The Looming Threat of a National Breakup
Recorded at the 2022 Austrian Economics Research Conference hosted at the Mises Institute in Auburn, Alabama, March 18–19, 2022. The F.A. Hayek Memorial Lecture, sponsored by Greg and Joy Morin. Includes audience question and answer period. The Austrian Economics Research Conference is
A Harder Line with Beijing? Let’s Hope Not.
It was hoped at the outset that high-level meetings this week between Washington and Beijing might go some way toward bringing the crisis in Ukraine to an end. Instead, in both President Joe Biden’s Friday conversation with President Xi Jinping and Jake Sullivan’s
Required Reading: Rothbard Graduate Seminar 2022
Listed and linked below are the readings that all students must complete before attending RGS. All materials are available on Mises.org free of charge, and most readings are available in multiple formats (e.g., PDF, ePub, HTML, audio). Complimentary physical copies of the readings
The Character of American Individualism
Individualism, and its economic corollary, laissez-faire liberalism, has not always taken on a conservative hue, has not always functioned, as it often does today, as an apologist for the status quo. On the contrary, the revolution of modern times was
Love, Fear, and the Law of Good Intentions
Max Weber, citing Leon Trotsky at Brest-Litovsk, bluntly stated that “every state is founded on violence.” The imaginative theories that have been at times employed to justify the state violence do not fall under the scope of this article. What is
A Brief History of Pundits Encouraging Nuclear War
There is an active, influential, and well-paid minority of pundits and politicians in America who apparently believe that escalating conflict between nuclear powers—and even nuclear war itself—is not really that big a deal. These, of course, are the sorts of people
A Manufactured World Crisis
Few people today ask the most important question about the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. Many people want America to stay out of the fight, but even they don’t ask the vital question. Why does the world face a crisis
The West’s Russia Sanctions Could Lead to Many Unpredictable and Unpleasant Outcomes
Imposing sanctions will advance the reach of surveillance capitalism while strengthening the power of states to control the financial system overall. The end result will be a lower standard of living and a less free economy. Original Article: "The West's Russia
The West’s Russia Sanctions Show Why States Want to Weaponize the Financial System
In the past month, Western nations have allied to wage an economic and technological war against the Russian government and key Russian institutions. These measures included economic sanctions on well-connected Russian oligarchs, Russian banks, and even a US ban of Russian energy imports. Despite Western skepticism of Russian
In the Age of Covid, We’re Reminded an Unjust Law Is No Law at All
It is one thing to follow the law for prudential reasons and another thing entirely to assume the law brings with it some sort of moral imperative. Laws rarely do. Original Article: "In the Age of Covid, We're Reminded an Unjust