“I’m writing this piece well into President Donald Trump’s new war with Iran, which, with the help of Israel, has already killed more than 2,000 civilians, including 175 schoolgirls and staff; displaced some 3.2 million people; and is costing the American taxpayer at least one billion dollars a day. All of which is tragically reminiscent of the last time a Republican president led the U.S. into a war on a river of lies and greed. I’m thinking, of course, about George W. Bush and the invasion of Iraq in 2003. Weapons that don’t exist. Threats to this country that aren’t real. Liberation for a people that the U.S. will never win over. Freedom for women about whom nobody in power cares a jot. A war that will bring total victory in only a few days or weeks. All this we heard in 2003, and all this we are hearing again now.” (03/31/26)
“America is three months away from the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, and President Donald Trump is claiming it as his own, with Semiquincentennial dollar coins featuring his image and dollar bills bearing his signature. But while Trump exploits America’s birthday for further self-aggrandizement, he should read the document we are ostensibly celebrating. If he bothers, he will find the king from whom America’s founders were declaring independence was behaving in very familiar ways.” (03/31/26)
“By hiking its hotel tax to 19 percent, Chicago is funding marketing meant to draw visitors — but higher costs are likely to deter the very tourists it hopes to attract.” (03/31/26)
Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by Lucas Peters
“The ongoing destruction of the world’s largest natural-gas reservoir at South Pars and Qatar has produced exactly what Austrian economics predicts: sudden, irreplaceable capital destruction followed by a violent supply shock. Oil has spiked, European gas prices have jumped, and the Strait of Hormuz is now a flashpoint. Everyday Americans already face higher gasoline, heating, trucking, and grocery costs; businesses confront malinvestment cascades; and central planners are salivating over the opportunity to impose rationing, digital IDs, CBDCs, and ‘energy lockdowns.’ This is not mere geopolitics; it is state warfare smashing the capital structure and then using the resulting artificial scarcity to expand control. From a strict libertarian and Austrian standpoint, two interlocking ideas cut through the chaos and point to the only workable solution today: immediate, total disentanglement from the conflict, and uncompromising reliance on free-market prices, sound money, and voluntary exchange instead of any form of central planning.” (03/31/26)
“The US and Israeli war has, from its very beginning, violated both US domestic and international law. The legal consequences go beyond specific violations. Washington and Tel Aviv’s breaches of the United Nations Charter and other legal frameworks also undermine the very foundations of the rule of law. Even while international legal institutions too often lack sufficient capacity to enforce their decisions, they still provide a crucial framework for protest, for pressure on individual governments, and for the hope of a future world where the rule of law is paramount. Now, however, that future is in more danger than any other time in recent memory. Right now, Iranian civilians are paying the highest price. But the collapse of the rule of law makes the future more dangerous for everyone else, too.” (03/31/26)
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Mani Basharzad
“Each year after the Nobel Prize announcements, laureates, who are among the greatest minds of their generation, gather and shape a broader intellectual conversation. At this year’s gathering, a Nobel laureate in physics posed a question to the economic laureates: ‘Can we grow without limit? What about finite resources?’ He added, ‘At some point, must we also modify this growth system — which wants to consume more and more of the Earth’s resources?’ To answer this question, we need to go back to a bet made about humanity’s fate in 1980. Economist Julian Simon and biologist Paul Ehrlich made a wager about the future of humanity. At the heart of the bet was a simple question: Would population growth lead to resource scarcity and human decline, or to greater prosperity and innovation?” (03/31/26)
“American taxpayers could be forgiven if recent events have left them wondering why the largest and most expensive Navy in the world is sitting well outside the Strait of Hormuz, watching powerlessly as the Iranians decide which ships they will allow to transit the waterway. After all, they must wonder, why can’t the Navy simply blast the Iranians away and re-open the strait, sending life and the global economy back to normal? Alas, the days of omnipotent U.S. sea power as a power projection instrument close to well defended shorelines are coming to an end. This change raises questions about the future of navies and the wisdom of investment in these extremely expensive instruments of national power.” (03/31/26)
“The Military Religious Freedom Foundation has received over two-hundred complaints from American troops that their commanders used the Book of Revelation to frame the Iran War as a ‘Holy War’ in which President Donald Trump was chosen to ignite ‘The End Times’ as part of ‘God’s divine plan.’ When I decided to make this series about the ‘Four Horsemen of New Zionism,’ I meant it purely metaphorically. It seems some of our top brass have a more literal interpretation (welcome to the End Times). The Horseman, or rather Horsewoman, we will be spotlighting in this article is none other than the Empress of Identity, the Herald of Cancellation, Bari Weiss.” (03/31/26)
