This issue of The Freeman examines how New Deal welfarism reshaped American government, tracing the constitutional battles and political pressures that enabled vast redistribution and centralized power. It critiques the expanding quest for a “riskless” society—through deposit insurance, Social Security, price controls, and monetary manipulation—arguing that such guarantees erode stability rather than create it. Additional essays review Murray Rothbard’s The Ethics of Liberty, analyze the ethical and economic failures of mixed economies, and defend the free market as the only system capable of delivering equity and prosperity. A concluding review discusses the rise of the subterranean economy.
