It should not surprise anyone that Europe and the establishment media are up in arms over last week’s public spat between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and President Donald Trump and Vice-President J.D. Vance. The Ukraine War has benefited arms companies and Western political leadership alike, and the American media has been able to paint Putin as a uniquely evil leader and Ukraine as a bastion of democracy led by the virtuous statesman Zelensky.

On January 31, 2025, US President Donald Trump announced that he would impose a 25 percent tariff on imports from Canada and Mexico (except for Canadian crude oil and energy imports, which will be subject to a 10 percent tariff) and a 10 percent tariff on imports from China. Tariffs are taxes on things that Americans buy from producers in other countries.

The following essay is based on my chapter, “How to Create a Constitutional Federal Budget Without Income and Payroll Taxes,” in the forthcoming The Ethics and Philosophy of Taxation, edited by accounting professor and libertarian Robert W. McGee.

Remittances—financial transfers from migrants to their home countries—are often lauded as a driver of economic growth in developing nations. Policymakers and international organizations argue that remittances provide a stable source of income, reduce poverty, and stimulate investment. However, a critical examination of the evidence reveals that the long-term economic effects of remittances are far less beneficial than commonly assumed.

On Monday, January 27, 2024, after one week in office, the Trump administration’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB) issued a memorandum announcing a freeze on potentially trillions of dollars in federal grants, loans, and other financial assistance programs, effective at 5 PM the following day. Specifically exempted from the freeze were Social Security benefits, Medicare, and grants provided to individuals.

Today would have been Murray Rothbard’s ninety-ninth birthday. He was an unforgettable friend, whose immense knowledge of many different fields was unsurpassed in my experience. In a lecture on the Austrian theory of the business cycle, he mentioned the common objection that the expansion of bank credit might have no effect if investors anticipated trouble. After the lecture, I asked whether Mises had answered this point.

An August 17, 2024 article, at oilprice.com, entitled, “A New Era for Nuclear Power in the US” describes US government funding and intervening to reopen closed or closing nuclear power electric generating plants (nuclear) to support their green transition policies from the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).

News feeds are stuffed full of reports and opinions about President Trump’s tariff increases on Mexico, Canada, China, and the EU. Then the add-on story is about the tax cut legislation—extending President Trump’s tax cuts to the coming years.

The media is spinning the story as a political hot potato: can tariff increases make up for the future revenue losses from extending the income tax reductions from President Trump’s first term?

This is a false scenario, and a dangerous one. It puts our standard of living at a critical crossroads. Here are the missing road signs.