Your Free-Market Connector

Regulators Can’t Keep Up with the AI Economy

Regulators Can’t Keep Up with the AI Economy

ChatGPT marked the third anniversary of its public launch last autumn. Its extraordinary success stands as a potent reminder — particularly for policymakers — of how quickly innovation can reorder entire industries. Within five days of ChatGPT’s release, one million people had signed up for it. Two months later, it had 100 million users. Today,...

By Dr. Brett M. Decker

Ideas Worth Defending: Free Market Road Show Brings Global Conversation to Northwood University

Ideas Worth Defending: Free Market Road Show Brings Global Conversation to Northwood University

At Northwood University, ideas are not treated as abstract concepts reserved for textbooks or lecture halls. They are living principles that shape institutions, influence policy, expand opportunity, and determine whether individuals are free to pursue their highest potential. That is why Northwood was proud to host this year’s Free Market Road Show, an international lecture...

By Kate Hessling

How Trump can get energy prices down for all Americans

How Trump can get energy prices down for all Americans

The following piece by Dr. Brett Decker, a New York Times bestselling author and the Endowed Chair of Leadership at Northwood University, first appeared in the BizPac Review. The war in Iran has underscored an economic truth: higher energy prices are a killer. The Iranian regime’s disruption of shipping through the Strait of Hormuz has...

By Dr. Brett M. Decker

A Look at Our Material Progress

A Look at Our Material Progress

In 2024, Americans elected an entrepreneur who promised to cut taxes, shrink the federal bureaucracy, and unleash market forces to make life more “affordable.” A year later, the residents of New York City elected a Marxist who claims that capitalism is crushing our American Dream. His solution? More rules and redistribution to solve the “affordability...

By Dr. Alex Tokarev

Free Enterprise Center Director Discusses National Debt on Ron Jolly Show

Free Enterprise Center Director Discusses National Debt on Ron Jolly Show

Dr. Timothy G. Nash, Northwood University senior vice president emeritus and director of the Northwood University Center for the Advancement of Free Enterprise and Entrepreneurship, discussed the national debt, economic growth, Milton Friedman, and more, during an interview on the Ron Jolly Show on WTCM. Listen here!

Everyone Loses When Scholars Compare Markets to Myths

Everyone Loses When Scholars Compare Markets to Myths

Too often, discussions about capitalism and inequality rest on an uneven comparison: real-world markets are measured against imaginary governments. That is one of the central concerns Northwood University Economic Professor Michael Makovi raises in his review for The Independent Review, a journal of The Independent Institute. In the piece, Dr. Makovi reviews Understanding Political Economy:...

By Dr. Michael Makovi

Why Gold Continues to Buck Trends and Outperform Stocks

Why Gold Continues to Buck Trends and Outperform Stocks

For over two decades, gold’s role as a staple investment has grown more pronounced in the global financial system. Since 2000, the commodity has outperformed all major US stock indices. It has preserved purchasing power, protected investors during crises, and hedged against policy shifts. The forces propelling gold higher today extend beyond its safe-haven status....

By Dr. Timothy Nash, Anthony Storer, Jim Hop, Patrick O’Keefe

Paramount is the Better Deal. Congress Should Move On.

Paramount is the Better Deal. Congress Should Move On.

Northwood University Endowed Chair of Leadership Brett M. Decker, a New York Times best-selling author and former editor and editorial page writer for The Wall Street Journal, authored this piece, which was published this week by Barron’s. Click here to read Professor Decker’s case for why members of Congress should recognize a better thing when...

Timeless Values: ‘Mobility is Freedom’

Timeless Values: ‘Mobility is Freedom’

In a world of constant change, the enduring principles of The Northwood Idea remain steadfast. Personal freedom, individual responsibility and the rule of law are not relics of another era — they are the permanent foundations of a free and flourishing society. It is therefore fitting to revisit the voices and lessons that have most...

By Dr. Timothy Nash, Dr. Robert W. Serum

The Reagan Revolution: When Common Sense Beat ‘Expert’ Economics

The Reagan Revolution: When Common Sense Beat ‘Expert’ Economics

A Student View by Oliver Jarvis, Lilly Lauzon, A. Noel Tokarev, and Kristin Tokarev When Ronald Reagan took office in 1981, America was in trouble. Prices were rising by double digits on an annual basis. Interest rates? Nearly 20%. Unemployment? Persistently high. The Keynesian economists from the Johnson, Nixon, Ford, and Carter years had given...

By Oliver T. Jarvis, Lillian Lauzon, A. Noel Tokarev, Kristin Tokarev

The American Revolution: From Lexington Green to Independence Square

The American Revolution: From Lexington Green to Independence Square

If you think that your community today is too fractured over political issues, imagine what it would have felt like to live in the American colonies on the eve of the Revolution. The situation with the British government across the Atlantic had united colonists while simultaneously creating new divisions. As the disagreements spiraled toward violence,...

By Dr. Dale Moler, Dr. Alex Tokarev, Kristin Tokarev

Free Enterprise Center Director Discusses February Jobs Data

Free Enterprise Center Director Discusses February Jobs Data

Dr. Timothy G. Nash, Northwood University Senior Vice President Emeritus and Director of the Northwood University Center for the Advancement of Free Enterprise and Entrepreneurship, recently joined Mike Austin on WILS (Lansing) to discuss the latest U.S. employment data. Listen here:

This Country Tried Central Planning; Free Markets Won!

This Country Tried Central Planning; Free Markets Won!

After World War II, Germany was in ruins. Cities leveled, infrastructure destroyed, tens of millions killed or severely injured, morale shattered… The Nazi regime had left behind not only devastation, but a command-and-control economy riddled with inflation and rationing. Police forces were gutted by the Allied regime. Theft and black markets became a way of...

By Madeline Heil, Dani Pohl, Kristin Tokarev