Over the weekend, border-policy negotiations between Senate Democrats and Republicans fell apart. The talks were meant to firm up Republican support for the president’s massive $105 billion military support proposal ahead of Wednesday’s vote by including additional funds for border security in the spending package. Now, with no imminent approval of further aid to Ukraine, hawks in government and the media are trying to stoke panic about what will happen if Kyiv is cut off from US support.
In a letter to Congress Monday, White House budget director Shalanda Young told Congress the funds will dry up by the end of the year:
I want to be clear: without congressional action, by the end of the year we will run out of resources to procure more weapons and equipment for

Sen. Elizabeth Warren is at it again: demanding government intervention in the nation’s healthcare system to deal with problems caused by earlier government intervention.
Original Article: Progressive Interventionism Is Ruining American Healthcare

[embedded content]

Tags: Featured,newsletter

On Sunday, the populist Austrolibertarian Javier Milei was elected president of Argentina. In the United States, the reaction ranged from concerned curiosity on the part of the political establishment to enthusiastic celebration across the populist Right—including, notably, some economic nationalists. Several renowned libertarians also brought attention to some of Milei’s many flaws, such as his views on geopolitics.
Milei’s libertarian skeptics make many good points. And odds are a man with a legislature stacked against him will not be able to address Argentina’s many problems without some political backup. But still, there is much to admire about Milei’s rise and plenty to learn from his campaign’s bold, spirited rhetoric. Because our country is also in

Modern prosperity is astonishing, but it can quickly disappear if our monetary unit fails. We need to keep up the fight for sound money.
Original Article: Cut through the Media Noise, and Remember the Economic Priorities

[embedded content]

Tags: Featured,newsletter

In 2002, President George W. Bush cited the now famous “axis of evil”—Iraq, Iran, and North Korea—as he tried to get the American people to look beyond those responsible for the 9/11 attacks and greenlight a global military campaign to “rid the world of the evil-doers.”
The result was the $8 trillion global war on terror that continues to this day.
Now, in the wake of the Hamas attacks in southern Israel one month ago, the same language is being employed to justify another massive increase in military spending. In a series of statements and interviews, Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell defined a new axis of evil—Russia, China, and Iran—and argued the United States must simultaneously confront the threats posed by all of these regimes.
In his interview with

President Biden claims that spending money to send weapons and ammunition around the world is good for the US economy.
Original Article: Don’t Fall for Biden’s Latest Talking Point

[embedded content]

Tags: Featured,newsletter

As the long-hyped Ukrainian counteroffensive against Russia stalls and a new war in Gaza draws the world’s attention, American support for funding Kyiv’s war has waned. In an effort to reverse this, the Biden administration is changing its messaging. A Politico report from last week details how White House aides are now telling members of Congress to sell Americans the lie that continuing to send money and weapons to Ukraine is good for the economy.
President Joe Biden made this point himself when he introduced a $105 billion proposal to send military aid to Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan:
We send Ukraine equipment sitting in our stockpiles. And when we use the money allocated by Congress, we use it to replenish our own stores, our own stockpiles, with new equipment.

The recent attacks by Hamas on Israeli civilians have led to justified outrage. But will Israel’s response also kill innocent people? Murray Rothbard has words of wisdom on this subject.

Original Article: Is It Just War or Unjustified Slaughter of Innocents?

[embedded content]

Tags: Featured,newsletter

Saturday the world was rocked by the outbreak of war in southern Israel as Hamas fighters crossed out of Gaza, taking hostages and killing Israeli civilians. The political leader of Hamas says the attacks were in response to the Israeli treatment of Palestinians at the al-Aqsa Mosque last week. But other reports indicate that the attack was planned for weeks with the help of the Iranian government and was meant to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the Yom Kippur War.
Over nine hundred Israelis and fourteen American citizens are confirmed dead as of this writing. Music festival attendees and members of a tiny farming community were massacred. Over a hundred Israelis and some Americans were taken captive and brought back into Gaza.
In response, Israel formally

Last week, prosecutors for the Southern District of New York unsealed an indictment against New Jersey senator Robert Menendez. The senator, his wife, and several businessmen are accused of providing “sensitive U.S. Government information” and taking steps that “secretly aided the Government of Egypt” in exchange for cash, gold bars, a luxury convertible, and more.
Senator Menendez has dismissed the charges and refuses to resign from Congress. In a statement Friday, he attempted to explain away the indictment as a political attack from “forces behind the scenes.” And in a press conference Monday, he said he expects the trial to exonerate him.
But also featured in the senator’s Friday statement was an interesting admission. In highlighting his exchange of political

Autoworkers are angry at their working situation and are striking for higher wages and a shorter work week. Their anger is misdirected.

Original Article: Striking Autoworkers Will Only Harm Their Own Livelihoods

[embedded content]

Tags: Featured,newsletter

While progressives blame climate change for the deadly Lahaina fire, government created the conditions for the blaze and then helped set it.

Original Article: "Thanks to Government, Maui’s Lahaina Fire Became a Deadly Conflagration"

[embedded content]

Tags: Featured,newsletter

Former president Donald Trump is facing ninety-one criminal charges as he seeks to win back the White House in 2024. The indictments are the latest battle in a roughly six-year crusade against Trump that first sought to remove him from power through the Twenty-Fifth Amendment, then with espionage charges and impeachments, and that now aims to block him from becoming president again. The mantra we hear from those in politics and media who support these efforts is that nobody is above the law.
But there’s an entire class of people above the law. Or who at least act like they’re above the law—the political class. The hypocrisies of their effort to convict Trump and block him from holding office again reveal that the motivations are purely political—not born of some

Modern American media has become so politicized that a once-venerable institution now cannot be trusted.

Original Article: "Politics Has Infected Everything in Our Society, Especially the Media"

[embedded content]

Tags: Featured,newsletter

The covid restriction machinery is being ramped up in time for fall, despite the fact that covid poses little danger.

Original Article: "The Unwelcome Return of Covid Restrictions and Lockdowns"

[embedded content]

Tags: Featured,newsletter

One of the few things that most Americans agree about today is that there are serious problems with the current news-media environment. Conservatives have spent decades denouncing the “liberal media,” labeling it a thinly veiled arm of the Democratic Party and, recently, of Big Pharma. Meanwhile, Progressives seem to blame billionaire-created Fox News for just about every problem facing America.
Even the establishment media folks are fretting over their colleagues’ coverage of the Trump indictments and the 2024 election more broadly—wrestling with the fact that the candidate they hate is so good for their business.
All of these criticisms may appear to be unique. But really, they’re simply variations of the same basic argument. That the media is meant to play an

On July 30, Yellow, one of the oldest and largest trucking businesses in the United States, ceased operations and moved to declare bankruptcy. According to reports, the final nail in the coffin of the ninety-nine-year-old business was a labor dispute with the Teamsters Union.
Yellow’s executives also deserve some blame, however. The trucking networks acquired in the 2000s and 2010s were poorly managed, delaying their integration. That said, when the company finally sought integration, the efforts were blocked by the union. The standoff sent Yellow into a dire financial situation which culminated in a dispute over pension payments in July.
The company sought to defer two pension payments to give executives breathing room to navigate the challenging financial

As Ukrainian forces continue their much-hyped counteroffensive to take back contested territories in the country’s eastern and southern regions, we’re faced with conflicting coverage of the campaign. Many reports say Ukraine’s forces are struggling to break through the minefields fortifying Russia’s lines. And many admit that even the sudden and dramatic Wagner Group mutiny did not appear to hand Ukraine much of an advantage on the front. Days ago, in a move that looks like damage control, Ukraine’s defense secretary even announced that Kyiv would no longer measure success in recaptured territory but would instead just aim to destroy as much Russian military infrastructure as possible.
Still, according to some Western journalists, this is all part of Ukraine’s

On June 28, President Joe Biden took to the stage in Chicago to drum up support for his economic agenda, which his own team has taken to calling “Bidenomics.” The speech was part of a broader publicity tour, “Investing in America,” with the president and his cabinet traveling the country trying to get the American people to see Biden’s economic policies as successful and popular.
In his speech, the president attacked so-called trickle-down economics, which he painted as the dominant economic policy of the American government for decades. He then defined his agenda, Bidenomics, as a “new philosophy” set to “restore the American Dream.”
But Bidenomics isn’t a new philosophy. If you look at what’s been enacted and what’s still being proposed, it becomes clear that

Last month, the Biden administration’s Environmental Protection Agency proposed new power plant regulations that would put harsh limits on the amount of carbon dioxide released while producing electricity. This comes from the same administration pushing to electrify all parts of daily life, from driving to cooking. As if slamming the power grid with artificial demand is not enough, now the federal government has also set its sights on electricity suppliers.
Policies as ludicrous as this are only possible because the ideology they rest on, environmentalism, has long enjoyed a perch on the moral high ground that has gone almost unchallenged. That needs to change. Environmentalism presents itself as a philosophy advocating benevolence toward nature and prudence with

The bipartisan RESTRICT Act—marketed as a "Tik Tok ban"—is properly named because it will restrict freedom, empower the state, and expand government surveillance. 

Original Article: "The RESTRICT Act Launches a New War on Free Speech"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. 

[embedded content]

Tags: Featured,newsletter

The 2018 Farm Bill is due to expire this year, and US lawmakers have already begun working out the next version. This food-related omnibus bill was introduced ninety years ago as a “temporary” measure during the Great Depression. It’s been reauthorized by Congress every five years since, and recent ones cobble together two seemingly unrelated programs, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly called food stamps, and federal farm subsidies.
However, the two share an important link. One program gives tax dollars to those who cannot afford food; the other seeks to make food less affordable. Taxpayers are forced to help prop up crop prices only to be taxed again to address the consequences. The American people must wake up to the scam hidden in

Earlier this month, Senator Mark Warner (D-VA) introduced the Restricting the Emergence of Security Threats that Risk Information and Communications Technology Act, or the RESTRICT Act. The bill is being floated as a possible means for the federal government to ban TikTok over its connection to the Chinese government. However, the RESTRICT Act’s vague language and broad scope has many voicing concerns about the bill’s threat to free speech and freedom of expression.
But, as Murray Rothbard has pointed out, “human rights, when not put in terms of property rights, turn out to be vague and contradictory.” Your freedom to have an opinion does not grant you the right to express that opinion in venues or on media outlets you do not own. But if you pay to give a speech

Energy is a highly regulated industry across the world. There is less debate about the need for government control when it comes to the oil and gas sector. The arguments that most people accept for government intervention in energy, whether in the name of energy access, national security, or climate change mitigation, all share the same general premise: that energy is too important to be left to the whims of the free market.
But this year, the world has been thrust into an energy crisis, not by the free market or any natural disaster, but by politics. What 2022 has demonstrated is that the conventional wisdom is backward. In reality, energy is far too important to be left in the hands of government.
There is no free market in energy. That’s something even many

Even as price inflation slows and we move past June’s peak, progressives continue to push the concept of “greedflation”—that this year’s price inflation is caused by corporate greed and price gouging. This is inaccurate, based on bad economics, and it blames a consequence of the problem rather than the problem itself. If we want to address the real issues in the economy and avoid similar pain in the future, we need to get serious and drop “greedflation” from the discussion.
The standard response to the assertion that this episode of price inflation has been caused by greed is to point out that there is no reason to think the level of “greed” in the economy has suddenly increased. That is true, but it doesn’t address the core of the “greedflation” argument. Most