As a naturally optimistic person, it vexes me that the word catastrophe has echoed in my mind since early March 2020. It’s the word the great smallpox eradicator Donald Henderson used in his 2006 prediction of the consequences of lockdown, a word that wasn’t around then. His masterful article addressed the idea of travel restrictions, forced human separation, business and school closings, mask mandates, limits on public gatherings, quarantines, and the entire litany of brutality to which we’ve been subjected for nearly a year, all summed up in the word lockdown.

Jan 5, 2021

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Jeffrey A. Tucker

What better way to begin a review of what is an excellent book than to say that the book’s author always knew. It’s as simple as that. Jeffrey Tucker knew in March of 2020 that tragic times were ahead.I remember it vividly. In February of 2020 witless headline writers were trying in vain to tie a falling stock market to a coronavirus that investors had been pricing for many weeks. They revealed their misunderstanding of big market lurches. They’re a consequence of surprise. In February the surprise wasn’t a virus that had been in the news since early January; rather it was the presidential primary success of a since forgotten socialist by the name of Bernie Sanders. Of course, by month’s end Sanders was falling as quickly as he had risen. Stocks soared as a risk-factor to future growth was vanquished. Sanders, as I argue in my upcoming book When Politicians Panicked, was the original “coronavirus.”

Jan 4, 2021

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John Tamny

I was born under the flag of the People’s Republic of China, a country that remains under the absolute rule of the Chinese Communist Party to this day. I have very few memories of my early childhood in mainland China, save for a visit to the Forbidden City—a brief tourist stop when my family traveled to the American consulate in Beijing to apply for a visa.

Dec 11, 2020

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Aaron Tao

Does the sight of a dolphin make you sad? Does the gentle lapping of the sea only make you think of the plastic water-bottle in your hand? Does a sunset fill you with fear and panic? Do you look at the world around you and in the place of wonder see only death?

Nov 17, 2020

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Joel D. Hirst

Arthur Baranovskiy’s family immigrated from Russia when he was only two years old. His goal is to build a business empire and become a philanthropist. And at 23-years-old, he is already a serial entrepreneur and has started investing in The Atlas Society.

Nov 2, 2020

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Leonard A. Robinson

The Great Brain is an excellent collection of children’s books that was written by John D. Fitzgerald, and was said to be loosely based on his life growing up in Adenville, UT. Tom is the “Great Brain” in possession of remarkable skills when it comes to making money while helping out other kids in his somewhat idyllic, early 1900s world.

Oct 28, 2020

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John Tamny

The lockdowns have disproportionately targeted fun. No house parties. No travel. Bowling, bars, Broadway, theater, amusement parks, all banned. Weddings, forget it. Restaurants, hotels, conventions, and even golf were all targeted by the lockdowners.

Oct 26, 2020

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Jeffrey A. Tucker

At first glance, a lot of the social problems and resource waste emerging from government intervention seem pretty easy to fix: the government should just stop doing whatever it is doing that is creating the problems and the waste. The stubborn persistence of institutions and organizations that keep societies poor is a vexing problem for social scientists. In Political Capitalism, the economist Randall Holcombe takes on this problem by analyzing “political capitalism” as a distinct economic system with its own logic and features rather than as some kind of midpoint between capitalism and socialism.

Sep 28, 2020

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Art Carden

"We don’t realistically anticipate that we would be moving to either tier 2 or reopening K-12 schools at least until after the election, in early November.” Those are the words of a west coast health director. No in-person schooling until after the election? Hmmm.Please think about what was said. It reads as kind of a ransom note. Vote for science-reverent candidate Joe Biden, or else….

Sep 21, 2020

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John Tamny

For so many months, it’s been nonstop bad news on business closures, arts trashed, museum shuttering, unemployment, missed surgeries and diagnostics, plus rising loneliness, drug overdoses, depression, and suicide. Every day has been as dark or darker than the previous one.

Sep 3, 2020

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Jeffrey A. Tucker

11 mins

“She was a dangerous woman.”That was the impression Rodrigo Hernandez Mirajes had about Ayn Rand in college. “It was as if she was on a list of banned books,” he recalls. Teachers also dismissed Adam Smith as a crazy, old, white man.

Sep 1, 2020

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5 mins

Why watch COVID press conferences and briefings by politicians? They are just upsetting. These people seem to have no clue about why the virus is ignoring them. They keep issuing strange and arbitrary rules that they make up, change by the day, all enforced by intimidation and compulsion.

Aug 18, 2020

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Jeffrey A. Tucker

5 mins

Parenting is a difficult enterprise, more so when current events throw curveballs in our efforts to foster a benevolent sense of life and the view that the universe is rational and predictable. Here are ten tips to help children cope with their emotional reactions when the world around them is in turmoil.

Aug 16, 2020

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Richard Warshak

7 mins

We are deeply sad to learn that Frank Bond died July 26, age 86, at his home. Frank was a long-time, generous supporter of The Atlas Society.

Aug 12, 2020

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David Kelley Ph.D

7 mins

If the 20th century is known as the Age of Anxiety, the current era may become known as the Age of Depression (with a generous side portion

Aug 7, 2020

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Recent legislators, activists, and education reformers have promised to lead us into a new world of equity. No longer will some groups have

Aug 7, 2020

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It seemed a logical question. They were both in their 60s, and they just met. But she had never been on a cruise.

Aug 3, 2020

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4 Mins

From the beginning of this virus, political elites have used the language of war. The invisible enemy would be contained, suppressed, and...

Jul 27, 2020

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Jeffrey A. Tucker

7 Mins

One big factor was exposed after the 2014 death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., at the hands of police.

Jul 22, 2020

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3 Mins