World History

The state is held together by violence and nothing else. There is no such thing as "the social contract." But even violence cannot make a state last past its time, as we saw with the USSR.

On this episode of Radio Rothbard, Ryan and Tho take a look at "classical liberalism," a term that has come to mean a variety of different things in recent years. 

More than forty years ago, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn urged his fellow Russians “not to live by lies.” In our politicized age, his words ring truer than ever.

Although there has been excitement and fanfare over the recent BRICS meetings and proclamations, it is doubtful that these economies’ performance can match their rhetoric.

Hans Hoppe theorized that monarchs, as opposed to democratically-elected political authorities, would have lower time preferences and would be less likely to engage in reckless government spending. Unfortunately, at least one Medieval Danish king acted like a modern politician.

There are no more rabbits for the Fed monetary magicians to pull out of their hats. In an economy addicted to artificially low interest rates, any more moves by the Fed will trigger an economic downturn.

China rose from poverty after the Mao years only because its political leadership embraced private property and a market economy. Unfortunately, today the Communist leadership is moving back to socialism.

While the prospect of Javier Milei being elected president of Argentina is attractive, his plan to "dollarize" the Argentine economy will fall well short of hopes and expectations.

Some Jamaicans complain that the Chinese are "colonizing" the country because of their economic success there. Actually, their success is due to entrepreneurship and plain hard work.

Haiti famously won its independence from France during a slave revolt, but being independent has not brought political stability or prosperity. Instead, Haitians struggle to get by in the Western Hemisphere's poorest country.