Thomas Woods has reminded us more than once that “no matter who you vote for, you get John McCain.” It’s not strictly and always true, of course, but the evidence is clear that it’s often true. The latest example is the GOP’s speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) who has turned out more or less exactly like us skeptics have predicted. Johnson is a friend to the war party, a do-nothing on issues important to the rank and file (like immigration), and a true enemy of the people on issues like warrantless spying. 

Last week I posted something on how business confidence affects capital investment. Many factors may affect business confidence. The psychological mindset of business owners might change on its own. Public policies may affect business confidence too.

Over the weekend, the Iranian military launched hundreds of drones and missiles toward Israel. Israeli, American, and Jordanian air defenses reportedly intercepted and shot down almost everything Iran fired. One child from a Bedouin village in southern Israel was hurt by shrapnel falling from an intercepted missile, and an Israeli air base in the Negev Desert—also in southern Israel—sustained some structural damage.

In an essay entitled “A Strategy for the Right” the late economic and libertarian scholar, Professor Murray N. Rothbard, called John C. Calhoun’s Disquisition on Government “one of them most brilliant essays on political philosophy ever written.” Published in 1850, the year of his death, Calhoun’s Disquisition warned – and explained – how the American political system could evolve into tyranny, and how to stop that from happening.

My latest contribution to the debate on Milei´si banking reform and the 100% reserve ratio has received a response in form of a video by Juan Ramón Rallo who defends a fractional reserve banking system based on real bills.

Frédéric Bastiat is well known for his radical free-market positions as expressed in his still-famous book The Law and in insightful essays such as “That Which Is Seen and That Which Is Not Seen.” Joseph Schumpeter called Bastiat “the most brilliant economic journalist who ever lived.” 

Writing for IM—1776 today, Tho Bishop addressed the significance of Renato Moicano’s viral Mises moment:

Why was von Mises on the mind of Moicano? One factor relates to Moicano’s native Brazil. In 2016, popular protests against the corruption and economic mismanagement of Brazil’s socialist government, then led by Dilma Rousseff, resulted in Mises becoming the most widely searched economist in the country.

A recent undercover video interview with a Fed economist by a Daily Caller reporter contains explosive revelations about the profoundly anti-democratic doings of the Fed.    In the video, Federal Reserve principal economist Aurel Hizmo, a speech writer for Fed Chair Jerome Powell, reveals “classified information” about how Powell deliberately acted to undermine Presi