Articles

The idea of capping interest rates on non-bank consumer loans has returned to the Czech political agenda. The intention is unimpeachable: protect financially vulnerable people from predatory lenders and prevent debt spirals. Nobody serious disputes that goal. However, will the rate cap actually solve the problem it claims to address?

Platform workers in the Czech Republic are not, by and large, a captive workforce in need of rescue. They are people who have made a rational choice to work flexibly, on their own schedule, for income that suits their circumstances. Good regulation should make that choice safer and more transparent. It should not make it impossible.

One of the most important books in the history of democracy and constitutionalism – The Federalist, written by Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison – has been published in Polish for the first time.

For decades, Sweden has been presented as a proof of the superiority of the welfare state. In reality, its success tells a different story: one of liberalization, a crisis caused by excessive public-sector expansion, and a return to market pragmatism.

The government’s acceptance of more than 190 deregulation proposals was good news. Yet, the overall balance of this “year of deregulation” shows that Poland still lacks a coherent philosophy of lawmaking. Deregulation should not consist of isolated corrections implemented while new, unstable, and excessive regulations are produced at the same time.

The February issue of the 4liberty.eu Newsletter provides an overview of the articles published on the 4liberty.eu website, serving as a starting point for further exploration.

At the end of 2025, Lithuania’s Parliament adopted amendments to the unemployment insurance system intended to strengthen incentives for a faster return to the labor market. However, according to the LFM, the fundamental problem remains unresolved: for the fourth consecutive year, Lithuania records the highest unemployment trap rate in the European Union, and remains the only EU country where this indicator exceeds 100 percent.

From tax reform to the launch of a major defence manufacturing project, 2025 has been a year of consequential economic decisions in Lithuania. Yet the underlying themes – competitiveness, fiscal discipline and personal responsibility – are not uniquely Lithuanian. They resonate across Europe and beyond.

The year 2025 was decisive for Lithuania – not only geopolitically, but economically. Defence spending increased significantly, while tax and pension reforms reshaped the policy landscape. Yet beneath these headline decisions lies a deeper question, one that extends far beyond Lithuania: are we strengthening the foundations of long-term prosperity, or shifting responsibility ever further towards the state?

How is the Iranian society coping with the crackdown on the protests? What is the current state of the regime and its prospects for the future? Who is Reza Pahlavi and what might be his role in the near future? And how do Iranians view the U.S. intervention in their affairs? Leszek Jazdzewski talks with Touska Gholami Khaljiri, an Iranian women’s and children’s rights activist and researcher based in Łódź, Poland.