On this episode of Radio Rothbard, Ryan McMaken and Tho Bishop look at county and city-level secession movements and what it means for political self-determination. In a recent article, Ryan McMaken highlighted renewed calls for Staten Island to secede from New York City, but other recent examples include attempts by taxpayers in areas of Georgia and Alabama to break away from the control of mismanagement of local governments. Tho and Ryan look at the value these...
Read More »Eurodollars as a Fractional Reserve Market
We should not just be concerned about problems in the American banking system, but also about the proliferation of Eurodollars. Original Article: "Eurodollars as a Fractional Reserve Market" [embedded content] Tags: Featured,newsletter
Read More »Consumer Credit Is Expanding Even While the Fed Pushes up Interest Rates
To me, a wise and humane policy is occasionally to let inflation rise even when inflation is running above target. —Janet Yellen We have sighted the enemy and he is us. —Pogo On July 26, 2023, the Federal Reserve raised interest rates by a quarter of a percentage point. By the time you read this, your credit card interest rate will probably have increased for your September statement. When headlines talk about the Fed raising interest rates, the annual percentage...
Read More »Slobodian Contra Rothbard
Crack-Up Capitalism will be of interest to many readers of The Austrian because of what it says about Murray Rothbard; and for the most part, I shall limit my review to discussing this. The main point of the book is easy to grasp. In recent decades, the notion of a centralized state has come under fire in various ways, including attempts to secede, to create “enterprise zones” within states, and to establish societies without a state at all. Quinn Slobodian, a...
Read More »Thatcher’s New Style of Government
The possible bankruptcy of Thames Water Company in Great Britain brings to mind the heady days 40 years ago when Margaret Thatcher's government was privatizing state-owned enterprises, including TW. Not all privatization stories have happy endings. Original Article: "Thatcher's New Style of Government" [embedded content]...
Read More »Statism Stands against Free Trade and Free Association
People cavil much about Ricardo’s law of association, better known under the name law of comparative cost. The reason is obvious. This law is an offense to all those eager to justify protection and national economic isolation from any point of view other than the selfish interests of some producers or the issues of war-preparedness. —Ludwig von Mises, Human Action Alexander Macris of the Substack blog Contemplations on the Tree of Woe has called attention to Ian...
Read More »The Bombing of Hiroshima: The Crime and the Cover-Up
The real effects of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima were hidden from Americans until the New Yorker published an exposé in 1946. Americans finally were confronted with the truth—even if they didn't want to believe it. Original Article: "The Bombing of Hiroshima: The Crime and the Cover-Up" [embedded content] Tags:...
Read More »Let’s Examine Some REAL Crimes Committed by Presidents
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...
Read More »The Problem with Public Transit
Much of government-owned transportation destroys rather than adds to wealth. The lack of a sound system of economic calculation is to blame. Original Article: "The Problem with Public Transit" [embedded content] Tags: Featured,newsletter
Read More »Deneen’s Common Good Statism
It’s likely that many readers of The Austrian support the free market and also support “traditional” social values, but in Patrick Deneen’s opinion, this is an unstable amalgam. Deneen, a political theorist who teaches at Notre Dame, thinks that the market undermines tradition and that those of us who resist the “woke” Left and want to preserve tradition ought to abandon what he sees as an uncritical devotion to the market. Deneen says that classical and medieval...
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