[The Sources of Russian Aggression: Is Russia a Realist Power?, by Sumantra Maitra, Lexington Books, 2024; 205 pages]One of the unfortunate realities of the foreign policy debate in America is that few Americans are paying much attention. This general level of public ignorance makes it much easier for the American foreign policy elites to then feed the American public whatever lies suit the regime’s agenda.This has certainly been the case with the US’s current proxy war against the Russians in Ukraine. In the early months of the 2022 Russian invasion there was seemingly no end to the regime’s spinning of wild yarns trying to convince us that Putin is the new Hitler, that Moscow will soon re-create the Soviet Union, and that anything short of the US launching World

The recent destruction of the Syrian regime, replaced by Islamists and Jihadists, reminds us that the American foreign-policy establishment in Washington continues to do the bidding of the State of Israel which exerts its influence through one of the most well-funded and extensive lobbying efforts Washington has ever known. The surreptitious alliance of terrorist Syrian Rebels, Israelis, and Americans, is just the latest manifestation of this working relationship. For more than thirty years now, the US has repeatedly committed American troops and American treasure to carry out the bidding of Tel Aviv with no advantage gained for ordinary American people. The Iraq War—with its thousands of American casualties—the endless drone wars, the potential war in Iran, and

Unhumans: The Secret History of Communist Revolutions (and How to Crush Them) by Jack Posobiec and Joshua Lisec. Skyhorse Publishing, 2024; 258 pp.With their profoundly mediocre new book Unhumans: the Secret History of Communist Revolutions, Jack Posobiec and Joshua Lisec inadvertently illustrate some of the reasons why conservatives so often fail to counter the ideological victories of the Left. Like so many conservative activists before them, Posobiec and Lisec attempt to fight the Left with strategies that can yield only short-term tactical victories, while retreating when it comes to the larger more important battle: the battle of ideas.This book appears to be an attempt by the authors to address some larger historical and strategic questions about the problem

Another national election has come and gone, and like many of our readers, I think the less awful candidate won. After all, a victory for Kamala Harris was likely to be interpreted as an endorsement of the status quo and a “mandate” for more of the same.Unfortunately, though, opposition to the status quo is not the same thing as support for peace, freedom, or free markets. Dissatisfaction with the regime is good, but it’s not enough. We will see this illustrated many times over in the coming years as the new administration fails to significantly rein in federal spending or to embrace a foreign policy of nonintervention. The foundational institutions of the federal state will likely remain untouched.It’s not a mystery why this will occur. The unfortunate fact is

In late November, the seemingly dormant civil war in Syria reignited and Syrian rebel groups began a new drive across western Syria. At first, the rebels captured Aleppo and Hama, and then moved on to the capital Damascus, finally toppling the Assad regime. The fall of the Assad regime—the last secular Arab regime—represents a victory for Islamist, terrorist insurgents and their allies. These terrorists’ allies, most especially the US and the State of Israel. Washington began to publicly and actively pursue this in 2013 when then-President Barack Obama declared that Assad “must go” during a joint press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Then, as now, the US was being repeatedly pulled into regional conflicts in the service of the Israeli

This article is the foreword to The World at War by Ralph Raico, edited and annotated by Edward Fuller. Buy the book at the Mises store. The twentieth century was a century of war, which means it was also a century of tragedy. The full extent of this tragedy, however, is often hidden by the popular narratives of the world wars that continue to be pushed in the West, especially among Americans. But many aspects of the tragedy are also taught far and wide. When it comes to the Second World War, we Americans hear often and repeatedly of the crimes of the German National Socialists and the Empire of Japan. In contrast, the Americans and their allies, we are told, were the irreproachable good guys, fighting only in defense of themselves and others. As for the First

Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has been making a lot of noise about all the federal employees it plans to fire. The DOGE people have framed total federal employment as something of a proxy for the total size of the federal government.  Cutting the federal workforce is all well and good, but in reality, the size of the federal payrolls doesn’t really tell us much about the growth of the federal government. Federal employment has been flat for decades. If the total number of federal workers was a good proxy for federal power, we’d be forced to conclude that the federal government has gotten smaller and weaker over the past thirty years. Obviously, that’s not remotely true given that federal spending has increased at breakneck

On Sunday night, President Biden issues a broad and sweeping pardon for his son Hunter Biden, covering “those offenses against the United States which he has committed or may have committed or taken part in during the period from January 1, 2014 through December 1, 2024.” Hunter Biden was due to be sentenced this month for federal tax and gun crimes. This pardon removes the possibility of any further legal action in those cases. This pardon comes after many months of the President claiming that “no one is above the law,” and after repeated claims by the President that he will not use the power of the presidency to protect his son from the possibility of any punishment for the crimes for which he was convicted. These latter claims were apparently lies, as Biden has

Listen to the Audio Mises Wire version of this article.The Thanksgiving holiday in the United States has a checkered past. Its more recent origins lie largely in government attempts at pushing propagandistic narratives. For example, Abraham Lincoln demanded Americans be thankful for ”the advancing armies and navies of the Union” during the Civil War. George Washington instructed Americans to give thanks for the new constitution in 1789. While Andrew Jackson refused to boss around his constituents with days of mandatory gratitude, proclamations of prayer and thanksgiving have been used by many US presidents, especially during times of crisis.In practice, however, what is now Thanksgiving Day involves mostly a celebration of domestic and family life, quite separate

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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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-elect Donald Trump based much of his campaign on promises to crack down on immigration and carry out mass deportations.Politically, this was likely a winning issue for Trump after social media exposed millions of Americans to countless reports and videos of foreign nationals getting free cash, free housing, food allowances, and overall special treatment at taxpayer expense. Meanwhile, actual taxpaying Americans endured inflation-fueled price hikes and a worsening economy while being harangued by the smug upper classes about the need to be “welcoming.” Many voters chose to support the candidate who wasn’t in favor of importing a new taxpayer-subsidized underclass.Because of this, Trump is likely to prioritize delivering at least some of his promised

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ latest price inflation data, CPI inflation in October accelerated and month-to month increases in CPI inflation hit multi-month highs.The seasonally adjusted Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose 0.24 percent month over month in October, rising to a six-month high. Year over year, the CPI rose 2.49 percent in October, not seasonally adjusted. That’s a three-month high.The ongoing price increases largely reflect growth in prices for shelter. Year over year, shelter prices rose 4.9 percent, according to the BLS report. That’s up from September’s year-over-year increase of 4.8 percent.Similarly, the CPI measure, less food an energy, also showed increases with a month-over-month growth rate of 0.28 percent. Year over year, the

The Treasury Department posted its latest revenue and spending totals this week, and deficits continue to mount at impressive speed. During October—the first month of the 2025 fiscal year—the federal deficit was more than a quarter of a trillion dollars, coming in at $257.4 billion. Tax revenue in October had totaled $326 billion, but spending totaled $584 billion. Now one month into the new fiscal year, the federal government is on pace to add more than $2 trillion dollars to the national debt during the 2025 fiscal year. If the economy significantly worsens in coming months—and tax revenues plummet as they do during times of economic trouble—the deficit will be much larger than $2 trillion. There is no sign of any relief from mounting deficits. The 2024 fiscal

The Trump transition team on Wednesday announced that he is nominating South Dakota governor Kristi Noem as the next head of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). In the coming weeks, we’ll hear a lot about Noem’s personal politics and origins. We’ll also hear about how the DHS is, as the AP puts it, “one of the biggest government agencies that will be integral to his vow to secure the border and carry out a massive deportation operation.”Unfortunately, all this misses the most important point about the DHS which is that the DHS was invented in 2002 to justify more government spending, to reward political allies, and to influence local governments with federal grants.For voters who supported Trump because they thought a Trump presidency might actually reduce

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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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.

[embedded content]

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 first Trump term was notable for countless terrible appointments Trump made. This was true in terms of both politics and policy. On the political end, Trump appointed people who routinely sought to undermine him politically. Many of Trump’s own appointees would go on to campaign against Trump in 2020 and 2024. Trump’s more clueless followers assured us that this was all, somehow, 4-D chess. Of course, it wasn’t. The 4-D chess trope has always been, as the kids say, “copium.” On the policy end, Trump’s appointments were even worse. Neocon warmongers like Nikki Haley, John Bolton, and Mike Pompeo—and countless lesser neocon junior bureaucrats—held prominent positions in the administration. Moreover, with their key positions in many federal departments, these

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.

[embedded content]

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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There were a few seemingly tense moments at the FOMC press conference on Thursday when two reporters asked Jerome Powell about the prospect of Donald Trump asking Powell to resign. The first reporter asked “would you resign if asked to do so by Donald Trump?” To this, Powell responded with a resounding “no” followed by silence. A few moments later, Powell was asked by another reporter if it was lawful for Trump to either remove or “demote”—that is, remove Powell as chairman, but leave him on the Board of Governors—Powell. To this, Powell responded with a forceful “not permitted under the law.” Apparently, Powell wished to leave no ambiguity whatsoever about this position that he cannot be removed or demoted by a sitting president. It would agree that the spirit of

The 2024 election is over, and in some states, big majorities voted for the winner Donald Trump. In Wyoming, Trump won 72 percent of the vote. In fact, more than 60 percent of the voting population went for Trump in 13 states.Fortunately for the majorities in those states, they’ll get the president they voted for.However, the outcome would have been different if fewer than a million people—in a nation of 330 million—had changed their votes in Pennsylvania, Arizona, and Michigan. Then, Kamala Harris would now be the president-elect.She would have won even though the voters of more than a dozen states had lopsided majorities in favor of Trump.Moreover, Kamala could have won even though there was far less enthusiasm on her side. That is, only a single state,

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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States do not have rights. States, after all, are just organizations with a monopoly on the means of coercion within a certain territory. They are not natural, and certainly do not enjoy any natural rights. At their best, states can be used to protect the rights of the people who live within their borders. States are usually not at their best, however. Usually, state powers are employed to violate the rights of the people unfortunate enough to live under the power of state operatives. These victims of the state include both the state’s residents as well as innocent victims living in other, weaker states. A common phrase used by Israeli propagandists, however, is the phrase “Israel has a right to exist.” This is phrased vaguely on purpose. What is meant is this:

As this election cycle has demonstrated yet again, Democrats are not shy about calling for tax increases. In every election cycle they call for more taxes, whether through corporate taxes or through taxes on unrealized capital gains. Donald Trump, meanwhile, has pledged to cut some taxes. I say “some” because Trump has also pledged to raise taxes on imports.Nonetheless, Trump ran on the idea that he would reduce the tax burden on Americans if elected.  Unfortunately, Trump has no plans to cut government spending, and this means there is little chance that ordinary taxpayers are going to experience any real tax relief. This is because tax cuts without spending cuts don’t actually lessen the cost of government. A tax cut without a spending cut simply moves around

The freedom of speech is today threatened in the West to a degree not seen since the nineteenth-century classical liberals battled the censorious police states of the old conservative regimes. The free-market liberals largely won that battle, yet everywhere that a ruling class knows it is both unpopular and outnumbered it will attempt to silence free speech. A common argument used by those who cling to illegitimate power is the claim that free speech will encourage radicalism and fanaticism. By this thinking free speech can not be tolerated because it would encourage violence and contempt for the supposed rule of law. Speech that counters the approved narrative is dismissed as misinformation or as an outright incitement.This was true during the absolutist regimes

For a video version of this article, see here and below. Donald Trump created some excitement last week when he suggested that he might abolish the income tax and replace it with taxes on imports. Understandably, Most of the excitement came from the prospect of abolishing the income tax. Of course, the Trump plan isn’t to simply abolish the income tax, it’s to replace it with another tax. Moreover, the Trump proposal, like most so-called tax reform programs, is designed to be revenue neutral. That is, the federal government doesn’t experience any actual drops in tax revenue, and thus, experiences no actual threats to its power. Also, Americans don’t see any true drop in their tax burden under so-called tax reforms like this. Much of the excitement rests on

Late last month, Erik Prince, the founder of the Bush Administration’s mercenary army in Iraq—also known as Blackwater—expressed admiration for the State of Israel’s “pager attacks.” The attacks, which killed at least two children and critically injured many others, employed explosives in crowded civilian areas. Even a lose application of just war theory would force us to conclude such attacks are war crimes. Detonating bombs without any knowledge of where the bombs might be, or who will be affected, fits no definition of “just war.” It’s unclear the targets were even Hezbollah agents. We’re just expected to trust the opinions of Israeli technocrats.Nonetheless, Prince praised the operation declaring it to be “magnificent.” He went on to say he is “jealous” of

Donald Trump on Monday floated the idea that he might seek to replace the federal income tax with federal taxes on imports—also known as tariffs. This is potentially a good idea, but not for economic reasons. There is no economic reason why tariffs are any better or any worse than the income tax. A tariff, which is just a tax, is no less compulsory than the income tax. A tariff is no less destructive to private wealth and capital than the income tax. Contrary to various protectionist myths, Americans pay tariffs like they pay any other tax imposed by the US government. [Read More: “How to Look at Tariffs“ by Murray Rothbard]On the other hand, a tariff isn’t necessarily worse than an income tax. Yes, tariffs act to diminish trade, and that’s a bad thing. But income