Mises Wire

In the new Ken Burns documentary, an old myth—held by the left and right—is repeated: that chaos led to the need for the Constitution and a stronger national government.

Americans like to think of themselves as peace-loving people. However, our nation’s war record since the American Civil War points to the US government’s affinity for unleashing total war.

David Beito’s new biography on Franklin D. Roosevelt is not the hagiographic nonsense that has dominated the US history profession. That is a good thing. Americans should know how FDR’s presidency led to one disaster after another.

Libertarianism and free markets depend upon peace. Murray Rothbard believed that war destroys freedom and free exchange, so keeping the peace is vitally important.

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As Congress scrambles to extend emergency subsidies to keep Obamacare afloat, it can be tempting to view the bill that made healthcare less affordable as a total failure. But that wasn’t the true purpose of the ACA. It was always meant to prop up the faltering crony healthcare system.

Elon Musk recently claimed that artificial intelligence will make money itself obsolete. He needs to read the literature of Austrian economics.

While classical liberalism is preferable to socialism and interventionism, it is, at best, a halfway house to total freedom.

A just war must be defensive; a nation must be trying to stop an invasion. And even in a defensive war, you must follow certain restraints. 

Modern egalitarianism is incompatible with individual liberty, something that is not proclaimed in political life. Egalitarians understand this, which is why they want to erase individual liberty altogether.