The phrase “Merchants of Death” takes center stage in the movie Iron Man, which is a spectacular exposé of a subject that dominates the American economic landscape but about which Americans have very little knowledge. The phrase and the movie deal with the odd juxtaposition of capitalism and war as found in the weapons industry. Here we have innovations and efficiency of the type we associate with the private commercial sector but serving ends that are the very opposite of capitalism.

Some people hang around on Mises.org to see what kind of amazing content we are making available now. Well, so for these folks, here is a wonderful thing. The Complete Writings of Thomas Paine: Volume 1 and Volume 2. So if you dig into this, you are set for reading 2000+ pages. How’s that for x-treme content? Plus, these PDFs all have very detailed navigation tools — and, unlike Google books, you can copy and paste the text for research work or quoting. Thomas Paine lives forever!

Take a look at this great clipping from the Buenos Aires newspaper from 1959, when Mises visited. This is courtesy of the Hayek Foundation, which has lots of photos I’ve not seen. (Thanks Adrian Ravier)

Just out: Interview with Hans-Hermann Hoppe, an Anti-Intellectual Intellectual, the English translation of Hans-Hermann Hoppe: Potret Intelektual Anti-Intelektual, an interview by Sukasah Syahdan in Akal dan Kehendak, or “Reason and Will”, an online weekly Journal on Liberty, Indonesia.

Churchill as Icon

When, in a very few years, the pundits start to pontificate on the great question: “Who was the Man of the Century?” there is little doubt that they will reach virtually instant consensus. Inevitably, the answer will be: Winston Churchill.

President Bush and the Republicans are no better than the naive Great Society liberals of yesteryear in thinking that a new law and new government spending can accomplish glorious things here and abroad, and one of those programs was called Reading First and it generated billions in spending. Billions.

Politicians have lately turned to bragging that some plan of theirs to give someone a new benefit is “fully paid for,” in contrast to a rival’s plan. Then they act as if that gives them some moral superiority as a result. However, revealing who and how much someone intends to take from some to benefit others does not establish that a plan is either ethical or effective.