Mises Daily

American citizens can now be arrested by the federal government, held indefinitely without trial, questioned under standards we would not allow for our own soldiers if captured by other nations or subordinates of those nations, and never have a hearing to find out the evidence being presented against them. This is shameful and stunning, and is all derived from a legislative branch that is unwilling to do what the Constitution allows it to do: declare war.

The absence of a central bank in Panama has created a completely market-driven money supply. Panama's market has also chosen the US dollar as its de facto currency. The country must buy or obtain their dollars by producing or exporting real goods or services; it cannot create money out of thin air. In this way, at least, the system is similar to the old gold standard. Annual inflation in the past 20 years has averaged 1% and there have been years with price deflation, as well: 1986, 1989, and 2003.

The actual conflict at the root of history is the great struggle between freedom and despotism, between the individual and the state, between the voluntary means and coercion.

It may be the spirit will not change, but from perfecting, minding, and living with machines the mentality does.

I am fearful of a government-run, centralized healthcare system staffed by a unionized workforce. I dream of the entrepreneurs of that age who will be working to exhaustion in order to satisfy the dreams of the ever-distant horizon of consumer wants. What a wonderful world that will be.

ROCKWELL: The biggest strategic error is collaborating with the powers that be, as if the people in charge –those consumed by what St Augustine called "the lust to rule" –can be convinced by libertarian arguments. This isn't going to work. We need to come to terms with the fact that we are ultimately a revolutionary movement.

It seems that the policy of transparency (transparent tampering) that Fed policy makers are striving to implement under the banner of achieving price stability might not be that good for the health of the economy. Also, it is a contradiction in terms to suggest that by means of manipulation of the price indexes and interest rates the Fed could somehow set the basis for the efficient allocation of resources and fulfill the role of an agent for economic growth.

What guarantee do we have that the people who run the state will be less evil than those who are run by the state?

This "greatest benefit" to the least advantaged is doubly meaningless, since the only society that would qualify as just is one in which the identity of the least advantaged is irrelevant.

It is only because we have a monstrous welfare/warfare state that the government "needs" to collect an income tax. The beginning of Clinton's presidency was not that long ago. The income tax can be abolished. It can be done quickly; it can be done painlessly — and it can be done for the benefit of the American taxpayer instead of the federal leviathan. Now that is real tax reform.