Foundation for Economic Education’s Founder, Leonard E. Read,
circa 1978, on How to Advance Liberty. Leonard E. Read was an
American economist and the founder of the Foundation for
Economic Education, which was the first modern free market think
tank in the United States. The Foundation for Economic Education
(FEE), one of the oldest free-market organizations in the United
States, was founded in 1946 by Leonard E. Read to study and
advance the freedom philosophy. FEE’s mission is to offer the
most consistent case for the “first principles” of freedom: the
sanctity of private property, individual liberty, the rule of
law, the free market, and the moral superiority of individual
choice and responsibility over coercion. For decades these
ideals have been ignored to an alarming degree. Despite the end
of the Cold War and the demise of the Soviet Empire, too many
Americans do not seem to appreciate the very concept upon which
the Founding Fathers established the American Republic. After a
stint in the United State