In St. John’s Episcopal Church in Richmond, Virginia, delegates from around the colony gathered to discuss matters that would rile Britain’s distant King and set Virginia on a path to rebellion. It was March 23, 1775. One man, a homeschooled and self-taught lawyer who became a prominent planter and a member of the colony’s House...
Northwood University invites alumni, faculty, staff, donors, and supporters of free enterprise to come together for the 2025 Day of Giving on March 24. This special day is an opportunity for individuals who value individual freedom, earned success, and the importance of business to unite in support of Northwood’s enduring mission. “The generosity of our...
In celebration of Northwood University’s Founders Day, a new lesson has been posted in the complimentary online course, “Philosophy of Free Enterprise.” In the lesson — Free Trade or Perfectionism? — Dr. Dale Matcheck, the David E. Fry Endowed Professor in Free Market Economics at Northwood University, nimbly illustrates the impact of trade on our...
Michigan lawmakers raised money from business taxes over the past two years only to hand it over to a few businesses. That’s not how state government is supposed to work. Taxes are supposed to fund the government. One of those taxes, the corporate income tax, raises $1.6 billion annually. Over the past two years, however,...
In his book, Socialism, Ludwig von Mises warns about the threat posed by socialism to peaceful co-existence and to Western civilization. He highlights the “disastrous wars and revolutions, heinous mass murders and frightful catastrophes” that have been caused by socialist policies, a warning that was also sounded by Friedrich von Hayek in The Road to...
What, exactly, has DOGE found so far in its investigation of Social Security? For the most part we don’t know. But Elon Musk has posted several jaw-dropping items on X that were not what they seemed at first. Contrary to the programming assumption made by DOGE investigators, for example, the Social Security Administration does not...
By Dr. Timothy G. Nash, Jim Hop, Dr. Thomas Rastin, and Anthony Storer An objective and bipartisan review of key economic data is needed to understand the results of the fall 2024 U.S. presidential election. Below, we evaluate 13 key indicators impacting the U.S. economy and their role in the re-election of President Donald Trump....
The eyes of the world are focused on the White House where President Donald Trump’s return is a harbinger of very significant and consequential changes in America’s international trade policies. The President of the United States demanded major economic and political concessions from China, Mexico, Canada, and the European Union which, if not satisfied promptly,...
Last year, we celebrated 50 years of Friedrich Hayek’s Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences. We also marked 80 years since the great Austrian economist published his global bestseller, The Road to Serfdom. The book came out during the rise of Clement Atlee in the United Kingdom and of Juan Peron in Argentina. Just as...
Amid the ongoing revival of trade protectionism on the political right, a number of commentators associated with the “National Conservative” movement have attempted to enlist the founding fathers to the cause of tariffs. According to this narrative, America’s founders — led by Alexander Hamilton — charted a political course of economic nationalism to escape a...
The classic tale of “the rich getting richer while the poor get poorer” never seems to get old. The newly released Takers Not Makers report from Oxfam fuels the idea that billionaire wealth is skyrocketing while the poor are getting poorer. They claim that poverty levels have barely changed since 1990, and that 60 percent...
One of the themes that seems to be emerging in the first weeks of Donald Trump’s second term is geography, and specifically cartography. He has already renamed the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America, he has floated the idea of Canada becoming the 51st state, and he has also expressed interest in bringing Greenland...
My colleague, Maggie Anders, recently made an insightful post on X. As Trump begins to shutter government bureaus (or at least pieces of them), many are highlighting an obvious downside: government employees will lose jobs if you shut down government agencies. Some articles are calling it the biggest layoff in history, and saying it will...
When I served in Congress, I was regularly lectured about how the people needed big government to keep them safe and secure, whether it was through welfare and regulations to ensure their economic security, the Patriot Act to protect their personal security, or forever wars to protect global security. Of course, the government’s track record...