In a recent column, Paul Craig Roberts wrote that tariffs not only made international trade possible, but that they were merely a tax on consumption and were neutral elsewhere—and should be much-preferred to income taxes. He wrote:

William F. Buckley, Jr. wrote in 1952, “We have to accept Big Government for the duration [of the Cold War]—for neither an offensive nor a defensive war can be waged . . . except through the instrument of a totalitarian bureaucracy within our shores.” Since, the conservative establishment has sacrificed the nation at the altar of defeating the latest boogeyman abroad. They have accepted bureaucracy in place of markets, technocracy in place of community, the welfare state in place of charity, and the cult of state in place of church.

Episode 2604 of The Tom Woods Show released on February 8, 2025, entitled, “Is the U.S. Headed for Breakup (in the Long Run)?” interviewed Ryan McMaken, Senior Editor of The Mises Institute. The main topic was the breakup of the United States in the long run, also called secession.

Over the weekend, President Trump made headlines for refusing, on two occasions, to rule out the possibility that the US will experience a recession this year. The comments came days after the Atlanta Fed announced it now projects GDP to fall by nearly three percent in the first quarter of this year.

Columbia University student and legal US resident, Mahmoud Khalil, was arrested last week by federal agents. Although Khalil is a legal resident with a green card, and has not even been accused of any immigration-related infraction, he is being held at an immigration detention center.