Bozeman is nationally recognized for being first on many dimensions, best retirement town for active people, best ski town, exemplar of civic culture, and more. It’s also the founding epicenter of “Free Market Environmentalism” (FME).   This disciplined, analytic approach to conservation and environmental management has captured the intellectual high ground. However, despite its success […]

As the upcoming elections draw closer, let me make three predictions that I personally guarantee.  First, they will set a record as being the most expensive ever, even accounting for inflation.  Second, all the usual do-gooders and reformers will complain that this money undermines “democracy” and something must be done.  Third, all efforts to curtail […]

Each January, my colleagues and I design FREE’s summer seminars. We select and refine topics, then identify speakers, and finally invite participants. These tasks are easy when creating programs explicitly for federal judges. There are only a thousand and we know exactly who they are. All know us directly or have colleagues who have attended […]

Why Ed Crane Matters This FREE Insight “Why Ron Paul Matters” from the December 31st issue of the Wall Street Journal is by Ed Crane, Founding President of the Cato Institute. Cato is a highly principled libertarian think tank that moved to DC nearly thirty years ago and proved Milton Friedman wrong, a most rare […]

Here’s a sketch of America’s economic prospects. Essentially, we’re seeing the consequences of 50 plus years of near libertarian tax rates and socialist benefits. Federal taxes were 17.8 percent of GNP in 1960. By 2007 they had risen less than one percent to 18.5 percent. However, there was a great deal of fraud and abuse […]

When is the last time you heard a liberal describe himself as a “liberal”? It’s probably been a long time. These days, those on the left are more likely to call themselves “progressives.” Writing in The New York Times, Columbia University economist Jeffrey Sachs said there have been two progressive eras — one in the […]

At Thanksgiving, the poor pay for dumb regulation.

Exactly five years ago I wrote a column “Let’s Resolve to Reward Our Wounded Warriors.” This appeal developed from discussions with Volney Steele. Vol is a retired physician who volunteered when Eagle Mount brought children to our place to fish. Volney proposed that people in Bozeman develop a fly-fishing program for severely injured American troops. He helped make the original […]