Thomas E. Woods, author of Rollback: Repealing Big Government Before the Coming Fiscal Collapse, discusses Ron Paul as an economic prophet of sorts (revered by devout followers, scorned by the majority); Woods’s personal transformation from party-line Republican to peace and liberty advocate; Paul’s paradigm shifting moment, where he stood up to Rudy Giuliani’s ignorant tirade about 9/11 in the 2008 Republican primaries; and how the college kids who are reading Mises instead of Keynes – thanks...

Thomas E. Woods, author of Rollback: Repealing Big Government Before the Coming Fiscal Collapse, discusses the Ron Paul revolution and why there are very few popular American uprisings specifically against foreign policy and empire; the “26 Things Non-Paul Voters Are Basically Saying;” the left-right political realignment, putting aside jingoistic nationalism and uniting around a moral foreign policy; and why Ron Paul’s campaign staff should get him into more town hall meetings, where his...

Thomas E. Woods, author of Rollback: Repealing Big Government Before the Coming Fiscal Collapse, discusses Ron Paul’s preference for a joint police action to arrest and try Osama bin Laden, rather than a covert military operation/execution; Paul’s unhesitating subversion of the popular propaganda line, even though support for the rule of law is a political liability right now; why this may be Paul’s “Giuliani moment” for the 2012 presidential campaign; the conservatives who think civil...

Thomas E. Woods, author of Rollback: Repealing Big Government Before the Coming Fiscal Collapse, discusses the pivotal events (Quebec Act, the “shot heard ’round the world“) preceding the Revolutionary War; the persistent myths surrounding the Civil War, southern secession and slavery; how the Union victory transformed the country into a “nation” with a strong central government and budding imperialist ambitions; and the antiwar case for a gold standard monetary system.

Thomas E. Woods, author of Rollback: Repealing Big Government Before the Coming Fiscal Collapse, discusses the actual constitutional war-making powers of the president; why UN mandates do not override the sovereignty of national governments; the “imminent attack” exception to a congressional authorization of war (though somehow FDR found the time after Pearl Harbor to ask for and receive a formal declaration); why the US Constitution is better off in the junk yard than the repair shop; and the...

Thomas E. Woods, author of Rollback: Repealing Big Government Before the Coming Fiscal Collapse, discusses why the trillion dollar military budget is the most deserving candidate for federal spending cuts; why the military's aging weapons and vehicles, and the shrunken Air Force and Navy, should make us wonder where all the money is going; how an increase in interest rates would end the charade that US debt levels are sustainable; and some creative ideas on reducing the rolls of social...

Thomas E. Woods, author of Nullification: How to Resist Federal Tyranny in the 21st Century, discusses the few Leftists and many libertarians working to shift the balance of power away from Washington and toward local control; why it's still hard to shake the nearly 150-year old misconception that secessionists are slavery sympathizers; why an ignorant population is much more likely to inherit an authoritarian state than a libertarian paradise following a government and economic collapse; and...

Thomas E. Woods Jr., scholar at the Mises Institute and author of Nullification: How to Resist Federal Tyranny in the 21st Century, discusses the constitutional power of the U.S. government to raise armies and declare wars, the modern nullification represented by the Bring the Guard Home movement, the evolution of the constitutional system from union to nation, Tom's idea of reviving the principles of 1798 — nullification and interposition of unconstitutional laws by the states against the...

Thomas E. Woods, coauthor of We Who Dared to Say No to War: American Antiwar Writing from 1812 to Now, discusses Daniel Webster's stirring speech against the War of 1812, the slaughter of retreating Iraqi soldiers in the 1991 Gulf War and how the institution of war has become the US civic religion.

Thomas E. Woods, author of Meltdown and senior fellow at the Mises Institute, discusses "The Birth and Death of the Fed" Mises Institute conference at infamous Jekyll Island, GA, the Fed's failure to stop the financial panics that were the impetus for its creation in the first place, the gathering of the world's powerbrokers at the original 1910 Jekyll Island meeting that laid the groundwork for the Fed's creation in 1913 and the article "The Fed's Dismal Record" that rebuts the typical...

Thomas E. Woods, author of Meltdown: A Free-Market Look at Why the Stock Market Collapsed, the Economy Tanked, and Government Bailouts Will Make Things Worse, discusses the debt some progressive causes owe to states' rights, vintage 1812 war propaganda that sounds alarmingly like the run-up to the war in Iraq, state nullification of unconstitutional federal laws and the undue respect given to the Supremacy Clause.

Thomas E. Woods, author of Meltdown: A Free-Market Look at Why the Stock Market Collapsed, the Economy Tanked, and Government Bailouts Will Make Things Worse, discusses Seymour Melman's [.pdf] research into the societal repercussions of a military economy, the diversion of research scientists from the private sector to Cold War military programs, the transformation of the U.S. university system into a DOD jobs program and the corruption of defense contractors into companies that can't compete...