The genius of his 1790 debt assumption was not fiscal, it was psychological. When he forced the federal government to absorb the states’ war obligations at par, speculators who had bought Revolutionary War certificates at ten cents on the dollar suddenly held federal bonds worth face value. They had not bought America out of patriotism. They had a position in it.

Ever since the sanctions onto Russia over the invasion of Ukraine, combined with real domestic economic anxieties of the post-pandemic era and declining institutional trust, a handful of libertarians and a mix of anti-war conservatives and the far-left have been announcing that de-dollarization was inevitable, prompted by BRICS’s desire to pursue a gold-backed currency.

For more than a century, modern societies have operated on a remarkably persistent assumption: that greater administrative capacity inevitably yields better outcomes. More information, more regulation, more coordination, and more sophisticated planning are widely believed to generate greater prosperity, security, and ultimately greater human progress. This conviction has become so deeply embedded in contemporary governance that it is rarely questioned.

As Murray Rothbard pointed out again and again, the government has no business getting involved in education. In a free market society, people are at liberty to establish whatever educational institutions they wish, and so long as they can secure sufficient funding, they will stay in business. They are free to set up their own standards on whom to hire as faculty. Matters are entirely different if the government gets involved. Then, people must conform to its demands, whether they want to or not.

A man told the police he feared being “swatted” by scammers. The cops ignored this and attacked the innocent man instead.