In one of his literary masterpieces, Socialism: An Economic and Sociological Analysis, Mises provided a chapter titled, “Christianity and Property,” in which he wrote the following statements regarding the teachings of Jesus,
When President Trump recently began calling the Ukrainian dictator a dictator elements of both Left and Right in the Washington establishment became quite indignant over it. After all, he is their poster boy for their beloved “foreign aid.” The Ukrainian constitution allows for the suspension of elections during wartime, shouted “The Grate One,” Mark Levin of FOX News. Levin then gave the Ukrainian dictator his full throated support since, after all, a piece of paper written by his government gives him such dictatorial powers, said the self-professed constitutional scholar.
One of President Trump’s proposals for his new term is to abolish the federal income tax and replace it with tariffs as the primary revenue source for the US federal government. In a brilliant rhetorical move, he suggests implementing this through abolishing the Internal Revenue Service and replacing it with the “External Revenue Service,” claiming that the tariffs collected by this new agency would be financed by foreigners rather than Americans. This sure sounds like a good deal.
The standard economic argument against tariffs is that, by eliminating foreign competition, they simply raise prices for consumers. While true, this argument barely scratches the surface of the problem and overlooks a critical reality: tariffs and protectionist policies do far more than just raise prices—they block the entrepreneurial discovery process that is essential for progress.
In late January, the Trump administration issued a series of executive orders that paused Treasury payments to a variety of federal contractors and grantees. These orders also often cancelled contracts with NGOS and other contractors altogether. Soon afterward, we began to see countless media stories about job losses at private NGOs and for-profit federal contractors. Many were so heavily reliant on revenue from taxpayer cash that they immediately began laying off employees.
At the end of Q4 2024, commercial real estate continued to exhibit severe weakness, with commercial real estate bonds hitting record distress levels, surpassing the previous records reached in Q3 2024. Commercial real estate bonds are just commercial real estate loans packaged into securities and sold to investors. One category of bonds, commercial mortgage-backed securities (“CMBS”), saw their distress rate increase to 10.6 percent, a fourth consecutive monthly record.
The Decoupling America’s Artificial Intelligence Capabilities from China Act—introduced by Senator Josh Hawley, R-Mo.—is another attempt to stifle free speech, the free market, infringe on personal freedoms, and damage market processes.
During his presidential campaign, Donald Trump said he would be turning things upside down, and he has kept his promises. All one has to do is to read the latest edition of the New York Times to see how the progressive wing of the Democratic Party is responding: rage, rage, and more rage, as the following editorial declares:
