Ryan McMaken | The Libertarian Institute

Do Not Let the ‘Lesson of 1938’ Overshadow the ‘Lesson of 1914’

by Ryan McMaken | Mar 21, 2022 | Featured Articles, Foreign Policy

With proponents of military intervention and war, it's always 1938, and every attempt to substitute diplomacy for escalation and war is "appeasement." Last week, for example, Ukrainian legislator Lesia Vasylenko accused Western leaders of appeasement over Moscow's invasion of Ukraine, stating "This is the same as 1938 when also the world and the United States in particular were averting their eyes from what was being done by Hitler and his Nazi Party." The week before that, Estonian legislator Marko Mihkelson declared "I hope I’m wrong but I smell ‘Munich’ here. " These, of course, are...

Where We See Costs, the War Party Sees Profit

by Ryan McMaken | Feb 14, 2022 | Featured Articles, Foreign Policy

In perhaps the most predictable column of the year, the Wall Street Journal this week featured a column by Walter Russell Mead declaring it's "Time to Increase Defense Spending." Using the Beijing Olympics and the potential Ukraine War to push for funneling ever more taxpayer dollars into military spending, Mead outlines how military spending ought to be raised to match the sort of spending not seen since the hot days of the Cold War. Mead claims that "The world has changed, and American policy must change with it." The presumption here is that the status quo is one of declining military...

Biden White House Denies It Supported Lockdowns

by Ryan McMaken | Feb 9, 2022 | Featured Articles, Politics

Last Friday, a reporter asked White House press secretary Jen Psaki to respond to the Johns Hopkins covid study showing lockdowns provided no real benefit in terms of disease prevention. In response, Psaki dodged addressing the study directly, but then pivoted to claiming that the Biden administration had never pushed lockdowns. “We are not pushing lockdowns,” she insisted. “We’ve not been pro-lockdown—most of the lockdowns actually happened under the previous President.” #BREAKING: | Press Secretary Psaki responds to Johns Hopkins Study that says lockdowns had little to no effect on curving...

The Usual Suspects Push for War With Russia

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

Here we go again. Since the original Gulf War in 1991, a certain pattern has emerged. Every few years, the regime in Washington attempts to whip the American people into a frenzy so as to support the latest American invasion “necessary” for regime change, “spreading democracy,” or some other agenda item. It worked with Iraq in 1991, with Serbia in the late 1990s, and with Iraq again in 2003. It worked in Libya in 2011. They tried it again in 2013, but Americans showed so little interest in the floated Syria invasion that the move was eventually rejected by the White House. The American...

The ‘Zero COVID’ Strategy Was a Losing Bet From the Start

by Ryan McMaken | Jan 20, 2022 | Featured Articles

The Chinese regime is doubling down in its “zero COVID” strategy. In recent weeks, new covid cases have been detected in several cities. In a world of the more-contagious omicron variant, this is to be expected. But what has been the Chinese state’s response? It’s more of the same. Lockdowns, travel suspensions, and more. NBC reports: Tianjin, which detected China's first community spread of Omicron on Saturday, is rolling out a second round of mass testing on its 14 million residents on Wednesday…The outbreak has already spread to Anyang, a city in Henan province some 300 miles (482...

Price Inflation Hits 40 Year High; What Comes Next?

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

According to new data released Wednesday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, price inflation in December rose again to a new multidecade high, rising to the highest level recorded in nearly forty years. According to the Consumer Price Index for December, year-over-year price inflation rose to 7.1 percent. It hasn't been that high since June 1982, when the growth rate was at 7.2 percent. December's increase was up from November's year-over-year increase of 6.9 percent. And it was well up from December 2020's year-over-year increase of 1.3 percent. This surge in price inflation is likely to...

What a 40-Year Inflationary Peak Is Doing to Your Wages

by Ryan McMaken | Dec 15, 2021 | Economics, Featured Articles

According to new data released Friday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, price inflation in November rose to the highest level recorded in nearly forty years. According to the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for November, year-over-year price inflation rose to 6.8 percent. It hasn't been that high since June 1982, when the growth rate was at 7.2 percent. November's increase was up from October's year-over-year increase of 6.2 percent. And it was well up from November 2020's year-over-year increase of 1.13 percent. This surge in price inflation comes only a week after Fed chairman Jerome Powell...

Is the GOP Finally Turning the Corner on Weed?

by Ryan McMaken | Nov 17, 2021 | Criminal Justice, Featured Articles

Both Bloomberg and the cannabis industry publication Marijuana Moment now report that Republican congresswoman Nancy Mace is preparing to introduce new legislation ending the federal prohibition on marijuana. According to Bloomberg: A Republican bill to legalize marijuana at the federal level in the U.S., expected to be unveiled soon, would have a lighter regulatory touch [and] lower taxes…“It would largely delegate regulatory powers to the existing state governments,” said Brady Cobb, a board member of Captor Capital, an Irvine, California-based operator of dispensaries, who saw the...