Rothbard and the American Revolution

Americans are taught that the Constitution completed the Revolution. The Articles of Confederation were weak, disorder reigned, Shays’s Rebellion terrified the countryside, and sober statesmen in Philadelphia heroically designed a “more perfect Union,” as the story goes. The Constitution thus appears as the Revolution’s crowning achievement.

But, as Rothbard showed, the Constitution was not the fulfillment of 1776, but rather its undoing.

In Honor of the 100th Anniversary of the Birthday of Dr. Murray Rothbard

Few figures in modern intellectual history carried an idea to its logical conclusion as relentlessly as Murray Rothbard. Building upon the formidable theoretical structure developed by Ludwig von Mises, Rothbard accomplished a remarkable synthesis in economic and political thought. Where Mises constructed a rigorous scientific explanation of how economies function, Rothbard extended that framework into a comprehensive philosophy of social order.

Why Money Has Value at All

Your dollar bought less at the grocery store this year than last. The Federal Reserve added trillions to the money supply. These facts are connected, but understanding how requires grasping one of economics’ deepest puzzles: why does money have value at all when it cannot directly satisfy our needs?

You hand a bill to a merchant in exchange for bread. This simple act, repeated billions of times daily, reveals a profound mystery. The paper in your wallet feeds no one, yet everyone accepts it. Why?