One of F. A. Hayek’s most foresightful warnings comes in the middle of his essay, “Individualism: True and False.” He writes, “[W]hile it may not be difficult to destroy the […]
Tag: History
Why Did The Redcoats Wear Red Coats?
The shots that rang out on April 19, 1775 in Lexington and Concord are widely considered to be the opening salvo in the US War for Independence. Although we may […]
Patrick Henry’s Stamp Act Resolutions
On May 29, 1765, Patrick Henry offered five resolutions on the floor of the Virginia House of Burgesses in response to the much-reviled Stamp Act, which had followed on the […]
1619, Anyone?
If you’ve been with us for a while, you undoubtedly know that AIER’s Phil Magness has been an outspoken critic of the New York Times 1619 Project. You can have […]
Who Owns Alexander Hamilton?
Ever since Aaron Burr gut-shot Alexander Hamilton in a duel in 1804, the legacy of the most controversial Founder and Framer has been fought over by people from throughout the […]
Free Markets Made Charlie Brown and Snoopy Possible
So many of our criticisms of Marxist practice revolve around its devastatingly bad outcomes for standards of living. There’s good reason for this. In the early 1960s, somewhere between 15 […]
This is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things: Directionalists vs. Destinationists
In my first essay for AIER, back in July, 2018, I wrote: I’m a ‘directional’ libertarian. That means that if a proposed new policy or reform of an existing policy […]
If Bernard Mandeville Is Larry David, Jerry Seinfeld Is Adam Smith
Smith’s review on Mandeville’s has an interesting presentation: In ‘The Theory of Moral Sentiments,’ Smith reviews the great systems of moral philosophy and devotes a long chapter to Mandeville, who […]
Sowing the Seeds of 1776
In April 1768, an opinion writer known only as “A Farmer in Pennsylvania” finished the last letter in a series decrying the Townshend Acts and making the case for colonial […]
The Not-So-Great Depression Diet
When E.C. Harwood formed the American Institute for Economic Research 90 years ago, the New Deal was just beginning. The Great Depression, though, was over three years old, and it […]