Comedian Alan King whips out Ludwig von Mises’s obituary in this comedy routine from 1988.

Our bylaws stipulate a category of member so far unused: the Distinguished Honorary Member. I have proposed to the board - and am happy to say it is approved, pending your acceptance -, that you become the first Distinguished Honorary Member of Mises Brazil.

More than 650 people joined the Mises Institute near Houston last weekend to celebrate Ron Paul’s 80th birthday. Listen here for remarks by Jeff Deist, Llewlellyn H. Rockwell, Jr. , Thomas E. Woods, Jr. , Judge Andrew P. Napolitano , and Dr. Ron Paul . Recorded in Lake Jackson, Texas, on Saturday, 15 August 2015.

For photos, be sure to visit our Picasa site where we’ve posted about 200 photos from the event.

[Excerpted from Defending the Undefendable.]

At first glance it is not hard to answer the question, “Is blackmail really illegitimate?” The only problem it would seem to pose is, “Why is it being asked at all?”

Do not blackmailers, well, blackmail people? And what could be worse? Blackmailers prey on people’s dark, hidden secrets. They threaten to expose and publicize them. They bleed their victims and often drive them to suicide.

In April it was announced that Greece was imposing a surcharge for all cash withdrawals from bank accounts to deter citizens from clearing out their accounts. So now the Greeks will have to pay one euro per 1,000 euros that they withdraw, which is one-tenth of a percent. It doesn’t seem very big, but the principle at work is extremely big because what they’re in effect doing is breaking the exchange rate between a unit of bank deposits and a unit of currency.

Economics is dead, and economists killed it.

The yearly rate of growth of the personal consumption expenditure (PCE) price index adjusted for food and energy stood at 1.3 percent in June — the same figure as in May. Note that on average since the beginning of this year the yearly rate of growth stood at 1.3 percent. Many economists have expressed satisfaction that the yearly rate of growth has been stable so far notwithstanding that it stood below the Fed’s target of 2 percent.

The term “Sagebrush Rebellion” is again showing up in newspapers across the American west as states seek more control over federal lands within their own boundaries.

[Rothbard wrote this in 1950.]