The financial collapse proves that its ideology makes no sense.

"What is Libertarianism? - a critic's view"

In April 2006, the Pew Research Center published a study suggesting that 9 percent of Americans -- more than enough to swing every presidential election since 1988 -- espouse a "libertarian" ideology that opposes "government regulation in both the economic and the social spheres." That is, a good chunk of your fellow citizens are fiscally conservative and socially liberal; in bumper-stickerese, they love their countrymen but distrust their government.

Matt Ridley raged against the government - until he needed £16 billion

Some economic game theory suggests we may be.

Charles Murray on Immigration [John Derbyshire]Several readers emailed in after my "Libertarianism in One Country" piece yesterday to ask what Charles Murray's current views on immigration policy are. I posted to The Corner that I didn't know, but that Charles—a self-declared libertarian—was welcome to tell us if he felt like doing so.He did, and sent me the following, posted here with his permission.

While most will not accept the entire positions of left-libertarians or anarchists, they do make a number of points about libertarianism and capitalism which are both interesting and telling.

But there are other libertarian positions, such as that against anti-discrimination laws, which shock the conscience; like Hayek, I believe that there are things worth doing that the free market cannot do. Here then, is an attempt to outline what is good about libertarianism, and then contrast what doesn't make sense. The conclusion I draw is that like most human belief systems, libertarianism mixes practicality with some idealism unrelated to human nature. Therefore, as much as I sympathize with most of the diagnoses and some of the prescriptions, I am not a libertarian.