Can America’s greatness be sustained in the absence of national solvency?, so asks Judy Shelton, Atlas’s Sound Money Project Senior Fellow, in today’s Wall Street Journal op-ed piece, “The United States: Debtor and Leader?.”  Concerned that our fiscal irresponsibility is making us vulnerable on the world stage, she raises an alarm about America’s potential decline [...]

Smoking bans and taxes are sweeping the United States and Europe,. Most bans stop at business places,  but now, Italian lawmakers are considering a ban on smoking while driving, citing distraction similar to mobile phone use as the reason.
Istituto Bruno Leoni’s Alberto Mingardi has an article in both the European and U.S. versions of the [...]

At a recent meeting in Singapore, I had the pleasure of discussing ways to promote increased trade between India and China. Two of the participants of that meeting, Alec van Gelder of the International Policy Network and Dr. Amitendu Palit of the Institute of South Asian Studies of the National University of Singapore, have taken some of the [...]

A few newsworthy updates from our partners in Europe

The Wall Street Journal published an op-ed from ECIPE’s Razeen Sally and Frederik Erixon, “Keynes at Home  Smith Abroad, Domestic Stimulus spills over to Protectionism.” (subscription needed)
The Murray Rothbard Institute is hosting its second annual Summer University program in Belgium, professors slated to speak include, Prof. Bertrand [...]

A fable of reinventing the same failed policy and expecting different results:
“Want a preview of ObamaCare in action? Sneak a look at what has happened in Maine. In 2003, the state to great fanfare enacted its own version of universal health care. Democratic Governor John Baldacci signed the plan into law with a bevy [...]

Philosophizing is not exactly a fun way to spend one’s summer. But that does not seem to be the case with the young students, ages 12 to 17, who are enrolled in the Great Books Summer Program. An annual program offered at either Stanford University or Amherst College, it is designed to make these “precocious [...]

Bret Stephens of the Wall Street Journal has a snappy column on why the environmental problems plaguing China are not a result of its transition to a market economy, but stem from its lingering State-led development strategy.
“The real source of China’s pollution problem is a state-led industrial policy geared toward production, and state-owned enterprises (especially [...]

College education does not come cheap these days. Year after year, colleges and universities increase their tuition fees without offering a reasonable explanation to those who foot the bill. Parents lament over how they can keep up with these out-of-control financial demands imposed on them by university administrators who seem unaccountable for the decisions they [...]

With over 90 exhibitors, 1500+ participants, and three FULL days of seminars, panels, and debates all in the sunny venue of Las Vegas, Nevada, FreedomFest attendees had a lot to take in this year.
The financial crisis made the discussion about sound money one of the most popular topics amongst the speakers and various exhibitors. For [...]

Croatian Prime Minister Ivo Sanader resigned over the weekend, shocking the Balkan country and the European Union.  Since being elected in 2003, Sanader and his cronies have, according to Jeffrey Kuhner of the Washington Times, “Dismantled democratic institutions…controlled much of the media…intimidated or murdered opposition journalists…and turned Croatia into a gangster state.” Atlas’s friends at [...]