Recent Podcast Episodes

Ryan McMaken, Jonathan Newman, and Joshua Mawhorter of the Mises Institute take a look at the politics of "fedspeak" and what officials at the Federal Reserve really mean when they say they're going to fix the Fed.

The old republic is gone. The constitutional order of the Jeffersonian years—i.e., the so-called "American experiment"—was swept away long ago.

The dearth of child-bearing in western countries like the US is seen as a political crisis. Yet, if there is any place in our lives where government should stay out, it is in the area of childbirth.

The Trump administration’s downsizing USAID has brought the usual claims: that without US aid, millions of poor people around the world will die of starvation and disease. Not surprisingly, the claims are exaggerated.

In his concluding argument, Molinari envisions a society where security is provided by competing private firms chosen voluntarily by consumers.

Molinari describes the inevitable consequences of monopolized security: rising costs, declining quality, and the use of force against the very citizens the government claims to protect.

Molinari argues that majority rule is no more legitimate than royal absolutism when it violates individual rights.

Molinari distinguishes between society, which arises naturally from voluntary human cooperation, and government, which imposes itself through force.

Molinari describes how coercive control over defense led to the familiar abuses of taxation, war, and the suppression of individual liberty.

Molinari draws a parallel between monopoly and communism, arguing that both represent departures from the principle of free competition.

Molinari frames this choice as the central political question that determines whether a society will be free or oppressed.

Molinari confronts the common objection that security is somehow different from other goods and must be exempted from market provision.

Molinari applies the general principle of free competition directly to the provision of security services.

Molinari argues that the division of labor and voluntary cooperation form the natural basis of social organization.

Molinari opens by establishing that humans have a fundamental need for security of their persons and property.

Rothbard introduces Molinari's essay as a pioneering work that took free-market principles to their logical conclusion by questioning the state's monopoly on defense.

Mark Thornton argues we’re on the on-ramp to hyperinflation, and that the “gold didn’t spike on war” story misses the real driver: Fed policy, oil-driven CPI optics, and the coming scramble for liquidity.

There are fuel protests in Ireland, which are not surprising given the havoc Trump’s Iran war has caused in oil markets. They also should be protesting against the government policies that make the situation worse.

A third of all dollars in existence were created since 2020. The money supply just hit a 44-month growth high. The Fed calls this "restrictive." Ryan McMaken calls it something else.

Despite support from some economists in the free market camp, fractional reserve free banking is doomed for failure, as Murray Rothbard pointed out.