Llewellyn H. Rockwell Jr.'s Blog, page 162

How FDR’s Attack on the Gold Standard Spawned an Age of Inflation

In his great classic, Crisis and Leviathan, Robert Higgs explained how Franklin Roosevelt’s attacks on the gold standard ushered in “the age of inflation” that has now robbed generations of Americans through the inflation tax. The explanation begins with the goofy economic theory that was the basis for the first New Deal: The backwards belief that low prices caused the Great Depression; therefore, if government could force prices up by restricting production the Depression would end. Think about...

Does Trump Really Have a Plan for Ukraine?

The weird thing about President Trump’s plans for Ukraine is that no knows what they actually are.

Over the last days I have tried to understand what he is trying to achieve. I fail to come up with a theory that makes sense. His behavior is inconsistent. There are also no helpful hints from the White House or leaks to the press. There is frenetic action here and there and pompous pronouncements. But what are the overall plans?

Prof. Mearsheimer likewise says (vid) that Trump’s behavior makes no ...

America as Republic, Not as Empire – Europe’s “Sound and Fury” After Jaw-Dropping Pivots in U.S. Policy

Trump does not buy into the primary lie intended as the glue which holds this entire EU geo-political structure together.

The bits are falling into a distinct pattern – a pre-prepared pattern.

Defence Secretary Hegseth at the Munich Security Conference gave us four ‘noes’: No to Ukraine in NATO; No to a return to pre-2014 borders; No to ‘Article 5’ peacekeeper backstops, and ‘No’ to U.S. troops in Ukraine. And in a final flourish, he added that U.S. troops in Europe are not ‘forever’ – and even ...

If DOGE Wants a Worthy Target, It Should Look at the World Bank and IMF

I think that Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, have been misinformed. I don’t disagree with their shutting down USAID, but I think it’s rather small fry. There are much, much bigger fish to fry if you want to really save U.S. government money that is being wasted in programs that are mischievously justified as aid to the poor people of the world.

Elon, hear me out: if you walk northwest from your headquarters at the Eisenhower Executive Building along Pennsylvania A...

Not Mining Asteroids

There is a maxim in technical writing that every formula cuts your audience in half. Everything in spaceflight is based on formulas, so a tradeoff must be made to produce something readable for the non-expert. However, it only takes a few well-known and verifiable facts to demonstrate why asteroid mining is infeasible.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) was created after the Soviet Union shocked the American government by launching what was essentially a beeper into orbit. ...

Trump Is Right – Cut Everything, Even the Bloated Defense Budget

President Trump made a very strong statement on Feb. 13 which will be revolutionary in nature if he can carry it out.

He said there is no reason that we should be spending a trillion dollars a year on the military and that we should cut defense spending in half.

He also said we should not be building any more nuclear weapons when we already have enough to destroy the world 50 or 100 times over.

Trump added that he hoped to get commitments from Russia and China to do the same.

He said: “There’s n...

Trump Takes Aim at Federal ‘Crown Jewel’ – Pentagon

The US military is by far the largest spender of the federal budget (nearly a seventh of around $7 trillion). So much spending has been unchecked for decades and always without regard for efficiency, which is why Trump keeps insisting that he can make the Pentagon “just as effective but for half the money”.

The new Trump administration has made some pretty groundbreaking moves, starting with the dismantling of agencies such as the infamous USAID (or perhaps moving its activities back to intellig...

Secession: Why Redrawing US State Borders Makes Politicians So Mad

Over the past five years, 33 counties in Illinois have voted to secede from the state, presumably to either form a new state or join another state. In most of these counties, the voters were given the option to vote yes or no on  a ballot question that looked generally like this:

“Shall the board of (the county) correspond with the boards of other counties of Illinois, outside of Cook County, about the possibility of separating from Cook County to form a new state and to seek admission to the Un...

Wired and Tired: The Sleep Crisis in America

Nothing ruins my day faster than a bad night’s sleep. The world feels like it’s ending. The walls start caving in. Basic tasks feel impossible. But we’re told to keep pushing. Grind harder. Pop the Adderall. Chug the watermelon Celsius. Power through the exhaustion because true success, “experts” say, demands sacrifice.

Financial influencers preach “there ain’t no rest for the wicked,” glorifying sleep deprivation and telling hungry entrepreneurs that the world’s most successful billionaires sur...

The Era of Abundant Oil, Resources And Food Is Coming to an End

The world is approaching a critical juncture where declining oil production, increasing geopolitical tensions, rising authoritarianism, and the accelerating climate crisis converge into a perfect storm.

These crises are not separate – they are deeply interconnected, forming a feedback loop where each intensifies the others.

Peak Oil Production

Global oil production is expected to peak in the near future (5-15 years). The shale boom that grew and sustained U.S. production for the last decade sign...