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Many millions of Americans fall for the government propaganda that uses wars as excuses to eviscerate American freedoms, spend trillions of dollars and rack up gargantuan deficits that will impose a heavy financial burden for decades to come. In recent centuries, though, there have been many who were not quite so easily fooled. These were the defenders of liberty we now call “classical liberals” or “radical liberals” or “libertarians.” Indeed, the...

The Fake China Threat and Its Very Real Dangerby Joseph Solis-MullenLibertarian Institute, 2023; vii + 145 pp.It’s often claimed that China, aspiring to world hegemony, plans to wage war against the United States. Democrats and Republicans alike warn of an impending war. Joseph Solis-Mullen, a libertarian who often writes for antiwar.com and knows a great deal about China (although he claims he is no Sinologist), dissents. In his view, China poses no threat to...

How States Think: The Rationality of Foreign Policyby John J. Mearsheimer and Sebastian RosatoYale University Press, 2023; 304 pp.In this very useful book, the political scientists John J. Mearsheimer and Sebastian Rosato warn against a logic that leads to war: America is challenged by an evil dictator who will not respond rationally to incentives. Such a person can be dealt with only through overwhelming force and must be eliminated from the scene. Today Vladimir...

Libertarians understand — or should understand — that military conscription is a form of slavery or involuntary servitude. In fact, everyone should understand this. And yet conscription has been employed by the U.S. government for the past 161 years, ever since Abraham Lincoln signed the first federal conscription act into law in March 1863, enslaving thousands of American men.For those who are killed in battle or executed for desertion, conscription is worse than...

From its earliest decades, the defenders of freedom — known historically as “classical liberals,” “radicals,” and “libertarians,” have sought to reduce and limit the war-making powers of the state. This is an unceasing theme across the ranks of the classical liberals, who come from many different nations and who, by today’s mainstream political standards, would nearly all be considered radical anti-war activists. Below is just a sampling of thoughts from these...

The Misesian (TM): You have remarked that after 1900, all the pieces come into place for modernity in terms of the American warfare state. What are some of these pieces and how did they fall into place at that time?Hunt Tooley (HT): To some extent, the state has always used wars to maintain and increase domestic control.Shakespeare assumed as much in the famous instructions the dying Henry IV gives to his son: “Therefore, my Harry, be it thy course to busy giddy...

Americans are increasingly uneasy about their “national” security, and increasingly concerned that war is lapping at our shores. Instead of reducing the risk of harm to America and our interests, the federal government in Washington seems to be seeking it, investing in it, fueling it and lying about it.Congress openly talks about fighting wars and reliably funds them, and we can easily verify that it’s piled billions of dollars into this particular spending basket....

I have four children, one of whom is grown, and all of them have grown up under a government that has continually waged elective and aggressive wars. There has never been a time in any of my children’s lives that Washington politicians were not incessantly haranguing the public about how “we are at war” and that anyone who opposes the regime is “with the terrorists,” “a foreign agent,” “unpatriotic,” or “anti-Semitic.” There has never been a time in their lives that...

Herbert Butterfield was Regius Professor of History at Cambridge University. He was a renowned historian, who contributed important books on diplomatic history, the history of historical writing, the politics of George III, and the history of science. He and Leonard Liggio—a close associate of Murray Rothbard for many decades—were friends.I would like to concentrate on an aspect of Butterfield’s thought, likely to be of considerable interest to libertarians,...

In a recent discussion with Adam Taggart via Thoughtful Money, we quickly touched on the similarities between the U.S. and Japanese monetary policies around the 11-minute mark. However, that discussion warrants a deeper dive. As we will review, Japan has much to tell us about the future of the U.S. economically. Let’s start with the deficit. Much angst exists over the rise in interest rates. The concern is whether the government can continue to fund itself, given...