The US and other countries of the Western world are divided by ever more stark ideological differences, to put it mildly. Because most people live in societies where the power to make some of the most important choices, and to use offensive force to effect them, is concentrated in the state, these increasing differences of opinion are raising the stakes of losing or lacking political power. Accordingly, all kinds of people have begun to take an interest in political secession and decentralization as a solution to the intensifying power struggles.

In the past few weeks, I’ve been involved in an email exchange about the differences in methodology between the Austrian school and the Chicago school. The correspondence has revealed some surprising misunderstandings of a key Austrian view, demonstrated preference, and what I hope to do in this week’s article is to give an account of that view and some of the misunderstandings about it.

A certain meme has become popular among advocates of both gold and cryptocurrencies. This is the “Fix the money, fix the world” meme. This slogan is based on the idea that by switching to some commodity money—be it crypto or metal—and abandoning fiat currency, the world will improve greatly. 

Most experts tend to assess the strength of an economy in terms of real gross domestic product (GDP). The GDP framework looks at the value of final goods and services produced during a particular time interval, usually a quarter or a year. The GDP is formed as the summation of consumer outlays on goods and services; outlays by businesses on plants, machinery, and inventories; outlays by government; and exports less imports.

With his arrival to the office, Chile’s newly elected president, long-time outside opposition leader Gabriel Boric, has vowed: “If Chile was the cradle of neoliberalism, it will also be its grave.” While the term suffers for want of a clear definition, Boric has not been shy over the course of his career about making clear what policies he opposes, and so we may infer something of what he means.

Over the years observers of Turkish politics have become somewhat inured to erratic swings in policy coming out of Ankara. Particularly since the political reforms of 2017, his high degree of control over the primary functions of the state mean President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan faces few hurdles to executing abrupt changes he views as correct or necessary. This lack of any effective institutional check to his authority is, at present, leading the country off an economic cliff.

For those of us who value liberty, these past two years have been a bad dream. It seems like we fell asleep in early 2020 and woke up in 1984! They said that if we just put on a mask and stayed home for two weeks, we’d be able to return to normal. The two weeks came and went and instead of going back to normal they added more restrictions. These past two years have been a story of moving goalposts and “experts” like Anthony Fauci constantly contradicting themselves.

From those who view America as an irredeemably racist nation to those who believe the 2020 election was stolen, Americans are losing confidence in the political system at remarkable rates.

For two straight elections, Americans have questioned the legitimacy of the election results. Although the Russiagate drama was farcical, the fact that a substantial portion of the American electorate cast doubts on the results of an American election—a holy process that is perceived to be incorruptible—illustrates how the US is entering uncharted waters.