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...
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...
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:
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...
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...
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....
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...
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.
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...
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...
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...
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 recent Federal Reserve decisions in an interview with Mike Austin on WILS on Thursday, Dec. 11, 2025. Listen to the interview here:
Note: This piece co-authored by a Northwood University economics professor and alumna now working at Stossel TV, originally was posted by Learn Liberty, which is powered by Students for Liberty. Say what you want about Donald Trump: The man is creative. Really creative. Two of his recent proposals sound like the late-night infomercial between the...
I first met the free-market journalist Henry Hazlitt (1894–1993) in June of 1974 at an Austrian economics conference in South Royalton, Vermont. I had been reading his articles and books for years, since I was around 14 or 15 years old, not long after I became interested in classical-liberal and libertarian ideas. His famous volume...