We think of thieves as conducting their work when no one is looking, such as breaking into a house while the owners are away. But the most successful thieves have done their stealing in plain sight, on a grand scale, while the owners were home and often with their tacit approval, though with sleights of hand that few are able to detect. Such a theft occurred when Woodrow Wilson signed the Federal Reserve Act into law on December 23, 1913.

Late last week, Congress passed and President Trump signed the 2026 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). The bill marks the first time the US military budget officially passed the one trillion dollar mark. Of course, when you add in other military-related spending such as interest on the debt, veterans’ affairs, and military components of other government agencies, the true number is at least one and a half times that amount.

Many people today are upset, and rightly so, about programs that promote “woke” values and “tolerance” for degeneracy. To counter this, some people support efforts to purge the schools of such programs and replace them with better ideas.  It’s easy to understand why people support such efforts, but this approach ignores the root cause of the problem,

Carbon taxes are officially set to increase in Alberta, while the UK government is rewarding those who turned in their gas-guzzlers with an electric vehicle-specific excise duty, enforceable in typical UK fashion by mandatorily-installed blackboxes and arbitrary inspections.

Recently my wife suddenly needed to go to a nearby hospital in the middle of the night. There are multiple public bus lines outside our door here in Pittsburgh. But they stopped running around 1 a.m. Thankfully we got a private cab to the hospital and rode one back. It was available at all hours of the day and night. Thank God for the private sector.

Sound economics and economic freedom have never been more crucial than today. Rampant inflation, tariffs, and taxes saturate every corner of our world. The state continues to reach for control of all aspects of our lives. But we continue to fight back.

Our mission statement has not changed since the Institute’s founding 43 years ago. The Mises Institute exists to promote teaching and research in the Austrian School of economics, and individual freedom, honest history, and international peace.

The idea is now widespread that communities or groups exercise a form of collective thought, which can be duly expressed by the leader of the group as the thoughts of the group mind. Community leaders often purport to speak on behalf of all members of their group when expressing the wishes or needs of the group. For example, when demanding reparations for historical injustices, they identify themselves and every member of their group as a collective unit deserving redress.