When it comes to Milei, the writing was on the wall: Anyone who has followed his short but disastrous time in power won’t be surprised by the recent images circulating on social media, of a shared press conference with Netanyahu in 2025.1 More important than the images, was the announcement the boss and his hireling gave to Argentina and the international community: A public agreement that the whole of Argentina (1,073,518 square miles) would become a retirement home for Israeli “citizens.” Many were shocked to see this, it seemed straight out of a conspiracy theory about the Andinia Plan — according to which there is or was a plan to establish a Jewish state in Chile and Argentina — for those of us who had kept our eyes open, this invasion did not come as a surprise. But to the rest, it meant that they finally got to see with their own eyes what Milei’s true program has been, since the moment he set his eyes on the presidency, or even before. [continue reading…]
Remember that in a previous paper, I introduced my beloved “economyth”? Worthy of the name are our numerous pseudo-Austrian friends. In France, we have a good share of such friends. Let me tell the story of another talented one.
I am not sure if many of you reading this note will have already heard his name, yet within the narrow French “libéral” economics circles, Pierre Garello is a fairly influential scholar. What’s more, being a university senior professor, there are many places where he displays that his heart belongs to the Austrian School. Here are a few (1, 2, 3, 4). [continue reading…]
Someone forwarded to me the email below from one Martin Gundinger of the Austrian Economics Center to one Britt Schier of the Friedrich A. v. Hayek Institute urging support of World IP Day. Both organizations are headquartered in Vienna; Barbara Kolm is Founding Director of the former and President of the latter, and is heralded as being “renowned for promoting free market policies.” (Kolm is also co-founder of the Javier Milei Institut für Deregulierung in Europa (Javier Milei Institute for Deregulation in Europe), and also Vice-President of the Central Bank of Austria (Oesterreichische Nationalbank) from 2018 to 2023.)
Institutes that are supposed to promote free market policies should not be promoting IP socialism! I guess we should not be surprised—Hayek was wobbly on IP1 and on libertarian and free market property rights principles in general.2[continue reading…]
A few months back, I wrote a piece that touched on a taboo topic, though I did not know it at the time. It generated empirical evidence that confirms an intuition we all have that all is not well for American prosperity. I don’t mean just since the great inflation of the last six years. [continue reading…]
Originally published as Sean Ring, “Peace!Fire!,” The Rude Awakening (April 9, 2026)
Peace!Fire!
I’m sick and tired of being sick and tired.
And since I sit here exasperated as I’ve been since this ill-conceived mess began, I thought I’d check the scoreboard.
What amazes me isn’t the unintended consequences. I didn’t know what they’d be, but I knew they were coming.
What blows my mind is that everything doom merchants have been selling for the past 25 years is coming to pass, in real time. Real de-dollarization. An empire breaking apart because it can neither bribe nor protect its periphery as promised. The empire’s metropole is blind to the consequences of its actions. Alfred Thayer Mahan’s blue ocean world is fading into history. Halford Mackinder’s world island is becoming a reality.
Unfortunately, there are Austrian-School economists—most of them—and there are pseudo Austrian ones—enough to spoil the whole. It seems that many of that kind can be observed, lately. In France, where I do my best to promote Murray Rothbard’s legacy, we have our share of pseudos. Quite a share, actually. I like to call them “economyths”. Consider.
A few weeks ago, François Facchini published a book with the following title: “Quelle fiscalité pour demain ?”—“What taxation for tomorrow?”1 The tone is already set, isn’t it? As I am sure you had guessed, this book is not meant to explain that “Taxation is Theft”, but rather that taxation is a necessary evil that we can at least try to keep below 100%. [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:
An exciting event celebrating Rothbard, in commemoration of his 100th year, “100 Years with Rothbard,” will be held in Porto, Portugal, June 27, 2026.
This event, being organized by PFS member Manuel Ogando, is sponsored by several Portuguese libertarian groups: Mises Portugal, Catalaxia, Don’t Trust Verify (bitcoin podcast), ZugaTV (libertarian podcast), and Golpe de Estado Podcast (ancap podcasters). [continue reading…]
From the “never trust a politician” files (see Milei and his reversion to the mean with his political rhetoric) we now have the latest edition of “never trust a celebrity.” Our latest victim (or shall we say perpetrator) is Rob Schneider’s X post (March 27, 2026) .
Briefly, Scheider is now promoting (non-ironically) the idea of reinstating the draft in the US (a sadly “new” idea re-emerging). Upon publishing his unsolicited opinion he received a tidal wave of backlash (or “ratio” in X-posting parlance). He soon doubled down to “explain” it was meant to be a legal instrument to de-incentivize politicians from sending other kids off to war if they know their own children might get called up. The most charitable interpretation of this stance is that he is incredibly naïve, not only about politics but likewise American history (e.g. the recent wars where there has been no congressional approval of military incursions along with well-publicized Vietnam era draft dodging by politically connected youth).
In a recent article for Die Weltwoche, Phillip Gut discusses the “triumph of the chainsaw,” citing specific praise for Javier Milei in The Washington Post.
“The rapid transition from nearly a century of socialism to free-market capitalism continues to demonstrate the superiority of the latter,” says Gut. However, the Milei administration, which took office in December 2023, is actually just as socialist as its predecessors. So what free-market capitalism is Gut talking about? Indeed, beyond a few half-hearted steps toward deregulation—which in no way challenge the most cherished interests of the business classes most closely tied to power—Mileism is more of the same, even in Argentina’s statism standards: high taxes, money printing, indebtedness, and so on. There is certainly no clear improvement whatsoever.
This is how writer and economist Andy Duncan began the opening lecture at the annual meeting of the Property & Freedom Society (PFS), held in September 2012 in Bodrum, Turkey. [continue reading…]
That’s “a categoric no” said Daniel McAdams, director of the Ron Paul Institute. Ron Paul “would never say the things” that Milei says about foreign policy. Neither would any real libertarian.
The Death Penalty for Terrorists Law (Hebrew: חוק עונש מוות למחבלים, romanized: Hok Onish Mevot leMachavlim) is a 2026 Israeli law. It prescribes execution by hanging for certain terrorist offences, and in practice applies only to Palestinians and not Jewish Israelis.[1][2][3] The bill was passed 62–48 by the Knesset on 30 March 2026.
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:
Germany is preparing for war and, above all, is preparing for that particular form of enslavement represented by military conscription. Many German media outlets have highlighted the fact that, starting from January 1, 2026, all German men between the ages of 17 and 45 will be required to obtain authorization from the Bundeswehr Career Center (Karrierecenter der Bundeswehr) if they intend to leave German territory for more than three months.
The Rothbard Institute from Brazil has published today my article “The Mises Institute Versus the Legacy of Murray Rothbard.”
In the article, I discuss the decline in the quality of the articles published on Mises.org over the last few years, a trend in which the emergence of Javier Milei has played a significant role.
For more on the editorial decline at Mises.org, click here.
Given the nature of your recent public statements about the Mises Institute,1 we hereby grant you a Distinguished Eternal Fellow designation. We will host more than ever your past, present and future articles, books, and lectures on rothbardbrasil.com.
That Germany is not a free country and that free speech is under attack there, as all over the so-called free world, is hardly news. However, there are some peculiarities of Germany illustrated here.
The AFD (Alternative for Germany) election campaign poster from Wilko Möller below reads: We protect your children.
AFD (Alternative for Germany) election campaign poster from Wilko Möller: “We protect your children”
In 2026, a German court ruled that the raised-arm gesture (especially the man’s right arm) visually resembled the banned Hitler salute closely enough to violate a special German law prohibiting the use of symbols of so-called unconstitutional organizations. Möller was fined 11,600 Euros. The verdict is still under appeal.
Incidentally, the same law prohibits the exclamation, in public speeches, of “Alles für Deutschland” (Everything for Germany). AFD politician Björn Höcke was found in violation of the law twice, and fined first 13,000 Euro, and for the second time 19,900 Euro.
On my list of things to write someday is an overview of the social thought of Hoppe, whom I consider to be the preeminent social thinker of our time, along the lines of Oxford University Press’s 100-page “A Very Short Introduction” series (previously called “Past Masters“).1 I may use the term “A Précis” due to my fascination with Louisiana law and French terms and my former law professor Alain Levasseur’s fondness for this term for a concise, student-oriented textbook or summary-style treatise, something shorter and more accessible than a full-scale, comprehensive treatise, or “a student edition of a comprehensive treatise with the same title.”2
In the meantime, the assembled links will have to suffice.
See, e.g., Plato by R.M. Hare, Kant by Roger Scruton, etc. [↩]
See, e.g., Alain Levasseur, Louisiana Law of Obligations in General: A Précis (3rd ed. LexisNexis, 2009); idem, Louisiana Law of Conventional Obligations: A Précis (LexisNexis, 2010); idem, Alain Levasseur and David Gruning, Louisiana Law of Sale and Lease: A Précis, 3rd ed. (Durham, NC: Carolina Academic Press, 2015). [↩]
This is April 1, but this is not an April Fool’s Day joke (I despise April Fool’s Day jokes).
In response to “Mises Institute: Quo Vadis?,” Property and Freedom Journal (March 25, 2026), Professor Hoppe has been removed as a Distinguished Senior Fellow (~2000–2026) with the Ludwig von Mises Institute, as indicated in the following email exchange. Hans was appointed Senior Fellow early in his association with the Mises Institute, which began when he moved to the US to study with Rothbard in 1985, and elevated to Distinguished Senior Fellow around 2000 or so. Hans remains the only person to have ever received this distinction from the Mises Institute; it now has no one with this designation.1
In response to all this, Hans asked me to post this image:
Hi, I’m Walter Castillo. I am writing to you to share Paul Villegas’ writings regarding his ‘proposal’ for the ‘axiom of contextual action’ and his ‘defense’ of Hayek. I would like to know your opinion, criticism, or refutation of his publications.
Martin, Milei having the … chutzpah … to attack Hoppe as economically illiterate (while later praising him yet again, like a schizo) reminds me of the time that Cato pest Tom Palmer had the temerity to attack Hans Hoppe for noting that on the free market, “unemployment” is “always voluntary.” When I defended Hoppe to Palmer, he wrote me:
[…] who could take a self-described economist seriously when he writes that unemployment is impossible in a free market? And when he claims that that’s somehow an implication of Austrian economics he adds insult to ignorance. […] The fact is that Mr. Hoppe is an embarrassment.
Javier Milei’s administration has recently announced a plan to inject pesos through Argentina’s central bank, with the declared objective of boosting consumption and thus “stimulating growth. This implies a reduction by 5 points in the banking system reserve requirements.”1[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:
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.
Rothbard at 100 is in production! As you can see, the books are printed in premium hardcover with gold foil stamping, and then they will be covered with a dust jacket. Also available as an audiobook and eBook. Preorder your copy now: https://t.co/iaEh0bk5G0pic.twitter.com/bapPGmhFHb
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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
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