Audio Mises Wire

There is no "trust fund" or contract. Social security is nothing more than a scheme to take money from current wage earners and hand it over to others. It is functionally a welfare program.  Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/social-security-just-transfer-payment-workers-retirees

Socialism's failures are well-known, but true believers abound that insist that this time we can make it work. The question is why anyone still believes in it at all. Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/why-does-anyone-still-take-socialism-seriously

If we’ve been at war with Iran for 47 years, Ronald Reagan was a coward and a traitor. To be consistent, mainstream national conservatives using such language about Iran ought to condemn one of their heroes; otherwise, they don’t believe their own rhetoric. Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/conservatives-was-ronald-reagan-coward-and-traitor

Norway’s new monarch may prove to be an effective leader, but we are reminded that his hereditary privilege is being financially supported by involuntary taxes. Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/modern-monarchy-state-privilege-not-private-property

While he was living, Murray Rothbard saw issues of war and peace as being fundamental to a free society. Nothing has changed since he made that declaration. Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/continuing-relevance-rothbards-foreign-policy

J. D. Vance raised a few eyebrows invoking Huey Long as a populist. The problem is that the populist from people like Long and Bernie Sanders is that it is based on confiscation and destruction of wealth and property. Murray Rothbard proposed a real populism. Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/every-man-slave-huey-long-model-wrong-kind-populism

One of the most important and aspects of Murray Rothbard's work on the American Revolution is his framing of the Constitutional Convention as a counterrevolution against the radicalism of the 1770s. Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/1787-constitution-counterrevolution-americas-thermidorian-reaction

The 1857 Dred Scott case remains one of the most controversial Supreme Court decision in US History. However, overlooked is the fact that it elevated federal sovereignty above sovereignty of the states. Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/how-conflicting-interpretations-dred-scott-undermine-state-sovereignty

As state control over forests and brushlands continues apace both in Spain and the US, the dangers of wildfires grow worse. Environmentalists, naturally, blame capitalism. Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/wildfires-and-collectivism-why-they-are-related

Our economic future desperately depends upon entrepreneurs being free to act. Unfortunately, our ruling classes seem to prefer economic chaos. Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/prosperity-will-return-only-when-entrepreneurs-are-free-act-economic-uncertainty

Mainstream economics does a disservice when students are taught that money is a medium of exchange, a store of value, and a unit of account without explaining why and how money came to function in those categories. Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/mainstream-economics-money-medium-exchange-unit-account-and-store-value

The California Energy Commission is mandating that starting in 2029, California drivers must purchase environmentally approved tires that are less safe than current tires. The results are predictable: higher costs for drivers and more fatal accidents. Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/californias-new-tire-rule-will-result-higher-costs-and-more-highway-deaths

No, covid was not the exception to the rule that liberty comes first. Just because the CDC insisted we give up our freedom for what turned out to be a false security did not justify the government’s heavy-handed approach, something that libertarians should have understood all along. Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/covid-was-praxeological-test-too-many-libertarians-failed

The drive for military conscription has always depended upon the use of propaganda, since governments cannot make an honest and genuine case for the wars they start. Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/how-war-propaganda-justifies-conscription-unjust-wars

We are told that Americans live under a state that claims “consent of the governed,” but when does the government seek our consent for anything? Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/government-consent-governed-later

Twenty-five years after 9/11, many seek to rehabilitate the War on Terror by appealing to the horror of 9/11, the right to respond, and the ideal of fighting terrorism. Many now demand that we judge an idealized “War on Terror” by its intentions rather than the war that actually occurred. Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/911-and-idealized-war-terror

Both Brazil and the US had slavery in the 1800s, but the US economy flourished while Brazil’s languished. If slavery was the engine for US economic growth, as leftists claim, then why didn’t Brazil's economy match that of the US? Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/slavery-was-not-difference-how-legal-innovations-made-america-superpower-while-brazil-stagnated

The latest reminder of the Federal Reserve's record of failure, which now extends longer than five years, comes with the most recent inflation measure. Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/price-inflation-has-been-above-two-percent-target-65-months-row

In the name of “saving” college sports, Congress steps well past its bounds to micromanage the NCAA. Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/congress-tries-replace-anarcho-tyranny-college-sports-its-own-brand-tyranny

Lenin wrote that the capitalists would provide the rope by which they would hang themselves. That certainly seems to be the case with the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, which received strong financial help from the center of crony capitalism itself: Wall Street. Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/crony-capitalists-who-financed-bolshevik-revolution

Get ready to hear a lot about how we need government regulation to ensure that only state-approved, expensive, crony "capitalist" firms are allowed to develop AI.  Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/ai-threat-replacing-covid-and-global-warming

By ignoring the entrepreneur, mainstream economists are also removing a vital part of economics theory. It is like designing a car and leaving out the engine. Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/understanding-entrepreneurship-has-major-implications-economic-analysis

Ignorance is treated as a reason to trust the state rather than a reason to withhold judgment about its exercise of coercion. To assume that the state’s unknown information is correct and justifying is therefore to err on the side of violence. Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/foreign-policy-gnosticism-appeal-black-box-our-leaders-know-more

What followed 9/11 was 25 years of systematic destruction of American liberties, and the final destruction of the Bill of Rights, all in the name of "safety" and "patriotism." Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/times-change-principles-dont

The drama continues in college sports—not on the field, but in the courtrooms—thanks to judges applying antitrust law that does not permit the NCAA to be able to enforce its own rules. Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/college-sports-lsu-and-judge-shopping-anarcho-tyranny-continues