[Editor’s note: Vilfredo Pareto is best known for his work as an economist. Pareto was not of the Austrian School, but Rothbard notes that Pareto was also a radical political theorist who was influenced by Gustave de Molinari and Herbert Spencer. As such, he is worth noting, especially for his excellent work on the “circulation of elites” and classical liberal exploitation theory. The text below is a minor text by Pareto, written for The Living Age in 1925 as part of a group of columns on the direction Europe was heading in the decade following the Great War.

“Let’s be clear: President Trump’s claim that the U.S. government collected $600 billion from tariffs in 2025 is incorrect,” The true amount is closer to $289 billion. 

The Monroe Doctrine occupies an unusual place in American political discourse. It is often invoked as though it announced a permanent rule of hemispheric governance, capable of being revived or enforced by later administrations. In contemporary usage, it is frequently treated as a declaration of American authority over the Western hemisphere or as a justification for intervention against foreign powers and regional governments. This understanding does not reflect the document as written, the circumstances that produced it, or the limits its authors assumed.

“If Donald Trump goes forward, the status of the US will go from adversary or rival to the one of enemy,” [French Prime Minister] Villepin stated. “It’ll be a huge historical change.”

Britain’s relative decline is no longer a speculative talking point but a measurable trajectory. If current income, productivity, and cost-of-living trends continue, Lithuania is on course to overtake the United Kingdom in average living standards by 2030, with Poland following by roughly 2034.

The Constitution already grants far too much power to the central government. But Trump can’t even be bothered with his oath to uphold the Constitution’s few limits on war-making powers.