The Treasury Department posted its latest revenue and spending totals this week, and deficits continue to mount at impressive speed. 

During October—the first month of the 2025 fiscal year—the federal deficit was more than a quarter of a trillion dollars, coming in at $257.4 billion. Tax revenue in October had totaled $326 billion, but spending totaled $584 billion. 

It has been nearly 14 years since Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke told Congress that the Fed’s emergency quantitative-easing policy, of which the most radical part was buying mortgage-backed securities, was “temporary” and would be “reversed.”  

The Trump transition team on Wednesday announced that he is nominating South Dakota governor Kristi Noem as the next head of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). In the coming weeks, we’ll hear a lot about Noem’s personal politics and origins.

This article is adapted from a speech delivered at the Mises Circle in Fort Myers, Florida on November 9, 2024.

The democratic mandate of the incoming Trump administration, along with Republican control of Congress and a confrontation of wills between the President-elect and the Federal Reserve Chairman make ending the Fed a bit less unthinkable. Jerome Powell accurately stated, in a slightly defensive tone, that it is not (currently) lawful for a President to fire a Federal Reserve Chairman. Where some see obstacles others see a challenge, and where Powell sees bullet-proof glass, I see a window of opportunity.

There is plenty of commentary today about continuing large annual US federal budget deficits and the large federal debt that keeps mounting as a result of these relentless deficits. The budget deficit for federal fiscal year 2024 clocked in at $1.8 trillion, representing about 5 percent of US GDP, and the federal debt is now $35.5 trillion, approximately 100 percent of GDP.

The following interview, conducted by prominent Mexican journalist Sergio Sarmiento, took place in conjunction with the “Una vida por la libertad” award ceremony in honor of Hans-Hermann Hoppe in Mexico City on October 10, 2024. (Hoppe Receives Caminos de la Libertad “A Life for Freedom” Award.)

Libertad y Propiedad: Hans-Hermann Hoppe habla sobre la esencia del anarcocapitalismo (Freedom and Property: Hans-Hermann Hoppe talks about the essence of anarcho-capitalism)