Steven Woskow | The Libertarian Institute

Saudi-Led Coalition Announces Halting Of Military Operations In Yemen

by Steven Woskow | Mar 30, 2022 | Blog

RIYADH: The Coalition to Restore Legitimacy in Yemen announced on Tuesday that it will stop all military activities in Yemen starting Wednesday March 30 at 6 a.m. This comes in response to the request of the Gulf Cooperation Council Secretary General and in support of the efforts and endeavors to reach a comprehensive and sustainable political solution to end the Yemeni crisis, the coalition said in a statement. The coalition also said it will take all steps and measures to make the ceasefire a success, and create appropriate conditions and a positive environment during the month of Ramadan...

Tom Luongo: Iran, Venezuela And The Two Great Resets

by Steven Woskow | Mar 7, 2022 | Blog

Importantly, we discuss some points I haven’t been able to shoehorn into recent blogs because they were already so massive. The first thing is the JCPOA negotiations in Vienna. They are pushing rapidly to conclusion now in order to stabilize oil markets by trying to offset voluntary embargoes of Russian oil with newly-released Iranian production. There are a couple of problems with this calculus, not the least of which is that Iran’s oil sector will not be able to just spin up another 1.5 million bbls/day before Russia responds in ways I discussed in the article linked above, i.e. offering...

The Most Famous Person In The World

by Steven Woskow | Mar 5, 2022 | Blog

Dear Friends: "Mr. McAdams, how does it feel to be the most famous man in the world?" This is not how most of my press appearances begin and it is the concluding chapter of perhaps the strangest 24 hours of my life. But thus began my interview on India's Times Now Television this morning as a follow up to one of the craziest and - even just 24 hours later - the most-watched moments of television history! For those who haven't seen it, I was invited for the first time to be a guest on one of India's top English language television stations. I figured that since India's a huge country and...

U.S. Inflation Climbs To 7.5%

by Steven Woskow | Feb 10, 2022 | Blog

Rents rose 0.5% last month in another of a series of sharp increases since last summer. The cost of rent — the biggest expense for many households —has jumped almost 4% in the past year. Food prices also increased again, up almost 1% in January. The cost of groceries have climbed 7.4% in the last 12 months — a 14-year high. Dairy and fruit showed the biggest increases last month. Energy prices rose almost 1% last month due to a large spike in the cost of electricity. Cold weather also boosted demand. Gas and natural gas prices fell slightly, but the respite for consumers probably won’t last...

As Governments Remove Some/Most Covid Restrictions

by Steven Woskow | Feb 9, 2022 | Blog

Robert Higgs: The Ratchet effect In my work, the ratchet effect describes the characteristic way in which government under modern ideological conditions grows during a perceived national emergency. The government's size, scope, and power grow abruptly as the government acts to "do something" to allay the threat. Then, as the threat is eliminated or diminished, the government shrinks, but not all the way to the level it would have reached if the crisis had not occurred. Hence, each crisis shifts the government's growth trajectory to a higher level of size, scope, and power. In my formulation,...

Popular Sovereignty Convoy – The Rebellion Of The Working Class

by Steven Woskow | Jan 31, 2022 | Blog

https://twitter.com/JamesMelville/status/1486981696658550785 As regimes across the west engage in an arms race to see how much power they can exercise over their citizenry in the name of Covid, it has become increasingly obvious that the freedom to assemble is a privilege handed to the loyal, not a right afforded to free citizens. The fact that a doctrine of individual rights, liberal democracy and constitutional government has in no way inhibited the dynamic expansion of government power in western countries should give pause to those who have assumed these as shared values. It is clear...

Bipartisan Opposition To U.S. Involvement In Ukraine

by Steven Woskow | Jan 24, 2022 | Blog

The Hidden Origin Of The Escalating Ukraine-Russia Conflict

by Steven Woskow | Jan 24, 2022 | Blog

Various evidence presented in studies I have authored, which has been echoed by many other Western scholars who research these issues, show that both of these narratives are inaccurate. Indeed, the question of which side carried out the “snipers’ massacre” is central to understanding one of the “bloodiest and most controversial hours of European conflict since the end of the Cold War,” and the main tipping point in the escalating conflict between the West and Russia over Ukraine. According to testimonies by over 100 wounded protesters, several dozen prosecution witnesses, and forensic...