Ryan McMaken | The Libertarian Institute

Joe Biden Blames Everyone for Inflation (Except Himself)

by Ryan McMaken | May 11, 2022 | Economics, Featured Articles, Politics

Speaking at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, President Joe Biden on Tuesday morning declared inflation to be his top “domestic priority” and insisted that inflation would not be a problem were it not for covid and the war in Ukraine. There was little room, however, for any sound economics in a speech that was little more than a campaign speech for the ruling Democratic Party in an election year in which the party looks to take a beating at the ballot box. In truth, it is the U.S. regime itself—and the regime's central bank—that is the real cause of today's galloping inflation. And...

No, Disney World Isn’t the First of ‘One Thousand Liechtensteins’

by Ryan McMaken | May 3, 2022 | Featured Articles

One of the stranger narratives coming out of the controversy over Disney's "special district" in Florida is the notion that Disney's Florida property is some sort of truly independent self-governing entity operating without government oversight. Most claims in this regard wildly overestimate the degree to which Disney enjoys self-governance. Some also claim that Disney's Florida special district represents some sort of model for a truly "private city" in the model of a sovereign city-state. Or as one Twitter commenter put it, "Unironically, Walt Disney style private city-states is my...

Support Ukraine’s Independence? Then Support Secession Everywhere

by Ryan McMaken | Apr 28, 2022 | Featured Articles, Foreign Policy

By now, it should be abundantly clear to all that the official U.S. regime narrative on Ukraine is that one is supposed to be in favor of Ukrainian political independence. That is, we’re supposed to support the idea that Ukraine is a separate state that is politically independent from the Russian state. By extension, of course, the idea that Ukraine is a sovereign state also implies it is separate from all other states as well. But how did Ukraine get that way? States, of course, don’t appear out of nowhere. They generally come into being through one of two ways, or a combination of both....

Elon Musk is Angering the Right People

by Ryan McMaken | Apr 26, 2022 | Featured Articles

The Wall Street Journal reports today that Twitter’s senior management and Elon Musk are in the final stages of agreeing on terms for Musk’s proposed takeover of the social media platform. Musk had announced on April 21 that he had $46.5 billion lined up—half in cash, half financed by his bankers Morgan Stanley, Barclays, and Bank of America—for a purchase of the company. Musk was offering $54.20 per share for the takeover at a time when Twitter’s stock price was In the mid forties. This followed a spending spree that began in early 2022 and resulted in Musk owning more than 9 percent of the...

Science Deniers Refuse to Admit the Failure of Lockdowns

by Ryan McMaken | Apr 22, 2022 | Featured Articles

As hard as it is to believe, the Chinese regime is still employing a “zero covid” strategy and claims it can eradicate covid entirely through lockdowns and vaccinations. China’s draconian, nightmarish, near-total lockdown policy—which is notably still “necessary” in spite of widespread vaccination—has recently been revived in Shanghai, where residents are now struggling to find food. But the regime has only doubled down on the policy, with Chinese president Xi Jinping declaring that “persistence is victory.” This approach has no basis in any actual science, however, and contradicts decades...

Real Wages Continue to Fall as the Fed Scrambles

by Ryan McMaken | Apr 14, 2022 | Economics, Featured Articles

According to a new report released Wednesday by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Consumer Price Index increased in March by 8.6 percent, measured year over year (YOY). This is the largest increase in more than forty years. To find a higher rate of CPI inflation, we have to go back to December 1981, when the year-over-year increase was 9.6 percent. March’s surge in consumer price inflation is also the twelfth month in row during which the increase is well above the Federal Reserve’s arbitrary 2 percent inflation target. March’s CPI inflation rate was up from February’s rate of 7.9...

It’s Time to Get NATO Off the American Dole

by Ryan McMaken | Mar 31, 2022 | Featured Articles, Foreign Policy

American policymakers have shown a surprising about of sanity so far in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. While some war enthusiasts among the American punditry have certainly been agitating for World War III, the leadership in both the White House and Congress have repeatedly and straightforwardly refused most calls to escalate the conflict. Unfortunately, a number of foreign parliaments among the U.S.' NATO "partners" have not been nearly as hesitant to escalate matters. Among the most reckless on this issue have been lawmakers from a number of eastern European states. For example,...

Biden Admits His Own Sanctions on Russia Won’t Work

by Ryan McMaken | Mar 28, 2022 | Economics, Featured Articles, Foreign Policy

President Biden on Thursday made two big admissions about the US-led economic sanctions on Russia. The first is that the sanctions will lead to food shortages for many countries other than Russia, and that this is simply the price that Americans ought to be forced to pay. The second admission was that sanctions haven't worked to change Moscow's policies, and that "sanctions never deter" the targeted regime from carrying out aggression. So, Biden has helpfully now explained this week not only that sanctions haven't actually deterred Moscow, but that the people of the United States ought to...