Free Thoughts

Timothy P. Carney joins us this week for a discussion on how the complex system of lobbying and regulating and subsidizing works in Washington D.C. He points out that big government and big business often scratch each others’ backs at the expense of the taxpayer, gives several examples of this behavior, and explains how it benefits both parties.

Show Notes and Further Reading

Timothy P...

James Otteson is the author of The End of Socialism (2014) and is a professor of political economy at Wake Forest University. This week he joins us to talk about socialism and explains several problems with the philosophy’s methodology that makes it unworkable in the real world.

What exactly is socialism? What’s the distinction between socialism and corporatism? Why doesn’t socialism work?

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This week, Kevin Glass tells us about the mission of the Franklin Center for Government and Public Integrity, which is to report on what’s happening in local and state legislatures across the United States...

Matt Zwolinski joins us this week to talk about his recent paper, “Libertarianism and Pollution,” available on the Social Science Research Network. In it, he examines how various libertarian philosophers and economists, including Nozick, Rothbard, Ronald Coase, and Eric Mack have dealt with the problem of pollution...

Did FDR’s New Deal policies help pull America out of the Great Depression, or were they in fact responsible for the high unemployment in the country until the beginning of World War II? Jim Powell joins us for a discussion on America’s great 20th century experiment with big government...

This week Jonathan Blanks joins us to discuss civil liberties and police misconduct in America. This episode was recorded at the 2015 International Students for Liberty Conference and features Q&A from the audience...

This week Jay Cost shares a history of corruption and factionalism in the United States from his newest book, A Republic No More: Big Government and the Rise of American Political Corruption (2015)...

This week Peter Suderman joins us to help suss out the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, a law he says is so complex and opaque that “no one person” understands every single part of it perfectly. We discuss the long history of the idea behind a government-backed and mandated health care system and its unlikely origins, the “three legged stool” necessary for implementing the PPACA, and the philosophical ideas behind the law...

Modern campaign finance laws are incredibly opaque and labyrinthine. Allen Dickerson joins us this week to help make sense of them...

This week Alan Gura joins us for a talk about gun rights at the Supreme Court.

What does the text of the Second Amendment say, and how have courts interpreted it over the years?

What’s the story behind District of Columbia v. Heller? McDonald v...