On Thursday, the Senate HELP Committee is set to vote on the nomination of Lori Chavez-DeRemer, Trump’s pick for Labor Secretary. Chavez-DeRemer was a Republican representative from Oregon who made a name for herself for being very pro-labor union compared to other members of her party.Trump’s nomination of Chavez-DeRemer is seen as one part of a broader political shift that now paints the GOP as a party chiefly concerned with the well-being of the American working class. Because the last five decades—at least—can largely be defined by both parties racing to find new ways to transfer wealth away from the American working class and into the pockets of government officials, progressive intellectuals, and the politically-connected rich at home and abroad, a
Read More »Articles by Connor O'Keeffe
The New GOP-Organized Labor Alliance Will Not Help the Working Classes
29 days agoOn Thursday, the Senate HELP Committee is set to vote on the nomination of Lori Chavez-DeRemer, Trump’s pick for Labor Secretary. Chavez-DeRemer was a Republican representative from Oregon who made a name for herself for being very pro-labor union compared to other members of her party.Trump’s nomination of Chavez-DeRemer is seen as one part of a broader political shift that now paints the GOP as a party chiefly concerned with the well-being of the American working class. Because the last five decades—at least—can largely be defined by both parties racing to find new ways to transfer wealth away from the American working class and into the pockets of government officials, progressive intellectuals, and the politically-connected rich at home and abroad, a
Read More »The New GOP-Organized Labor Alliance Will Not Help the Working Class
29 days agoWhat is the Mises Institute?
The Mises Institute is a non-profit organization that exists to promote teaching and research in the Austrian School of economics, individual freedom, honest history, and international peace, in the tradition of Ludwig von Mises and Murray N. Rothbard. Non-political, non-partisan, and non-PC, we advocate a radical shift in the intellectual climate, away from statism and toward a private property order. We believe that our foundational ideas are of permanent value, and oppose all efforts at compromise, sellout, and amalgamation of these ideas with fashionable political, cultural, and social doctrines inimical to their spirit.
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Read More »The New GOP-Organized Labor Alliance Will Not Help the Working Class
29 days agoWhat is the Mises Institute?
The Mises Institute is a non-profit organization that exists to promote teaching and research in the Austrian School of economics, individual freedom, honest history, and international peace, in the tradition of Ludwig von Mises and Murray N. Rothbard. Non-political, non-partisan, and non-PC, we advocate a radical shift in the intellectual climate, away from statism and toward a private property order. We believe that our foundational ideas are of permanent value, and oppose all efforts at compromise, sellout, and amalgamation of these ideas with fashionable political, cultural, and social doctrines inimical to their spirit.
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Read More »The Establishment’s “Principles” Are Fake
December 18, 2024What is the Mises Institute?
The Mises Institute is a non-profit organization that exists to promote teaching and research in the Austrian School of economics, individual freedom, honest history, and international peace, in the tradition of Ludwig von Mises and Murray N. Rothbard. Non-political, non-partisan, and non-PC, we advocate a radical shift in the intellectual climate, away from statism and toward a private property order. We believe that our foundational ideas are of permanent value, and oppose all efforts at compromise, sellout, and amalgamation of these ideas with fashionable political, cultural, and social doctrines inimical to their spirit.
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Read More »The Establishment’s “Principles” Are Fake
December 18, 2024In the years leading up to the 2024 presidential election, the Democrats and establishment Republicans who wanted to see Joe Biden, and later Kamala Harris, remain in office went all in on one overarching narrative above all: that Donald Trump represented an existential threat to American democracy. Biden’s team and their allies in politics and media repeated this claim day after day, essentially trying to convince millions of Americans that elections would literally stop happening in this country if Trump won.Taking a step back, Trump was framed as the domestic enemy in a broader international fight that saw “autocratic” leaders like Russian President Vladimir Putin, former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, and others
Read More »The Context Behind Donald Trump’s “Takeover” of the American Right
December 15, 2024What is the Mises Institute?
The Mises Institute is a non-profit organization that exists to promote teaching and research in the Austrian School of economics, individual freedom, honest history, and international peace, in the tradition of Ludwig von Mises and Murray N. Rothbard. Non-political, non-partisan, and non-PC, we advocate a radical shift in the intellectual climate, away from statism and toward a private property order. We believe that our foundational ideas are of permanent value, and oppose all efforts at compromise, sellout, and amalgamation of these ideas with fashionable political, cultural, and social doctrines inimical to their spirit.
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Read More »Progressivism and the Murder of a Health Insurance CEO
December 11, 2024What is the Mises Institute?
The Mises Institute is a non-profit organization that exists to promote teaching and research in the Austrian School of economics, individual freedom, honest history, and international peace, in the tradition of Ludwig von Mises and Murray N. Rothbard. Non-political, non-partisan, and non-PC, we advocate a radical shift in the intellectual climate, away from statism and toward a private property order. We believe that our foundational ideas are of permanent value, and oppose all efforts at compromise, sellout, and amalgamation of these ideas with fashionable political, cultural, and social doctrines inimical to their spirit.
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Read More »Progressivism and the Murder of a Health Insurance CEO
December 10, 2024Last week, UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was shot to death on a New York City sidewalk in what was clearly a thoroughly planned-out attack. Over the next few days, as authorities hunted for the killer, online progressives did not try hard to hide their delight that a millionaire health insurance executive like Thompson was killed.Social media was flooded with posts and videos—with different ranges of subtlety—suggesting that Thompson, at the very least, did not deserve to be mourned because of all the health care his company has denied to poor and working people. Progressives framed the shooting as an act of self-defense on behalf of the working class. Before the alleged killer was caught Monday, they promised not to snitch if they saw the shooter themselves
Read More »The FBI Has Been Political from the Start
December 4, 2024On Saturday night, Donald Trump announced he intends to appoint Kash Patel as director of the FBI. The news sparked an immediate frenzy from establishment figures across media and politics. Legal and national security “experts” were deployed to the Sunday morning news shows to characterize the move as evidence that Trump intends to politicize the FBI and use it as a weapon against his many political opponents.The political establishment’s concerns about what a Trump FBI could do mirror a lot of what we’ve heard from the right in recent years as they found themselves in the Bureau’s crosshairs.But almost all of these complaints and warnings have operated under the assumption that—with maybe the exception of a few bad episodes in the 1960s—the FBI has long been an
Read More »The Establishment Media Is Unaware of Its Growing Irrelevance
December 1, 2024What is the Mises Institute?
The Mises Institute is a non-profit organization that exists to promote teaching and research in the Austrian School of economics, individual freedom, honest history, and international peace, in the tradition of Ludwig von Mises and Murray N. Rothbard. Non-political, non-partisan, and non-PC, we advocate a radical shift in the intellectual climate, away from statism and toward a private property order. We believe that our foundational ideas are of permanent value, and oppose all efforts at compromise, sellout, and amalgamation of these ideas with fashionable political, cultural, and social doctrines inimical to their spirit.
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Read More »Don’t Sell DOGE Short—Yet
November 27, 2024What is the Mises Institute?
The Mises Institute is a non-profit organization that exists to promote teaching and research in the Austrian School of economics, individual freedom, honest history, and international peace, in the tradition of Ludwig von Mises and Murray N. Rothbard. Non-political, non-partisan, and non-PC, we advocate a radical shift in the intellectual climate, away from statism and toward a private property order. We believe that our foundational ideas are of permanent value, and oppose all efforts at compromise, sellout, and amalgamation of these ideas with fashionable political, cultural, and social doctrines inimical to their spirit.
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Read More »Don’t Sell DOGE Short—Yet
November 27, 2024When he returns to the White House early next year, President-elect Donald Trump plans to appoint Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to head a new Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE. While not an official federal department, the Administration’s plans for DOGE are similar to the Grace Commission under Ronald Reagan and the “Reinventing Government,” or “REGO,” initiative under Bill Clinton. The president will task Musk and Ramaswamy’s team with researching, developing, testing, and writing up actionable steps for Trump and his team to effectively cut government spending and federal regulations.In an op-ed last week, Musk and Ramaswamy laid out some initial plans for tackling the bureaucratic behemoth in Washington. They point to two recent Supreme Court
Read More »It’s Good to be Skeptical of Elections
November 26, 2024What is the Mises Institute?
The Mises Institute is a non-profit organization that exists to promote teaching and research in the Austrian School of economics, individual freedom, honest history, and international peace, in the tradition of Ludwig von Mises and Murray N. Rothbard. Non-political, non-partisan, and non-PC, we advocate a radical shift in the intellectual climate, away from statism and toward a private property order. We believe that our foundational ideas are of permanent value, and oppose all efforts at compromise, sellout, and amalgamation of these ideas with fashionable political, cultural, and social doctrines inimical to their spirit.
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Read More »President Biden Gives the Green Light to an Act of War against Russia
November 20, 2024What is the Mises Institute?
The Mises Institute is a non-profit organization that exists to promote teaching and research in the Austrian School of economics, individual freedom, honest history, and international peace, in the tradition of Ludwig von Mises and Murray N. Rothbard. Non-political, non-partisan, and non-PC, we advocate a radical shift in the intellectual climate, away from statism and toward a private property order. We believe that our foundational ideas are of permanent value, and oppose all efforts at compromise, sellout, and amalgamation of these ideas with fashionable political, cultural, and social doctrines inimical to their spirit.
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Read More »President Biden Gives the Green Light to an Act of War against Russia
November 20, 2024On Sunday, news broke that President Joe Biden has authorized Ukraine to use long-range American missiles to strike deeper into Russian territory. After the US gave Ukraine the greenlight to strike targets on the Russian side of the border earlier this year, the Ukrainian government and its biggest cheerleaders in Washington have been pressuring the president to support longer-range strikes—especially after Ukraine launched its invasion of Russia’s Kursk region. Sunday, they got their wish. On Tuesday, the first missile was launched at a target in Russia’s Bryansk region. This move has many in the West concerned. Back in September, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered a change to Russia’s nuclear doctrine. According to the changes, the Kremlin now considers an
Read More »The Context Behind Donald Trump’s “Takeover” of the American Right
November 13, 2024Donald Trump’s victory in last week’s election reinforced the impression that he and his followers have “taken over” the Republican party. The campaign saw Republicans like Liz and Dick Cheney switch sides and back the Democratic nominee, Kamala Harris. Now—after Trump won a second term—the right is locked in an impassioned struggle to pressure the president-elect to appoint some Republicans to important executive roles and to freeze others out of the administration entirely.While it is often framed in the media as a battle between principled conservatives on the one hand and an angry, non-ideological movement focused solely on personal loyalty to Trump on the other, the current civil war on the American right is only the latest chapter in a much older story.To
Read More »Why Trump’s Victory Matters, and Why It Doesn’t
November 6, 2024Donald Trump is the projected winner of the 2024 presidential election. After winning back states he had lost in 2020, Trump performed well in Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania—states Kamala Harris needed to win. Trump has won more than enough electoral votes to win back the White House and, as of early Wednesday morning, is projected to win the popular vote. Republicans have also retaken control of the Senate. Control over the House of Representatives is still up for grabs but, so far, Republicans are on pace to take that too. Trump’s win represents another major and well-deserved repudiation of the Washington establishment. In 2016, Republican voters decisively rejected Jeb Bush—the establishment’s chosen GOP candidate—and sent Donald Trump to the White
Read More »Why Trump’s Victory Matters, and Why It Doesn’t
November 6, 2024What is the Mises Institute?
The Mises Institute is a non-profit organization that exists to promote teaching and research in the Austrian School of economics, individual freedom, honest history, and international peace, in the tradition of Ludwig von Mises and Murray N. Rothbard. Non-political, non-partisan, and non-PC, we advocate a radical shift in the intellectual climate, away from statism and toward a private property order. We believe that our foundational ideas are of permanent value, and oppose all efforts at compromise, sellout, and amalgamation of these ideas with fashionable political, cultural, and social doctrines inimical to their spirit.
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Read More »The Establishment Media is Unaware of its Growing Irrelevance
October 30, 2024Last week, the news media went ballistic after the owners of the Los Angeles Times and Washington Post blocked each paper’s editorial boards from formally endorsing Kamala Harris for president. The Times editorial editor resigned in protest. Two other members of the editorial board followed her lead. Two Washington Post columnists resigned as well to signal their disapproval of the move, and many readers from both publications have reportedly canceled their subscriptions in response.Journalists Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, who are famous for reporting on Watergate while working at the Washington Post, released a statement stating their disappointment. Former executive editor Martin Baron called the decision “cowardice, with democracy as its casualty.” Nineteen
Read More »It’s Good to Be Skeptical of Elections
October 25, 2024What is the Mises Institute?
The Mises Institute is a non-profit organization that exists to promote teaching and research in the Austrian School of economics, individual freedom, honest history, and international peace, in the tradition of Ludwig von Mises and Murray N. Rothbard. Non-political, non-partisan, and non-PC, we advocate a radical shift in the intellectual climate, away from statism and toward a private property order. We believe that our foundational ideas are of permanent value, and oppose all efforts at compromise, sellout, and amalgamation of these ideas with fashionable political, cultural, and social doctrines inimical to their spirit.
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Read More »Beware of War Hawks in “America First” Clothing
October 16, 2024For the past eight years, the two major political parties have been gripped by a messy and ongoing realignment. It began with the election of Donald Trump in 2016, which was a major repudiation of the neoconservative-establishment coalition that had dominated the Republican Party since the presidency of George W. Bush.Trump’s condemnation of the war in Iraq—which he correctly said was sold on lies—and his skepticism of continuing to fund radical Islamists in a misguided attempt to overthrow the government in Syria drove some of the staunchest Bush-era neoconservatives to leave the Republican Party and do everything they could to keep Trump out of power. It didn’t work.Trump’s four years in office only accelerated the realignment. By the time the 2020 election
Read More »Hurricanes Are Not Going Away; We Must Double Down on What’s Making Them More Survivable
October 9, 2024What is the Mises Institute?
The Mises Institute is a non-profit organization that exists to promote teaching and research in the Austrian School of economics, individual freedom, honest history, and international peace, in the tradition of Ludwig von Mises and Murray N. Rothbard. Non-political, non-partisan, and non-PC, we advocate a radical shift in the intellectual climate, away from statism and toward a private property order. We believe that our foundational ideas are of permanent value, and oppose all efforts at compromise, sellout, and amalgamation of these ideas with fashionable political, cultural, and social doctrines inimical to their spirit.
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Read More »Hurricanes Are Not Going Away; We Must Double Down on What’s Making Them More Survivable
October 9, 2024Two weeks ago, Hurricane Helene slammed into the Deep South and parts of Appalachia, bringing devastating floods to a region often spared from strong hurricanes. A variety of factors combined to make Helene an especially dangerous storm. First, it formed over the Gulf of Mexico, where waters tend to be warmer than the Atlantic. Second, the globe is currently experiencing a transition to La Niña conditions where unusually cold ocean temperatures in the Pacific bring about all sorts of effects on the weather.Specifically, as it relates to hurricanes, La Niñas decrease what’s known as vertical wind shear over the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico. Think of vertical wind shear as the difference in wind between the surface and higher altitudes. The reduced vertical wind
Read More »The Second Trump Shooter Believed Exactly What the Establishment Media Wanted Him to Believe
October 7, 2024What is the Mises Institute?
The Mises Institute is a non-profit organization that exists to promote teaching and research in the Austrian School of economics, individual freedom, honest history, and international peace, in the tradition of Ludwig von Mises and Murray N. Rothbard. Non-political, non-partisan, and non-PC, we advocate a radical shift in the intellectual climate, away from statism and toward a private property order. We believe that our foundational ideas are of permanent value, and oppose all efforts at compromise, sellout, and amalgamation of these ideas with fashionable political, cultural, and social doctrines inimical to their spirit.
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Read More »America Doesn’t Need More “Efficient” Government
October 3, 2024What is the Mises Institute?
The Mises Institute is a non-profit organization that exists to promote teaching and research in the Austrian School of economics, individual freedom, honest history, and international peace, in the tradition of Ludwig von Mises and Murray N. Rothbard. Non-political, non-partisan, and non-PC, we advocate a radical shift in the intellectual climate, away from statism and toward a private property order. We believe that our foundational ideas are of permanent value, and oppose all efforts at compromise, sellout, and amalgamation of these ideas with fashionable political, cultural, and social doctrines inimical to their spirit.
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Read More »America Doesn’t Need More “Efficient” Government
October 2, 2024Last month, Donald Trump announced that he intends to set up a government efficiency commission if he wins a second term. The commission would be led by tech entrepreneur Elon Musk, who would audit the entire federal government to find and eliminate inefficiencies that needlessly cost taxpayers trillions of dollars.While Austrian economists tend to be wary of the entire concept of “efficiency” in a world without perfect, universal knowledge of the future and static, unanimously agreed-upon goals, it’s hard to label the federal government’s record at effectively using tax dollars to solve problems as anything short of abysmal.For decades, the federal government has repeatedly set out to allegedly address societal problems by pouring absurd amounts of money into
Read More »Does This Country Need More Efficient Government?
October 2, 2024Last month, Donald Trump announced that he intends to set up a government efficiency commission if he wins a second term. The commission would be led by tech entrepreneur Elon Musk, who would audit the entire federal government to find and eliminate inefficiencies that needlessly cost taxpayers trillions of dollars.While Austrian economists tend to be wary of the entire concept of “efficiency” in a world without perfect, universal knowledge of the future and static, unanimously agreed-upon goals, it’s hard to label the federal government’s record at effectively using tax dollars to solve problems as anything short of abysmal.For decades, the federal government has repeatedly set out to allegedly address societal problems by pouring absurd amounts of money into
Read More »Economically-Illiterate Policy Proposals Are Popular, And Economists Are to Blame
September 26, 2024What is the Mises Institute?
The Mises Institute is a non-profit organization that exists to promote teaching and research in the Austrian School of economics, individual freedom, honest history, and international peace, in the tradition of Ludwig von Mises and Murray N. Rothbard. Non-political, non-partisan, and non-PC, we advocate a radical shift in the intellectual climate, away from statism and toward a private property order. We believe that our foundational ideas are of permanent value, and oppose all efforts at compromise, sellout, and amalgamation of these ideas with fashionable political, cultural, and social doctrines inimical to their spirit.
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Read More »Economically-Illiterate Policy Proposals Are Popular, And Economists Are to Blame
September 25, 2024According to a recent poll from the Wall Street Journal, many of the policies proposed by Kamala Harris and Donald Trump that economists hate most are very popular with the American public. For example, the plan endorsed by both candidates to eliminate taxes on tips for service workers is favored by nearly 80 percent of the ordinary public. However, only 10 percent of economists support the measure.A similar difference can be found with Harris’s plan to penalize companies for engaging in “price gouging” for food and grocery prices. 72 percent of ordinary people support the plan, while only 13 percent of economists do. Trump’s plan to impose a 20 percent tariff on all imported goods enjoys support from 47 percent of the public and 0 percent of economists. The rest
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