Kibbe on Liberty

Matt Kibbe is joined by Brian McWilliams, co-founder of Lions of Liberty, and Calum Nicholson, visiting fellow at the Danube Institute, to discuss the failures of the technocratic state in managing public health during a pandemic, spreading democracy abroad, and just about everything else. While it’s difficult to find a silver lining in the last two years of chaos, one bright spot may be the revelation to many people that those who wish to design society from the top down really have no idea what they are talking about. The people who hold the levers of power imagine that they know enough to understand, and therefore effectively control, the lives of millions of people, but we now have enough empirical evidence to see very clearly that that is simply not the case.

Matt Kibbe is joined by a tired and slightly hungover Free the People staff under the lights of six Christmas trees to discuss some of the projects that have been keeping them going all year, as well as a look ahead at 2022. These include the award-winning “All We Have,” the story of a family struggling to keep their family business under a constantly changing regime of COVID regulations; a series warning people about how far government emergency powers can really go; and a forthcoming documentary about families who have decided to leave the government school system due to intolerable pandemic policies.

Matt Kibbe is joined by Robert Alt, president and CEO of the Buckeye Institute, to discuss whether there are any effective legal mechanisms to limit government power when both federal and state officials are dedicated to expanding it as much as possible under the rubric of “emergency measures.” Alt points to historical examples of temporary programs that became permanent, how the courts can stop certain unconstitutional programs, and the terrible legal precedents that led us to where we are today.

Matt Kibbe is joined by Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) to discuss the bloated end-of-year budget that always keeps Congress in town right up until Christmas. This year, it’s particularly grim, as the bill contains funding to implement the Biden administration’s unconstitutional vaccine mandate. While many Republicans are hoping the courts will strike down the mandate, this creates a dangerous precedent in which Congress abdicates its responsibility to the voters, ceding that power to unelected judges. While there’s a good chance that the vaccine mandate will not be allowed to stand, it doesn’t excuse the legislative branch from properly fulfilling its role to rein in the executive power of the president.

Matt Kibbe sits down with economist Peter C. Earle to discuss all the policy failures that have led to the Christmas season looking less merry, and more expensive, than it should. From runaway inflation to shipping delays and drops in employment, the Biden administration has shown no signs of understanding the first thing about economics — and is more concerned with virtue signaling than with actually solving the problems facing Americans this December.

Matt Kibbe is joined by Matt Ridley, author of “Viral: The Search for the Origin of COVID-19,” to discuss the constantly shifting media narrative surrounding the coronavirus pandemic, including the once taboo “lab-leak hypothesis.” Ridley runs down the evidence for the hypothesis, including why the original story about Chinese wet markets makes no sense, and addresses the controversy about gain-of-function research. He also lays out the costs — in terms of reputation, harassment, and bullying — that he and his co-author have paid for being willing to contradict the scientific and medical establishment on this issue.

Matt Kibbe sits down with Corey Olsen, president of Signum University, to talk about the ways in which higher education has failed to serve students and adapt to a changing economic and technological environment. Signum was one of the first fully online universities, a model that has proved to be ahead of its time in the aftermath of the pandemic. Online education not only solves the problem of physical distance, but also addresses tuition inflation and the resulting student debt crisis. The ability to innovate around traditional universities is far more productive than policies that simply enable a corrupt and outmoded system. Dr. Olsen is also well known online as the Tolkien Professor, leading Kibbe to probe him about the economics of the Shire.

Matt Kibbe sits down with Antonella Marty, associate director of PR and influencer relations at Atlas Network, to talk about Latin America’s struggles with socialism, nationalism, and organized crime. It’s a frustrating and tragic situation because we know that free markets and light regulation will lead to less poverty and more opportunity, but the governments of countries like Cuba, Venezuela, and Argentina keep making the same mistakes over and over again. Meanwhile, politicians and intellectuals in America continue to admire dictators like Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez, to the point of even wanting to bring their ideas to our own shores.

Matt Kibbe is joined by Jon Miltimore, managing editor at the Foundation for Economic Education, to talk about the reason why America’s supply chain has broken down and what can be done to fix it. By locking down the economy for over a year, the government artificially changed consumer habits while preventing workers from stepping up to meet the excess demand. Now, out of ideas, the Biden administration is simply pumping money into the economy, which doesn’t solve the problem, but does create inflation that is bad for everyone.

Matt Kibbe is joined by Maria C. Werlau, executive director at the Free Society Project, to discuss the popular mythologies surrounding Cuba and its record on human rights. Although American leftists like Michael Moore and Bernie Sanders praise the Cuban system in everything from health care to education, the reality on the ground is much different from what they are allowed to see as tourists and guests of the Cuban government. Rich capitalists from overseas are indeed treated well, but the two-tiered system that rewards political connections is brutal for ordinary Cuban citizens.