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Connor O'Keeffe



Articles by Connor O'Keeffe

Progressivism and the Murder of a Health Insurance CEO

9 days ago

What 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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Progressivism and the Murder of a Health Insurance CEO

10 days ago

Last 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

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The FBI Has Been Political from the Start

16 days ago

On 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

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The Establishment Media Is Unaware of Its Growing Irrelevance

19 days ago

What 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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Don’t Sell DOGE Short—Yet

23 days ago

What 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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Don’t Sell DOGE Short—Yet

23 days ago

When 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

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It’s Good to be Skeptical of Elections

24 days ago

What 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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President Biden Gives the Green Light to an Act of War against Russia

November 20, 2024

What 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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President Biden Gives the Green Light to an Act of War against Russia

November 20, 2024

On 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

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The Context Behind Donald Trump’s “Takeover” of the American Right

November 13, 2024

Donald 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

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Why Trump’s Victory Matters, and Why It Doesn’t

November 6, 2024

Donald 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

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Why Trump’s Victory Matters, and Why It Doesn’t

November 6, 2024

What 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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The Establishment Media is Unaware of its Growing Irrelevance

October 30, 2024

Last 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

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It’s Good to Be Skeptical of Elections

October 25, 2024

What 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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Beware of War Hawks in “America First” Clothing

October 16, 2024

For 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

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Hurricanes Are Not Going Away; We Must Double Down on What’s Making Them More Survivable

October 9, 2024

What 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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Hurricanes Are Not Going Away; We Must Double Down on What’s Making Them More Survivable

October 9, 2024

Two 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

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The Second Trump Shooter Believed Exactly What the Establishment Media Wanted Him to Believe

October 7, 2024

What 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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America Doesn’t Need More “Efficient” Government

October 3, 2024

What 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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America Doesn’t Need More “Efficient” Government

October 2, 2024

Last 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

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Does This Country Need More Efficient Government?

October 2, 2024

Last 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

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Economically-Illiterate Policy Proposals Are Popular, And Economists Are to Blame

September 26, 2024

What 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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Economically-Illiterate Policy Proposals Are Popular, And Economists Are to Blame

September 25, 2024

According 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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Why the Political Establishment Won’t Touch the Chronic Disease Issue

September 4, 2024

Two weeks ago, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. suspended his campaign for president. In his nearly hour-long speech explaining the decision, Kennedy highlighted what he sees as the three biggest issues facing the United States. The first two—the threat to free speech and the danger of the war in Ukraine—are familiar to anyone following the daily political fights happening online and in the traditional media.But when Kennedy got to his third concern, it was striking how absent any discussion of it has been from our hyper-active national discourse. The issue was the scale of chronic disease affecting the American population and, especially, American children. Kennedy explicitly called this “the most important issue” and, as he laid out the scale of the problem, it’s easy to

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Kamala Harris is awful

August 7, 2024

What 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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A Fed rate cut will not solve our economic problems

August 7, 2024

Last Friday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the unemployment rate had jumped to 4.3% in July. The pace at which unemployment is rising matches the speed often found in the early stages of a recession — an indicator known as the Sahm Rule. The triggering of the Sahm Rule sparked a panic in the stock market that only grew at the start of this week after other economies, especially in East Asia, experienced even sharper downturns.Many establishment-friendly economists and political figures are dismissing concerns that the surge in unemployment and resulting scare on Wall Street represent a recession. However, some are clearly worried.Senator Elizabeth Warren, for instance, used the jobs data to restate her argument that the Fed is waiting too long to

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The Trump assassination attempt exposes the establishment’s deceitfulness

July 28, 2024

What 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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Kamala Harris is awful

July 24, 2024

President Joe Biden announced over the weekend that he is withdrawing from the 2024 presidential election. The announcement follows almost a month of pressure on Biden to drop out after his abysmal debate performance in late June made it impossible to keep hiding the fact that the president is cognitively impaired.The soon-to-be former president and most major players in Democratic politics quickly threw their support behind Vice President Kamala Harris. In the days since, Harris’ biggest potential challengers have either fallen in line and endorsed her too or began maneuvering to become Harris’ running mate. By Monday night, Harris “had the support of well more than the 1,976 delegates she’ll need to win” the nomination, according to an Associated Press survey.

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Biden is not running the government. So, who is?

July 24, 2024

What 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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Julian Assange, the Chevron Doctrine, and the case against pessimism

July 18, 2024

What 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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