Ryan McMaken | The Libertarian Institute

The Supreme Court Is Much Too Powerful

by Ryan McMaken | Jul 11, 2018 | Featured Articles, Politics

The current frenzy over the vacancy on the Supreme Court in the wake of Justice Kennedy's retirement highlights just how much power has been centralized in the hands of a small number of people in Washington, DC. The left has grown positively hysterical over the thought of yet another Trump-appointed judge being installed, who could potentially serve on the court for decades. Right-wingers who claim the left is overreacting, however, are unconvincing. One can only imagine the right's reaction were Hillary Clinton president. She would have already had the opportunity to appoint Scalia's...

Splitting California into 3 Pieces Is Long Overdue

by Ryan McMaken | Jun 15, 2018 | Featured Articles, Politics

It now looks like California voters will have the chance to vote on whether or not the state ought to be split up into three pieces. The Los AngelesTimes reports : If a majority of voters who cast ballots agree, a long and contentious process would begin for three separate states to take the place of California, with one primarily centered around Los Angeles and the other two divvying up the counties to the north and south. This latest move is just one of many efforts over many decades to split California up, and make its constituent parts more responsive to the people who live there. This...

The Difference Between Good Globalism and Bad Globalism

by Ryan McMaken | Mar 29, 2018 | Economics, Featured Articles, Foreign Policy

"Globalism" and "globalization," are terms that suffer from a lack of any precise definition. The terms are used freely by a wide variety of commentators to mean both good and bad things — many of which are opposites of each other. Sometimes globalism means lowering trade barriers. Other times it means aggressive foreign policy through international organizations like NATO. Other times it means supporting a global bureaucracy like the United Nations. This lack of precision was recently featured in The New York Times with Bret Stephens's column "In Praise of Globalists." Stephens...

Police: We're the Experts — Don't You Dare Criticize Us

by Ryan McMaken | Mar 8, 2018 | Featured Articles, Justice

One of the most surprising developments in the wake of February's Florida school shooting is the willingness by many generally police-friendly commentators to denounce the lack of action by local police against the shooter. From National Review, to The Federalist, to Donald Trump, many of the law enforcement officers involved in the shooting are being accused of outright "cowardice." Part of this is agenda-driven. The inaction on the part of law-enforcement organizations demonstrates that it is not enough to "call 911" and hope the police show up to protect the victims. As Michael Graham...

Police: We’re the Experts — Don’t You Dare Criticize Us

by Ryan McMaken | Mar 8, 2018 | Featured Articles, Justice

One of the most surprising developments in the wake of February's Florida school shooting is the willingness by many generally police-friendly commentators to denounce the lack of action by local police against the shooter. From National Review, to The Federalist, to Donald Trump, many of the law enforcement officers involved in the shooting are being accused of outright "cowardice." Part of this is agenda-driven. The inaction on the part of law-enforcement organizations demonstrates that it is not enough to "call 911" and hope the police show up to protect the victims. As Michael Graham...

There Are Fewer School Shootings Now Than During the 1990s

by Ryan McMaken | Mar 5, 2018 | Featured Articles, Politics

Now that I have several children, I'm often in the company of other parents who talk about the way things "used to be." When the issue of child safety comes up, I hear parents sadly shake their heads and say things like "it's not like it was when we were kids ... the world is so much more dangerous now." Usually, the sentiment behind this idea is that there are more murders now than there used to be. Now, I'm not exactly known for being a Pollyanna, but I am willing to admit when things are not, in fact, getting worse. And when it comes to things like homicides, there is no evidence that...

Money-Supply Growth Falls Yet Again, Dropping to 116-Month Low

by Ryan McMaken | Nov 8, 2017 | Economics, Featured Articles

Growth in the supply of US dollars fell again in September, this time to a 116-month low of 3.4 percent. The last time the money supply grew at a smaller rate was during January 2008 — also at a rate of 3.4 percent. The money-supply metric used here — an "Austrian money supply" measure — is the metric developed by Murray Rothbard and Joseph Salerno, and is designed to provide a better measure than M2. The Mises Institute now offers regular updates on this metric and its growth. The "Austrian" measure of the money supply differs from M2 in that it includes treasury deposits at the Fed (and...

When Gunmen Strike, You’re on Your Own

by Ryan McMaken | Nov 6, 2017 | Featured Articles, Justice

Here is an often-used tactic to defend government police organizations from criticism. Whenever critics point out abusive tactics of police officers, defenders counter with: "And yet you won't refuse police help the next time there's a robber in your house!" This, we are told, illustrates that all police critics are "hypocrites." This has always been a dishonest tactic, of course, since "consumers" of police "services" are forced to pay for the local monopoly police force, and have no other options. Government police forces have monopolized the marketplace and crowded out affordable private...