True North Ideas | True North

Granddaughter Joins Northwood Free Enterprise Center Director on WILS

Dr. Timothy G. Nash, Director of the Northwood University Center for the Advancement of Free Enterprise and Entrepreneurship was joined by his 11-year-old granddaughter for a recent interview on the Mike Austin Show on WILS regarding increased Halloween expenses. The pair co-authored a piece recently about this subject for The Detroit News. Listen to their...

By Dr. Timothy Nash

Socialism Is Not the Solution. It Is the Problem.

Two out of five people view socialism positively. In 2025. In America! It’s as if the twentieth century never happened. The Holodomor? The Great Leap Forward? The Cultural Revolution? More than a hundred million victims in less than a hundred years? Gone from our collective memory. We’re told, again, that socialism is the answer to...

By Dr. Alex Tokarev, Kristin Tokarev, Georgi Harizanov

Food Insecurity and Business Ingenuity

Political pressure and high levels of uncertainty are a big concern for businesses today. And such concerns can have a ripple effect on the communities and nonprofits that rely on and benefit from partnerships with the private sector. I was recently reminded of this at my local Giant grocery store which featured a special promotion:...

By Kimberlee Josephson

So, Do You Truly Like Taylor Swift?

Long before the concept of “personal brand” became mainstream in the age of social media—and before it turned into a buzzword among LinkedIn recruiters (and a commandment for anyone wanting to stand out in their field)—there was someone who had already mastered it naturally, instinctively, and with absolute control: Taylor Swift. Throughout her career, Taylor...

By Agustina Sosa

Mike Austin Show Features Northwood Free Enterprise Center Director

Dr. Timothy G. Nash, director of the Northwood University of the Center for Free Enterprise and Entrepreneurship, recently discussed the economy with Mike Austin on WILS. Listen here:

Northwood Free Enterprise Center Director Discusses Positive CPI Report

Dr. Timothy G. Nash, Director of the Northwood University Center for the Advancement of Free Enterprise and Entrepreneurship recently joined Kalamazoo Mornings with Ken Lanphear on WKZO to discuss a positive CPI Report and the economic road ahead. Listen here.

Historian to Illuminate America’s 250-Year Experiment in Northwood Freedom Seminar Keynote

Northwood University will livestream a keynote Freedom Seminar address from award-winning historian and author Dr. Wilfred M. McClay for a Freedom Seminar keynote address, “America: Land of Hope,” on Thursday, Nov. 6, 2025. The lecture, which begins at 6 p.m. in the Griswold Lecture Hall, is free and open to students, faculty, staff, alumni, and...

Repo Market’s Warning Light is Flickering

After several years of calm, stress is again building in the hidden plumbing of the US financial system — the short-term funding markets that move trillions of dollars in overnight cash and securities each day. These markets, particularly the repurchase (“repo”) market and its benchmark Secured Overnight Financing Rate (SOFR), are critical to the smooth...

By Peter C. Earle

Yang Zhu and the Freedom of the Self

Yang Zhu (440–360 BC) was a Chinese philosopher whose ideas were considered daring and transgressive for his time, but can strike us as modern in their focus on individual freedom. His lessons were shared through early texts and referred to by scholars in the following centuries. He lived during the “Warring States” period, the phase...

By Katrina Gulliver

Northwood Free Enterprise Center Director Discusses How Much We Should Invest in Gold

Dr. Timothy G. Nash, director of the Northwood University Center for the Advancement of Free Enterprise and Entrepreneurship, recently discussed the price of gold on the Mike Austin Show. You can listen here:

By Dr. Timothy Nash

Too Hot to Handle

Between May 17 and September 30, there were 3,832 deaths in Spain linked to extreme heat, an increase of almost 87% from 2024. Many of these victims had underlying health conditions, 96% were over 65, and almost two thirds were 85 or older. But boiling Spanish summers are not a new phenomenon, nor is the...

By Mark Nayler

A New Pacific Trade Highway

When President Trump announced a new 100% tariff on Chinese imports, in retaliation for Beijing’s latest export controls on rare earth elements, markets saw only the headline risk. But the real story lies beyond the ticker: a structural reordering of global trade. The world’s supply chains, long anchored to the Chinese mainland, are splintering. Capital...

By Dr. Jake Scott

Free Trade or Tariffs: What Makes America Great — A Student View

Two hundred years ago, Britain made a big mistake — and then fixed it. That’s something America should pay attention to. In the early 1800s, British politicians (mostly aristocrats) passed the Corn Laws, tariffs on imported grain. Who benefited from these restrictions? The wealthy landowners — by reaping higher rents. The result was higher food...

By Lillian Lauzon, Kristin Tokarev

Timeless Values: Dale Haywood’s Human Action Taxonomy

In a world of change, the fundamental principles of The Northwood Idea are timeless. Under any circumstances, personal freedom and individual responsibility are essential for a free society. So it is illustrative to examine some of the most compelling expressions of The Northwood Idea that great thinkers have contributed through the years. We call them...

By Dr. Dale Haywood