Free Republic

How many times does an undergraduate economics student hear the name “Hayek” in his or her courses? The answer, in most programs, is close to zero. This is surprising. Friedrich Hayek remains one of the most cited Nobel laureates in economics—second only to Kenneth Arrow in mentions and citations in Nobel lectures, according to research from King’s College London. His ideas on the knowledge problem and the economic calculation debate are fundamental to understanding the limits of central planning and the role of markets. And yet, in most classrooms, Hayek’s name never appears. Why? Because economics education today is not...

Dressing up like Wolverine or Cersei Lannister is probably more fun than scouring the classifieds for menial jobs. Imagine you're a college graduate stuck in a perpetually lousy economy. That's a problem Japanese twenty-somethings have faced for more than 20 years. Two decades of stagnation after the collapse of the 1980s real-estate and stock bubbles — combined with labor laws making it tough to fire older workers — have relegated vast numbers of Japanese young adults to low-paying, temporary contract jobs. Many find themselves living with their parents well into their twenties and beyond, unmarried and childless. Then again, they...

Pseudo economics savant Paul Krugman just can’t give up trying to sell the snake oil of Bidenomics as being the unsung hero of the economy that the supposedly dumb plebeians just couldn’t appreciate. Seriously, bro. Just take the “L” and move on. Krugman plastered another piece of rambling gobbledygook on his Substack page November 16 trying to draw parallels between the Trump and Biden economies. Unlike Trump, snooted Krugman, there was a “surprisingly strong case for Bidenomics.” Oh, but wait! He took it a step further: He referred to the inflationary disaster President Joe Biden inflicted on the economy with...

If wealth were altogether bad, why would we give it to the poor? That would only make their situation worse, right? The very fact that God wants us to give wealth to those who do not have it proves it is intrinsically good. So we must affirm the “good of affluence,” as John Schneider has put it, even as we also reckon with its dangers. We can be “godly materialists” (again, Schneider) but must always remember that our godliness should drive and control our pursuit of and use of material things. It is possible to have holy ambition that is...

There are no effective replacements for capitalism. The question is: what is the Christian responsibility for the proper functioning of it, and to what extent can we steer the whole of capitalist production to serve genuinely human ends as they are articulated by the Christian faith? Now that will be my question. One of the things about capitalism, about economic opportunity is it provides a person a really fundamental, almost elemental— element of hope in their lives so I can improve my lot in life; I can do better; I can provide for a family; I can be elevated and...

Obviously both are important and require a massive shift away from the status-quo, but if you had to pick one, which is more critical for the well-being of America?I'd personally think immigration reform is slightly more important, but understand if that's not as critical to some others.

This year rewards theorists of creative destruction. The 2025 Nobel Prize in Economics honors three economists whose work embodies an idea first coined by Joseph Schumpeter: creative destruction. Joel Mokyr, Philippe Aghion, and Peter Howitt have each advanced our understanding of how technological progress drives human prosperity. As Schumpeter described, every technological advance has two faces. It destroys by rendering old methods obsolete, yet it creates by flooding the market with new goods and more efficient ways of meeting human needs.The Nobel Committee’s focus on creative destruction feels particularly relevant today, in an era dominated by fears over artificial intelligence....

In September 2025. France's government collapses. Prime ministers ousted one after another. Protests engulf Paris. Debt spiraling past 110% of GDP. Energy prices up 40% since 2022. The headlines blame political chaos, budget cuts and Macron's failures. But that's not the real story.

Vladimir Putin is preparing to hit wealthy Russians with higher taxes to fund his war in Ukraine. The Russian president announced this week that the Kremlin was considering “reasonable” measures on the rich, such as increasing levies on dividends or raising tax rates on luxury goods. He said: “In the United States during the Vietnam War and the Korean War, that’s exactly what they did. They raised taxes specifically on people with high incomes.” It comes as Putin struggles to bankroll his war in Ukraine, with the most recent figures showing that the country’s national wealth fund stood at $36.4bn...

Any time I see a Frederic Bastiat book appear on LibriVox for work and especially when they are completed I am always happy about these. Bastiat has many books already on LV, I would highly recommend them. Bastiat's work is wonderful and his logic in economics is direct and on point. Today's release (about a week ago) is Bastiat's work "Economic Sophisms". The work is described thus: Bastiat speaks with the greatest force to the highest order of intellects. At the same time, he is almost the only Political Economist whose style is brilliant and fascinating, whilst his irresistible logic...

A massive coalition to overturn the Supreme Court’s ill-conceived 2015 ruling instituting same-sex “marriage” was announced yesterday night in Washington D.C. While LGBT activists and their woke allies have for decades asked, “How does my gay marriage affect you?” the panelists at the National Conservatism conference (NatCon 5) answered resoundingly, “In the worst way possible” when it comes to kids. For years, homosexual activists have portrayed themselves as victims of heteronormative culture as they sought to establish the right to legally marry, to obtain children, and to claim an array of additional LGBT imagined “rights.” They argued that there would...

In July 2025, the U.S. unemployment rate was at 4.2% — which, historically speaking, is rather low. But that doesn’t mean that all job seekers are thriving.An NBC News analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data finds that the unemployment rate among men ages 23 to 30 with a bachelor's degree has reached 6%. By comparison, the unemployment rate among women with a bachelor's degree in that same age range is 3.5%.During the pandemic, the term “she-cession” was created to illustrate just how unfavorable the economy was for working women at the time. Now, with many young men struggling to find...

After five brutal months of unrestricted lawfare against the Trump Administration, it looks like the Supreme Court will finally weigh-in on tariffs. On August 29, 2025, a Federal Circuit Court of Appeal decided that President Trump’s reciprocal tariffs were illegal. Specifically, the Court ruled that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act does not authorize the President to impose tariffs of unlimited duration, on all goods from all countries. This is because tariffs are not mentioned in the Statute, and even if they were, the tariffs are not credibly related to a national emergency. The Trump Administration is appealing. Solicitor General...

When our founding fathers establish this republic, they created a political and economic system unique among nations a system which has led the united states to the very pinnacle in wealth and in world leadership. This series of programs is being presented to help all of us understand better our advantages under our American way of life For today's topic let's join now a group of young people at the National Program workshop in Searcy, Arkansas. At the classroom lectern is Dr. Clifton L. Ganus jr., noted young historian.

U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick is looking into the federal government taking equity stakes in computer chip manufacturers that receive CHIPS Act funding to build factories in the country, two sources said. Expanding on a plan to receive an equity stake in Intel, a White House official and a person familiar with the situation said Lutnick is exploring how the U.S. can receive equity stakes in exchange for CHIPS Act funding for companies such as Micron Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing and Samsung. Much of the funding has not yet been dispersed.

President Trump blasted India with 50 percent tariffs. The full force of these tariffs will come into effect on August 27, 2025. President Trump’s instincts are spot on: India is on the verge of becoming China 2.0. Unfortunately, the tariffs will do little to stop this. Why? Because India isn’t coming for our manufacturing. They’re coming for our technology sector—and they’ve been remarkably successful both at scooping up jobs, and flying under the radar. Consider that America lost roughly 5 million jobs to China since 2001. During the same period, America lost up to 4 million technology jobs to India....

China’s leadership, including Xi Jinping, is now openly admitting to a crisis of industrial “overcapacity,” a problem they have termed “involution.” This counterproductive and “disorderly competition” is causing destructive price wars, particularly in the massive auto industry. While Beijing is attempting to use dictatorial measures, such as price controls, to address the issue, experts argue that this approach will fail.

When President Trump announced the terms of the pending US-EU trade deal, the world was shocked. Not only is it the biggest trade deal in history—it unequivocally puts America first. In fact, when asked what concessions America gave, EU President Ursula Von Der Leyen could not come up with a single item. Europeans went ballistic. They described this as the death-knell for the EU. Europe has been described as a collection of American vassal states (which is fundamentally accurate). Even America’s liberals went nuts—the deal was too good for America. They argued that it would undermine America’s political relationship with...

<p>A Qatar native held on charges of lying to the FBI in an investigation into the September 11 attacks was designated yesterday as an "enemy combatant" and could be tried before a military tribunal for helping al Qaeda operatives relocate in the United States. Ali Saleh Kahlah Al-Marri, 37, in Justice Department custody since late 2001, was given the new designation by President Bush and handed over to the Defense Department.</p>

America is the biggest consumer market in the world. In 2024, Americans spent >$19 trillion on consumer goods. Over $4 trillion of this was on imports. This means, in nominal terms, that Americans bought more than just about any other country on earth produced. America is the world’s forum, the bazaar, the emporium, the supermarket—the shopping mall. And just like how the biggest store in town can pressure suppliers to cut costs, America’s buying power gives us leverage over prices—leverage that can be translated into profits via tariffs. Essentially, if foreign producers want to sell their goods to American consumers—which...