Top 10 True North Articles of 2024: Exploring Free Enterprise and Liberty
Top 10 True North Articles of 2024: Exploring Free Enterprise and Liberty
As America’s Free Enterprise University, Northwood University proudly powers True North, a free-market connector fostering dialogue on freedom, economics, and limited government. This year, readers gravitated toward thought-provoking articles exploring policy impacts, economic insights, and societal shifts. Here are the top 10 most popular reads of 2024: 1. 7 Ridiculous Examples of Government Waste in...
By Kate Hessling
DOGE: A Classical Vision for Government Reform in 2025 and Beyond
DOGE: A Classical Vision for Government Reform in 2025 and Beyond
McNair Director Dr. Timothy G. Nash co-authored this piece for Townhall with Bob Thomas, COO of the Michigan Chamber of Commerce, Dr. Thomas Rastin, a retired business executive from Ohio, and Anthony Storer, a McNair student scholar at Northwood University.
By Dr. Timothy Nash
What to Expect from D.O.G.E.
What to Expect from D.O.G.E.
Making predictions in today’s political climate is a fool’s errand. In fact, earlier this year I made perhaps the worst prediction of my career thus far when I wrote for another publication that I expected that the June 27th presidential debate between President Biden and former President Trump would do little to move the needle,...
By Brady Leonard
Denmark Passes the World’s First ‘Fart Tax’—But This is No Laughing Matter
Denmark Passes the World’s First ‘Fart Tax’—But This is No Laughing Matter
Denmark, according to The New York Times, is going ahead with its livestock “Burp Tax.” Though hotly contested, the Danish government has nevertheless finally settled on levying farmers 300 kroners (~$43) per ton for carbon dioxide emissions, ramping to $106 per ton by 2035. As is the case with many of these farm-targeted green interventions,...
By Paul Schwennesen
5 Absurd Examples of Government Waste in 2024
5 Absurd Examples of Government Waste in 2024
Defenders of fiscal sanity have received quite a surprise with Trump’s new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). For the first time in what seems like forever, complaining about government waste has almost become…cool. To all of the newcomers to this issue, we’d like to extend a warm welcome. Whether it was the DOGE hype or...
By Patrick Carroll
Hayek’s Nobel—50 Years Later
Hayek’s Nobel—50 Years Later
Fifty years ago, Friedrich Hayek and Karl Gunnar Myrdal won the Nobel prize “for their pioneering work in the theory of money and economic fluctuations and for their penetrating analysis of the interdependence of economic, social and institutional phenomena.” Hayek’s Nobel is notable for several reasons, and each relates to the importance of intellectual humility....
By Peter Jacobsen
Study: Michigan is Pizza Capital of the U.S. (and World?)
Study: Michigan is Pizza Capital of the U.S. (and World?)
Michigan is the pizza capital of the United States and, quite possibly, the world, according to a new report from the McNair Center for Free Enterprise at Northwood University and the Michigan Chamber of Commerce. The study, Michigan: The Unlikely Pizza Capital of the United States (and the World?), analyzes the size and scope of...
By Kate Hessling
The Economic Consequences of Populism
The Economic Consequences of Populism
In May 1938, or the ninth year of the Great Depression, a minister in Columbia County, Pennsylvania cast about for a sermon topic. In the past the minister, C.R. Ness, had spoken to the members of North Berwick Evangelical Church on a variety of themes: Paul’s Letter to the Philippians, the healing power of Jesus....
The New ‘Nonprofit Killer’ Bill and the Problem of Government Certification
The New ‘Nonprofit Killer’ Bill and the Problem of Government Certification
The US House of Representatives just passed H.R. 9495, the Stop Terror-Financing and Tax Penalties on American Hostages Act. As with most federal bills, the name is pretty sympathetic. Who doesn’t want to stop the funding of terrorism? It also contains two related, but very different, proposals. According to Congress’s official website: This bill postpones...
By Peter Jacobsen
The Evolving Debate on U.S. Trade Policy: Free Trade, Fair Trade, or Protectionism?
The Evolving Debate on U.S. Trade Policy: Free Trade, Fair Trade, or Protectionism?
In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and a long period of deindustrialization, the landscape of American trade policy is changing radically. This shift is reflected in declining support for free trade, particularly with China, across the political spectrum. This fall, the Northwood University Freedom Seminar featured a panel that explored free trade, fair trade,...
By Mathilde Champagne
The Grand Inquisitor: Freedom & Responsibility
The Grand Inquisitor: Freedom & Responsibility
People can be strong advocates of freedom in the abstract, an ideal in concept. But do people really want freedom and responsibility in practice? Chapter 36 of my book, “The Adventures of Jonathan Gullible,” refers to the works of Fyodor Dostoevsky in “The Brothers Karamozov.” Dostoevsky conjures a character, the Grand Inquisitor of Spain, who...
By Ken Schoolland
Latest Producer Price Index Data Does Not Bode Well for Future Prices
Latest Producer Price Index Data Does Not Bode Well for Future Prices
U.S. Producer Price Index (PPI) data for October 2024 does not bode well for future prices in the service sector, especially those related to the U.S. restaurant economy. The PPI measures the average change in producer prices for goods and services produced over a given month. In essence, it measures inflation at the wholesale level....
By Dr. Timothy Nash
U.S. Government Starts 2025 Fiscal Year Deep in the Red
U.S. Government Starts 2025 Fiscal Year Deep in the Red
The U.S. government got off to a very bad start for its 2025 fiscal year. The U.S. Treasury Department reported that the federal government spent $257 billion more than it took in as revenue in October 2024. That is the second-worst figure ever recorded for the first month of the fiscal year. Only October 2020...
By Craig Eyermann
Why the Great Depression Lasted So Long: Amity Shlaes on Economic Policy Blunders
Why the Great Depression Lasted So Long: Amity Shlaes on Economic Policy Blunders
In 1940, Victor Records released the Dust Bowl Ballads, an album of songs written and performed by American folk singer Woody Guthrie. In two volumes and a dozen songs, the folk legend sang about the droughts that plagued North America in waves beginning in 1934 and ending in 1940. On the 14th day of April...
By Jon Miltimore