Publications

Articles, initiatives, bulletins, news and audiovisual materials carried out by ILE to promote and advance the values ​​of economic freedom and free markets in Puerto Rico and around the world.

Essays and Reports

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Essays

Juan Lara

Nicole
Free Enterprise

What is free enterprise? What role does it play in the economy and how does it relate to economic liberty? Why do different ways of interfering with free enterprise persist? What problems can interference with free enterprise cause? Under what circumstances is limiting the space for free enterprise justified?

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Essays

Dick M. Carpenter II

Nicole
The Birthright of Economic Liberty

Economic liberty—the right to earn an honest living—is one of the most important rights of free people. Over time, this right has been restricted by unnecessary laws and regulations. Legislators should govern from a presumption of liberty. Applied practically, this means legislators should presume individuals have the right to practice their chosen occupations free from government regulation unless and until systematic evidence shows this right must be curtailed to protect the public.

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Essays

Ángel Carrión-Tavárez

Nicole
The Situation of Puerto Rico in the First Half of the 20th Century

How did Puerto Rico come to its current situation? What does the future hold for the Island’s economy? Why is it important to talk about the free market, free enterprise, individual liberties and responsibilities, private property rights and law and order in Puerto Rico? These and other questions are some of the issues we address in this section about Puerto Rico’s past, present and potential future.

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Essays

Ojel L. Rodríguez Burgos

Nicole
Freedom and the Rule of Law

The word freedom is used constantly, but little understood; to understand it, it is important to see the State as a civil association of individuals, where different ways of living and purposes coexist. This coexistence depends on a rule of law, which allows individuals to pursue their conception of the good life consistent with the rules of the association. The freedom requires a rule of law, which allows free action and cooperation of individuals in the market and thus benefits the economy.

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Ojel L. Rodríguez Burgos

Nicole
Necessity Has Triumphed over Desire

Liberalism is the political doctrine that built and dominates our modern world; yet the liberalism of desire that fostered the construction of this world has been transformed into a liberalism of necessity—a liberalism that constructs politics as a dichotomy between oppressors and victims. This kind of politics requires the power of the State to save individuals from victimhood; however, only the individual acting freely can mitigate their suffering.

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Articles and OpEd

Agricultura de libre mercado en Nueva Zelanda
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Chris Edwards
Luis
New Zealand’s Free Market Farming

After a difficult period of adjustment in the 1980s, New Zealand agricultural productivity quadrupled.

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Hayek y la libertad
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Articles
Steven Horwitz
Luis
Hayek and Freedom

A few years ago, I had the opportunity to look through a transcription of a set of note cards that F. A. Hayek kept through the latter years of his life. It was fascinating to see how he wrote for himself and to get glimpses of ideas that would later be more fully fleshed out. One theme that emerges in those cards, and that has been pervasive over Hayek’s career, is his understanding of freedom. It is a nuanced and sophisticated conception of human freedom that differentiates itself from the ways the term is used by the left and the right. Classical liberals should understand Hayek’s view of freedom, and its connection to tradition and the coordinating role of institutions, to avoid the problems that confront other conceptions of freedom.

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La promesa del individualismo
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Articles
Erec Smith
Luis
The Promise of Individualism

There is no such thing as a panacea; few things are actual cure‐​alls in themselves, especially when it pertains to social issues. However, the closest thing to a panacea for contemporary social injustice—both actual and perceived—is the concept of individualism. It is the closest foil to what is, arguably, the most dangerous aspect of critical social justice activism: race fatalism, i.e., the idea that especially minoritized groups have no locus of control and are at the mercy of their hegemonic oppressors.

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Lula Rousseff narrativas
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Articles
Manuel Hinds
Luis
Lula, Rousseff and narratives

In a few years, the populists of the Sao Paulo Forum used well-wrought tales to resurrect the greatest failure of a power system, communism, in a triumphant march to take over Latin America. Now he is using his "narrative" powers to help Putin, a classic fascist, to re-integrate fascism with the extreme left and right in the region. And he, convicted of corruption, free on procedural grounds, takes great pride in his ability to put together narratives that hide reality.

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trampa de la pobreza
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OpEd
Jorge L. Rodríguez
Luis
Congress Can Help Puerto Rico Escape the Food Stamp Poverty Trap

Each year, the U.S. Congress allocates over $400 million for food assistance to support more than 250,000 residents of Puerto Rico who are able-bodied adults without dependents, and are between the ages of 18 and 54. Notably, this financial assistance does not come with a work obligation. Congress does not apply this approach to any of the 50 states, the District of Columbia, or even to Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Beneficiaries of nutritional assistance in these jurisdictions are under the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP), which includes a work requirement. It's time to bring Puerto Rico into the same program.

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With your help, we will promote the ideals of individual liberty and responsibility, the rule of law, private property, and effective and accountable government to increase opportunity in Puerto Rico and enable prosperity for all.

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