After months of calling for trade wars, more military spending, and a more aggressive drug war, the Trump administration has now followed up his administration’s expanding use of drone strikes in several countries with an escalation of military force in Syria.

It’s difficult to see where all this will lead, but it is sure to lead in part to more government debt, more spending, and more demands for increased government power, increased taxes, and increased inflation of the money supply.

[Editor’s Note: This is part 5 of a multi-part series.]

On April 6 — a hundred years ago —  the United States declared war on Germany.

The history of America’s entry into the Great War is complex and profound. It has intrinsic drama, no matter what one’s attitude about the rights and wrongs of U.S. participation in the war--and there have been many.

In spite of centuries of sound economic theory describing the benefits of free trade, we continue to hear two objections to free trade. We even sometimes hear these from friends who consider themselves generally to be in favor of free trade, even unilateral free trade.

[This “report” appears to have been written while Professor Raico was a university student. No date is given. The paper was found in a folder in the Rothbard Papers that included several unpublished papers by Raico.]

The New York Times recently ran a fascinating piece on the innovative management practices used by sharing-economy firms like Uber, AirBNB, and TaskRabbit. These firms match riders with drivers, house guests with building owners, homeowners with plumbers, and so on. The challenge for the platform owners is that the providers are independent contractors, not employees, and must therefore be incentivized to provide services.

Donald Trump’s airstrikes in Syria are tragic proof that he is just as eager to wage actual warfare as he is to wage economic warfare.

Yet there should be nothing surprising about his recent attacks. Military intervention does not represent a reversal of Trump’s deeply-held values (if he has any), nor is it a subversion of good intentions by malevolent forces in US politics. He is simply staying true to his word, for once.

From USA Today

President Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry are adamant that the Syrian government carried out a chemical weapons attack on Syrian civilians last month. They have thus far provided the public scant hard information to back up their claims. Even Obama ally Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) characterized the evidence in a Sunday Capitol Hill classified briefing as “circumstantial.”

Immigration restrictions and trade restrictions are often two policies that go hand in hand. Donald Trump, of course, provides an instructive example of a politician who has won elections while promoting both policies.