In a recent Bleeding Heart Libertarian post, philosopher Matt Zwolinski tells us he can no longer “describe the core commitments of American libertarianism” as he could have just ten years ago. The reason, he says, is that the apparent consensus about libertarianism that emerged in the 1970s and started unraveling by the 1990s was just a temporary condition—an anomaly; libertarianism has otherwise been a shifting, evolving movement suffering “recurring bouts of fragmentation and re-fragmentation.”

Gold has nearly doubled in two years. Silver has outpaced it. For the commodity that backed money for most of human history and that central banks still treat as the final settlement asset, these moves should represent a clean signal about physical scarcity and monetary demand. Western gold prices no longer carry that information cleanly.

The primary reason given for the joint US-Israeli attack on Iran was that Iran would not give up its nuclear program, which it claimed was for peaceful purposes only. The US and Israel viewed this claim as merely a cover story for producing a nuclear weapon to be used as a first strike on Israel and perhaps the US itself. I posit that, even if we accept the US-Israeli position as true, there was no reason to attack Iran anyway.

April marks the time when the guns of war began to fall silent across the South in 1865, after four years of war. On April 9, General Robert E. Lee surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia. General Nathan Bedford Forrest stood down his cavalry on May 9. By June 23, General Stand Watie had surrendered the last of the Confederate soldiers still fighting, the First Indian Brigade which included his own Cherokee Braves.

In January of 1917, V.I. Lenin was disappointed. He was living in exile in Zurich, having failed to bring about a communist revolution in Russia in the wake of the Russian revolution of 1905. Yet, being a committed revolutionary, he refused to declare defeat.

“The greatest danger to the State is independent intellectual criticism.”

—Murray N. Rothbard

To further celebrate the Year of Rothbard, we’re offering some of Murray’s most influential books for the rest of the year—for free. Request additional copies—up to 5 copies per order, 1 order per person—to share with friends and family.