In April 2024, STF Justice Alexandre de Moraes of Brazil ordered the suspension of dozens of accounts on X for allegedly spreading disinformation. Musk denounced the orders as censorship and refused to comply. The dispute escalated, leading to the ban on X in Brazil. After months of defiance, Elon Musk’s social media platform has decided to comply with Brazilian court orders, censoring users at the behest of the government.

Assumptions that some economists are employing in their theories appear to be detached from the real world. For example, in order to explain the economic crisis in Japan, Paul Krugman employed a theory based on the assumptions that people are identical and live forever. Whilst admitting that these assumptions are not realistic, Krugman nonetheless is of the view that somehow his theory could be useful in offering solutions to the economic crisis in Japan. Thus, Krugman wrote,

Kamala Harris’s 2024 bid for the White House was met with high expectations but ultimately resulted in a resounding defeat. Her campaign strategies, media approach, and messaging choices are seen as pivotal in alienating core constituencies while also failing to resonate with the broader American electorate. A major blunder was her campaign’s inability to connect with white men and key segments of her base, such as white women and Hispanic voters.

An activist historian in the United Kingdom, who rose to prominence as a supporter of Black Lives Matter, recently expounded to the Times on what he sees as the proper role of historians: “I think [the job of historians] is to try to stand there at this arsenal of dangerous ideas and to make it more difficult for people to raid that arsenal to use it for their political projects.

George Orwell, one of the most influential political writers of the 20th century, is widely recognized for his searing critiques of totalitarian regimes in his novels Animal Farm and 1984. Orwell’s portrayal of state control, propaganda, and the manipulation of truth has resonated with readers across the political spectrum. However, Orwell’s personal political ideology and his critiques of totalitarianism are far more complex than is often acknowledged.

This article is a version of a speech delivered at the 2024 Mises Institute Supporters Summit.

“Most economists are political apologists masquerading as economists,” wrote Doug Casey in one of his columns. “They prescribe the way they would like the world to work and tailor theories to help politicians demonstrate the virtue and necessity of their quest for power.”

Abstract: 

This article investigates the veracity of three claims made by current and former government officials in the context of the 2023 debt-ceiling debates: it would be unconstitutional to enforce the debt ceiling; the U.S. government has never defaulted; and there are no measures that could be taken to avoid a government default except raising the debt limit. None of these claims is true.