Llewellyn H. Rockwell Jr.'s Blog, page 2340

Lies, Damned Lies

At a time when the United States is convulsed by anti-Russian hysteria and demonization of Vladimir Putin, a trove of recently declassified Cold War documents reveals the astounding extent of the lies, duplicity and double-dealing engaged in by the western powers with the collapsing Soviet Union in 1990.

I was covering Moscow in those days and met some of the key players in this sordid drama.   Ever since, I’ve been writing that the Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, and Foreign Minister, Edua...

The Sparkling Revisionist

I recently ordered and am now eagerly devouring the anthology of David Gordon’s reviews and essays An Austro-Libertarian View published by the Mises Institute. Gordon belongs in more than one way to the institute that brought out this volume. Indeed in his Foreword he lets the reader know that when he first read Man, Economy and the State in 1962, he became a “convinced Rothbardian,” and “it is from this standpoint that I have written my articles.” This may understate the relation described....

Driving on Snowy Roads

While busy airports tend to get all the attention around the holiday travel season, the highways and byways are actually far more trafficked. Of long-distance travelers — those going 50 miles or more — over 90% are getting to where they’re going by car. Thanksgiving and Christmas/New Year’s are in fact the most heavily trafficked times of year on America’s roads.

While it’s wonderful that folks are traveling to spend time with friends and family, it’s also an unfortunate time of year to be on...

What Happened to Hillary’s Foot?

Hillary Clinton has been spotted still wearing her surgical boot two months after she fell down some stairs in her heels and broke her toe.

The former Secretary of State was in Vancouver as part of her global book tour to promote her election memoir What Happened.

Clinton strode out onto the stage, in a striking monochrome leather ensemble. But what was most noticeable was the bulky post-op shoe on her right foot – which she has been wearing since she took a tumble and broke her toe in Octobe...

40 Years on the Road

In 1977 I began taking road trips (driving a car or truck) up and down Interstate 80. I had taken a few road trips prior, but 1977 was the first time I drove cross-country as an adult and for work… the first time I was looking on the experience with moderately confident and mature eyes.

I’ve taken road trips many times since, though not in the past two years. That was a long gap for me. And then, just a few weeks ago, I took another trip down I-80. I quickly realized that this trip was almost...

The Electric Car Upside

Is there any upside to electric cars?

In the interest of fairness, this question should be fairly answered. As is true of almost anything – Hitler did build the Autobahn, after all – you can find a few good things to say about electric cars . . . if you look long and hard enough – and don’t ask too many pesky follow-up questions.

The heat works immediately –

An electric car is like a mobile space heater, one of those little boxes you plug in at home or work to take the chill off the room you’...

No One Wants the Internet of Things

We’ve previously noted that no one wants the Internet of Things aka IoT (other than Big Brother and a handful of companies which are trying to make a quick buck off of us).

For months, I’ve taken screenshots of IoT stories run by the very mainstream Business Insider.

What they show is that Business Insider readers ignore every single IoT story. Specifically, there is no interest in any IoT story … and even stories posted at the exact same time or after IoT stories get more interest (compare t...

Property and Contracts

Luther and His Progeny: 500 Years of Protestantism and Its Consequences for Church, State, and Society, edited by John C. Rao.

In this post, I will examine the concepts of property and contracts as understood during the European Middle Ages; this is based on a chapter written by Brian M. McCall.  I will say up front that there are concepts here that are confusing to me.

Regular readers know that I view this period in Europe as perhaps the period that most closely approaches the non-aggression...

Bubble Finance

Today’s single most dangerous Wall Street meme is that there is no risk of a stock market crash because there is no recession in sight. But that proposition is dead wrong because it’s a relic of your grandfather’s economy. That is, a reasonably functioning capitalist order in which the stock market priced-out company earnings and the underlying macroeconomic substrate from which they arose.

Back then, Economy drove Finance: You therefore needed a main street contraction to trigger tumbling pr...

Unlike Nixon

On Aug. 9, 1974, Richard Nixon bowed to the inevitability of impeachment and conviction by a Democratic Senate and resigned.

The prospect of such an end for Donald Trump has this city drooling. Yet, comparing Russiagate and Watergate, history is not likely to repeat itself.

First, the underlying crime in Watergate, a break-in to wiretap offices of the DNC, had been traced, within 48 hours, to the Committee to Re-Elect the President.

In Russiagate, the underlying crime — the “collusion” of Tru...