Richard M. Ebeling

Carl Menger and the Sesquicentennial Founding of the Austrian School

“Carl Menger remains a towering figure, not only for the development of his variation on the ‘marginalist’ theme, but for originating a still unique and distinct and highly relevant approach to economic and social analysis that still rightly bears the name, the ‘Austrian School.'” ~ Richard M. Ebeling

Freedom versus Paternalism in the Coming Decade

“There appears to be a groundswell of economic ignorance and stupidity facing us, and even more than usual. What this means for friends of freedom and practitioners of sound, free market economics, however, is a need to redouble our efforts, and not wallow in despair and disappointment. Bad policies inescapably bring about undesirable and counterproductive effects. But their very failures can serve as openings to more reasonable and rational policies looking to the future.” ~ Richard M. Ebeling

Private Charity versus the Political Grinches

“We should not forget the power of the private sector not only in the marketplace of profit-making supply and demand, but in the charitable good works and efforts of voluntary giving in the other institutions of a free civil society. Let us not forget that benevolent caring, sharing and gift-giving is what the spirit of Christmas is really all about, and most especially in a society of liberty.” ~ Richard M. Ebeling

Opponents of Liberty Remain Misguided Sore Winners

“Be assured that when the interventionist-welfare state policies are intensified and made more intrusive into the social and economic fabric of American society, and when, over time, it brings about more corruption, privilege, stagnation, and social hostility, the Joseph Stiglitz’s of the world likely will not admit that the cause has been the political paternalism and social engineering for which they so much never stop yearning.” ~ Richard M. Ebeling

Why Hayek was Right About Nazis Being Socialists

“I would further ask him to concede that whether he agrees with the ends and goals of other socialists, their use of command and control and their introduction of some form of institutional central planning to pursue their declared ‘social good’ makes their system just as much a ‘socialist’ one as any other that Ronald Granieri might endorse or look more favorably upon. So, whether he likes it or not, the Nazis, too, were socialists, just a different stripe than the ones he feels more comfortable with.” ~ Richard M. Ebeling

Don’t Confuse Free Markets with the Interventionist State

“The important task for those who value personal freedom, economic liberty and the free market economy is to disabuse our fellow citizens from thinking that what we have is a fully capitalist system, and to appreciate that what critics of capitalism call for and want in the form of even more and bigger government would only magnify the corrosive trends already in play in the modern world.” ~ Richard M. Ebeling

The Legacy of Thanksgiving is Free Enterprise

“It is time to take their experience to heart and celebrate not the collectivism with which they began their start in the New World, but the spirit of liberty, private property, self-responsibility, and freedom of enterprise which they and those who came to America in the following centuries left to us as a legacy of individual freedom, limited government, and the prosperity that only can come from the competitive liberty of the free and voluntary marketplace.” ~ Richard M. Ebeling

Do Not Trust Governments with the Control of Money

“If Judy Shelton is appointed to the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, and if she actually espouses and defends the ideas for which she is being condemned by so many of those ‘mainstream’ economists today, it may be a useful step to the societal transformation to a freer society, a key long run element of which must be the freeing of money from political control.” ~ Richard M. Ebeling

Why Politics Breeds Divisive Fears and Angers

“Politics becomes a life and death struggle, a fight to the finish, since the winning side with the majority upper hand is able to impose and enforce its views and values on all in society. Only by limiting government to those few though essential functions can these tensions, angers, and divisions be reduced or even removed.” ~ Richard M. Ebeling

Lockdowns as a Political Tragedy of the Commons

“All of this because of a political tragedy of the commons created by governments who insist on their right and duty to nationalize decision-making over all the private actions and activities of the citizenry subject to their control. Maybe we need a new slogan: Locked-down lives matter, and governments should stop doing it.” ~ Richard M. Ebeling