On February 3, 2023, on Norfolk Southern Railway’s general merchandise freight train 32N, a suspect bearing on the twenty-third car measured at 38°F above ambient, then 103°F above ambient, then 253°F above ambient. In East Palestine, Ohio, eleven tank cars derailed and hazardous materials ignited. First responders mitigated the fire, but afterward the temperature was still rising in one tank car that carried vinyl chloride liquid. Responders expanded the evacuation...
Read More »Lincoln’s Main Target Was “Anarchy” and Secession, Not Slavery
In a recent column, I discussed an argument about secession made by Abraham Lincoln and sympathetically expounded by Michael P. Zuckert in his important book A Nation So Conceived. Lincoln maintained that a nation once formed could not allow secession because doing so would open it to unlimited fissiparous tendencies, culminating in anarchy. This argument did not address the problem of slavery, surely relevant to the concrete circumstances of the Civil War. Zuckert...
Read More »If at First You Don’t Secede . . .
David Gordon explores how Abraham Lincoln's stated view on secession was fundamentally Hobbesian, cynical, and violent. Original Article: "If at First You Don't Secede . . ." This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. [embedded content] Tags: Featured,newsletter
Read More »Disinformation and the State: The Aptly Named RESTRICT Act
The RESTRICT Act (Restricting the Emergence of Security Threats that Risk Information and Communications Technology Act) has recently been making the rounds in the media, and rightfully so. The act is truly terrifying, but more than the open tyranny that it would further, the act illustrates a very clear problem from the perspective of the state. In previous eras, either formally or informally, the state exercised a great deal of control over the information...
Read More »How Government Schools Use Bad History to Promote the State
On this episode of Radio Rothbard, Ryan McMaken and Tho Bishop look at common American history myths baked into government school curriculums. While Republican governors have begun to prioritize removing "critical race theory" and other forms of modern "leftwing indoctrination" from textbooks, there are a number of historical episodes left unchallenged that all lead to a deification of state power and a celebration of progressive politics. [embedded content]...
Read More »156 Million Americans Now Live in States with Legal Recreational Marijuana
Over the past year, three US states have enacted new legislation legalizing recreational marijuana within their borders. In May 2022, recreational cannabis became legal in Rhode Island, and the same occurred in Missouri in December of last year. In the wake of the 2022 election, in which Maryland voters approved Maryland Question 4, recreational use became legal in that state as well. With the addition of Rhode Island, New Hampshire—where cannabis is "only"...
Read More »A Pyrrhic End to 130 Years of Vicious Bad Money and Banking Crises
The original vicious circle starts with inflationary interventions in an up-to-then well-anchored monetary regime. Consequent asset inflation spawns a banking crisis. That leads to the installation of anticrisis safety structures (one illustration is a novel or enhanced lender of last resort). Alongside a possible monetary regime shift, these damage the money’s anchoring system. A great asset inflation emerges and leads on to an eruption of another banking crisis,...
Read More »Why the Regime Needs the Dollar to Be the Global Reserve Currency
Even a partial weakening of the dollar's global demand will limit the US regime's ability to throw its weight around internationally. Yet Washington is unwilling to do what's necessary to prevent it. Original Article: "Why the Regime Needs the Dollar to Be the Global Reserve Currency" This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. [embedded content]...
Read More »Austrian Economists and Empiricism
Since its emergence in 1871, the Austrian school of economics has provided systematic opposition to empiricism in the development of economics. The Methodenstreit persists, even with different players. Several papers and publications have criticized the concept of economics based on empirical evidence. Positivism, and its different currents of thought, are consistently criticized by Austrian economists. But the roots of attempts to make research objective are much...
Read More »What Will Our Energy Future Be? A Few Ideas
With the government foolishly handicapping the oil and gas industries and pushing other alternatives, the future is not very bright.. Original Article: "What Will Our Energy Future Be? A Few Ideas" This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. [embedded content] Tags: Featured,newsletter
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