True North Ideas | True North

America’s Free Enterprise University Invites You to Celebrate 250 Years of the American Spirit

As the nation prepares to mark the 250th anniversary of the adoption of the U.S. Declaration of Independence, Northwood University is announcing Freedom Lights the Future, a series of public events planned throughout 2026 that will invite residents from Michigan’s Great Lakes Bay Region and beyond to celebrate 250 years of the American spirit. Freedom...

By Kate Hessling

Why Higher Education is Losing Trust — and How Free Enterprise Can Restore It

As confidence in higher education continues to erode — and families increasingly question whether a degree delivers real value — Northwood University President Kent MacDonald is making a clear case for a different path forward: one grounded in free enterprise, personal responsibility, and the ideals that made opportunity possible in the first place. That message...

Watch: Webinar Explores Why Free Markets Matter More than Ever

Northwood University recently held a webinar exploring “Capitalism at the Crossroads: Why Free Markets Matter More than Ever,” featuring Northwood Senior Vice President Emeritus Dr. Timothy G. Nash, who leads the Northwood University Center for the Advancement of Free Enterprise and Entrepreneurship. In the webinar, Dr. Nash explores: • Why capitalism remains essential to American...

By Dr. Timothy Nash

How Ideas Made the World Rich: A Tribute to Deirdre McCloskey

Deirdre McCloskey has reshaped the study of economic history by insisting that ideas, not institutions or capital, made us rich. This prolific author is one of the rare figures in modern academia whose work crosses disciplines and defies labels. Drawn as a teenager to utopian and revolutionary theories, McCloskey grew up to realize that noble...

By Art Carden, Dr. Alex Tokarev

Exploring China’s Shift from Communal Poverty to Private Prosperity

Just 50 years ago, China was one of the poorest countries on Earth. Many of its people lived in mud-brick homes. Most were undernourished. Everyone was trapped in a rigid communist system that crushed initiative. Today, it is the world’s second-largest economy by some measures, home to gleaming megacities and the largest middle class by...

By A. Noel Tokarev, Kristin Tokarev, Li Schoolland, Adriel Sanchez, Nathan Kniesteadt

Northwood’s Free Enterprise Center Director Concerned by Political Rhetoric but Optimistic for Future in this WILS Interview

Dr. Timothy G. Nash, Northwood University senior vice president emeritus and director of Northwood’s Center for the Advancement of Free Enterprise and Entrepreneurship, joined the Mike Austin Show on WILS on Thursday, Jan. 22, to discuss Greenland, President Trump’s Board of Peace, Listen here:

Speak Softly and Carry the Trump Card

As in 1989, the world seems to be shifting beneath our feet. The second coming of Trump to the White House has rattled the global order. Whether it’s trade or defense, we observe a rapid realigning of strategic partnerships in all corners of the earth in the face of growing uncertainties. At the epicenter of...

By Dr. Alex Tokarev, Benjamin Fortin, Kristin Tokarev

The Minimum Wage Fallacy

In this article, I would like to dwell on the topic of the minimum wage and address specifically the audience that believes in the minimum wage mandate. I know well that the vast majority of Independent Institute readers do not fall for that widespread fallacy. However, as someone who once earned less than the mandated...

By Allen Gindler

Innovation Over Ideology

With all that has been happening in the past decade or so regarding women, their rights, and progress, one regularly points out laws and political reform. Not that they don’t matter, but people often forget another far less glamorous yet potent force that has “quietly” reshaped women’s lives for the better—capitalism and a free society....

By Simon Sarevski

The Top 10 Most-Read True North Articles of 2025

As we kick off the new year, we’re excited to share the Top 10 most-read articles on True North in 2025 — a year that saw powerful essays and student voices spark important conversations on economics, policy, and the future of freedom. These compelling pieces range from incisive commentary on public policy and cultural ideas...

By Kate Hessling

Head of America’s Free Enterprise University Tells Fox News ‘There is Hope’ for Academia

Fox News highlighted Northwood University President Kent MacDonald and The Northwood Idea in this recent coverage. The interview was conducted by Fox News as Dr. MacDonald headlined a breakout session at America Fest entitled, “Restoring Higher Education With Ideals That Built a Free Nation.” Click here to view the Fox News piece.

By Kate Hessling

A Hero Americans Must Never Forget

Reflecting on Nathan Hale (1755–1776) Have you ever received a letter that changed your life? On July 4, 1775, a full year before the Second Continental Congress approved the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia, a 20-year-old Connecticut man named Nathan Hale received such a letter. It was from his Yale classmate Benjamin Tallmadge, who was...

By Lawrence W. Reed

Fake History Is Giving Capitalism a Bad Name

I first heard the names Adam Smith and John Maynard Keynes when I was a high-school sophomore. My teacher announced, as if it were a fact as firm as any law of thermodynamics, that the Great Depression was caused by laissez-faire policies advocated by Smith, and that salvation came from the more scientifically sound ideas...

By Donald J. Boudreaux

Northwood University Alumna Examines Push for Mandated Digital IDs on Stossel TV

Northwood University alumna Kristin Tokarev is featured on camera in a newly released Stossel TV report examining the growing global movement toward mandated digital identification systems and the implications for individual liberty and personal privacy. Tokarev, an award-winning emerging voice in free-enterprise thought leadership, is a producer for Stossel TV with John Stossel, a high-profile...