Auto loan delinquencies are rising and the average amount owed on underwater trade-ins hit an all-time high of $7,214.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics released new December employment numbers last week, showing another month of disappointing job growth and a labor market moving sideways.

[Why Schools Fail by Bruce Goldberg (Cato Institute, 1996; xi + 124 pp.)]

Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) and chartalism—the state theory of money, which is often invoked by MMTers—both look back to certain key writers. One such writer is A. Mitchell Innes who penned an article entitled “What Is Money?” in 1913 for The Banking Law Journal. A modern and active MMT voice, L.

“Gold, which does not yield interest, typically performs well in periods of low interest rates and heightened ⁠uncertainty.”

Everybody knows we need sound money; but what exactly is sound money? A good way to answer this question is to consult the works of the two greatest economists of the twentieth century, Ludwig von Mises and Murray N. Rothbard. I am proud of the fact that Mises’s widow, the unforgettable Margit von Mises, warmly approved of the Mises Institute when I founded it in 1982, and proud that Murray was our Academic Vice-President and spoke at our conferences and events until his death in 1995.

[Editor’s note: 2026 marks the 100th anniversary of Murray Rothbard’s birth, and throughout the year we will feature many of his most important texts. In this article, taken from his seminal work Power and Market, Rothbard tackles the question of how a monopolistic state can claim to protect the property rights of its subjects.]