The divide between Ludwig von Mises and John Maynard Keynes is not merely a disagreement over policy, but a deeper conflict about the nature of economic reality itself. Mises—building on the tradition of Jean-Baptiste Say—understands the economy as an intertemporal process, where production, savings, and investment must be aligned through genuine price signals, especially the interest rate.

(This is based upon a talk I gave at a recent Mises Circle meeting in San Diego.)

I have lived in California for more than four years, having married a lifelong California girl a while back, having come here after retiring from being a college economics professor in Western Maryland at the end of 2021. Presently, we live in Roseville, a city of nearly 150,000 that has been called one of the country’s most livable cities.

There are still some Trump supporters out there who continue to bill the Trump administration as some kind of great victory for the forces of populism against the “deep state.” A year into the second Trump administration, it is clear this is not a serious position. The populism of the Trump campaign has clearly failed and what we ended up with instead is a continuation and strengthening of the status quo. Over the next three years of this second Trump term, the welfare-warfare state will only get larger.