War and Foreign Policy

"With a free-market defense system, each man acts to defend his own values to the extent he wishes to have them defended, regardless of what piece of real estate he happens to be occupying."

Limited government is inherently immoral and must be rejected by any advocate of human freedom and justice in favor of competing agencies of retaliatory force.

Where did Benjamin Strong - head of the Fed - come from? Rothbard continues to reveal the individuals who shaped our world and wars. Morgan's empire brought us the irrational and useless WWI. Foreign policy today rests upon this Morgan outlook.

How does government intervene in the economy? What are the consequences? What are the motivations behind passing these interventions? The lives of the people involved explain why they do these things.

The Americans successfully used the different tactic guerilla warfare against the staid and rigid British soldiers. War caused a large increase in the paper money supply - the Continental -  triggering hyperinflation and loss of purchasing power.

Salutary neglect of the colonies spurred innovation and abundance in a spirit of freedom. Bitterness crept into the relationship after the French and Indian War when the British kept colonialists out of certain territories and began taxing them internally and increased tariffs.

Mises illustrates his case with a review of the fall of Germany, from the collapse of classical liberalism to the rise of nationalism and socialism

The Virginia Resolves said Virginia citizens should not obey the Stamp Acts. Intimidation of the tax collectors effectively nullified the Act. Colonialists felt that the Crown had violated their relationship. The Intolerable Acts were the final straw. They stated their grievances in the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776.

All the oratory of the advocates of government omnipotence cannot annul the fact that there is but one system that makes for durable peace: a free market economy. Government control leads to economic nationalism and thus results in conflict.

The only genuine, long-term solution is to force the state to retrench and allow the essential characteristics of free enterprise to reassert themselves in the market, especially in the realm of market prices and private property. There is no middle way. To plan otherwise is to plan for chaos.