Kibbe on Liberty

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.