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UN Climate Change Report: A Choice between “Mad Max and Hunger Games”
UN Climate Change Report: A Choice between “Mad Max and Hunger Games” Humanity, we’re essentially told, is doomed lest people concede their freedom to the experts, lawmakers, and bureaucrats who can save us. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) this week released a special report detailing all the ways climate change is predicted to […]
Ethanol Is Terrible for Health and the Environment, but Government Keeps Backing It
Ethanol Is Terrible for Health and the Environment, but Government Keeps Backing It The US federal government still strongly pushes corn- and soy-based ethanol despite the EPA’s new study showing its harmful effects. When the elected officials and bureaucrats who run a government want to stack the deck in favor of a politically connected special […]
How Democracies Turn Tyrannical
How Democracies Turn Tyrannical Both monarchs of the past and dictators more in the present have denied limits on their power to command and coerce those under their control. For most of the last three centuries, the ideas of liberty and democracy have been intertwined in the minds of both friends and foes of a […]
What Ayn Rand’s “Atlas Shrugged” Teaches Us About the Insufficiency of Good Intentions
What Ayn Rand’s “Atlas Shrugged” Teaches Us About the Insufficiency of Good Intentions The book is an extended lesson in what happens when we focus only on what we see. The search for the Great American Novel should have ended in 1957 when a Russian immigrant named Ayn Rand published Atlas Shrugged. Arresting in its breadth, […]
The Federal Reserve’s Shell Game
The Federal Reserve’s Shell Game Inflation, wealth redistribution, and the subtle art of misdirection The Federal Reserve is a key component of the US government’s wealth redistribution apparatus. Under the guise of “macroeconomic management,” it redistributes vast amounts of wealth on an ongoing basis through inflation. The victims of these transfers are ordinary Americans. The […]
How Mises Explained the Fall of Rome
How Mises Explained the Fall of Rome An excerpt from Mises’ classic work, ‘Human Action’. Observations on the Causes of the Decline of Ancient Civilization Knowledge of the effects of government interference with market prices makes us comprehend the economic causes of a momentous historical event, the decline of ancient civilization. It may be left […]
Austrian Economics Is Essential to Understand Booms, Busts, and Money Itself
Austrian Economics Is Essential to Understand Booms, Busts, and Money Itself The boom-and-bust business cycle is a natural result of free-market capitalism, but rather of government intervention. Looking to the next few years, will America and the world continue to ride a wave of economic growth, improved living standards, and technological changes that raise the […]
Italy’s Countdown to Fiscal Crisis
Italy’s Countdown to Fiscal Crisis Italy’s current scheme of piling unfunded government spending on top of an already-huge debt is a recipe for disaster. As a general rule, we worry too much about deficits and debt. Yes, red ink matters, but we should pay more attention to variables such as the overall burden of government spending and the […]
3 Stoic Lessons That Can Help Heal Our Toxic Political Culture
Statue of philosopher-emperor Marcus Aurelius 3 Stoic Lessons That Can Help Heal Our Toxic Political Culture Back in the days of Ancient Rome and Greece, the founding fathers of the stoic school of philosophy taught the importance of rationalism. Emotional. Tribal. Irrational. These are just three adjectives which could be applied to the political discourse […]
Illinois Politicians Are Doubling Down on Failure
Illinois Politicians Are Doubling Down on Failure In the face of a fleeing population, politicians in Illinois are doubling down on the policies that are driving people away in the first place. When I did a poll earlier this year, asking which state would be the first to suffer a fiscal crisis, I wasn’t terribly surprised that Illinois […]
Why We Don’t Have Principled Politicians
Why We Don’t Have Principled Politicians Politicians choose their stances on issues based on public opinion, not principles. Recently, Senator Chuck Schumer introduced a bill that would decriminalize marijuana on the federal level. He stated that the legality of marijuana should be a matter left up to individual states. This ringing endorsement of federalism might […]
Why We Have a Surveillance State
Why We Have a Surveillance State It is the inevitable consequence of our prevailing governing philosophy. “Gentlemen do not read each other’s mail.” Henry Stimson, Secretary of State, 1929 I was upbraided recently by a dear friend for my frequent praise of outcast investor Peter Thiel over Thiel’s involvement with big data company Palantir. He […]
Trade Wars Lead to Shooting Wars and Depressions
Trade Wars Lead to Shooting Wars and Depressions Trade wars were a principal factor in causing the Great Depression of the 1930s and World War II. The current President of the U.S. has imposed tariffs on imported steel and aluminum effective March 23, 2018 and proposes tariffs on products imported from China. He has also proposed […]
