Kibbe On Liberty

Concluding a series focusing on different points of view on the Israel-Palestine conflict, Matt Kibbe is joined by three members of the Israeli liberty movement for firsthand accounts of what it’s really like to live in the midst of war. Moshe Gorin and Lior Abutbul of the Kohelet Policy Forum, along with Boaz Arad of the Ayn Rand Center Israel, share their experiences surrounding October 7, Israel’s response to the attacks, and whether the policies of the local government contributed to a lack of preparedness.

In this latest in a series of conversations highlighting different perspectives on the Israel-Palestine conflict, Matt Kibbe talks to Sheldon Richman, author of Coming to Palestine and executive editor at the Libertarian Institute. Richman argues that it's possible to feel empathy for the tragedy of the October 7th attacks on Israel, without having to support American involvement in the war or the policies of the Israeli government. While there is a tendency to equate any criticism of Israel or support for the Palestinian people with antisemitism, Richman points out that the Jewish community has itself been historically divided on the question of Zionism, rendering such accusations patently ridiculous.

When COVID lockdowns were imposed, the focus by policymakers was on protecting the citizens of developed countries from the virus. While they failed to do this, they also neglected to consider the impact of people struggling with poverty around the world. David Malpass, former president of the World Bank, talks with Matt Kibbe about how lockdowns created grievous harms for people living in developing countries. This does not just include economic hardship, but also impacted the development of children, health, nutrition, and death rates. It’s ironic that many of the people who claim to care most about helping the poor turned a blind eye to these damages in their uncritical support of lockdown policies.

The international monetary system is a mess, but how did it get that way? In large part, it is due to a deal that was cut in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, in 1944. At the scene of the crime 80 years later, Matt Kibbe sits down with economics professor Larry White to dissect how the pre-World War I stable gold standard was transformed into one of fiat currencies that encourage overborrowing, overspending, and the rampant inflation we are seeing today.

Following the horrific attacks on October 7, the war between Israel and Hamas has sparked a heated debate about whether the Israeli government’s response has been appropriate and what role, if any, the West should play in supporting the Israeli cause. In a series of conversations with people holding diverse views on this topic, Matt Kibbe sits down with Craig Biddle, founder and director of the Objective Standard Institute. Biddle argues that Israel is a society that respects the rights of its citizens in a way that the surrounding Islamic theocracies simply do not and that Western liberals have an obligation to support societies that stand up for human freedom. He rejects the non-interventionist claim that this is a regional conflict and none of America’s business but say rather that it is a battle between civilization and savagery in which we all have a stake.

Following a series of highly visible (and highly embarrassing) congressional hearings with the heads of major universities, the debate over what speech should be permitted on college campuses has reignited. Matt Kibbe sits down with Greg Lukianoff, president and CEO of FIRE and author of "The Canceling of the American Mind," to discuss cancel culture and the hypocrisy of college administrators who are fine with allowing vocal anti-Semitism while also maintaining a “speech is violence” attitude toward more conservative opinions.

Israel is the new Ukraine! As Congress shifts its interest from funding a war against Russia to funding a war against Hamas, there are few people in Washington willing to push back against reckless spending, even though our own national debt is spiraling out of control. Thomas Massie is one such voice, although his principled commitment to fiscal responsibility has earned him plenty of animosity, including but not limited to accusations of antisemitism. He sits down with Matt Kibbe to defend his votes, and highlight how America’s overspending is the greatest threat to our own national security.

Are the teachings of Christianity compatible with libertarianism? Economist Deirdre McCloskey thinks so. At the Mont Pelerin Society conference in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, she sits down with Matt Kibbe to lay out her vision of a Christian libertarianism that values the individual over the collective, embraces markets, and demands that we treat each other with kindness, humility, and love. These lessons are more important than ever in a time when politics is dominated by division and hatred.

As America continues to experience painfully high levels of inflation, the need for a sound money supply that serves as a reliable store of value has never been clearer. At the Mont Pelerin Society meeting in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, Matt Kibbe sits down with economist Judy Shelton, author of "Good as Gold: How to Unleash the Power of Sound Money." Shelton argues that the appeal of a gold-backed currency is in the trust people hold in a time-tested finite resource that cannot be abused by an activist central bank.

In the second of a series of interviews conducted at the Mont Pelerin Society in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, Matt Kibbe is joined by Daniel D’Amico, director for the Stephenson Institute of Classical Liberalism to discuss the much maligned and abused L-word. Liberalism in its classical sense conveys a respect for individualism, personal freedom, and limited government. Despite its co-option by progressive leftists, it remains a better word, both etymologically and aesthetically, to describe the kind of world those at the Mont Pelerin Society are fighting for. While many people are enamored with more collectivist ideas like socialism these days, liberalism remains the standard by which countries are judged. If you go looking for justice, prosperity, freedom, and happiness, you will find it in those societies that are the most liberal in their construction.

In the first of a series of interviews conducted at the Mont Pelerin Society in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, Matt Kibbe is joined by Daniel Hannan, member of the House of Lords in the United Kingdom. From his perspective across the pond, Hannan has a typically British pessimism about the prospects for freedom in the post-COVID world. As an outspoken critic of lockdowns, he witnessed a public tolerance for authoritarianism he had previously not thought possible. The terrifying thing about COVID policies was that they were not imposed by governments on an unwilling public but were welcomed and even demanded by many people. That’s a big hurdle to overcome if we want to build a freer society.

Generations of development economists, non-profit leaders, and charitable organizations have struggled to understand why Africa lags so stubbornly behind the Western world in terms of living standards. Explanations have focused on the continent's geography, its history, and its people, but Magatte Wade, author of "The Heart of a Cheetah," has a different tale. She tells Matt Kibbe that the solution to African poverty lies not in combatting poverty, but in promoting prosperity through stronger, more liberal institutions, better protection of property rights, and more freedom.

The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was designed to prevent the church from running the government and vice versa. In contrast to European countries where church and state were synonymous, America was founded on the belief that people should be free to practice any faith they chose, and the result is one of the most diverse religious landscapes in the world. Matt Kibbe sits down with Logan Albright, head writer for Free the People and author of “Libertarian Paganism: Freedom and Responsibility in Nature-Based Spirituality,” to discuss one of the fastest-growing religions in America and what its values have in common with libertarian ideals of individual freedom, non-violence, privacy, and personal responsibility.

The term “conspiracy theory” has long been used to dismiss ideas as the unhinged ravings of paranoid lunatics. But it’s naïve to assume that people never conspire and that there are no plots going on behind the scenes. As we learn more about the inner workings of government, it’s increasingly clear that not all conspiracy theories are crazy and some are actually true. Matt Kibbe is joined by Connor Boyack, author of “The Tuttle Twins Guide to True Conspiracies,” to discuss some of the documented historical examples of the U.S. government’s sinister machinations, diabolical experiments, and human rights abuses, from Project Mockingbird to MK Ultra.

The government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic was built on lies — from the origin of the virus to the effectiveness of facemasks. No one has been more vigilant in exposing those lies than Sen. Rand Paul. In his new book “Deception: The Great COVID Cover-Up,” Sen. Paul brings the receipts on the worst public policy failure and power grab of our lifetimes. Matt Kibbe hosts an exclusive livestreamed conversation during which the senator discusses his book and answers questions from the audience. Signed copies of Sen. Paul’s book can be obtained at https://premierecollectibles.com/deception

The public response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the ensuing government lockdowns was a shocking wake-up call to many of us about the nature of our fellow human beings. The acceptance and even embrace of totalitarian policies took us by surprise, but it’s not that hard to understand through the lens of collective hysteria. Matt Kibbe is joined by researcher and entrepreneur Mark Changizi to analyze the ways in which crowds can be dumber than individuals and how groupthink can lead to horrific outcomes.

From the 24-hour news cycle to constant doom-scrolling on social media, the world is awash in negative thinking and the mentality that the next crisis is right around the corner. Matt Kibbe is joined by John Tierney, senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, to discuss how this kind of thinking leaves us vulnerable to surrendering our civil liberties to authoritarians eager to take advantage of emergencies, real or imagined. Tierney preaches skepticism on everything from the government narrative on COVID to the pervasive idea that 21st-century America is an oppressive, misogynistic patriarchy and urges viewers not to just accept what they are told by so-called experts.

Why is the Biden administration now recommending that Americans drink no more than two beers a week? Blame Canada! Canadian public health policies, crafted by neo-prohibitionist advocacy groups, are trickling down into the United States and making their way into public policy, flying in the face of the medical literature on moderate alcohol consumption. They are also stunningly hypocritical coming from a government that knowingly drove up the rates of alcoholism and substance abuse by locking people in their homes during the COVID-19 pandemic, closing gyms, parks, and churches while leaving liquor stores open. Matt Kibbe talks to David Clement from the Consumer Choice Center about where these guidelines come from and why they are such a bad idea, both from the perspective of sound medical advice and good old-fashioned American freedom.

President Franklin Delano Roosevelt is generally lionized as one of the great American presidents, having been elected an unprecedented four times and seeing the nation through the Great Depression and the Second World War, as well as creating some of the most enduring features of the modern welfare state. But was FDR really a hero of the people, or did his policies irrevocably damage the civil liberties and individual freedoms of American citizens? Matt Kibbe is joined by David T. Beito, author of the new book “The New Deal’s War on the Bill of Rights,” to discuss FDR’s enthusiasm for internment camps for Japanese-Americans, domestic surveillance, and homophobic witch hunts. As Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, and Abraham Lincoln fall under the scrutiny of modern-day culture warriors, maybe it’s time we took a second look at the complex legacy of America’s 32nd president.

As Argentina prepares for its general presidential election, everyone is surprised at the emergence of Javier Milei, a self-described anarcho-capitalist who managed to win his party’s primary. Milei is campaigning against his country’s rampant inflation caused by the central bank’s monetary policy and proposes laissez-faire economic policies inspired by the Austrian school of economics. As a populist rabble-rouser, Milei has been compared to Donald Trump, but with an apparent commitment to reducing the size and scope of government. Matt Kibbe is joined by Federico Fernandez, president of Fundación Internacional Bases, to discuss whether Milei has a chance of winning and whether his rhetoric should be taken seriously.