The first two chapters—my “Preface” and Hans’s “Introduction”—were published the week of Rothbard’s birthday here on the Property and Freedom Podcast (PFP315 and PFP314). The other main chapters will be released sequentially weekly on Mondays. The next in the queue:
Gene Epstein recently penned an article entitled “Tomorrow’s Jobs” that appeared in the January 5th edition of the financial weekly Barrons. The main thrust of Epstein’s piece is that the demand for “knowledge workers” will increase in the years to come while the demand for manufacturing, agricultural and clerical jobs as well as for butchers and barbers will decline.
It’s easy to follow Epstein’s argument that healthcare workers, computer programmers, and financial planners will be in great demand due to the aging of the population. As Epstein points out, “within 10 years, the number of folks 55 and older will begin a growth trajectory that outstrips that of the younger segment nearly fourfold. The number of U.S. residents 55 and older will rise from 63 million today to 83.7 million by 2014, and 101.4 million by 2024”. [continue reading…]
Some libertarians smugly “correct” people who think Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation freed the slaves in the US. Not so, they point out; this was a wartime order that did not free slaves in Union territory and only a applied to the CSA states where the order had no power. It took the Thirteenth Amendment, ratified after the Civil War, to really free the slaves, they say.
But Thirteenth Amendment did not end slavery. It states:
Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.
In other words you can still enslave people as long as you make up a crime with legislation. For example, the “crime” of tax evasion, selling drugs, or refusing to be conscripted can get you imprisoned and enslaved. Prison is slavery. Ever heard of prison labor?
This is because the state can use legislation—what Hoppe calls “democratic law making”—to create punishable offenses, statutes that are malum prohibitum (conduct that happens to be prohibited) instead of malum in se (things wrong in and of themselves—violations of natural rights, i.e. aggression).
(This is of course yet another problem with patent and copyright law: they are not based on natural rights, not evolved common law principles, but purely creatures of statute and legislation. Like fiat money, they are fiat law. The Problem with Intellectual Property, Part III.D.)
In private business “[t]here is no need to limit the discretion of subordinates by any rules or regulations other than that underlying all business activities, namely, to render their operations profitable.”—Ludwig von Mises, Bureaucracy, p. 46
In this quote from his classic 1944 book Bureaucracy, Mises explains why private, for-profit businesses need not, and should not, be bureaucratic and entangled in rules and regulations mandated from the top of an administrative hierarchy. Instead, they should, make the best use of decentralized “knowledge of time and place” to do their jobs. Mises’ admonition that the focus of capitalist enterprises is and should be to “make a profit” later became, in the hands of Chicago School economists, “maximize shareholder value.” This view is most widely associated with Milton Friedman and was accepted by American corporate management, for the most part, for many years. [continue reading…]
Bourgeois Anarchism: Minimal States and Pickpockets—Even Petty Criminals Are Criminals
by David Dürr
Are you a minimal statist? Are you a convinced libertarian who grants the state not a single bit more than looking after the protection of people from mutual violations of life, body, and property, and absolutely nothing else? Not even traffic rules on the road, and certainly no social programs for the poor and weak? This is, of course, not because you do not care about chaos on the streets or the plight of poor and weak fellow human beings, but because you know that order and prosperity establish themselves much better without state intervention. So, are you someone who knows exactly that the state is not the solution but the problem, and therefore must be reduced to an absolute minimum—a minimal statist, in fact? [continue reading…]
International Man: While the term “swap line” sounds technical and harmless, it seems like it’s just a euphemism for a bailout.What does it say when Washington starts extending swap lines to countries like Argentina and the UAE?Doug Casey: First, we should define what a swap line is. It basically amounts to the US giving a foreign country X amount of currency in dollars, and the other country paying for it by giving the US the same amount in their currency. For decades, US dollar swap lines were mostly reserved for major allies and core financial centers around the world. [continue reading…]
From PFS member Andreas Tögel, a translation of Original Commentary
Property, Right to Self-Defense, and Perpetrator Protection:
A Debate on Private Property and Self-Protection
By Andreas Tögel
Self-Defense: Conflict over Property Defense
A pending court case in Salzburg is currently sparking fierce debates about how far a person is allowed to go to protect their life and property. After a burglar was caught in the act by the burglary victim and shot dead, the shooter stood before the jury court on charges of murder. On the afternoon of May 11, after hours of deliberation by the eight jurors, the verdict was delivered: Acquittal. It was therefore self-defense—not murder. [continue reading…]
I’ve lived in Las Vegas for 16 years now, and I’ve been coming here regularly to play poker (and, just… play) for over 35 years. These days, I have a love/hate relationship with this town. Or, more accurately, Las Vegas is still awesome, but it was even better a decade or two ago.
One of the reasons it’s worse now has to do with professional sports.
Rothbard at 100: A Tribute and Assessment, published digitally online on March 2, 2026, on Murray Rothbard’s 100th birthday, will be presented in 10 days at 100 Years with Rothbard, Porto, Portugal, June 27, 2026. The deluxe cloth hardcover will be presented at that event; our host for the event, PFS member Manuel Ogando, has just received boxes of the first printing from the printer; photos below.
The book is available now for pre-order from The Saif House in hardcover and other formats. See:
Trump and the Peace: America Has Found Its Churchill
I have been given a purported copy of the Memorandum of Understanding that the Americans will sign this week in Geneva to end their war with Iran. I cannot assure you that it is genuine: we must all wait until the Americans themselves release the document—not that they seem in any hurry to do so. However, what I have has the look of a document that has been carefully drafted and is intended to form part of an international agreement. Assuming it is genuine, you do not need my legal advice to assure you that America has suffered a notable and humiliating defeat. It began this war by murdering much of the Iranian Government while it was known to be discussing a false American offer. It continued with barbarous attacks on Iranian schools and general civilian infrastructure. When these failed to bring an Iranian collapse, it turned to threats of nuclear annihilation. For three months, the world was subjected to an endless barrage of ludicrous demands and boasting by men who seemed to regard an oil shock, attended by starvation in the Global South, as a collateral benefit. Now all else has failed, and the American armed forces have been shown as a bloodthirsty rabble equipped with weaponry more expensive than useful, and its leadership an Epstein Syndicate variously bribed or blackmailed into blundering aggression, the Americans are accepting Iranian regional dominance and preparing to hand over almost unlimited reparations for wanton damage to Iran. [continue reading…]
Hans-Hermann Hoppe and Stephan Kinsella read the preface, introduction, and first chapter of Rothbard at 100: A Tribute and Assessment, published by The Saif House, July 2026. Preorder your copy now, and join us for the Rothbard At 100 conference in Porto on June 27. Details are on rothbard100.pt
Editor’s note: This paper was presented at the event “Coercion, extortion under the guise of prevention” on June 13, 2026. Participants:
A. Montagner (Raixe Venete), a Venetian independentist organization
Father S. Visintin, Abbot of the Benedictine Monastery of Teolo
Avv. A. Fussillo
G. Vigni, former president of LIFE TV a liberal-libertarian association
Abstract: This article examines the philosophical, legal, and theological implications of predictive-justice systems based on artificial intelligence. Starting from the Misesian axiom of human action and moving through the internal Austrian School debate among Hayek, Hülsmann, and Hoppe, it draws a parallel with the Roman-law principle da mihi factum, dabo tibi ius. The analysis integrates the Catholic conception of sin and retributive justice, the distributist critique of the servile state (Belloc, Chesterton), the historical precedent of English vagrancy laws, the historical parallel with Lombrosianism and algorithmic racial profiling, and the question of a criminal law of intentions, algorithmic opacity, and the risk of a technological thought police.
Murray Rothbard pinpointed them in 1961, referring to the “devastating consequences for the libertarian movement” and saying that “America never recovered from . . . the statist consequences” of Lincoln’s war. Namely, “the enormous toll of death,” “setting aside of the civilized ‘rules of war,'” waging of total war against the civilian population of the South, ending of federalism or “states’ rights,” ending of the right of secession and the voluntary union of states, creation of a national monetary monopoly, generations of protectionist tariffs, corporate welfare run amok, skyrocketing national debt, the “inauguration of despotic and dictatorial methods beyond the dreams of the so-called ‘despots of ’98,'” rampant militarism, suppression of civil liberties, military conscription, income taxation, a permanent standing army, and much worse. All of this is what Lincoln and the Republican party (to this day) called “a new birth of freedom.”
Investors had their eyes to the skies last Friday riding Elon’s SpaceX rocket, making him the world’s first trillionaire. John D. Rockefeller was the first billionaire 110 years ago, and according to CoPilot Search the first millionaire was the world’s first Keynesian, long before Keynes’s birth, John Law whose “innovative financial schemes involved issuing paper money and trading shares, which allowed him to amass immense wealth, making him one of Europe’s first recognized millionaires,” in the early 18th century. Of course, he died broke after the Mississippi Bubble collapsed.
Both John Law and Elon Musk earned their fortunes under fiat money systems. Rockefeller earned his under a gold standard. [continue reading…]
The first two chapters—my “Preface” and Hans’s “Introduction”—were published the week of Rothbard’s birthday here on the Property and Freedom Podcast (PFP315 and PFP314). The other main chapters will be released sequentially weekly on Mondays. The next in the queue:
This video, based on Christopher Ingraham, “Victory! Illinois Village Agrees to Let Laura’s Garden Grow After IJ Letter,” Institute for Justice Press Release (, covers a recent “right to garden” case in Illinois involving a homeowner, Laura Schaefer, and the Village of Millstadt, Illinois (apparently a local government, as it has a mayor).
Schaefer, a gardener and botany instructor with decades of experience, and her husband bought a village block that included a house and several vacant lots. Over five years, she transformed the half-acre property into a well-maintained oasis of native plants, pollinator plants, heirloom vegetables, and edible plants, with mowed paths and detailed documentation. In May, the village issued her a citation for violating a local ordinance against “high grass and weeds” (specifically prohibiting vegetation over one foot tall). A village official threatened that if she didn’t tear out the garden within 7 days, village workers would destroy it and bill her $40 per hour. [continue reading…]
This is my interview by Matthew Geiger of the Carl Menger Institute for Menger Institute Podcast #6 (recorded June 11, 2026). Shownotes and transcript below. [continue reading…]
Tom, re “LewRockwell.com Publishes a Communistic Screed about “The Need to End Capitalism” and your comment: “I have no idea who is editing LewRockwell.com these days.” Case in point, despite the obvious bad blood between Rockwell/Mises and Jeffrey Tucker, for some reason on Wednesday this week LRC ran a Tucker article. It is apparent the left hand does not know what the right hand is doing and Rockwell is not running LRC. I suppose the left hand did not realize Tucker’s LRC archives had been disappeared and memory-holed Orwell-style after he was ousted from MI in November 2011.1 [Update: Tucker’s articles apparently are still there, but the link on the Columnists page has been removed to make them harder to find.]
The Mises Institute is also planning a Festschrift for Rockwell. See this email from Ryan McMaken from about a month ago: [continue reading…]
By socialist author Caitlin Johnstone. She claims capitalism is “destroying the biosphere” along with “driving us into doom.” “Capitalism has no ability to solve problems,” she ignorantly intones. “We need new systems,” namely “collaboration based systems where human behavior isn’t driven by the pursuit of profit.” You know, like communism for example.
I have no idea who is editing LewRockwell.com these days.
I never heard of this before, I don’t follow soccer, but according to Grok:
A Panini sticker is a small, collectible adhesive picture (usually about the size of a trading card) featuring soccer players, teams, crests, stadiums, and other World Cup-related images. You peel off the backing and stick them into a dedicated album to “complete” the collection.
It’s like baseball cards or Pokémon cards, but specifically stickers designed to fill pages in a big book. The quote you shared captures it perfectly—it’s a global tradition run by the Italian company Panini that’s been going strong since the 1970 World Cup.
Bad news for everyone depending on Uncle Sam’s Ponzi scheme was released the other day, “Social Security is expected to deplete the fund that helps pay out retirement benefits by late 2032,” reportedThe Wall Street Journal. That would be just six years away. Last year the projected depletion date was 2033, so who knows maybe next year expected depletion date will be 2031.
Trump’s tax law gave senior citizens an extra deduction that reduced taxes on benefits for many Social Security recipients. Those still working don’t qualify. [continue reading…]
As noted here, the 2026 Twentieth Annual Meeting of the Property and Freedom Society will be held from Thursday, September 17, 2026 to Tuesday, September 22, 2026.
To donate with BITCOIN please use the address below. If you would like us to credit your payment (for dues, conference fees, etc.) please email Stephan Kinsella ([email protected]) when you make the bitcoin payment.
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“Property does not exist because there are laws, but laws exist because there is property.” — FrédéricBastiat
“Because the concept of property, for instance, is so basic that everyone seems to have some immediate understanding of it, most people never think about it carefully and can, as a consequence, produce at best a very vague definition. But starting from imprecisely stated or assumed definitions and building a complex network of thought upon them can lead only to intellectual disaster. For the original imprecisions and loopholes will then pervade and distort everything derived from them. To avoid this, the concept of property must first be clarified.” —Hans-Hermann Hoppe, TSC, ch. 2
The Property and Freedom Society (PFS; Facebook) stands for an uncompromising intellectual radicalism: for justly acquired private property, freedom of contract, freedom of association—which logically implies the right to not associate with, or to discriminate against—anyone in one's personal and business relations—and unconditional free trade. It condemns imperialism and militarism and their fomenters, and champions peace. It rejects positivism, relativism, and egalitarianism in any form, whether of "outcome" or "opportunity," and it has an outspoken distaste for politics and politicians. As such it seeks to avoid any association with the policies and proponents of interventionism, which Ludwig von Mises identified in 1946 as the fatal flaw in the plan of the many earlier and contemporary attempts by intellectuals alarmed by the rising tide of socialism and totalitarianism to found an anti-socialist ideological movement. Mises wrote: "What these frightened intellectuals did not comprehend was that all those measures of government interference with business which they advocated are abortive. ... There is no middle way. Either the consumers are supreme or the government."
(A more complete statement of our Principles can be found here.)
AI-assisted audio narration of the main chapters of Rothbard at 100: A Tribute and Assessment (Papinian Press and The Saif House, 2026) is available at this PFS Youtube Playlist; the mp3 files may also be downloaded in this zip file.
In private business “[t]here is no need to limit the discretion of subordinates by any rules or regulations other than that underlying all business activities, namely, to render their operations profitable.”—Ludwig von Mises, Bureaucracy, p. 
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