In light of Nobel Prizes being given to two researchers of mRNA covid-19 vaccinations, beltway establishments like that of the Cato Institute have lauded praises onto the decision. To Cato, as evidenced by a blog post by Ian Vásquez, the production of these vaccines was a “victory of globalization!” Whilst it certainly required a vast scale of global resources and networking, it was hardly what one could consider a free market victory. The development of these...
Read More »October’s Sobering Jobs Report Adds to Mounting Bad Economic News
The Bureau of Labor Statistic (BLS) released new jobs data on Friday. According to the report, seasonally adjusted total nonfarm jobs rose 150,000 jobs in October, month over month. The unemployment rate rose slightly from 3.8 percent to 3.9 percent over the same period. The headline payroll increase of 150,000, however, was possibly among the best news to be found in today's new jobs data, however. Once we delve more deeply into the numbers, we find substantial...
Read More »Affective Polarization Is Making Us Dumber
Last month, Dr. Ibram X. Kendi’s Center for Antiracist Research at Boston University announced that it was laying off almost all of its staff, in spite of having received almost $55 million in funds in the last three years. Critics have jumped on Kendi’s fall to renew arguments that he’s a grifter or a “midwit,” but there’s another underappreciated aspect to Kendi’s fall. Kendi always struck me as someone who had the raw intellectual horsepower to succeed but whose...
Read More »Making Money While Making Sense of Chaos: Understanding the World of the Traders
Robert Murphy explains how traders make money in a world of uncertainty and diabolical risk. Original Article: Making Money While Making Sense of Chaos: Understanding the World of the Traders [embedded content] Tags: Featured,newsletter
Read More »The Fake China Threat
On this episode of Radio Rothbard, Ryan McMaken and Tho Bishop are joined by Joseph Solis-Mullen of the Libertarian Institute to discuss his new book, The Fake China Threat and Its Very Real Danger. Joseph debunks some of the most prominent myths about China, provides historical context for modern tensions, and outlines the real threats the "China myth" poses to Americans. "So Much Hot Air: The (Fake) China Threat Strikes Again!" by Joseph...
Read More »Blaming the Free Market (Even Where It Doesn’t Exist)
Critics of the free market often aim at the wrong target. They assail the market for “failures” that are actually the result of government intervention in the economy. In this week’s column, I’d like to discuss an example of this mistake in Angus Deaton’s Economics in America (Princeton, 2023). Deaton was the winner of the 2015 Nobel Prize for economics, about which he says: As many previous recipients have reported, the experience is both exhilarating and...
Read More »A Nigerian Scholar Evangelizes Austrian Economics
"Econ Bro" (who wishes to remain anonymous) is a Nigerian scholar who realized the limits of his conventional economics training and then discovered the work of Murray Rothbard and other Austrians. He now seeks to help his country and the world by spreading the truth. Econ Bro's Article on The State as a Rejection of God Part 1: Mises.org/HAP420a Econ Bro's Article on The State as a Rejection of God Part 2: Mises.org/HAP420b A Nigerian Scholar...
Read More »Don’t Fall for Biden’s Latest Talking Point
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
Read More »Liberty: Stifled by the Stockholm Syndrome
“Whenever and however [government] is instituted, the people must cede to it some of their natural rights in order to vest it with requisite powers.” (emphasis added) —John Jay, “Federalist No. 2” “Like breathing, [government] is not permitted to depend on our volition. Necessity will force it on all communities in some one form or another.” —John C. Calhoun, A Disquisition on Government “But whether the Constitution really be one thing, or another, this much is...
Read More »Coauthor of War College Journal Article Tries to Backtrack on Call for “Partial Conscription”
At the end of September, I reported how a recent article in the Army War College academic journal examined lessons learned from the war in Ukraine and that one of the most concerning was the claim that the military might need to reinstate the draft in order to wage a high-intensity war. I argued at length that this was an example of the military laying the groundwork to resume the draft and laid out the reasons why it might be necessary from the regime’s...
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