“Ask yourself whether you are willing to kill in an unjust war, whether decrees from the US government can provide sufficient moral justification for you to slaughter folks in Afghanistan or Nicaragua (in my day), or anywhere, and whether being called a coward is more frightening than selling your soul, so to speak.
For me the answer is no, but I am long past the draft age. What is your answer?
Think, consider, and act today!”—Jim Fedako, “Having the Manhood To Be a Coward”
It is often observed that Rothbard’s political opinions were controversial, especially in his later years when he forged an alliance with paleo-conservatives. He defended states’ rights and saluted the heroes of the South—Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson, and Nathan Bedford Forrest—and that is certainly controversial.
Paul Ehrlich, the leading false prophet of inevitable environmental doom and author of the infamous The Population Bomb, has died at age 93.
According to much popular economic thinking, there are three factors determining the market interest rates. The first is liquidity, the second factor is economic activity, and the third factor is inflationary expectations. Milton Friedman held that whenever the central bank raises the growth rate in money supply by buying financial assets such as Treasuries this pushes the prices of Treasuries higher and its yields lower.
“Humanitarian intervention” sells itself as a moral shortcut: bypass the messy politics, send in the troops, stop the monster. Many libertarians respond with a familiar reply: non-intervention, because aggression against another nation is wrong.
