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Mark Thornton examines the collapse of trust in Washington as government debt, monetary inflation, and foreign wars undermine America’s standing at home and abroad. Drawing on lessons from history, he argues that lasting reform won’t come from political personalities, but from a bottom-up commitment to sound money, individual liberty, and limited government. 2026 is the Year of Rothbard—Murray’s 100th birthday—and we’re celebrating by giving away free copies of Wall Street, Banks, and American Foreign Policy through October 31. Grab yours today at https://mises.org/issuesfree 20% off listener offer on the insulated Minor Issues tumbler and three of Mark’s books: https://mises.org/MinorIssuesTumbler. Use coupon code Thornton. Be sure to follow Minor Issues at https://Mises.org/MinorIssues

On this episode of Power and Market, Patrick Newman joins Ryan and Tho for a discussion on Social Security, generational economic tensions, and the latest inflation numbers (spoiler: they’re bad.)

New price inflation data from the federal government shows that rising prices are outpacing wage growth yet again. Overall inflation is broader and bigger than forecasters have expected, and it's not just being caused by the War in Iran. Be sure to follow the Loot and Lobby podcast at Mises.org/LL

Nobel Prize winner Daron Acemoglu writes that western colonialism of African countries has permanently fixed their institutional direction. This ignores what we know about the history of these nations. Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/do-institutions-matter-taking-another-look-claims-daron-acemoglu

Keynesians claim that government debt is no problem because “we owe it to ourselves,” as though owners of US debt don’t care if they are repaid or not. Taxpayers, who actually will pay the debt, are left out of the equation. Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/you-are-collateral-forty-three-cents-dollar

The temptation to think of China as an economic juggernaut needs a reality check. While China’s government-dominated economy has many impressive building projects, there are underlying malinvestments that the government continues to subsidize, leading to future problems. Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/chinas-economic-miracle-has-run-out-road

Robert Hall and Michael Woodford certainly deserve the Nobel memorial prize. Their work has had a substantial impact, yet significance is not soundness. Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/tragic-path-new-keynesianism

A conservatism that does not recognize the efficacy of natural law is no conservatism at all. Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/natural-law-principles-conservative-tradition

Mortgage rates are at historically normal levels. They are not “too high.” On the other hand, home prices are too high after years of subsidy from artificially low rates and government intervention. The answer to the stagnating market is to cut prices. Be sure to follow the Loot and Lobby podcast at Mises.org/LL

Against historians who treated the war as the death of progressive reform, Rothbard argues it was the culmination progressives had wanted all along. He traces the movement’s postmillennial pietist roots—a Protestantism bent on stamping out sin through the State—into wartime prohibition and the anti-vice crusades around the army camps, then through the New Republic collectivists who welcomed the war as the chance to remake society, and finally to the economists and statisticians, Richard Ely and Edwin Gay among them, who built the apparatus of government fact-gathering and their own careers along with it. First published in the Journal of Libertarian Studies, 1989.

Rothbard’s account of the war economy as a cartel run by the men it regulated. He traces the Council of National Defense and the War Industries Board, whose committees were staffed by the executives of the industries they governed; price-fixing set to guarantee a “fair profit” to high-cost producers and windfalls to everyone below them; railroads nationalized under a Railroad Administration run by railroad executives; and the veterans of war collectivism who carried the model forward into the New Deal. First published in A New History of Leviathan, 1972.

Despite the real damage the Trump administration is doing to the economy, its cheerleaders in the Cabinet continue to insist all is well. This is beyond wishful thinking. Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/whistling-past-graveyard

Mark Thornton examines the rise of political violence in America, drawing on Robert Pape’s Our Own Worst Enemies and its warning that political violence has become increasingly normalized on both the left and right. Mark argues that the deeper cause is not simply “fractured legitimacy,” but the long breakdown of America’s original limited-government consensus, accelerated by Progressive Era ideology, war, federal expansion, and monetary intervention. He then points to the Federal Reserve as the proximate cause of today’s social and economic strain, arguing that monetary inflation drives higher prices, suppresses real wages, benefits asset holders, and fuels political resentment. The remedy, Mark says, begins with a return toward sound money and the older American consensus of limited government. On Side B, the episode features recent interviews with Darrell Thomas of VRIC Media and Elijah Johnson of Liberty and Finance, covering distrust in government, gold and silver, the bond bear market, inflation, government market manipulation, AI malinvestment, the wealth gap, dollar hegemony, and the road toward hyperinflation. Additional Resources Our Own Worst Enemies: America and the Age of Violent Populism by Robert A. Pape: https://www.amazon.com/Our-Own-Worst-Enemies-Populism/dp/1620979586 “Right-Wing Populism: A Strategy for the Paleo Movement” by Murray N. Rothbard (Rothbard Rockwell Report, January 1992): https://rothbard.it/articles/right-wing-populism.pdf “Why Our Populist Moment Keeps Failing” by Connor O’Keeffe: https://mises.org/mises-wire/why-our-populist-moment-keeps-failing “Populism Is Not an Ideology” by Joseph T. Salerno: https://mises.org/mises-wire/populism-not-ideology “When Political Violence Becomes a Signal” by Jimmy Alfonso Licon: https://mises.org/mises-wire/when-political-violence-becomes-signal “The Populist Case for the Gold Standard” by Kristoffer Hansen (The Journal of Libertarian Studies, May 2021): https://mises.org/journal-libertarian-studies/populist-case-gold-standard 2026 is the Year of Rothbard—Murray’s 100th birthday—and we’re celebrating by giving away free copies of Wall Street, Banks, and American Foreign Policy through October 31. Grab yours today at https://mises.org/issuesfree 20% off listener offer on the insulated Minor Issues tumbler and three of Mark’s books: https://mises.org/MinorIssuesTumbler. Use coupon code Thornton. Be sure to follow Minor Issues at https://Mises.org/MinorIssues

The only way to fund Social Security is with current tax dollars, inflicted on current workers and families. There is no pot of money somewhere that current retirees “paid into.” Be sure to follow the Loot and Lobby podcast at Mises.org/LL

There is a simple way for housing markets to adjust to the new realities of higher interest rates. Prices need to come down. That’s how markets are supposed to work. Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/home-sales-high-interest-rates-are-not-problem-high-prices-are