August 7, 2006 1:43PM # Libertarian Hedges By [David Boaz](https://www.cato.org/people/david-boaz) --- SHARE A [headline ](http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/05/AR2006080500716.html)over a *Washington Post* editorial reads: > Hands Off Hedge Funds > > > Sometimes libertarians deserve to win an argument. Gee, thanks. I’m glad libertarian arguments against over-regulation made sense to the editorial writer in this case. But I’m disappointed in the suggestion that this is a rare occasion. Indeed, I’ll bet the editorial writer agrees with most of the basic ideas that libertarians advocate: private property, markets, the rule of law, limited constitutional government, religious toleration, equality under the law, a society based on merit and contract not status, free speech, free trade, individual rights, peace. In the West we live in a liberal world, and in the United States we call liberalism “libertarianism.” (When Americans say “liberalism,” they mean the welfare state.) The *Post’s* disagreements with libertarianism are really less rare than the headline suggests; they involve how often and how much national policy should deviate from the basic principles we already agree on. Cross-posted from [Comment is free.](http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/david_boaz/2006/08/debating_deviations.html) ##### Related Tags [General](https://www.cato.org/general) [![Creative Commons License](/build/cato_2020/images/creative-commons.svg)](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) This work is licensed under a [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/).