Foreign Policy

Assessing the Iran Nuclear Deal [Video]

In this interview, ARI’s Elan Journo assesses America’s deal with Iran. Among other things, he discusses the futility of trying to contain Iran’s nuclear program without addressing the broader threat of the Iranian regime, the need to recognize the ideological goals of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and the Obama administration’s false alternative between diplomacy and war.
Government And Business

The Debt Dialogues [Episode 42]: John Tamny on Inequality and CEO Pay

The Debt Dialogues is a weekly podcast that aims to educate young people about the welfare state and how it will affect their future. In this episode, I interview John Tamny, editor of RealClearMarkets, on his new book Popular Economics: What the Rolling Stones, Downton Abbey, and LeBron James Can Teach You About Economics. Topics covered include: why Tamny thinks we should celebrate economic inequality; why great CEOs are actually underpaid; how the death tax harms even those who don’t have to pay it; effective communication of free-market ideas.
Foreign Policy

How to understand America’s deal with Iran

A little more than a week ago, the Obama administration reached a historic agreement with the Islamic Republic of Iran over its nuclear program. How should we evaluate this deal? ARI’s Elan Journo argues not only that this is a “bad deal,” but also that it’s irrational to negotiate with Iran. Why?
Foreign Policy

Iran Nuclear Deal: The Diplomacy-or-War False Alternative

When Obama announced the Iran nuclear deal, he explained the rationale for taking the diplomatic path. There were, he said, three options: negotiate as good a deal as we can get; pull out of the talks; or else take military action against Iran’s nuclear facilities, igniting another Middle East war. Turns out these boil down to only two options, really, since pulling out of talks, according to Obama, would also end up leading to military action. So, if the options are diplomacy versus going to war, you can see why Obama’s case has swayed some people. But that argument hinges on a tendentious framing of the possibilities.
Government And Business

The Debt Dialogues [Episode 41]: Jared Meyer on Washington’s War on the Young

The Debt Dialogues is a weekly podcast that aims to educate young people about the welfare state and how it will affect their future. In this episode, I interview Jared Meyer, a fellow at the Manhattan Institute and co-author of Disinhereted: How Washington Is Betraying America’s Young on how the regulatory-welfare state is harming younger Americans. Topics covered include: the failure of the government education system, the true cost of government entitlements and regulatory barriers to opportunity.
ARI News

Peter Schwartz defends selfishness on C-SPAN

On June 10, 2015, ARI’s Distinguished Fellow Peter Schwartz gave a talk in New York City at the City University of New York’s Graduate Center. In his talk, Peter discussed the ideas in his new book, In Defense of Selfishness: Why the Code of Self-Sacrifice Is Unjust and Destructive. Peter’s talk, which was delivered as a part of ARI’s Road to a Free Society tour, was recorded by C-SPAN and is now available online.

Further Reading

Ayn Rand | 1957
For the New Intellectual

The Moral Meaning of Capitalism

An industrialist who works for nothing but his own profit guiltlessly proclaims his refusal to be sacrificed for the “public good.”
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Ayn Rand | 1961
The Virtue of Selfishness

The Objectivist Ethics

What is morality? Why does man need it? — and how the answers to these questions give rise to an ethics of rational self-interest.
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