In March of 2020 COVID-19 spread to the shores of the United States, introducing a medical threat that had all the signs of devastating families from sea to shining sea. But in the shadows, slipping in under the veil of a potentially deadly pandemic, another threat loomed. This threat, known as ESG, was not airborne or viral in the traditional sense. This threat was birthed in the imaginations of banks, corporations, and governments, and much like COVID, this threat is going to alter the life of millions of people worldwide. ESG is an acronym that stands for Environmental, Social...
taxes
Exposed: The Lies of Biden’s Tax Policy
As President Joe Biden’s tax policy discussions start heating up, some familiar lies have made their way back into the political parlance. There are four specific lies upon which I’ll focus here: The rich need to pay their “fair share” The Trump tax cuts only went to the wealthiest Americans Nobody making less than $400k will see their taxes increase under the Biden plan The wealthy pay less taxes than their secretaries Progressives generally classify the “rich” as the top 1%, those evil “millionaires and billionaires," as Senator Bernie Sanders used to say (until he became a millionaire;...
Whose Libertarian Party?
This last weekend, the Mises Caucus, a coalition within the Libertarian Party, was elected to all national positions within the party. For some, Mises control caused consternation: Aaron Ross Powell is a research fellow at the Cato Institute, a premier libertarian think tank. For others, jubilation: Clint Russell is a podcaster that grew his audience to 3.5 times Powell’s in a little over a year, primarily via anti-lockdown/COVID content. This article will explore the underlying dynamics of why this has happened and where the Libertarian Party can go from here. The Two Types of...
How to Build the Biggest ‘Necessary’ Government in History
One of the most significant (and often abused) clauses in the U.S. Constitution is the “Necessary and Proper” Clause. The clause states: “The Congress shall have Power… To make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers, and all other Powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any Department or Officer thereof.” On the surface, it seems straightforward. Simply put, Congress possesses the means “necessary” to carry out its powers authorized by the Constitution itself. But what constitutes “necessary?”...
No, Disney World Isn’t the First of ‘One Thousand Liechtensteins’
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...
Abolish Society Security
Social Security is the compulsory government retirement program Americans are required to pay into for as long as they are employed. All revenue which is used to pay for Social Security is acquired through payroll taxes. More specifically, it is acquired through Federal Insurance Contributions Act (FICA) taxes, which also fund Medicare and Social Security disability benefits. A specific portion of these taxes then pay for the benefits received by retired Social Security beneficiaries, currently a pension averaging $1,657 per month which is eligible to individuals over the age of 62. In...
TGIF: On Privilege
One of the most abused words in English is privilege. Observe how indiscriminately this word is spoken and written. For example, in some quarters, all straight white men -- without exception -- are said to be privileged, which seems absurd. Practically all we hear about these days is privilege, who has it and who doesn't. Well, not exactly -- because those who are said not to have it are often called "underprivileged." I think it was the late P. T. Bauer, the great free-market development economist, who pointed out how peculiar a word that is. Underprivileged? Wouldn't that mean...
Lunatic With a Plan: Erdogan and Turkey’s Economic Woes
Since the first assault on Turkey’s finances in 2018, which I wrote about multiple times (here, here, and here), I’ve been the lone voice telling everyone that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is a lunatic but he’s a lunatic with a plan. That plan is to de-dollarize the economy of a valuable member of NATO geostrategically. Since the first shots across the bow by the Trump administration at Erdogan’s toying with those powers east of the Bosporus (Russia, China and Iran) the Turkish lira has been the primary mode of attack against Erdogan. Erdogan has pursued what has been deemed unorthodox...
The Costs of War on Your Wallet
James Madison warned us about the costs of war. War comes with an extremely high price tag. According to the Cost of War Project by the Watson Institute at Brown University, the U.S. spent $2.26 trillion on the war in Afghanistan alone. That comes to over $300 million spent every single day over the span of two decades. In 2018, the Watson Institute calculated that America’s “war on terror” had cost the equivalent of $23,000 per taxpayer. But the average person has no sense of the cost of America’s neverending wars. That’s because the government primarily pays for its wars by borrowing...
How I Robbed the World Bank
I have always had a bad attitude toward official secrets regardless of who is keeping them. That prejudice and John Kenneth Galbraith are to blame for an unauthorized withdrawal I made from the World Bank. When I lived in Boston in the late 1970s, I paid $25 to attend a series of lectures by Galbraith on foreign aid and other topics. The louder Galbraith praised foreign aid, the warier I became. His hokum spurred my reading and led me to recognize that foreign aid is one of the worst afflictions that poor nations suffer. As one critic quipped, foreign aid is money from governments, to...