Free to Choose Network

On the major social and political issues of our time, economist, author, and columnist Walter Williams is one of America's most provocative thinkers. He is black, yet he opposes affirmative action. He believes that the Civil Rights Act was a major error, that the minimum wage actually creates unemployment, and that occupational and business licensure and industry regulation work against minorities and others in American business. Perhaps, most importantly, he has come to believe that it has been the welfare state that has done to black Americans what slavery could never do: destroy the black family

New Zealand is a place of great natural beauty and resources, of pioneering immigrants from the Maori to the more recent settlers. They’re fierce, hardy, and strong, able to withstand challenges like the massive economic challenge they faced in the mid 1980’s. With their economy unraveling, they made huge, controversial changes, including doing away with farm subsidies and protectionist import controls. At first, it hurt. A lot. But now, the farmers and the fishers, the people and the economy, are prospering. And they wouldn’t go back to subsidies, special interests, or support for manufacturers. Travel to New Zealand with scholar Johan Norberg to meet some amazing Kiwis and see how they blazed a trail to economic prosperity.

It's been suggested that Americans would be better off if the United States was more like Sweden. Do the Swedes know something that we don't? Sweden: Lessons for America? A Personal Exploration by Johan Norberg delves into the economic and social landscape of the Swedish scholar's homeland. Join him to see that the lessons to be learned from Sweden may not be the ones you expect. The one-hour documentary follows Norberg on a journey through the history of Sweden's economic rise, from one of the poorest countries in the world to one of the most prosperous. The program illuminates key ideas and enterprises that sparked the reform and continue to help Sweden maintain its lofty economic position, including freedom of the press, free trade, new technology companies, crazy jobs and even an old Swedish superhero.

To those who watch television in the developed world, there doesn’t seem to be a better system on earth than the capitalist system. We are experiencing the longest economic expansion in modern history. Soviet Communism has been defeated. But make no mistake, as we will demonstrate in this program, capitalism is surprisingly vulnerable. The moment of capitalism’s greatest triumph is the moment of its greatest crisis, its “Moment of Truth”....

"We Hold These Truths" explores the promise and enduring influence of America’s Declaration of Independence, both at home and around the world.