World History

Although it doesn't explain everything, it's always a good idea to ask "who benefits" whenever governments step in to "solve" a crisis.

Real wages in Japan have been declining thanks to decades of expansionary monetary and fiscal policies. Now "Japanization" increasingly looks like a fate that awaits Europe.

Sinister forces in American political life are using the coronavirus crisis to incite war with China and to stir up bad feelings toward the Chinese people. But war with China should be the last thing people want.

Ludwig von Mises explains how the weakened state of German liberalism left the door open to German socialism which paved the way for Nazi ideology.

The Nazi concentration camps were modified versions of Soviet originals.  It's true the Soviet Union is not history's only killer state, but it is the original model on which others are based.

If we regard nationalism as necessarily harmful, we end up supporting the Soviet Union, and every empire and two-bit dictator who manages to hammer together a variety of disparate groups under a single national banner.

States seek to perpetuate themselves by seizing more control of capital and human beings. Size makes this easier. And every regime would become a mega-state like China or the US if it could.

Smaller countries have often been shown to perform better than large countries in terms of overall income and in economic growth. Also, their populations often enjoy more healthy and safe social environments.

The Edge of Democracy, a new Oscar-nominated documentary about Brazil, gets even basic facts wrong in pushing the idea that Brazil's corrupt and socialist politicians were the saviors of Brazilian democracy.

After very quickly becoming an advanced economy, South Korea is experiencing declining growth and labor productivity. The culprit, as usual, is government intervention in the market to favor certain interests.