From the category archives:

Liberty Magazine

Brother, Can You Spare a Decade?

May 1, 2009

Perspective – Liberty Magazine – May 2009
Brother, Can You Spare a Decade?
by Mark Skousen
Few things other than a New Deal can be more painful than an economic depression. But few eras were more vital and enjoyable than the private side of the last one.
One of the rare books in my financial library is “I Like [...]

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The Necessary Evil

August 26, 2008

Suggestion – Liberty Magazine
The Necessary Evil
by Mark Skousen
Today libertarians spend most of their time lamenting the consequences of big government. And rightly so. Today government is less a defender of freedom and more a Hobbesian leviathan that undermines prosperity. When we do talk about limited government, it is often seen solely as “a necessary evil.”1 [...]

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My Friendly Fights with Dr. Friedman

September 25, 2007

The Rational, The Relentless – Liberty Magazine – September 2007
by Mark Skousen
“To keep the fish that they carried on long journeys lively and fresh, sea captains used to introduce an eel into the barrel. In the economics profession, Milton Friedman is that eel.”— Paul A. Samuelson
Milton Friedman, the intellectual architect of the free-market reforms of [...]

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The Art of Letting Go

March 1, 2007

Tranquility
Liberty Magazine
March 2007
by Mark Skousen
“How many a man has dated a new era in his life from the reading of a book.”— Henry David Thoreau, Walden
Would you do me a favor? Find an easy chair, or better yet, go outside to a secluded spot and read this essay at your leisure.
Ever since my family and [...]

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Franklin and His Critics

December 30, 2006

Was Benjamin Franklin an indispensable public servant, or a cunning chameleon? A believer, or a heretic? A hard-headed entrepreneur, or an opportunistic privateer? A devoted family man, or a salacious womanizer? An important scientist and inventor, or a hoaxer and self-promoter? The first civilized American, or the most dangerous man in America? Read the article [...]

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A Year at FEE

February 1, 2003

Liberty
February 2003
by Mark Skousen
Is the sun setting on the world’s oldest freedom organization?
The Foundation for Economic Education (FEE) is often called “America’s oldest freedom organization.” It predates the Institute for Humane Studies, the Cato Institute, and the Libertarian Party; its monthly magazine The Freeman (now Ideas on Liberty), was published for years before Reason or [...]

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The Troubled Economics of Ayn Rand

January 1, 2001

Published in January, 2001, issue of Liberty Magazine:
THE TROUBLED ECONOMICS OF AYN RAND
by Mark Skousen
“No creator was prompted by a desire to serve his brothers…”
–Howard Roark, The Fountainhead (1994:710)
Ayn Rand, author of the celebrated Capitalism: The Unknown Idea, is honored almost universally as the fountainhead of market capitalism, an impassioned proponent of reason, individualism, and [...]

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