In a recent conversation with the Libertarian Institute’s Keith Knight, we broke down a 2012 article by everyone’s least favorite economist, the former New York Times pundit Paul Krugman. In it, Krugman makes all the familiar and mistaken arguments about why we needn’t worry about high levels of government borrowing. From “the government doesn’t need to actually pay it back” to “we owe it to ourselves,” Krugman couldn’t be more confident in his wrong-headedness. Krugman’s arguments are fundamentally flawed because they mischaracterize the nature of government debt, ignore the distortive...

When President Donald Trump announced the creation of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), to be led by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, the initiative was met with both enthusiasm and skepticism. The prospect of cutting $1-2 trillion from the federal budget by 2026 was an ambitious goal, and one that resonated with fiscal conservatives seeking to rein in government spending. However, early results indicate that despite bold promises, the entrenched realities of government spending are proving to be formidable obstacles. In the months following the November election, Musk and...

Just as today, in the years following World War II the United States faced a national debt exceeding 100% of GDP. Yet, by the early 1970s, that figure had fallen to around 30%. Many policymakers and commentators today point back at this period as proof that economic growth and sound fiscal policies can solve America’s current debt crisis. But can we really "grow our way out" of today’s $36.4 trillion national debt the way we did after the war? The numbers suggest otherwise. The drop in debt-to-GDP following World War II was driven by several key factors: Rapid economic growth: The post-war...

For more than half a century, the global economy has operated under a monetary system divorced from gold. The 1971 collapse of the Bretton Woods system, where the U.S. dollar’s convertibility to gold was suspended, ushered in the fiat money era, a regime in which paper currencies are backed by nothing but government decree. Economist Murray Rothbard, in What Has Government Done to Our Money?, particularly in the chapter “The Monetary Breakdown of the West,” details how this transition has distorted economic incentives, weakened the real economy, and fueled financial speculation at the...

As American consumers and businesses face the looming possibility of additional tariffs under a second Trump administration, it is worth revisiting the incisive critique of protectionism put forth by economist Murray Rothbard in his book Power and Market. Rothbard’s analysis exposes protectionism not as a tool for national prosperity but as a mechanism for enriching politically connected interests at the expense of the general population. With policymakers entertaining yet more trade restrictions, his arguments remain as relevant as ever. Protectionism, in its essence, involves the use of...