Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by William L Anderson
“In economics, there are scenarios where ‘no pain, no gain’ might hold. Entrepreneurs, for example, often will risk their own funds and put in many hours (without financial compensation) to chase an idea and attempt to turn it into reality. A country cannot build up a capital base without there being real savings, and the only way people can save money is to postpone some present consumption and divert that money to financial instruments that pay for capital development. … But [US Senator Tommy] Tuberville’s use of the term when it comes to tariffs is mistaken. While there is no doubt that tariffs do benefit some people — and one can expect to see many of the beneficiaries petitioning their government for trade restrictions — when applied to an economy overall, it is clear to say that they make an economy worse off, on net, than would have occurred had no tariff been levied.” (03/20/25)
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
by Jacob G Hornberger
“What business does a government in a genuinely free society have owning a propaganda outlet? Sure, I understand that Nazi Germany had a great propaganda program led by Joseph Goebbels. But does that mean that in order to fight Nazism, the U.S. government needed to have its own propaganda program to compete against that of Nazi Germany? Undoubtedly, Voice of America and the rest of the U.S. propaganda outlets have long praised ‘capitalism’ and criticized ‘socialism’ in their broadcasts. But how do they reconcile that position with U.S. government ownership of a radio station? Isn’t a government owned radio station a socialist project? Moreover, one can be fairly certain that these U.S. propaganda outlets refrained from condemning discomforting programs and activities of the U.S. government itself.” (03/20/25)
“The White House, no matter its occupant, has long meddled in campus speech. From post-9/11 scrutiny of faculty and student anti-war protestors to pressuring institutions to adopt an overly expansive definition of sexual harassment and punish subjectively offensive speech, every modern presidential administration has pressured campus discourse to serve political ends. But where past presidential administrations concealed this pressure through layers of bureaucracy, the Trump administration flaunts it. Its use of immigration law, federal grant funding, and thinly veiled — often cunningly vague — threats to colleges and universities is certainly the most brazen effort by a recent administration to bend the academy to its will.” (03/20/25)
“Gordon Tullock’s suggestion of a spike on your steering wheel (wouldn’t you drive carefully?) illustrates the unintended consequences of risk, regulation, and moral hazard.” (03/20/25)
“Another Donald Trump presidential term, another spate of violence going largely ignored — or even smirked at — by Democrats and their media friends. Tesla dealerships are being firebombed and shot at, while Tesla vehicles are vandalized and their owners assaulted. Trump-supporting influencers are getting ‘swatted,’ set up for dangerous police encounters by opponents who phone in hoax distress calls. Relatives of Trump-aligned public figures — including the sister of US Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett and Elon Musk’s brother — are receiving bomb threats. This cannot go on. The multiple attacks on Teslas aren’t mere vandalism. This is terrorism exactly as the dictionary describes it …. It’s calculated to scare, to terrorize, people away from driving Teslas in order to apply political pressure on Musk.” (03/19/25)
“By openly defying judicial orders, President Trump has now taken us to the brink of dictatorship. In polite circles and on NPR, this will be referred to as a ‘constitutional crisis,’ but make no mistake: The lack of all restraint on executive power, should the judiciary be unable to prevail in the matter of law or to force compliance — and how can it? — is the hallmark of an authoritarian regime. Congress, too, appears to have neither the power nor the votes to challenge Trump. The majority is his very own Nazi party; the minority is an ineffective pseudo-opposition. There remains the tantalizing question of whether the majority-Trump Supreme Court will resist Trump’s most blatantly illegal and unconstitutional actions, but there again, how will they compel him to obey their rulings should they displease him?” (03/20/25)
“Decentralization, or localism, is based first on the extended family or household; when grouped with other clans, this became a locality creating laws organically for the benefit of all. On the other hand, centralization occurs when forces far from these self-governing localities use their power and influence to impose their ways on other smaller localities. In such a situation, the former free individuals lose their self-governance and the option to choose from diverse ways of life, therefore becoming tools used to benefit those in power in distant lands under an increasingly conformist policy.” (03/20/25)
“At what junctures do Elon Musk and Donald Trump, each proceeding from a distinctive starting point, forge a new and hyper-dangerous coalition? Well, the Afrikaner refugee joins an extreme version of neoliberalism to a fascist drive to state takeover, and the fascist orange man, who demands unfettered state power and loves tariffs, nonetheless caters to neoliberal drives to concentrate wealth, income, and power even more extremely at the highest reaches of society. Together, they pursue what is best called oligopolistic fascism. What’s more, while both may have once believed the old Friedrich Hayek story of how market deregulation secures a robust economy of steady growth, each displays active signs today of no longer believing the very ideology he pedals [sic].” [editor’s note: Sometimes these pundits just write their own jokes – SAT] (03/20/25)
“One of the great threats to freedom in the United States today is what we at the Competitive Enterprise Institute call ‘Regulation Without Representation.’ Increasingly, laws are effectively made by unelected regulatory agencies in the administrative state instead of the people’s representatives in Congress. The phrase ‘regulation without representation’ also connotes the battle that George Washington and other American patriots fought against taxation without representation. But in researching my book George Washington, Entrepreneur, I found that ‘regulation without representation’ is more than just linguistically connected to the causes of the Revolutionary War. It was an actual grievance of the colonists that was almost as important as taxation in turning George Washington and other patriots against the rule of Great Britain.” (03/20/25)
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone
“Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz has published an explicit statement of genocidal intent toward the people of Gaza, threatening civilians in the enclave with collective punishment in the form of ‘total devastation’ if they do not find a way to overthrow Hamas and free all Israeli hostages. … When Katz says ‘Take the advice of the US president,’ he is referring to a statement made by President Trump earlier this month which made essentially the same threat addressed ‘to the People of Gaza,’ saying, ‘A beautiful Future awaits, but not if you hold Hostages. If you do, you are DEAD! Make a SMART decision. RELEASE THE HOSTAGES NOW, OR THERE WILL BE HELL TO PAY LATER!'” (03/20/25)
