Mises Search

The War to Prevent Southern Independence is the more proper title for the Civil War. The South did not want to take over DC or the North. There exists a vitriolic Lincoln Cult who cannot countenance that Lincoln might have been motivated by money and power in engaging in the Tariff dispute which began in 1824. The Tariffs amounted to a triple tax

Alexander Hamilton wanted the colonies to be just like Britain, but without a king. He pushed mercantilism in America by arguing that public debt was positive and central banking was necessary. High tariffs, especially on manufactured goods, are an almost universal feature of mercantilist policy. Yet it was just that system that the colonists had

There is no provision in the US Constitution allowing for a dictator. Yet, Lincoln was one. He suspended habeas corpus . Any disagreement with Lincoln was treated as treason. Political prisoners were everywhere, including the mayor of Baltimore. Three hundred newspapers were shut down. All telegraph communication was censored. Railroads were

States’ Rights have been ignored or misrepresented. Thomas Jefferson was an originator of States’ Rights. Citizens of a state ought to have sovereignty – dual sovereignty. Government was merely to protect the lives, liberty and property of citizens. The central government was always considered the biggest threat to freedom. The Alien and Sedition

The myth of antitrust, the myth of the New Deal and labor union myths are three economic fallacies. All three declare that government must save capitalism from itself. The Sherman Antitrust Act was passed to fight supposed rampant cartelization practices in the 1880s. Despite bold statements, there existed no evidence of rampant monopolies. The so

This second myth about market failure is again a call for interventionism and support for bigger government. Natural monopolies don’t exist. The theory was made up after the fact. The only monopolies existing are those propped up by government privilege. It took the economics profession about sixty years to look closely at the facts behind

There are labor market myths and there are labor union myths. The biggest myth is that capitalists always exploit the working class. Basic economics about marginal productivity theory contradicts this. Examples abound in all areas. Lecture 8 of 10 from the Steven Berger Seminar: Thomas DiLorenzo on Liberty and American

The interventionist myth is that Federal meddling in domestic or foreign economics can make anything better. Instead, meddling produced the American Great Depression. Doing nothing with a depression in 1920 produced resolution within eighteen months. Nobody hears of the depression of 1920-21. Herbert Hoover put into place almost all of the New

Walter Block and Tom DiLorenzo have looked at Constitutional Economics, and determined that politics are not just another market. There is only a curious analogy to the public choice approach. Social contract theory has been used as an excuse for all types of state intervention. Just because we do not all commit mass suicide does not demonstrate