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How to consume news while maintaining your sanity
powered by Surfing Waves Too much news can overwhelm consumers and promote anxiety. The Washington Post / Contributor/ Getty Images The amount and variety of news produced today often tests people’s ability to determine its value and veracity. Such a torrent of information threatens to drown news consumers in a river of confusion. Media coverage of the coronavirus, for example, illustrates how news may overwhelm and confuse consumers, and even contribute to mental health woes by escalating anxiety. The ov…
Georgia Public School Board Blocks Charter School Due to 'Competition'
powered by Surfing Waves After raising enough money to purchase 40 acres of land, King Randall seemed poised to realize his dream. Randall, a 21-year-old Christian and Marine veteran from Albany, Georgia, felt called to start “ The X for Boys ,” a program dedicated to addressing the problems facing black boys in his community. His projects include teaching at-risk youth vocational job skills, giving them proper education, and rescuing them from unsafe environments. Many of the children in his custody are fresh…
If We Are Going to Achieve Freedom
powered by Surfing Waves There is no doubt that when it comes to freedom, the situation in America is not good. Ever since I founded FFF some 31 years ago, our lives as welfare-warfare serfs has gotten progressively worse, year after year. One option, of course, is to give up. Just surrender and accept our serfdom as a permanent condition and work to impove it. That’s what libertarian reformers have done. Long ago, they concluded that the federal government was simply too big and too powerful. They saw that…
Iowans to ethanol: Enough is enough
powered by Surfing Waves During his long – and not always illustrious – political career, Bob Dole was fond of telling crowds on the campaign trail: “I’m the senator from ethanol.” Dole, still with us at 98, is from Kansas, which along with Iowa, Illinois, South Dakota, Missouri, and Minnesota is part of the Great American Corn Belt. Because ethanol sold in the U.S. as a transportation fuel is derived from corn, ethanol and corn have become inseparable. Roughly 40% of the U.S. corn crop is refined into ethanol a…
A Conversation on the Decline of American Civil Society
powered by Surfing Waves On this episode of the Authors Corner, I interview AIER Senior Fellow Robert Wright on his upcoming book tentatively titled Liberty Lost: The Rise and Demise of Voluntary Association in America Since 1700 . Robert was unsure when we can expect the book to be published but he was able to speak on the general themes he will be touching on. The central focus of the book is on the decline of voluntary association groups from the founding of the country to the current day. The Fo…
No, Cancel Culture Is Not the ‘Free Market at Work’
powered by Surfing Waves As rapid social and technological changes continue to test our commitment to free speech and liberal values , a common refrain I have heard is that cancel culture is the “ free market at work .” Speaking as an entrepreneur, I couldn’t disagree more. From a pure economic perspective, there is no controversy. Every company makes complex decisions and the forces of the free market—guided by the price system —will adjust accordingly as a result. Under a free market economy, consumers…
Did the Fed Just Raise Interest Rates?
powered by Surfing Waves The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) met this week to decide the stance of the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy. In its official statement , the committee chose to maintain its effective federal funds rate target in the range of zero to 0.25 percent and ongoing open market purchases of $120 billion per month. The Fed did, however, have an important change listed in its Implementation Note . It raised the interest rates that the Fed pays to banks and other financial inst…
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