Ryan McMaken

Ryan McMaken (@ryanmcmaken) is executive editor at the Mises Institute, a former economist for the State of Colorado, and the author of two books: Breaking Away: The Case of Secession, Radical Decentralization, and Smaller Polities and Commie Cowboys: The Bourgeoisie and the Nation-State in the Western Genre. He is also the editor of The Struggle for Liberty: A Libertarian History of Political Thought. Ryan has a bachelor’s degree in economics and a master’s degree in public policy, finance, and international relations from the University of Colorado. Send him your article submissions for the Mises Wire and Power and Market, but read article guidelines first.

Ryan is a cohost of the Radio Rothbard podcast and the Loot & Lobby podcast, has appeared on Fox News and Fox Business, and has been featured in a number of national print publications including Politico, The Hill, Bloomberg, and The Washington Post.

He’s been married for 25 years and has four children.

Journalists seeking comment: email Ryan at rwmcmaken@mises.org.

Articles

The Fed Leaves Fed Funds Rate at 4.5% as Economic Storm Clouds Gather

05/08/2025 Mises Wire Ryan McMaken

On Wednesday, the Federal reserve’s Federal Open Market Committee left the target federal funds rate unchanged at 4.25-4.5 percent. The FOMC statement on the current policy, released on Wednesday...

Spain’s Blackout Shows the Regime Can’t Be Bothered with Affordable, Reliable Power

04/29/2025 Power & Market Ryan McMaken

There’s a lot of conflicting information about the immediate cause of the recent mega-blackouts in Spain and Portugal. The governments in those countries claim the causes are “still unclear” after the...

Don’t Like Tariffs on Food? Just Make Do with Less, You Glutton.

04/28/2025 Power & Market Ryan McMaken

In February of 2023, as price inflation soared above six percent, and only a few months earlier hit a forty-year high, a columnist at the Wall Street Journal presented a solution for rising food...

Publications

Breaking Away: The Case for Secession, Radical Decentralization, and Smaller Polities

10/13/2022 Ryan McMaken

Breaking Away differs from countless other books on secession and decentralization in that it considers examples and benefits of secession and radical decentralization in a much broader historical, geographical, and theoretical context. This book is

Commie Cowboys: The Bourgeoisie and the Nation-State in the Western Genre

01/11/2016 Ryan McMaken

The Western genre has long been associated with right-wing and libertarian politics, and is said to promote individualism and free-market economics. In a new look at the Western, however, Ryan McMaken shows that the Western is in fact often anti

Media

California’s Bullet-Train Delusion

05/08/2025 Ryan McMaken William P. Anderson

California economist and resident/victim William Anderson joins us to talk about the absurdity of California's bullet train plan, and how it ignores economic realities.

Want to Pay Down the National Debt? First, Cut Federal Spending

05/02/2025 Ryan McMaken

If a politician claims that he cares about the national debt, but then won't make big cuts to current federal spending, he's either a liar or a fool.

Trump’s First 100 Days: The Good and the Bad

05/01/2025 Ryan McMaken Chris Calton

Historian Chris Calton joins Ryan McMaken to discuss both the upsides and the downsides of Trump's first 100 days.