Mises Wire

It is noteworthy to remember that no other American milieu was more enthusiastic in the endorsement of communism than that of Hollywood.

For an advocate of civil republicanism, you could be drafted into the army, or taxed at very high rates, and that's fine because you participated in a process (democracy) in which you helped pick your own rulers. This view of freedom has a few problems.

Despite its supposedly strained relationship with the Saudi regime, the Obama administration, for example, still managed to offer the royals of that kingdom a record $136 billion in US weapons between 2009 and 2017.

Advocates for "blue laws" want to impose more laws on shopkeepers. These moral crusaders should instead start by setting a good example, and stop watching football games, ordering pizzas, or filling up on gas on Sunday.

Trade agreements have thus become obsolete tokens of negotiation in larger geopolitical disputes, protectionist tools for managing and interfering with global trade flows. 

The true lesson from Japan is that central planners prefer to gradually nationalize the economy before even considering a moderate reduction in government size and control.

Had consumers in 1938 been uninterested in a feature-length cartoon, Snow White would have bankrupted the Disney studio. Instead, Walt Disney was richly rewarded for his risk-taking.

So long as we insist the federal government can force one law, one culture, and one sort of politics on all of America, the US is headed down the road of civil war. Only decentralization and separation can partly defuse the situation.

Political and economic salvation for Venezuela can come only from the Venezuelan people themselves. They cannot be “forced to be free.”

China is not on track to catch up with the wealthy West. The Chinese state's commitment to highly interventionist mercantilist policies is leading to debt, malinvestment, and stagnation.