Hitler’s Germany to Stalin’s Soviet Union.

One of the most important observations about humans is that each of us is extraordinarily and completely unique. No two people who have ever lived have been precisely the same. For me, that screams freedom because you can’t be who you are without it. 

A new initiative seeks to start a transparency revolution at the federal level and zero in on reckless spending. Three cheers for “Open the Books”!

Venezuela’s socialist nightmare is almost over. The questions of when and how it ends—hopefully without more bloodshed—are already giving way to thoughts of what comes next. How does a nation brought low by socialism recover? Answer: Liberty!

Elfie Gallun staged a daring escape at the age of 19 from communist East Germany and was a staunch freedom fighter for the rest of her long life.

The world needs to know that ideas of liberty are alive and growing in Putin’s Russia. Brave, young libertarians are leading the charge. I applaud them. I encourage them. And I ask you to do the same. 

Excuse Me, Professor, my 2014 book, appeared in January 2019 in its new Portuguese edition (retitled Desculpe-Me, Socialista or Excuse Me, Socialist). You can order the Portuguese edition online from either Saraiva (https://bit.ly/2R6nQZi) or Amazon (https://amzn.to/2R1YNXz).

In North Korea, if you like your health care plan, you can keep your health care plan. If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor. Because ultimately, you have no choice. The place is “governed” by pointless tripe cruelly mislabeled a constitution. The rule of law and a functioning judiciary are virtually nonexistent in this totalitarian nightmare. 

More than a few nations in history have flushed themselves down the fiscal toilet with profligate, publicly financed and politicized “compassion.” It starts small, but politicians have a way of thinking up new constituencies to throw money at and buy votes from.

Titled "In Money We Trust?," a new public television documentary is based on a book by Steve Forbes and Elizabeth Ames. Check it out!

Is a right the same thing as a wish? Why or why not? Or if you need something, does that mean you have a right to it? If I require a kidney, do I have a right to one of yours? Is a right something that can or should be granted or denied by majority vote? 

Maxwell Anderson is an example of an American who was well-known and highly-regarded in his day but forgotten and unappreciated a couple generations later. He deserves to be dusted off and presented anew, especially by FEE because we had a connection to him, as I’ll explain in a moment.

I’m looking into a taste bud transplant. My poor palate doesn’t pick up a fraction of what today’s wine descriptions say it should.