As a new year begins, it is important to pause and take a look at the state of global liberty. The Human Freedom Index makes it possible to do just that. Through a holistic range of categories, the Human Freedom Index measures aspects of human freedom including the size of government, freedom of movement, identity, and relations...
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A little known law is costing Americans more than they know.
The Merchant Marine Act of 1920 — also known as the Jones Act — has been inflicting costs on Americans for almost 100 years. Three Atlas Network partners — the Grassroot Institute of Hawaii, the Cato Institute and the Mercatus Center — are working to inform citizens...
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The cause of liberty has lost a dear friend and a wise counsel, but her spirit remains active through every person she convinced of the value of liberty and through every person she inspired to stand against violence and tyranny; they are far, far more than they know. Andrea Rich (1939-2018) was a businesswoman, publisher, TV pr...
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The 6th ALS Friedman Conference was attended by a record-breaking 380+ people, retaining its title as Australia’s largest gathering of liberty oriented individuals. Attendees enjoy a range of speakers, panels, and VIP events, the 2018 Friedman Conference remains an event not to be missed for the Australian liberty movement.
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Europe Liberty Forum 2018, presented by Atlas Network with local co-host the Center for Political Studies (CEPOS) and held in Copenhagen, Denmark, brought more than 150 think tank professionals from 35 countries across the region to discuss recent successes they’ve had and current challenges facing the continent. The conference...
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The Cato Institute has announced the newest recipient of the biennial Milton Friedman Prize for Advancing Liberty: Ladies in White (Las Damas de Blanco), a movement led by Cuban women to free political prisoners.
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Libertarianism.org, a project of the Cato Institute, has long published introductory-level books and e-books for those new to classical liberal ideas. These publications, ranging in topics from trade to the American Revolution, provide high-quality synopses of many of the ideas and events which have shaped the ideas of classical...
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Cato Institute’s Libertarianism.org project has recently launched an online Encyclopedia of Libertarianism, which tightly weaves all of libertarianism’s diverse strands together into one comprehensive work and provides hundreds of succinct, originally written articles by some of the most widely recognized experts in the field....
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While the world at large is freer than it ever was, Ukraine remains entrenched in political and economic hardship. The revolution fades, but the mafia state lives on. The recent Economic Freedom Forum, hosted by Atlas Network partners Bendukidze Free Market Center and Fraser Institute in Kyiv, brought together think tanks and sc...
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Turkey has recently experienced a steep decline in various democracy and freedom indexes all over the world. The Freedom Research Association (FRA) – a Turkish Atlas Network partner organization based in Ankara – has taken the initiative to promote economic liberty as a means to change this trend, recently completing an Economic...
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Numbers are powerful when debating a policy issue. Statistics inform effective analysis, interpretation, and storytelling of an issue. In this upcoming webinar about backing up arguments with data, the editor of HumanProgress.org and a senior policy analyst at the Center for Global Liberty and Prosperity, Marian Tupy, will discu...
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During the past four decades, the Cato Institute has established itself as the world’s premier libertarian policy think tank. In May, Cato celebrated its 40th anniversary with events that included remarks from such notable figures as Rand Paul, George Will, P. J. O'Rourke, Dave Barry, and Charles Murray. Articles, videos, and a...
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Nobody brings the ideas of freedom and sound economics to life quite like the Foundation for Economic Education (FEE), through its decades of publications and in-person seminars, and today through its engaging website content. Now FEE is holding its first annual conference, FEEcon, featuring more than 70 sessions and 10 distinct...
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Why doesn’t innovation happen in education, the way it does in other industries? The late Andrew Coulson spent the last several years of his life examining this question in his role as senior fellow of education policy at the Cato Institute’s Center for Educational Freedom. Today, Coulson’s discoveries and insights into the educ...
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Each year at the International Students For Liberty Conference (ISFLC), the organization recognizes an alumnus of the year, granting the award to a former student who has made a significant contribution to advancing freedom. This year, Students for Liberty (SFL) presented the Alumnus of the Year Award to Dr. Tom G. Palmer, Atlas...
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Burundi, a small nation in central Africa, has been marked by decades of regional unrest, periodic civil war, and an unstable democracy. Individual liberty and economic freedom are necessary for Burundi to achieve a prosperous future, and African Students for Liberty (ASFL) is helping to instill these principles in a new generat...
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The People’s Republic of China has the second-largest economy in the world and has long been a key trading partner with the United States, with $665 billion in bilateral annual trade in 2015 alone. With U.S. political winds shifting against a favorable view of free and robust international trade, the National Center for Policy A...
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Less than three years after the Euromaidan revolution and 25 years since it was part of the Soviet Union, Ukraine still has a legacy of Marxist-Leninist thought that runs deep. A strong movement there, however, is working to secure a future of freedom in Ukraine. Free Generation Forum 2016 — hosted by Bendukidze Free Market Cent...
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Economics in One Day, an online course created by the Foundation for Economic Education (FEE), now has a free German-language version translated and adapted by Prometheus – Das Freiheitsinstitut (the Liberty Institute). The English version of the course has enjoyed widespread success, and Prometheus hopes to replicate that succe...
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In a free society, personal autonomy, civil liberties, and economic freedom are inextricably intertwined. “The Human Freedom Index” is an annual publication from the Cato Institute, the Fraser Institute, and the Liberales Institut of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom that aims to provide a careful measurement of the i...
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People have a tendency to look toward the future with trepidation, focusing on possible catastrophe down the road even as the world around them continues to improve at a rapid pace. The new book Progress: Ten Reasons to Look Forward to the Future, by historian, author, and Cato Institute Senior Fellow Johan Norberg, explains tha...
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People who spend their time in the spotlight usually receive the most recognition, but those who labor tirelessly behind the scenes can sometimes have the biggest impact in driving causes forward. Every year, Atlas Network partner the Kansas Policy Institute (KPI) awards its John J. Ingalls Spirit of Freedom Award to “a Kansan w...
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Having access to a stable currency is crucial in order for people to make prudent financial and economic decisions, and stable monetary policy directly contributes to a country’s standing in the world’s economy. Throughout its 26-year history, Atlas Network partner Instituto Ecuatoriano de Económia Política (IEEP) has argued fo...
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Libertarian and classical liberal ideas are far less prevalent in some areas of the world than others. Sometimes these ideas face hostility from local customs, traditions, political history, or ideological opponents — but often, millions of people residing in these regions have never been exposed to the ideas of liberty at all....
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Market activity fosters peace and cooperation, because making a profit hinges on the desire and ability to make other people happy — a fact that an increasing number of people have discovered throughout the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) since the beginning of the “Arab Spring” protest and reform movements that began six ye...
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Free expression is in danger across the globe. Protestors who are offended by the ideas of others have a chilling effect on the publication and dissemination of speech — and some of those protests aim for a violent suppression of ideas they don’t like. Danish journalist Flemming Rose found himself at the center of controversy in...
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Economic growth and prosperity depend on freedom of international trade and labor mobility, and the 10 countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have worked together for decades to liberalize regional trade, reduce tariffs, and encourage the free flow of capital and labor between member countries. In order...
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Throughout the world, the ideas of liberty are taking hold in new places and through new organizations and channels of communication. Some of the most important arguments for a more free and just society, however, are simply unavailable in the native languages of the countless countries where Atlas Network partners operate. That...
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Think tanks conducting innovative research into economics, public policy, and social science have proliferated in recent years, and the Think Tanks and Civil Society Program at the University of Pennsylvania has held an annual North America Summit for the past three years to discuss the challenges that think tanks face. Co-hoste...
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Every year in Australia, the annual Friedman Conference, hosted by the Australian Libertarian Society (ALS), brings together the “who’s who” of the Australian liberty community. This year’s event, to be held May 13–16 at the stylish Aerial UTS Function Centre in Sydney, will include more than “300 activists, thought leaders, bus...
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Many on the left point to Sweden and other countries in that area of the world as examples of how socialism can bring prosperity if implemented correctly. In a new video from Atlas Network partner Free to Choose Network, Johan Norberg provides a brief, to-the-point explanation of why they are “dead wrong” — and why Sweden’s pros...
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Atlas Leadership Academy alumnus and Atlas Network Asia Outreach Fellow Casey Lartigue Jr. has had a remarkable journey during the past few years, going from a well-established career working on education policy at the Cato Institute in Washington, D.C., all the way across the world to South Korea, where he built a new non-gover...
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It’s a natural human impulse to want to help those in need. For many people, it also seems logical to use the mechanisms of government as a primary instrument of aid. Expansive welfare states have destructive unintended consequences, however, keeping people trapped in a cycle of poverty and unfulfilling lives, argue authors Phil...
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Now that U.S. President Barack Obama is in his final year in office, he has the opportunity to use his executive power to make some positive changes — if he chooses. The Cato Institute recently began a video series, titled “What the President Should Do,” explaining a few important things Obama can accomplish to make the United S...
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When countries band together to facilitate increased trade and monetary stability, they have a vast potential for new forms of economic activity and growth. In a recent Cato Institute policy forum, Massimiliano Trovato, a research fellow with Italian Atlas Network partner Istituto Bruno Leoni, argued that although the European U...
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Income inequality is often a focal point for those who view justice in egalitarian terms, but a far bigger problem is a lack of opportunity that often leaves people without hope for a better future. In his book Our Kids: The American Dream in Crisis, political science professor Robert Putnam suggests that government investments...
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One of the leading intellects in educational choice, Cato Institute Senior Fellow Andrew Coulson, passed away this week after battling brain cancer for the past 15 months. In the 1990s, Coulson left a promising career in computer engineering to devote his time and talents to making the case for educational freedom — first wit...
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Atlas Network and many of its partners are among the most highly ranked free-market think tanks in the world, according to the latest edition of the University of Pennsylvania’s Global Go To Think Tank Index, the most widely cited and influential index of think tanks in the world. The Cato Institute, the Heritage Foundation, the...
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For more than five years, Greece has been sliding further into debt and toward the danger of bankruptcy and default. In that time, Greece’s GDP decreased by more than 22 percent from 2009 to 2013, overall unemployment increased from 9 percent to 26 percent, and youth unemployment shot from 24.8 percent to 51.2 percent — with est...
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Freedom of association is a fundamental cornerstone of the ideas of liberty, but mandatory union fees for school teachers have long held many of those teachers captive to an ideological system that they don’t support. The U.S. Supreme Court is currently hearing testimony in Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association (CTA), a...
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In order for the judicial system to protect individual rights effectively, it takes judges who understand the ideas of liberty and the constitutional limits of government power. That’s why it’s so exciting that Clint Bolick, vice president for litigation with Atlas Network partner the Goldwater Institute, has been appointed to t...
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Hong Kong has long served as a worldwide model for the prosperity that can result from economic freedom. Keeping those freedoms intact and working to expand them requires constant vigilance, however, especially when surrounded by a contrary ideological climate. That’s why the work of Atlas Network partner the Lion Rock Institute...
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National security and transparency are issues that have polarized public opinion regarding an individual’s right to privacy. Without warrant or oversight, government agencies track an overwhelming array of personal data. The extent of this surveillance was largely unknown to the public, and even to high-ranking government offici...
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For years, Greece has been sliding further into debt and the danger of bankruptcy and default. The road to renewed prosperity requires a solid commitment from government officials to fiscal responsibility and structural reform. Atlas Network held an Emergency Economic Summit in Athens on May 19 that brought Nobel laureate econom...
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The standard of living in developing countries is increasingly on the rise, and communities that have long been without electricity and related sources of fuel beginning to be connected. A new documentary, Power to the People, produced by Atlas Network partner Free to Choose Media and hosted by author Johan Norberg — who deliver...
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Atlas Network’s Sound Money Project has frequently worked with economists like George Selgin and Lawrence White, who are well known for their work on free banking and monetary policy. Selgin, who began a position as the Cato Institute’s director of the Center for Monetary and Financial Alternatives in October, announced last wee...
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The Cato Institute recently announced that Peter Goettler, a board member of Atlas Network, will serve as its next President and CEO.
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The conventional narrative and data analysis tells us that the rich are getting richer, the poor are getting poorer, and the middle class is withering away. On a recent episode of the Cato Institute’s Daily Podcast, Steven Horwitz, professor of economics at St. Lawrence University, takes aim at this prevailing narrative. The pro...
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In early March, the Ukrainian government announced substantial gas price hikes for households and local, municipally owned heating companies. For families consuming large amounts of gas, the price per cubic meter may increase six-fold, with further increases planned for later this year and early next year.
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The Federal Reserve is supposed to operate free from political bias, so when Fed Chair Janet Yellen met with a group of progressives organized by the Center for Popular Democracy last fall, free-market economists insisted that Yellen needed a more complete picture of how the Federal Reserve’s economic distortions harm low-income...
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One of the biggest obstacles to economic growth in developing nations is the lack of clearly defined and delineated property rights, preventing entrepreneurs from being able to depend on stability, consistency, and recognition under the rule of law. It may seem obvious to view this as a problem requiring a government solution, b...
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The Cato Institute recently launched HumanProgress.org 2.0. HumanProgress.org shows the evidence of humanity's achievements. It is a project of the Cato Institute with major support from the John Templeton Foundation, the Searle Freedom Trust, and the Brinson Foundation.
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The free society lost a great champion on Tuesday, October 14, 2014 when Leonard P. Liggio passed away. I first met Leonard P. Liggio in 1980 at a Mont Pelerin Society (MPS) meeting held at the Hoover Institution. He was standing on the left side of the packed auditorium next to Murray Rothbard, another intellectual giant, much...
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Leonard P. Liggio, Atlas Network’s long-time executive vice president, passed away on October 14, 2014. It’s been very touching to see the outpouring of affection following his death. We knew how beloved Leonard was within the freedom movement, but it remains nothing short of awe-inspiring to see so many tributes to his influenc...
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Atlas Network is saddened by the passing of Carlos Atilio Ball. Ball was a leading Venezuelan journalist and champion for liberty, and he died in exile at his Florida home on July 10, 2014. He was 74. Ball was a Cato Institute scholar, a member of the Mont Pelerin Society and the founder of Inter American Press Association, an o...
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Leszek Balcerowicz, former Deputy Prime Minister of Poland and founder of the Polish think tank Civil Development Forum, received the 2014 Milton Friedman Prize on May 21, 2014 at Cato Institute’s Milton Friedman Prize for Advancing Liberty’s Biennial Dinner held in New York City. During his acceptance speech, Balcerowicz said,...
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Leszek Balcerowicz, former Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister of Poland, will receive the 2014 Milton Friedman Prize for Advancing Liberty, a biennial award presented by Cato Institute to an individual for achievement in promoting freedom and individual liberty.
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