Thomas Woods

Mises Institute Summit 2008 Review

Mon, 11/03/2008 - 1:13pm | posted by C Scott Morris

The 2008 Mises Institute Supporters Summit

The Gold Standard Revisited

This past weekend was a chance for many of the Mises Institute’s supporters to get together, get familiar, and get updated on the Austrian tradition’s interpretation of recent events. The focus of this weekend seminar was on the gold standard, and the increasingly desperate need for sound money in today’s fiat fiasco of an economy. Speakers, local and international, delivered the message of monetary sanity to the supporters and students in attendance, as well as those who tuned in around the world via Mises.org. Talks were given by many of today’s

The Case Against Nullification

Sat, 07/10/2010 - 10:01am | posted by Doug Mataconis

The once discredited idea of nullification, the idea that the individual states have the authority to nullify Federal laws inconsistent with the Constitution, is making a comeback thanks largely to a new book entitled Nullification: How to Resist Federal Tyranny in the 21st Century by Thomas Woods. Today, over at The Volokh Conspiracy, law professor Randy Barnett casts a very skeptical eye on Woods’ argument:

While there are some interesting structural arguments to be made on behalf of a power of nullification, of course it is not recognized by the text. And my doubts that it was thought by the founders to be a power reserved to the states is fueled by James Madison’s famed Report of 1800 in which he defended the Virginia Resolution objecting to the constitutionality of the Aliens and Sedition Act. I include a lengthy excerpt from Madison’s report in my casebook, including this telling passage near the end. (So readers have the full context, I include the paragraphs in full while putting in bold the more crucial language):

The Great Recession Of 1920-21 And What It Can Teach Us Today

Sun, 10/11/2009 - 4:12pm | posted by Doug Mataconis

Thomas Woods, author of the highly-recommended Meltdown: A Free-Market Look at Why the Stock Market Collapsed, the Economy Tanked, and Government Bailouts Will Make Things Worse, has both a scholarly article and a video out discussing the Harding Administration’s response to the economic downturn of 1920, which by some measures was even more severe than the Great Depression of the 1930s and what it can teach us today.

From the article: