The New England Patriots’ astonishing come-from-behind Super Bowl victory last night captured the attention of even this decidedly casual fan. The shell-shocked look on Atlanta Falcons coach Dan Quinn at the post-game interview said it all: he couldn’t believe what had happened. But it did happen. Of course it wasn’t that New England beat the
When Professor Hans-Hermann Hoppe made his famous argument against democracy back in 2001, the notion that voting was a lousy way to organize society was still radical even among many libertarians. Virtually everyone raised in a western country over the past century grew up hearing “democracy” used as a synonym for wonderful, good, just, and
[Jeff Deist recently gave a talk entitled Libertarian, Heal Thyself at a Mises Institute event in San Diego. The following is an excerpt from his remarks- Ed.] I’m sure many people in this room remember the late Harry Browne, who was an investment advisor and a great libertarian. In fact he was the Libertarian Party’s nominee for president in 1996
Say what you will about President Harry Truman, but at least he didn’t leave the White House a suspiciously rich man. He also actually went home , to Independence Missouri, and moved into a modest house he didn’t own. It was the same house belonging to his wife’s family where he had lived with Bess (and his mother-in-law!) decades earlier. Flat
Writing in The New York Times Magazine about last week’s stillborn RyanCare bill, Robert Draper recalls an alleged conversation he had with White House strategist Stephen Bannon earlier this year. Bannon, lamenting the ability of both congressional Democrats and Republicans to get things done , contrasts identity-obsessed progressives with
Today Donald Trump becomes the 45th president of the United States. American voters rejected the devil they know so well — Hillary Clinton — for the devil they don’t. Why they did so, and how Trump prevailed, is the biggest political story of our age. But the rejection of progressive hubris, what Friedrich Hayek called the “fatal conceit” of those
Will Grigg, full name William Norman Grigg, passed away today after a series of hospitalizations. He was much too young to leave us. Will was a dedicated voice for liberty, and a prolific writer and blogger on the subjects of police misconduct and police militarization. An archive of the many articles he wrote for LewRockwell.com is here . He also
Should Catalonia be independent? Surely Catalans, and nobody else, must answer that question. Some Catalans consider themselves Spanish and some don’t. Many Spaniards consider Catalonia part of Spain, while some don’t. But it’s clear that a significant number of Catalans feel politically conquered, and resent it. Why should they live under a
Is populism inherently bad? Deirdre McCloskey, speaking earlier this month to a meeting of the Mont Pelerin Society in Stockholm, certainly thinks so. Her broad and sweeping liberal critique of populism focused not on criticisms of current populist movements, but rather on the big-picture issues of tyranny and prosperity. And to her credit she
I know your mailbox is stuffed this time of year, but please don’t overlook the letter Lew Rockwell recently sent from the Mises Institute. Ludwig von Mises had the right ideas, and fought for them. He fought the rising tides of progressivism, socialism, Nazism, and Marxism, not only in Europe but also in his adopted America. Surely we owe
What is the Mises Institute?
The Mises Institute is a non-profit organization that exists to promote teaching and research in the Austrian School of economics, individual freedom, honest history, and international peace, in the tradition of Ludwig von Mises and Murray N. Rothbard.
Non-political, non-partisan, and non-PC, we advocate a radical shift in the intellectual climate, away from statism and toward a private property order. We believe that our foundational ideas are of permanent value, and oppose all efforts at compromise, sellout, and amalgamation of these ideas with fashionable political, cultural, and social doctrines inimical to their spirit.