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....
decentralization
Inflated
Inflation. Today’s inflammatory word of the day. Apparently, I’m permitted to share critical thought in this regard since I majored in Finance and Econ in college, correct? I haven’t written anything on today’s other hot topic, Ukraine. With 13 years of military intelligence experience apparently, I might be permitted to posses and share a thought there as well. Scott Horton has done, as always, a wonderful job in this regard so what more is there to say really? My quick take; there are no good guys in this story. None. So, Inflation. Side A: Joe Biden is the worst! Side B: Greedy...
Pulling Decentralization from the Ruins of ‘Liberal Democracy’
So-called liberal democracies have characterized the West for the past century and are viewed as the pinnacle of political development. So much so that Western elites are firmly convinced that this system of governance should be spread far and wide—be it indirectly (color revolutions) or directly (economic sanctions, kinetic military actions, or nation-building expeditions). Liberal democracies are political systems in which people entrust political power to a political class that, at least on paper, is constitutionally limited when it comes to exercising political power. Further, liberal...
Conscription: First Stop on the Road to Military Despotism
The U.S. Senate continues to debate legislation potentially adding women to the military draft in the United States. This week, for instance, Senator Josh Hawley attempted to remove from the 2021 National Defense Authorization Act provisions requiring that “all Americans” (aged 18-25) register for the draft. We shouldn’t be surprised to find that Washington politicians are nearly all in agreement that at least half of America’s young adults ought to be coerced at de facto gunpoint into military service—presumably to fight for “freedom.” The only debate at hand apparently is whether or not...
National Review Is a Poisonously Stupid Rag
“If an insufficient patriotism is one of the ills of contemporary America,” declares National Review editor Rich Lowry, “then a national divorce would prescribe arsenic as a cure. It would burn down America to save America, or at least those parts of America it considered salvageable.” It is precisely here that the anti-secession movement goes wrong, as it has more than once before. In the manner of obtuse historians, they identify the government as the nation itself, and in this case choose the political union over the social fabric. Lowry would sooner see the American tradition perish...
TGIF: Beware the Government-“Science” Complex
The government-"science" complex ostensibly promotes the search for facts about our world, but it actually promotes and enforces orthodoxy, protects resulting paradigms, and manufactures apparent consensuses that are questioned only at one's reputational peril. That's why I put the word science in quotation marks. I could have called it pseudoscience or junk science. In contrast to real science, "science" is little more than the broadcast of evidence-free alarms that politicians and bureaucrats, advised by anointed government-financed "scientists," use to justify political action and...
TGIF: Liberty as a Problem-Solving Process
Strictly speaking, liberty isn't the solution to problems. It's what creates the framework in which solutions can be discovered. That is an important distinction because it reminds us that advocates of full-blown liberty do not offer the world a problem-free society but "only" a society in which problems are discovered and problem-solvers are mobilized as quickly, fairly, and efficiently as impossible. To get this point across to students in lectures, I used to quote the the title of a 1970 hit record: "I beg your pardon, I never promised you a rose garden." Social troubles will not...
The Immortality of Lobbyists
Throughout much of human history, a political ruler was often considered to be only as good as his ability to distribute gifts, booty, and other material rewards to his most valuable and loyal servants. In the “barbarian” days of northern Europe, military men expected their kings to lead them to booty, and to distribute gifts to the best fighters after the battle was won. In later ages, the more powerful kings could dole out titles of nobility, lands to faithful servants, and bureaucratic offices with hefty salaries to trusted advisors. In exchange for all this largesse, subjects could...
Episode 549: Answering Radigan Carter’s Objections to Decentralization w/ Per Bylund
84 Minutes PG-13 Per Bylund is a Fellow at the Mises Institute and Associate Professor of Entrepreneurship at Oklahoma State University. Pete asked Per to come on the show to comment on audio pointed out by one of Pete's Patreon supporters of the Hidden Forces podcast in which investor and former soldier, Radigan Carter, attempts to explain why political decentralization may cause more harm than good. Pete and Per seek to tear apart his "arguments." Economics for Business Podcast Per's Mises.org Page Per on Twitter Get Autonomy 19 Skills PDF Download The Monopoly On Violence Pete's...
Talk of Secession is the ‘New Normal’
Secession is a four-letter word for the millions of Americans who have gone through the conventional educational pipeline that teaches them that the American state is indivisible and sacrosanct. However, intellectually honest historians whose minds haven’t been warped by educational institutions know better than to dismiss secessionism as some nefarious activity that only treasonous Southerners of the Confederacy are capable of engaging in. For all intents and purposes, the founding generation was secessionist. When they signed on to the Declaration of Independence, those who fomented the...