The World is Getting Better We are blessed to begin the new year with excellent news: “In material ways the world is rapidly getting better.” The late Swedish physician, Dr. Hans Rosling thoroughly documented this progress in his 2018 book, Factfulness: …Why Things Are Better than You think. Greg Ip updated this theme in […]
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Thanksgiving Insight, 2018 Liberty, Ecology, Prosperity: America’s Great Blessings Thanksgiving is the day we celebrate the great bounty enjoyed by most Americans.* Good friends and warm relations with relatives are key ingredients to wholesome lives. Living in a pleasing environment is a huge bonus. The ideal Thanksgiving features conversations with loving people over a […]
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Helping Hunters Succeed: An Experiment in Economic Anthropology I can tell when hunting season approaches—and not only by seeing leaves changing color and hearing elk bugling while I’m in the quiet of our hot tub. How? I get phone calls and visits from ‘friends” I’ve not heard from since last hunting season. “Hey John, can […]
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Romance versus Finance on Public Lands Introduction by John Baden, PhD, Chm. FREE Here are two important truths to consider when managing America’s “romance lands”: First, the values that economists measure best are not those that matter most. It is relatively easy to measure or estimate the values of commodities extracted from […]
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Why is Bozeman a Special Place? Search Forbes Magazine for Bozeman, Montana and what pops up? Forbes and other national publications report our community is in the top five or ten of nearly every positive recreational and cultural opportunity in America. (*f.n.) Of course, perfection eludes: No place can have more than two of three […]
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Introduction to Prof. Jerry Johnson’s FREE Insight, John Baden “Yellowstone’s Predictable Political Problems: From Fires to Firings” Last week newspapers announced that Yellowstone Park Superintendent Dan Wenk was fired after 33 highly successful years with the Park Service. As MSU professor, Jerry Johnson explains in our next FREE Insights, political forces were the cause. […]
Read MoreThe annual three-day National Rifle Association (NRA) convention ended Sunday, May 6th in Dallas. President Trump and Vice President Mike Pence spoke on Friday. Other speakers included Texas Governor Greg Abbott and U.S. Senators Ted Cruz and John Cornyn. These speakers indicate the NRA’s resilient power and influence. Attendance in Dallas reported to be about […]
Read MoreEver since its creation in 1985 FREE has worked to advance responsible liberty, sustainable ecology, and modest prosperity. Achieving this trinity of values requires certain institutional arrangements. The primary ones are: the rule of law, secure property rights, and the allocation of resources through the market process. These must operate in a legal context of […]
Read MoreFREE began 2017 with a ten-day visit by Romanian economist Prof. Christian Nasulea and Ph. D. student Diana Spinu. They are classical liberals who work on environmental and information technology topics. They share our interest in explaining why “romance lands” attract creative, active individuals with high human capital. This migration of talented, successful individuals is […]
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FREE’s mission, and my vocation, is to foster the conjunction of responsible liberty, sustainable ecology, and modest prosperity. In the policy arena this implies reliance upon the rule of law, strong and clear property rights, economic coordination via the market process not governments, and laws and regulations that preclude predation of the weak by the […]
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