The recent destruction of the Syrian regime, replaced by Islamists and Jihadists, reminds us that the American foreign-policy establishment in Washington continues to do the bidding of the State of Israel which exerts its influence through one of the most well-funded and extensive lobbying efforts Washington has ever known. The surreptitious alliance of terrorist Syrian Rebels, Israelis, and Americans, is just the latest manifestation of this working relationship. 

All States Are Empires of Economic Lies

—Tom DiLorenzo

I’m going to start out by expressing my agreement with Doug Casey, who wrote about the economics profession of today. Most economists are political apologists masquerading as economists. They tailor theories to help politicians demonstrate the virtue and necessity of their quest for more power.

In private business “[t]here is no need to limit the discretion of subordinates by any rules or regulations other than that underlying all business activities, namely, to render their operations profitable.”—Ludwig von Mises, Bureaucracy, p. 46

What Went Wrong with Capitalism
by Ruchir Sharma
Simon and Schuster, 2024; 384 pp.

As the Washington drawbridge lowers for a second Trump administration, the world attempts to glean any insights that might indicate the direction of his second term. At the top of the list of concerns is the topic of sanctions.

It is a benefit of sound economic theory that it proves very useful in the refutation of popular fallacies and misconceptions about the workings of the market economy. One such fallacy is the assertion that government interventions through protective tariffs are without negative consequences for the people of the imposing country. Politicians and statesmen have employed these talking points to earn the support of the majority of the voting masses who are mostly unable to fully comprehend economic arguments.

Congress recently passed a “continuing resolution” to avoid a government shutdown. We are good to go now. Government agencies may continue to operate while Congress tries to agree on the actual budget for the 2025 fiscal year that started on October 1st.

A continuing resolution (CR) is commonly called a “stopgap.” In fact, a Google search yields almost no other modern uses of the term. But is “stopgap” an appropriate term for this thing?

[Provoked: How Washington Started the New Cold War with Russia and the Catastrophe in Ukraine, by Scott Horton, The Libertarian Institute, 2024; 690 pp.]