Recorded at the Mises Institute in Auburn, Alabama, on 23 July 2023.

[This article is chapter 3 of Breaking Away: The Case for Secession, Radical Decentralization, and Smaller Polities. Now available at Amazon and in the Mises Store.] In recent decades, many pundits, scholars, and intellectuals have assured us that advances in communications and transportation would eliminate the different political, economic, and cultural characteristics peculiar to residents

This week Mark invites you to explore the Minor Issues archives. We have produced about a half a year's worth of short audio commentaries about the economy, and we are grateful to our listeners for their feedback. Topics range from the price of toilet paper

My article “The Education of the Modern Socialist” deserves a follow-up. The first part showed that a change has occurred in the definition of “socialism”—a necessary change in view of the failures of this ideology during the last century. Socialism today is based on the

In over twenty-five years of teaching undergraduate students, I have heard the same refrain countless times: free markets have many problems that government has to step in to solve. Indeed, students expect government to “step in” so much that markets occupy a peripheral role in

The state has a monopoly on violence. However, abusive repression harms government credibility and alienates public support in the long run. A more subtle and effective way to exercise power is to surveil the population and to prevent open manifestations of discontent. This article analyzes the

George Gammon, host of the popular Rebel Capitalist show, warns that the Fed won't have to force the public to adopt a central bank digital currency (CBDC). Instead, the public might clamor for it, being promised safe, high-interest checking accounts at the Fed, just like