Negotiations over increasing the federal debt ceiling continue in Washington. As has occurred several times over the past twenty years, Republicans and Democrats are presently using increases in the debt ceiling as a bargaining chip in negotiating how federal tax...
Bills
The War on Drugs Is a Jobs Program…For Dogs
by Matt Agorist | May 1, 2023 | Criminal Justice, Featured Articles
In a stunning display of misplaced priorities, some Minnesota politicians appear to be more concerned about the jobs of drug-sniffing dogs than the lives of humans impacted by cannabis prohibition. As the push for cannabis legalization in Minnesota gains momentum, it...
If America Loses Its Reserve Currency Status, You’ll Still Be Okay
by Ryan McMaken | Apr 27, 2023 | Economics, Featured Articles
Earlier this month, Larry Kudlow insisted that it is "it's incumbent on the U.S. government, no matter who's in power, to maintain the reserve currency status of the dollar." Kudlow laments that a toppling of the dollar from that perch "seems to be the direction we're...
Saddling Our Kids with Debt and a Draft
by Inna Patrick | Apr 17, 2023 | Featured Articles, Foreign Policy
When Congress discusses banning TikTok to keep our children safe from Chinese government spying, what do they really have in mind? And is it a pretext to bring back the military draft? The debate conjures up memories of when Congress adopted children’s interests in...
Welcome to the World of ‘Novel Legal Theories’
by William Anderson | Apr 4, 2023 | Featured Articles, Politics
When Rudy Giuliani was pursuing his infamous Wall Street prosecutions in the 1980s, his aides admitted that they were indicting people on “novel legal theories” that had not been used before. A Giuliani lieutenant bragged to a group of law students that prosecutors in...
New Florida Bill Would Ban Central Bank Digital Currencies
by Michael Maharrey | Apr 3, 2023 | Featured Articles
A bill introduced in the Florida House would ban the use of central bank digital currency (CBDC) in the state. Rep. Wyman Duggan (R) brought House Bill 7049 (H7049) to the House Commerce Committee on March 28, and the committee voted along party lines to officially...
‘Defend the Guard’ Receives Outstanding Committee Hearing in New Hampshire
by Dan McKnight | Jan 24, 2023 | Featured Articles, Foreign Policy
"I didn't know a lot about the Guard problem until I got involved in this, and the folks from Bring Our Troops Home sent me this very, extremely informative booklet on defending the Guard. And it's now called the Defend the Guard bill." That’s how State Rep. John...
The Idea of Making a ‘Trillion Dollar Coin’ Is Still Dumb
by Ryan McMaken | Jan 24, 2023 | Economics, Featured Articles
Here we go again. Every few years in Congress there is a purely political battle over the debt ceiling. We're supposed to be horrified and worried that the U.S. might default on some of its debt. Some commentators will insist the U.S. has never defaulted, and that...
Five Must-Know Facts About the Disastrous New Omnibus
by Romina Boccia | Dec 22, 2022 | Featured Articles
Just as I predicted back in October, Congress pushed its discretionary spending deadline back by one week, from December 16 to December 23. This comes as no surprise as congressional leadership is once again trying to ram through a massive omnibus bill before the year...
Once Again, the Pentagon Failed an Audit (Shocker!)
by Ryan McMaken | Dec 8, 2022 | Featured Articles, Foreign Policy
In November, the Pentagon announced it had failed yet another audit. In spite of the fact that the Department of Defense has had years to get its act together, the Pentagon still doesn’t know how it spends or maintains its trillions of dollars’ worth of...
Joe Biden, Executor-In-Chief
by Jim Bovard | Dec 7, 2022 | Featured Articles
On July 4, President Biden declared, “Liberty is under assault…rights we assumed were protected are no longer.” Biden, however, was referring solely to a few Supreme Court decisions he deplored, not to the federal supremacy he championed for almost 50 years in the...
Missouri Becomes Third State to Introduce Defend the Guard for 2023
by Michael Maharrey | Dec 7, 2022 | Featured Articles
A bill prefiled in the Missouri House for the 2023 legislative session would require the governor to stop unconstitutional foreign combat deployments of the state’s National Guard troops. Passage into law would take a big step toward restoring the founders’ framework...
No, the Labor Market Ain’t ‘Strong’
by David Stockman | Nov 28, 2022 | Economics, Featured Articles
Last Friday the Wall Street gamblers made another run at “bad news is good news”, taking the averages up modestly after a frenetic chase around the barn and back. But at the end of the day, it’s high time to forget about the games played by Wall Street day-traders and...
Western Politicians Tried (and Failed) to Legislate Tides of Russian Oil
by Marcel Gautreau | Nov 9, 2022 | Economics, Featured Articles, Foreign Policy
Since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Western sanctions program can best be compared to an interrogator who first amputates a victim’s arm and then, brandishing the severed appendage, threatens to begin slitting its wrist and tearing out...
Blog
The Lesson From Germany and Korea
Institutions are, of course, in some sense the products of culture. But, because they formalize a set of norms, institutions are often the things that keep a culture honest, determining how far it is conducive to good behaviour rather than bad. To illustrate the...
Occupational Licensing Increases Prices and Deprives People of Options
When you shop online, vendors usually give you a bunch of different ways to sort your options. Take Amazon: One popular sorting option – especially for customers with low income – is “Price: Low to High.” You’ve probably used it yourself many times. This...
Free Book: An Anarchist Critique of the COVID Mandates
I’ve had the opportunity to write a short book offering what is essentially an anarchist critique of COVID mandates. This includes the accusation that states did most of the killing rather than the virus. The 123-page book, Measuring the Mandates: Questioning the...
Democratic Socialist Turns Libertarian! #PorcFest2023
https://youtu.be/G2eSuiXNaaQ Once you accept the principle of government, namely that there must be a judicial monopoly and the power to tax, once you accept this principle incorrectly as a just principle, then any idea or any notion of restraining or limiting...
What War Hawks Would Sound Like If They Weren’t Psychopaths
Modern warfare almost always leads to killing lots of innocents; if governments were held to the same standards as individuals, these killings would be manslaughter, if not murder. This doesn’t mean that war is never justified. But the reasonable hawkish mood is...
The Free Market Serves the Masses, Governments Commit Genocide
Amazon is simply the best store that ever existed, by far, with incredible selection and unearthly convenience. The price: cheap. Facebook, Twitter, and other social media let us socialize with our friends, comfortably meet new people, and explore even the most...
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Voluntaryist Handbook
by Keith Knight
Hotter Than The Sun: Time To Abolish Nuclear Weapons
by Scott Horton
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Enough Already: Time to End the War on Terrorism
by Scott Horton