Because slavery would not have survived in a free market, it needed the federal government to socialize the costs in order to make it profitable. Secession, ironically, hastened the day when slavery was ended altogether.
Unfortunately, slavery was not just propped up by policy in the slave states, but federally. It is often overlooked that the federal government—not just slave states—had implemented legal protections of slavery by policy for decades.
Politicians claim that trade deficits are due to the lack of trade barriers. However, as Ludwig von Mises explained, one cannot separate trade and sound money, especially when the current edition of the US dollar is declining in value relative to what it can buy.
Few Americans today realize that until the passage of the 17th Amendment in 1913, US senators were appointed by their state legislatures, not by popular vote. This development had an unfortunate effect upon US politics, further damaging the original federalist governing arrangement.
Even though Cuba poses no threat to the US, the Trump administration continues its criminal policies of sanctions and other restrictions in an attempt to foist “regime change” on the country.
The story of Anil Ambani destroys the belief that capitalism automatically favors the rich and excludes the poor. Once a billionaire, he made a series of bad business choices and the market punished those choices. Capitalism favors good choices.
While the Voter ID debate consumes the airwaves with political debate, the real issue is not who is elected, but the unelected elites that hold power. Even if Voter ID passes, the new law will not change the real structure of power.
Ludwig von Mises’s first major work was The Theory of Money and Credit in which he explained the role of money in the economy and also pointed out what causes the boom-bust cycle. It remains an important classic in Austrian economics.
The Civil Rights Act, first passed in 1964, is falsely connected with freedom. In reality, this law severely restricts individual liberty and replaces it with coercive government acts.
From the Jacksonians to the Marxists, political theorists have understood that there is something unique about “small industry” between big business and propertyless workers.
