Episode 2604 of The Tom Woods Show released on February 8, 2025, entitled, “Is the U.S. Headed for Breakup (in the Long Run)?” interviewed Ryan McMaken, Senior Editor of The Mises Institute. The main topic was the breakup of the United States in the long run, also called secession.One type of secession active in 2025 is when one or more rural counties seek to secede from the current state to join a neighboring state. Many residents of the seceding rural county are not in agreement with many current state public policies, governing, and taxation and desire to be governed by more sane public policies in a nearby state. This secession movement could be called state to state. Many rural counties have lower populations compared to the urban counties.The nationalist secession movement is defined

An August 17, 2024 article, at oilprice.com, entitled, “A New Era for Nuclear Power in the US” describes US government funding and intervening to reopen closed or closing nuclear power electric generating plants (nuclear) to support their green transition policies from the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).The IRA provides $6 billion financial support to nuclear power plants at risk of closure—$1.2 billion per year from FY2022 through FY2026. The new federal program is another example of government intervention through a subsidy or incentive to keep a nuclear plant operating when it is losing money.The article states, “The US government is supporting the reopening of the Palisades (Palisades) nuclear power plant in Covert, Michigan, the first such effort in the country’s

US coins in circulation get damaged and are eligible to be redeemed through the US Mint Mutilated Coin Redemption Program, begun in 1911. Individuals and businesses can exchange bent, damaged, or partial coins (also known as mutilated coins) for reimbursement when no longer acceptable as legal tender. The program’s purpose is to promote confidence in US coinage.The Mint suspended the program in 2015 to assess its security and develop additional safeguards to enhance the integrity of the acceptance and processing of mutilated coins. This suspension is another example of government intervention resulting in unintended economic and business consequences with the low confidence in the Mint redeeming mutilated US coins.One substantial source of mutilated coins is the metal recycling industry

Elon Musk—of Tesla, SpaceX, and X fame—will be tasked by incoming President-elect Donald Trump to review federal government efficiency with the intent to cut federal spending, reform existing programs, possible shutdown of federal agencies, etc. Elon should be encouraged to study a herculean report done in the first term of President Ronald Reagan called The President’s Private Sector Survey on Cost Control, also called the President’s Private Sector Survey (PPSS).The effort was chaired by Mr. J. Peter Grace who was the chairman and chief executive officer of the diversified chemical company, W. R. Grace. The PPSS report, also known as The Grace Commission report, was delivered to President Reagan in January 1984. Reading its summary forty years later showed how prescient it was. It

In July 2023, the Federal Reserve Bank (FRB) announced FedNow as their foray into the US dollar central bank digital currency (CBDC) payment service. The service is offered to insure immediate CBDC payments are made to a registered individual and/or business buying and selling products and/or services. The FRB offers CBDC as a quick payment convenience to Americans when many see it as a subtle expansion of FRB monetary management power and control.Many dollar payments today are made through an electronic funds transfer system managed by the National Automated Clearinghouse Association known as Automated Clearing House (ACH). Sent and received payments are completed in one to two business days. ACH was officially established in 1974. US scrap metal recycling businesses receive, process,

What is the Mises Institute?

The Mises Institute is a non-profit organization that exists to promote teaching and research in the Austrian School of economics, individual freedom, honest history, and international peace, in the tradition of Ludwig von Mises and Murray N. Rothbard. Non-political, non-partisan, and non-PC, we advocate a radical shift in the intellectual climate, away from statism and toward a private property order. We believe that our foundational ideas are of permanent value, and oppose all efforts at compromise, sellout, and amalgamation of these ideas with fashionable political, cultural, and social doctrines inimical to their spirit.

In 50 years since the Watergate scandal—famously resulting in President Richard Nixon’s resignation—there has been a flood of “post-Watergate morality,” in which Congress pushed through a number of “reforms” designed to curb government abuses. The Nixon Administration exerted great effort to conceal its organization of the break-in, as Nixon and his aides authorized a plan instructing the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to interfere with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Watergate investigation. Their actions were an abuse of presidential power and a deliberate obstruction of justice.A newspaper article published after Nixon’s resignation detailed the CIA Watergate cover-up, sourced from the Watergate prosecutor’s office, the FBI, and CIA staff. The Watergate investigation

The American 21st century bankruptcy show continues with cities, counties, and local special purpose districts (SPD’s) (local entities) for fire protection, hospitals, libraries, water districts, etc. One common bankruptcy theme was that when a project began and a bond-covenant issued, revenue from the project did not meet predictions, bond payments were not timely, the local entity could not renegotiate the bond payments with the lender(s), and so federal bankruptcy was their best option. Unlike the federal government, these local entities cannot print their own money and they are subject to economic boom and bust cycles.A July 2020 Pew Trust report of city, county, and local SPD bankruptcy declarations from 2001 to 2020 found 95 SPD’s filed for bankruptcy, with 21 from the state of

Today is the fiftieth anniversary of the resignation of President Richard Nixon, who later was pardoned of all Watergate crimes by President Gerald Ford. The Watergate break-in occurred at the Democratic National Committee headquarters office in June 1972 at the Watergate building in Washington, DC, during a presidential election year. The Nixon Administration exerted great effort to conceal its involvement in the break-in. The United States Department of Justice and press reporters (Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward) found five people involved in the break-in received thousands of dollars of hush money from the Committee to Reelect the President, which was the fundraising organization of President Nixon’s reelection campaign.Many of Nixon’s administration staff were convicted of federal

The Biden U.S Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued new methane gas detection, repair and reporting rules in December 2023, impacting existing, new and reconstructed onshore crude oil (crude) and natural gas (ngas) production facilities. The state of Texas Railroad Commission which regulates many parts of the state’s crude and ngas industry asked the Texas Attorney General’s office to sue the Biden administration over this new rule. This new federal rule is another battle in the states war to eliminate the use of ngas in daily life.The EPA belief is methane gas emissions that make up over ninety-five percent of ngas is a human action contributing to global warming or greenhouse gas in the earth’s atmosphere. One sentence from the new rule EPA fact sheet states,

What is the Mises Institute?

The Mises Institute is a non-profit organization that exists to promote teaching and research in the Austrian School of economics, individual freedom, honest history, and international peace, in the tradition of Ludwig von Mises and Murray N. Rothbard. Non-political, non-partisan, and non-PC, we advocate a radical shift in the intellectual climate, away from statism and toward a private property order. We believe that our foundational ideas are of permanent value, and oppose all efforts at compromise, sellout, and amalgamation of these ideas with fashionable political, cultural, and social doctrines inimical to their spirit.

The Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors (CHIPS) Act passed by the United States Congress and signed into law by President Joe Biden in August 2022 funds the CHIPS for America Act that was initiated under the 2021 National Defense Authorization Act signed into law by President Donald Trump in January 2021. The 2021 legislation authorized the Department of Commerce, Department of Defense, and Department of State to develop onshore domestic manufacturing of semiconductors. The CHIPS Act looks good on paper, but its fiscal and regulatory reality is another unnecessary federal economic intervention.An excerpt from a report entitled “Frequently Asked Questions: CHIPS Act of 2022 Provisions and Implementation” from the Congressional Research Service dated April 2023 states:The

Ludwig Von Mises gave six lectures in 1959 in Buenos Aires, Argentina where, “he spoke in nontechnical terms suitable for his audience of business professionals, professors, teachers, and students. He illustrates theory with homespun examples. He explains simple truths of history in terms of economic principles. He describes how capitalism destroyed the hierarchical order of European feudalism and discusses the political consequences of various kinds of government.He analyzed the failures of socialism and the welfare state and shows what consumers and workers can accomplish when they are free under capitalism to determine their own destinies.” This is a quote from introduction page viii of the publication, “Economic Policy Thoughts for Today and Tomorrow” Third Edition available as a

[unable to retrieve full-text content]When the government wants to make something more affordable, that usually means new subsidies, laws, and regulations that drive up the real price. Higher medical prices will mean more medical bankruptcies.

The year 2024 marks three significant anniversaries for Friedrich August von Hayek, who follows Ludwig von Mises as influential in the Austrian School of economics. This is the one hundred twenty-fifth year of Hayek’s birth, the fiftieth anniversary of being awarded the Nobel Prize for economic science which he shared with Gunnar Myrdal, and the eightieth anniversary of the publication of his The Road to Serfdom, which is available in the Mises online store.Hayek was born in Vienna, Austria, in 1899. He attended the University of Vienna at the age of nineteen after World War I. He earned doctorates in law in 1921 and political science in 1923. In 1922 Mises published his Die Gemeinwirtschaft, later translated as Socialism. “To none of us young men who read the book when it appeared,” Hayek

One unintended consequence of federal government intervention or regulation of medicine is individuals or families declaring federal bankruptcy for large unpaid medical bills. US healthcare costs and miles to the nearest star is measured in trillions. US healthcare spending reached $4.1 trillion in 2020 according to the most recent data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Americans spent $12,530 per person on medical care in 2020.Federal government medical entitlement programs Medicare and Medicaid, which began in the 1960s, and the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare), enacted in March 2010, are some examples of federal intervention in the economics and functioning of medicine. Federal subsidies or payments of taxpayer dollars paid to doctors, hospitals, medical providers,

The American bankruptcy show of the twenty-first century continues unabated with federal and state government spending. History reveals that some states have defaulted through not meeting a required bond payment, leaving the bondholders and that state’s taxpayers with a debt problem. Today, we might call a state government bond payment default a bankruptcy.
Many bankruptcy filings today are governed by Chapters 7, 9, 11, and 13 of the United States bankruptcy code, which are supervised, reviewed, and completed by federal bankruptcy courts. Federal bankruptcy law does not allow a state to declare bankruptcy, however. Federal law also prohibits individual states from printing their own money as a way out of debt. Government (state and federal) money issued and backed fully or partially by

The American bankruptcy show of the twenty-first century continues unabated with federal and state government spending. History reveals that some states have defaulted through not meeting a required bond payment, leaving the bondholders and that state’s taxpayers with a debt problem. Today, we might call a state government bond payment default a bankruptcy.
Many bankruptcy filings today are governed by Chapters 7, 9, 11, and 13 of the United States bankruptcy code, which are supervised, reviewed, and completed by federal bankruptcy courts. Federal bankruptcy law does not allow a state to declare bankruptcy, however. Federal law also prohibits individual states from printing their own money as a way out of debt. Government (state and federal) money issued and backed fully or partially by

Bankruptcy is a developing twenty-first century theme in America. We see bankruptcy in federal government policy and spending, many corporate boardroom decisions, nonprofit and religious groups’ overspending and arrogance, individuals, some United States cities and counties, and the territory of Puerto Rico. The federal bankruptcy law consisting of Chapters 7, 9, 11, and 13 allow bankruptcy filings for local governments, individuals, nonprofit groups, and for-profit businesses, but it does not allow bankruptcy filings for states and the federal government.
A few states are facing the reality of defaulting on their issued bond debt obligation payments and loan payments to lenders. These states are seeing current and future tax revenues decreases, net population losses, fewer private

America’s famous Corn Belt should better be known as the nation’s Subsidy Belt. 
Original Article: America’s Corn Crop Comes from "Corny" Subsidies

Corn is grown in the United States as a staple crop for human food, as cattle feed, and as input for conversion to corn ethanol. The federal laws and rules for the corn ethanol industry were initiated in the 1970s and have continued today with ethanol subsidies. The federal corn ethanol sales pitch is for the United States to gain energy independence by lowering vehicle tailpipe emissions through the required blending of ethanol into the nation’s gasoline supply, resulting in reduced greenhouse gas (carbon dioxide) emissions.
Corn Belt growers and their federal representatives embrace and push federal corn subsidies and other interventions into law. The Corn Belt is centered in the US Midwest states of Illinois, Indiana, and Iowa.
Corn ethanol is energy intensive to produce as an energy

While Austria is not the free-market republic Ludwig von Mises hoped it would be, the country has made many steps in the right direction, freeing markets and protecting private property.
Original Article: What Would Mises Think? Austria Is Applying (Some) Austrian Economics

Austria is one part of the name “Austrian economics.” How has the country of Austria prospered by applying Austrian economic concepts? The nation regained full sovereignty in 1955. Their form of government is a parliamentary coalition with a prime minister as head of state and a ceremonial office of president.
How would Ludwig von Mises view Austria today implementing Austrian economics? He would not recognize the country he fled in 1934 ahead of the German war machine and its purposeful discrimination of people of Jewish descent. He would probably be thankful Austria’s Jewish population is thriving. He would also see its standard of living and economy flourishing today.
Austria has large services and industrial sectors, and it has a small, highly developed agricultural sector. The

Federal flood insurance was created ostensibly to provide insurance to people who live in flood-prone areas. Not surprisingly, it subsidizes bad home-building decisions and wastes billions of dollars.
Original Article: Federal Flood Insurance Drains Taxpayers

The US government’s National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) is flush with debt. The NFIP owes the US Treasury roughly $25 billion. According to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the NFIP will pay $280 million in interest in 2022. “The program was never intended to generate a profit. It was established because due to the nature of flood risks, commercial insurance was not generally available.”
Congress created the NFIP in 1968 to make reasonably priced flood insurance available to business owners, homeowners, and renters. Each authorization of the program has an expiration date requiring Congress to reauthorize it with federal taxpayer funds and reforms.
The NFIP makes federally backed flood insurance available in states, cities, and towns that agree to adopt and enforce

On yet another crusade, US authorities have sanctioned Chinese cotton imports. The sanctions won’t change Chinese policies but they will create hardships for many.
Original Article: Cotton Pickin’ Sanctions

In the wake of the Arab Oil Embargo of 50 years ago, Congress banned U.S. export sales of crude oil. The results were different than what government "experts" imagined.

Original Article: Oil Export Bans Make for Crude Politics

As the US economy sours, look for a wave of new bankruptcies. The Fed cannot pull any rabbits out of its monetary hat this time.

Original Article: Welcome to the Twenty-First Century American Bankruptcy Show

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) embargo on sales of crude oil from their member countries to the United States was a response to US support for Israel in the October 1973 Yom Kippur War against invading Egyptian and Syrian military forces. This oil embargo raised barrel prices on the open market and, when combined with US price controls, reduced the amount of oil available in the US for refining into gasoline, leading to domestic gasoline shortages and higher prices at the pump.
The federal government banned oil exports in December 1975 with the intent of preserving it for domestic refiners to produce gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel. The ban did not function as intended and was lifted by President Obama in December 2015, forty years to the month after its

The vast American welfare system is imploding. Future tax revenues will not come close to meeting future obligations. Something must give.

Original Article: America’s Big Three Entitlement Bankruptcies Are Inevitable

Many historians labeled the twentieth century as the American century, with many metrics used. The end of the Cold War in 1989 and the fall of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in December 1991 changed world affairs: several new countries formed, the Warsaw Pact dissolved, the economy of China rose, and many US military bases shut down. The twentieth century wound down with the US as the world superpower, and yet the vision of the 1990s was not clear for our political and military leaders going into the twenty-first century.
One definition of bankruptcy is “utter ruin, failure, depletion, or the like.” Entering the third decade of the twenty-first century with the perspective to see what has occurred since 2000 reveals this century is becoming the American bankruptcy. One US view of

The possible bankruptcy of Thames Water Company in Great Britain brings to mind the heady days 40 years ago when Margaret Thatcher’s government was privatizing state-owned enterprises, including TW. Not all privatization stories have happy endings.

Original Article: "Thatcher’s New Style of Government"

For the past fifty years, the US has not had a military draft. Unfortunately, the end of conscription did not mean US military interventions abroad ended.

Original Article: "How Conscription Ended Fifty Years Ago"

America’s federally sanctioned entitlement programs, Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security, each face bankruptcy in the next few years. Medicare and Medicaid were created in 1965 as part of President Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society legislation. Social Security was created in 1935 to provide retirement income for Americans who reached the age of sixty-five. These three entitlement programs consume about fifty cents of every federal budget dollar, or $2.7 trillion in fiscal year 2023.
Medicare is a federal health-insurance and healthcare program available for enrollment when a person reaches the age of sixty-five. An American who has worked for a minimum of ten years is eligible for enrollment. Employees and employers each pay a minimum Medicare tax of 1.45 percent based on the employees’

America’s federally sanctioned entitlement programs, Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security, each face bankruptcy in the next few years. Medicare and Medicaid were created in 1965 as part of President Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society legislation. Social Security was created in 1935 to provide retirement income for Americans who reached the age of sixty-five. These three entitlement programs consume about fifty cents of every federal budget dollar, or $2.7 trillion in fiscal year 2023.
Medicare is a federal health-insurance and healthcare program available for enrollment when a person reaches the age of sixty-five. An American who has worked for a minimum of ten years is eligible for enrollment. Employees and employers each pay a minimum Medicare tax of 1.45 percent based on the employees’

Recent news reports mention the possible bankruptcy of the privately owned company Thames Water (TW) in the United Kingdom, with a history of very high debt repayments, high dividend payouts to shareholders, mismanagement, and underinvestment of capital spending. TW supplies water and wastewater services to the southeast of England, including London.
The problem for TW is that almost half of their debt is floating rate, in which the interest rate paid increases or decreases with the rate of inflation. The UK’s higher inflation in recent years has impacted TW’s amount of loan repayment. TW was originally owned and operated by the British government and was privatized in 1989.
Some say TW’s woes were caused by the privatization when facts state otherwise. Privatization by itself did not

The use of interstate compacts by US states shows that the states don’t need the federal government to dictate or manage interstate relations. 

Original Article: "States Can Curb Federal Power through "Soft Secession""

United States military conscription, or the draft, ended on January 27, 1973, with the winding down of the Vietnam War. The draft law was due to expire at the end of June 1971. But US President Richard Nixon decided it needed to continue and asked Congress to approve a two-year extension. In March 1973, 1974, and 1975, the Selective Service assigned draft priority numbers for all men born in 1954, 1955, and 1956, in case the draft was extended—but it never was.
Nixon thought ending the draft could be an effective political weapon against the burgeoning antiwar movement. In his 1968 presidential campaign, he had promised to end the draft. During his time out of office, he had become interested in the prospect of an all-volunteer force, being influenced by Martin Anderson, a professor at

Former Mises Institute president Jeff Deist wrote on the concept of “soft secession” in September 2021. The article talks about how left-leaning states have an opportunity to embrace an abundance of progressive policies for their citizens—without leaving an open door for real violence to occur—through the pursuit of soft state secession. Some people in the left-thinking world are starting to get it. This soft secession principle applies to those living in the right-leaning states as well.
The article also talks about how people from certain ideological and geographic perspectives in the United States are embracing soft secession by moving to a state that more reflects their worldview. The 2020 US Census data and the currently updated estimated census figures show this happening with the

Economically speaking, the US government is bankrupt even if the government won’t admit what is obvious. But how would an actual bankruptcy proceeding go? 

Original Article: "In the Event of an Official US Bankruptcy"

The current known federal debt is $31.7 trillion according to the web site, US Debt Clock, which is about $94,726 for every man, woman, and child who are citizens as of April 24, 2023. Can you write a check right now made payable to the United States Treasury for the known share of the federal debt of each member of your family after liquidating the assets you own?
A report released by the St. Louis Federal Reserve Branch on March 6, 2023, stated a similar figure for the total known federal debt of about $31.4 trillion as of December 31, 2022. The federal debt size is so great, it can never be repaid in its current form.
Some of us have been in or known families or businesses who had financial debt that could not be paid, when adjustments like reducing expenses, increasing income,