Mises Wire recently ran a story entitled “The Gold at Fort Knox Was Stolen From Americans,” written by Mises Institute‘s executive editor Ryan McMaken. His essay‘s apt title reiterates the facts of the events that occurred in the early days of Franklin Delano Roosevelt‘s first term as president (1933-37).

When the Joe Biden administration announced a comprehensive plan to forgive student loans, the public outrage was palpable. Although only a slight haircut for the government, conservative literati fretted that forgiveness was unfair both to students who repaid their loans and to the taxpayers, who derived no benefit from the Educational Industrial Complex.

Yesterday Rep. Thomas Massie reintroduced legislation to abolish the Federal Reserve.

I just reintroduced “End the Fed.”

Title: Federal Reserve Board Abolition Act, HR 1846. 

Americans would be better off if the Federal Reserve did not exist. The Fed devalues our currency by monetizing the debt, causing inflation. pic.twitter.com/0U2NkbBZsX

The ECP (Economic Calculation Problem) is a critique of central planning and why they are inherently doomed to fail. The ECP was put forth by Ludwig von Mises. In it he argues that economic calculation cannot occur in centrally-planned systems due to the lack of a market prices in producer goods. Understanding the ECP is crucial for knowing why planned economies fail while unobstructed market economies succeed.

As an academic economist who regularly reads newspapers and other media, the amount of economic ignorance promoted by professional journalists is astounding to me. Perhaps we should not be surprised, given that most of the economists quoted in the media are economic illiterates like Paul Krugman and Joseph Stiglitz.

As of early March, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) reports savings exceeding $100 billion, attributed to the:

Combination of asset sales, contract/lease cancellations and renegotiations, fraud and improper payment deletion, grant cancellations, interest savings, programmatic changes, regulatory savings, and workforce reductions. 

I have four children, so I think often about what I ought to be doing to make a world a better place before I shuffle off this mortal coil. When engaging in these sorts of speculations it quickly becomes clear that we are only fundamentally in control of ourselves, and ourselves alone. We cannot force other people to do what we want them to do. As the ancient Christian martyrs showed, not even the threat of death can force others to believe or do that which they do not wish to do.