Summer in Montana is a time to celebrate–and to share with visitors. We have many and nearly all are environmentally sensitive. None visit us by accident or advertisement. Most fish, hike, ride, or bike. The vast majority of our guests recycle. So do we. But not everything. That distinction poses the paradox. Pacific Steel and Recycling […]
Read MoreIntroduction by John Baden, Chairman, FREE My friend and colleague, professor Jerry Johnson of Montana State University, just returned from two inspiring trips. One was to Lake Iliamna, the largest lake in Alaska. The other was the Greater Yellowstone Coalition’s (GYC) first 400-mile bike trip through the Greater Yellowstone area. Jerry’s essay below focuses on the […]
Read MoreWe are in the middle of FREE’s last summer conference, “Boom and Bust in America”. This is the last of our summer programs. It concludes twenty-two years of programs applying economics to contentious topics. All featured the potentials of creativity and hazards of command. Soon we will begin our more focused salon series, Yellowstone […]
Read MoreA “middleman” buys cheap, sells dear, and does nothing to improve the product in the meantime. Middlemen are everywhere and probably have been since the very first exchanges started to improve the lives of primitive humans. Marco Polo and his family were middlemen. So is Ebay. Between them, in time and complexity, lie millions […]
Read MoreDo I owe something to the beggar on the street? If so, can I discharge that obligation by writing him a check? Does he have a claim against me? If so, can he make that claim by presenting me with a bill? Is my obligation smaller if the beggar lives in another city? […]
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I enjoy summers in Montana immensely. Thanks to vastly improved technology – think internet, FedEx, better insulated homes and vehicles, food from everywhere all the time -and global warming, winters are great too. Further, in the Gallatin Valley civility, community, and culture remain intact and indeed flourish. Bozeman must be the mother lode of non-profits: […]
Read MoreIntro by John Baden It is the exception that probes, not proves, the rule. I know of no logical system in which an exception to a general rule can “prove” the verity of that proposition, generality, principle, or rule. In this week’s FREE Insights, economist Michael Munger of Duke University describes an […]
Read MoreSally Satel, MD, is a resident scholar at The American Enterprise Institute and a practicing psychiatrist and lecturer at Yale’s School of Medicine. I find her research and writing consistently well crafted and insightful. Sally has lectured in FREE’s programs for federal judges and law professors and received excellent reviews. Further, she is good […]
Read MoreWe Are Lucky to Live Here! Let’s welcome the 55+ to Gateway Village. Sunday morning I biked into Bozeman to meet a couple for brunch. During the 14-mile ride in, several lycra clad male riders easily and silently passed me. (I passed no one.) In town three walkers smiled and volunteered, “Aren’t we lucky to […]
Read MoreThe labor market is one of the most regulated markets in our economy. Minimum wage laws effectively tell teenagers they cannot work unless they can produce $7.25 an hour. When the ObamaCare mandate kicks in next year, that hurdle will climb to more than $15 an hour for many potential employees. OSHA regulations dictate what risks workers […]
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