Do the Rich Pay Their “Fair Share” of Taxes?
The chart below was posted by economist Julia R. Cartwright. It shows that the top five percent of income earners paid about 60 percent of the total taxes collected by the Federal government in 2023 while the bottom 50 percent made 3.3 percent of total tax payments in that year.
Those Big, Beautiful Bonds
Required Reading: Rothbard Graduate Seminar 2026
Listed and linked below are the readings that all students must complete before attending RGS.
All materials are available on Mises.org free of charge, and most readings are available in multiple formats (e.g., PDF, ePub, HTML, audio). Complimentary physical copies of the readings will be available to attendees upon arrival at RGS. Physical copies can be mailed in advance to U.S. addresses upon request by emailing felicia@mises.org.
Free Markets Would Be OPEC’s Undoing
If Science Is a Public Good, Let China Pay for It
Representative Zoe Lofgren says Trump’s proposed 2027 budget “will stymie American science and innovation and hand over our competitiveness to our adversaries.” The Association of American Universities makes the same case
The Problem with Eternal Vigilance
Ft. Knox Full of Impure Gold Unfit for International Transactions
The bulk of the US gold reserves held in Fort Knox are made up of impure “non-standard” bars that don’t qualify for use in international settlements. In practice, this means that most of America’s massive gold stockpile is illiquid and wouldn’t be readily accepted on the international market should the need arise:
“It’s a decrepit relic just like our monetary policy is. With respect to America’s gold stockpile, we hold ourselves to a lower standard than the rest of the world,” Money Metals CEO Stefan Gleason said.
Free Speech is About Individual Liberty, Not Viewpoint Discrimination
Supreme Court rulings are significant not only for their decision on who wins, but also for their reasoning. A victory for common sense may sometimes be pyrrhic if it benefits the party who wins the dispute but relies on reasoning that erodes individual liberty in the longer term.