Categorically speaking, there are two explanations for political differences between people. Mistake Theory posits that the reason libertarians and, say, Marxist-Leninists, don’t agree with each other is that we have firmly-held, genuine beliefs about how to solve problems in the world. Politics is simply “the science of society,” and good politics tends towards the greatest good. Most people simply differ on how best to achieve the greatest good.

In his controversial book Softwar: A Novel Theory on Power Projection and the National Strategic Significance of Bitcoin, US Space Force officer Jason Lowery presents Bitcoin, not as money or a market asset, but as a weapon of national defense. According to Lowery, proof-of-work (PoW) is not simply a consensus mechanism—it is a new form of power projection that turns kinetic force into digital deterrence.

[This article is a selection from Chapter 5 of Great Wars and Great Leaders: A Libertarian Rebuttal.]

Claudia Goldin is a Harvard labor economist who won the 2023 economics Nobel, and she has a new mission in life: boost pay for the players in the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA). In a recent op-ed in the New York Times, she wrote that the pay disparity between WNBA players and their male counterparts in the NBA is “embarrassing.”

She writes:

The Free Market 14, no. 3 (March 1996)

Look at the back of your computer monitor, the bottom of your table lamp, or the label on your hair dryer. Chances are you will see the symbol “UL” with a circle around it. It stands for Underwriters Laboratories, a firm headquartered in Northbrook, Ill., and an unsung hero of the market economy.