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The Foundation for Rational Economics and Education (FREE) is an American libertarian organization. It was founded in 1976 by U.S. Congressman Ron Paul, who led the organization.


Publications

At its inception, the foundation began publication of a monthly newsletter, ''Dr. Ron Paul's Freedom Report'', which claimed 100,000 subscribers by 1984. It also publishes monographs, books, and (since 1997) a new series of the monthly newsletter, ''Ron Paul's Freedom Report'' (also called just ''The Freedom Report''). In 1989, FREE established the National Endowment for Liberty (NEFL) in order to develop programs that take advantage of electronic media. NEFL developed and produced the ''At Issue'' television series that was seen on the
Discovery Network Discovery Channel (known as The Discovery Channel from 1985 to 1995, and often referred to as simply Discovery) is an American cable channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery, a publicly traded company run by CEO David Zaslav. , Discovery Channe ...
and CNBC, which examines American institutional interaction with Constitutional principles. The endowment has received three grants from the Rodney Fund, operated by Mackinac Center for Public Policy board member James Rodney. FREE also has continuously published 30-second radio spots for economic and social-issue education. In 2006, the organization had Form 990 revenue of $632,396 and net assets of $458,996. It is categorized for tax-exempt purposes as "religious organization", "publishing activities", and "television" (National Taxonomy of Exempt Entities). Its publications are distributed by Partners Publishers Group. FREE obtains graphic design services for its newsletters from Mark Elam, as president of M&M Graphics and Advertising; Elam also printed more politically charged newsletters as an officer of the for-profit group Ron Paul & Associates (RP&A).


Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity

The Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity is a project of the foundation, named for Congressman Ron Paul. The institute advocates for a non-interventionist foreign policy and the protection of civil liberties at home.


Activism

The '' New York Times Magazine'' credited FREE as part of the nationwide free-market network which won "one of the stranger Congressional elections of modern times", when Paul defeated incumbent Congressman
Greg Laughlin Gregory Haines Laughlin (born January 21, 1942) is a politician from Texas. He is a former member of the United States House of Representatives. Early life and education Laughlin was born in Bay City, Texas, and was raised in West Columbia, T ...
in 1996. ''Media Transparency'' reported, without further elaboration, that the 9/11 Public Discourse Project was connected with FREE and NEFL. This project, a nonprofit organization of the ten
9/11 Commission The National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, also known as the 9/11 Commission, was set up on November 27, 2002, "to prepare a full and complete account of the circumstances surrounding the September 11 attacks", includi ...
ers, received a $25,000 grant from the Smith Richardson Foundation on December 31, 2004, to allow Commissioner Christopher A. Kojm to "lead an effort to educate the American public on the findings of the 9/11 Commission. He will organize a series of nationwide briefings by the members of the commission at which they will discuss the implications of their findings for U.S. national security." In 2007, FREE published ''A Foreign Policy of Freedom'', a collection of thirty years of Paul's statements on foreign policy. Paul and the book were featured on a crowded '' The Tonight Show'' on October 30, 2007, and host Jay Leno was able to get Paul to autograph his copy after the show. On January 8, 2008, FREE was implicated by James Kirchick in the controversy surrounding several newsletters published in Paul's name, in that they contained language showing "obsession with conspiracies" and "deeply held bigotry". While most of the more serious newsletters were published by RP&A (the for-profit group) between 1987 and 1992, Kirchick also cited the original FREE newsletter's accusations of conspiracy, such as its statement that the
Trilateral Commission The Trilateral Commission is a nongovernmental international organization aimed at fostering closer cooperation between Japan, Western Europe and North America. It was founded in July 1973 principally by American banker and philanthropist David ...
"is no longer known only by those who are knowledgeable about international conspiracies, but is routinely mentioned in the daily news. Evidence of its influence on the Republican and Democratic administrations is all about us." When Paul referred to the "winding down" of the GOP primaries on March 6, 2008, he referred listeners to the continuing fundraising work of FREE and that of his political action committee.


See also

* List of anti-war organizations


References


External links


Foundation for Rational Economics and Education

Organizational Profile
National Center for Charitable Statistics The National Center for Charitable Statistics (NCCS) is a clearing house for information about the nonprofit sector of the U.S. economy. The National Center for Charitable Statistics builds national, state, and regional databases and develops sta ...
( Urban Institute)
Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity homepage
{{DEFAULTSORT:Foundation For Rational Economics And Education Nonpartisan organizations in the United States Ron Paul Political and economic think tanks in the United States Libertarian think tanks Libertarian organizations based in the United States Political and economic research foundations in the United States