The Supreme Court Uses Twisted Logic to Protect US Agents Committing Torture
The Supreme Court declared last week that Americans have no right to learn the grisly details of CIA torture because the CIA has never formally confessed its crimes. The verdict symbolizes how the rule of law has become little more
Modern Portfolio Theory: Economics without Praxeology
A popular idea in finance theory is that the prices of financial assets fully reflect all available and relevant information and that adjustment to new information is virtually instantaneous. Modern portfolio theory (MPT) postulates that market participants are at least
Cantillon Effects: Why Inflation Helps Some and Hurts Others
We now turn our attention to what happens with an increase in the money supply, rather than an increase in savings. This is critically important. The mercantilist idea that increasing the money supply increases prosperity was exposed as an error
Mises, Kant, and Worker Exploitation
Most of my readers are likely to think that socialism is morally wrong in that it violates people’s rights; but in this week’s article, I’d like to discuss an argument by one philosopher who thinks just the contrary, that morality requires
Avoiding Military Conscription Through Emigration: A Long and Common Tradition
In the early days of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Kiev government issued a decree that men between the ages of 18 and 60 were prohibited from leaving the country so as to be conscripted into military service. This
The $73 Million Settlement Against Gun Manufacturer Remington is Backdoor Gun Control
Remington Arms, America’s oldest gun manufacturer, settled for $73 million in a wrongful-death suit filed by the families of several victims of the Sandy Hook shooting. Bushmaster, the company that actually manufactured the rifle used in the shooting, is owned
Martial Law Was Not a Political Panacea for the Philippines
Senator Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has been making headlines lately as the presidential race in the Philippines runs ever closer towards the 2022 elections in May this year. On the local level, and at the time of this writing, he maintains
The Roman Empire Wasn’t “Civilization.” It Was Violence.
Review of Michael Kulikowski, Imperial Triumph: The Roman World from Hadrian to Constantine (London: Profile Books, 2016) and Imperial Tragedy: From Constantine’s Empire to the Destruction of Roman Italy (London: Profile Books, 2019) When English historian Edward Gibbon wrote his history
No, Inflation Is Not “Transitory,” and It Is Worse than the Government Admits
The inflation rates reported by governments are generally, at the very least, a little lower than they actually are. And the US government is not an exception. It makes the CPI (Consumer Price Index) artificially lower (by making changes in
Why Putin Probably Hasn’t Doomed the Dollar
In this episode of Radio Rothbard, Ryan McMaken and Tho Bishop look at the economic consequences of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. What has been the damage from America's weaponization of the dollar? Is Russia likely to return to the gold