ESG has become a buzzword for both the American Left and Right. For the Right, it is just a Trojan horse for progressive social attitudes to sneak into business. For the Left it is an alternative to the “cruel” profits-only business model of Milton Friedman. Some on the Right abhor ESG because they worship profit in some abstract material sense. They treat it as if consumerism and profit are materialistic ends to worship in of themselves. But what they ignore is the crucial insight that all action accounts for social welfare.

Herbert Butterfield was Regius Professor of History at Cambridge University. He was a renowned historian, who contributed important books on diplomatic history, the history of historical writing, the politics of George III, and the history of science. He and Leonard Liggio—a close associate of Murray Rothbard for many decades—were friends.

The Fake China Threat and Its Very Real Danger
by Joseph Solis-Mullen
Libertarian Institute, 2023; vii + 145 pp.

How States Think: The Rationality of Foreign Policy
by John J. Mearsheimer and Sebastian Rosato
Yale University Press, 2023; 304 pp.

[From the July-August Issue of The Misesian.]

Libertarians understand — or should understand — that military conscription is a form of slavery or involuntary servitude. In fact, everyone should understand this. And yet conscription has been employed by the U.S. government for the past 161 years, ever since Abraham Lincoln signed the first federal conscription act into law in March 1863, enslaving thousands of American men.

From its earliest decades, the defenders of freedom — known historically as “classical liberals,” “radicals,” and “libertarians,” have sought to reduce and limit the war-making powers of the state. This is an unceasing theme across the ranks of the classical liberals, who come from many different nations and who, by today’s mainstream political standards, would nearly all be considered radical anti-war activists. Below is just a sampling of thoughts from these liberals. Many are well known among our readers, such as Frédéric Bastiat and Herbert Spencer.

The Misesian (TM): You have remarked that after 1900, all the pieces come into place for modernity in terms of the American warfare state. What are some of these pieces and how did they fall into place at that time?

Hunt Tooley (HT): To some extent, the state has always used wars to maintain and increase domestic control.

[From the July-August Issue of The Misesian.]

Americans are increasingly uneasy about their “national” security, and increasingly concerned that war is lapping at our shores. Instead of reducing the risk of harm to America and our interests, the federal government in Washington seems to be seeking it, investing in it, fueling it and lying about it.