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According to U.S. mainstream media, Argentine presidential candidate Javier Milei is a right-wing populist. Does that characterization stand up to scrutiny? Watch the full replay of Zach Weissmueller's conversation with Argentine economist Eduardo Marty and Guatemalan libertarian activist Gloria Álvarez: youtube.com/watch?v=W8MeyFRv16o

Self-described libertarian Javier Milei surprised the world in Argentina's presidential open primary election last week by finishing first with 30 percent of the vote ahead of candidates for the country's dominant left- and right-wing parties. Milei, the figurehead for La Libertad Avanza party is an Austrian economist and has called himself an anarchocapitalist and made a name for his fiery media appearances excoriating Argentina's "political caste" of "parasites." He's pledged to end the Argentina's central bank and dollarize the economy, privatize its social services, cut taxes, create education vouchers and abolish the health, education and environmental ministries. His opponents and many in the media have repeatedly described him as "far right" and "a new Trump." Latin American political analyst Daniel Raisbeck, on the other hand, paints a more nuanced picture and warns pundits not to "confuse Javier Milei with Jair Bolsanaro." Join Reason's Zach Weissmueller this Thursday at 1 p.m. Eastern for a conversation with author and radio and TV host Gloria Alvarez and Argentine economist Eduardo Marty to discuss the election, Milei's chances of victory in a country experiencing triple digit inflation, the culture war he's fighting in Argentina, and what his rise says for the prospects of libertarian ideas in Latin America. Watch the stream on Reason's YouTube channel or on Facebook. Sources referenced in this conversation: Argentina 2023 Primary Results: https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2023-argentina-election/ WaPo: Who is Javier Milei, Argentina's right-wing presidential front-runner? https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/08/14/javier-milei-argentina-presidential-election/ Opina Argentina: Libertarians make inroads in Argentina—https://country.eiu.com/article.aspx?articleid=462085029&subtopic_1 Milei: My alignment with Trump and Bolsonaro is almost natural—https://www.infobae.com/politica/2021/09/29/la-entrevista-de-javier-milei-a-la-prensa-de-brasil-mi-alineamiento-con-bolsonaro-y-trump-es-casi-natural/ Bloomberg: Milei's proposals for Argentina—https://www.infobae.com/politica/2021/09/29/la-entrevista-de-javier-milei-a-la-prensa-de-brasil-mi-alineamiento-con-bolsonaro-y-trump-es-casi-natural/ El Pais: What's in Javier Milei's head? https://elpais.com/argentina/2023-08-15/que-tiene-javier-milei-en-la-cabeza.html Daniel Raisbeck: Argentina should dollarize pronto—https://www.cato.org/briefing-paper/argentina-should-dollarize-pronto

Reason's Nick Gillespie talked with MAPS founder Rick Doblin about the imminent FDA approval of MDMA- and psilocybin-assisted therapy at the Psychedelic Science. https://reason.com/video/2023/08/23/rick-doblin-welcome-to-the-psychedelic-20s/ ____________ "Welcome to the psychedelic '20s!"Rick Doblin, founder of the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, or MAPS, proclaimed in his keynote speech to open the Psychedelic Science 2023 conference. At the event organized by MAPS in Denver this June, a reported 13,000 people gathered to talk about what seemed like every possible topic related to the productive use of these substances. Founded in the late 1980s, MAPS has spent decades working to get approval from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for MDMA-assisted therapy for PTSD and related conditions. The payoff for those decades of work are coming to fruition. The FDA is expected to approve therapy using psilocybin—the psychoactive ingredients in magic mushrooms—and MDMA—the drug also known as ecstasy and molly. And Oregon and Colorado have decriminalized the recreational use of plant-based psychedelics. Watch Nick Gillespie's full interview with Doblin, which was featured in Reason's 32-minute documentary on the psychedelic renaissance, discussing the long path to FDA approval and what comes next in the world of psychedelic legalization.

Corey DeAngelis of the American Federation for Children debates libertarian author Stephan Kinsella. ------ Education activist Corey DeAngelis and attorney Stephan Kinsella debate the resolution, "Today's school-choice movement in the U.S. is worthy of support by libertarians." Taking the affirmative is Corey DeAngelis, a senior fellow at the American Federation for Children. He is also the executive director at Educational Freedom Institute, an adjunct scholar at the Cato Institute, a senior fellow at Reason Foundation, and a board member at Liberty Justice Center. He was named on the Forbes 30 under 30 list for his work on education policy and received the Buckley Award from America's Future in 2020. Taking the negative is Stephan Kinsella, a libertarian writer and patent attorney. He was previously general counsel for Applied Optoelectronics, Inc., and an adjunct law professor at South Texas College of Law Houston. His publications include Against Intellectual Property, International Investment, Political Risk, and Dispute Resolution, and a forthcoming book Legal Foundations of a Free Society. The debate was held at New York City's Sheen Center and hosted byThe Soho Forum, which receives fiscal sponsorship from Reason Foundation, the nonprofit that publishesReason.

JoinReason's Zach Weissmueller this Thursday at 1:30 p.m. Eastern for a live discussion of the Missouri v. Biden case with Jay Bhattacharya, professor of medicine, economics, and health research policy at Stanford University and a named plaintiff in the lawsuit, and John Vecchione of the New Civil Liberties Alliance, an activist law firm that joined the suit on behalf of Bhattacharya and several other plaintiffs who allege the federal government illegally suppressed their speech throughout the COVID-19 pandemic and 2020 presidential election. "The freedom of speech in the United States now faces one of its greatest assaults by federal government officials in the Nation's history," reads a line in the opening paragraph of the plaintiff's complaint in Missouri v. Biden, a lawsuit naming the president, the DOJ, the FBI, and nearly the entire federal public health apparatus as defendants. Attorneys general for the states of Missouri and Louisiana brought the case against the federal government in May 2022 for what they describe as "open collusion with social media companies to suppress disfavored speakers, viewpoints, and content." On July 4 of this year, U.S. District Court judge Terry A. Doughty issued a preliminary injunction ordering the federal agencies to cease from meeting with social media companies for the purpose of "inducing in any manner the removal of content containing protected free speech posted on social-media platforms." Last week, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals heard arguments in a challenge to that injunction. They'll talk about the state of the lawsuit, what a victory or loss in court would mean for free speech online, the legal limits of government-social media "partnerships," and the ways in which the government blurred the line between private content moderation and outright censorship to suppress or mislabel factual information or opinion as "misinformation" during the COVID-19 pandemic. Timestamps: 0:00 — Intro 2:35 — What is NCLA and how did they get involved in this case? 6:45 — Dr. Bhattacharya’s goals in this lawsuit 11:20 — What are their primary grievances and where does the case stand? 13:00 — How the Backpage case is similar to this case 18:15 — Dr. Bhattacharya’s experience with censorship 24:00 — Dr. Fauci deposition on herd immunity 32:30 — The admin and public health pressure campaign on social media 34:20 — Dr. Bhattacharya reacts to Vivek Murthy 42:50 — Audience questions 49:40 — Section 2301 1:05:30 — Was this really coercion? Responding to the other side. 1:13:15 — Reader questions

Everywhere around us, there are signs of a psychedelic renaissance: in medicine, therapy, commerce, and the arts. Full text and links: https://reason.com/video/2023/08/16/the-psychedelic-renaissance-is-here/ These drugs are getting serious, positive coverage in glossy magazines, best-selling books, literary memoirs, documentaries, and hit podcasts. Performers like Reggie Watts, Melissa Etheridge, and members of the Flaming Lips openly acknowledge the role of hallucinogens in their work. And a flourishing psychedelic comedy scene is springing out all over the place. But federal prohibition of psychedelics—a term that refers to a broad category of consciousness- and perception-altering substances—is also changing. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is expected to approve therapy using psilocybin, the psychoactive ingredients in magic mushrooms, and MDMA, the drug also known as ecstasy and molly. And Oregon and Colorado have decriminalized the recreational use of plant-based psychedelics. Word is that even the president—famous as a teetotaler, for having an addict son, and as a major force behind the half-century-long drug war—is "very open-minded" about medicinal use of psychedelics. The most recent, pulsing Day-Glo sign that the psychedelic renaissance is here took place in Denver in late June at the Psychedelic Science 2023 conference, organized and hosted by the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, or MAPS. Produced by Nick Gillespie and Zach Weissmueller; edited by Danielle Thompson; sound editing by Ian Keyser; camera by James Marsh. Photos: imageSPACE/ImageSpace/Sipa USA/Newscom; Keiko Hiromi/Polaris/Newscom; Julie Edwards/Avalon/Newscom; Kenny Brown/Mirrorpix/Newscom; CNP/AdMedia/Newscom; Andrew Harnik/UPI/Newscom; CNP/AdMedia/SIPA/Newscom; KEYSTONE Pictures USA/ZUMAPRESS/Newscom; Everett Collection/Newscom; picture-alliance/Fred Stein/Newscom; DPST/Newscom; Rod Lamkey - CNP/Newscom; Graeme Sloan/Sipa USA/Newscom; Lev Radin/ZUMAPRESS/Newscom; Michael Brochstein/ZUMAPRESS/Newscom; BONNIE CASH/UPI/Newscom; Oliver Contreras/Sipa USA/Newscom; Facebook/Johns Hopkins Center for Psychedelic & Consciousness Research; U.S. Navy; CNP/AdMedia/Newscom; Tim Wagner/ZUMAPRESS/Newscom; David Wong/SCMP/Newscom; White House via CNP / MEGA / Newscom/RSSIL/Newscom Music: "The Path of the Himalayas" by Max H. via Artlist; "Clockwork" by Borden Lulu via Artlist; "Can You Make It" by Out of Flux via Artlist; "Magic Forest" by Itamar Doari via Artlist; "Sonokota" by Guy Buttery via Artlist; "Discovery" by We Dream of Eden via Artlist; "The Ride" by Itamar Doari via Artlist; "Cool the Moon" by Alchemorph via Artlist; "The Undertake" by Borrtex via Artlist; "Everlasting Flower" by DaniHaDani via Artlist; "Cool Tees" by Lahis via Artlist; "Oscillating Form" by Charlie Ryan via Artlist; "Theta" by Michael Ellery via Artlist; "Sun Salutation" by Yotam Agam via Artlist; "Canto Delle Sciacalle" by Cesare Pastanella via Artlist; "Morning Sunbeams" by Yehezkel Raz via Artlist; "Life's Journey Begins" by idokay via Artlist; "Flying Above the Sun" by Yehezkel Raz via Artlist; "Percussive Ideas by Max H. via Artlist; "Tibet" by Ben Winwood via Artlist; "Fur Mushon" by Electric Zoo via Artlist; "Knowledge" by Colors and Carousels via Artlist; "Living It Up Letting You Down" by Bunker Buster via Artlist; "18 Kilograms" by Family Kush via Artlist

"Despite my misgivings about nearly every single labor action the Writers Guild has undertaken during my three decades of membership…as I tick through the issues of today, in 2023, I can't help but, God help me, support the union," wrote Rob Long in a column for Commentary shortly before the Writers Guild of America went on strike against the major Hollywood studios on May 1. Long is a Hollywood veteran who wrote for Cheers, co-created and wrote for many other network shows such as the Bob Newhart and Judd Hirsch–starring sitcom George & Leo, and served as executive producer of the Kevin James sitcomKevin Can Wait. He also co-founded Ricochet, a conservative news and culture website and podcasting network where he co-hosts The Ricochet Podcast and the GLoP Culture podcast. Watch on YouTube or on Facebook this Thursday at 1 p.m. Eastern for a conversation between Long and Reason's Nick Gillespie and Zach Weissmueller about the ongoing writers and actors strike in Hollywood, where they'll analyze the strikers' grievances, react to comments about artificial intelligence and capitalism from actors Bryan Cranston and Alan Ruck, dive deep into the changing economics of show business, and discuss what might be next for an industry undergoing massive changes in the wake of the streaming revolution.

Alex Gladstein on how "monetary colonialism" has crippled the Third World https://reason.com/video/2023/08/09/was-the-radical-left-correct-about-the-imf-and-world-bank/ _______ The global movement against free trade and capitalism that burst into public consciousness at the 1999 protests against the World Trade Organization coalesced around the idea that Western elites had ensnared Third World nations in a debt trap to coerce them into adopting neoliberal policies. When poor nations couldn't afford to repay what they owed the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), these Washington-based organizations agreed to restructure the loans of debtor countries, if they would agree to move in the direction of privatization, deregulation, and free trade—a policy agenda pejoratively termed "shock therapy." Leftist leaders like Hugo Chávez claimed that this was part of a pattern of elite subjugation of Latin America that stretched back to Christopher Columbus. He used it as evidence to support Venezuela's turn toward Cuba-style socialism. Columbia University's Joseph Stiglitz, a former chief economist at the World Bank and a Nobel Prize–winning critic of free market capitalism, promoted the same narrative. He blamed the Washington Consensus for pushing policies he deemed too radical and wrongheaded to ever get through in the U.S. Unlike Stiglitz, Alex Gladstein identifies as a classical liberal. The Human Rights Foundation, where he works as chief strategy officer, condemns socialist dictators like Chávez for their crimes against humanity. Yet in his recent book Hidden Repression: How the IMF and World Bank Sell Exploitation as Development, Gladstein argues that the story told by the radical left about these two organizations is largely correct. His work over the last few years has focused on "monetary colonialism," in which the U.S. and European nations use their control of global currency to override the sovereignty of poor nations in Latin America and Africa. The fix, he says, is for the world to transition to bitcoin, a form of freedom money that no country or corporation can manipulate or control. Reason sat down with Gladstein at the Miami Bitcoin Conference in May to talk about his new book. Credits: James W. Prichard/ZUMAPRESS.com; James W. Prichard/ZUMAPRESS.com; Erik Castro / BlackStar Photos/Newscom; Jim Bryant / UPI Photo Service/Newscom; Jim Bryant / UPI Photo Service/Newscom

YouTube pulled in 2 million views a day following its launch in 2005. Today, it boasts more than 2.5 billion active monthly users and ranks second in global web traffic. How has this massive video-sharing site affected us psychologically, culturally, and politically? These are the questions director Alex Winter explores in his new documentary The YouTube Effect. Watch the conversation between Winter and Reason's Nick Gillespie and Zach Weissmueller on YouTube or Facebook this Thursday at 1 p.m. ET. They'll talk about the good, the bad, and the ugly of YouTube; bipartisan calls for social media regulation; and what role YouTube may have played in the speech suppression campaign that occurred during the pandemic.

Q&A with a comedian who has entertained audiences with his bad taste and unapologetically libertarian tirades for nearly 30 years. https://reason.com/video/2023/08/02/doug-stanhope-everything-annoys-me-equally/ _________ No comedian is as idiosyncratic and outspoken about their politics and their habits as Doug Stanhope, who dresses exclusively in Goodwill castoffs and has written irresistibly weird and readable books about everything from helping his terminally ill mother commit suicide to celebrating the on-the-road debauchery that ended in his getting happily married. Stanhope has entertained audiences with his bad taste and unapologetically libertarian tirades for nearly 30 years. In the early 2000s, he cohosted The Man Show with Joe Rogan, including an episode where he entered a boxing ring against disgraced figure skater Tonya Harding and took a bit of a beating. Reason caught up with Stanhope at FreedomFest, an annual event held this year in Memphis, where he performed a characteristically uncensored set that had the audience alternately groaning and laughing. We talked about why he's dreading the presidential election season, how he survived COVID's effect on touring, what he likes about psychedelics, and why he prefers creative independence over mainstream acceptance.

A recent poll found that 44 percent of millennials want to criminalize misgendering people, betraying a censorial attitude that has been building among some young people for years. Many millennials also feel left behind economically, especially compared to baby boomers. Can millennials and boomers ever get along? Join us on YouTube this Thursday at 1 p.m. Eastern, when Reason's Nick Gillespie, Reason's Elizabeth Nolan Brown, and psychologist Jean Twenge will discuss whether there's a new generation gap and, if so, whether it can ever be closed.

The maverick journalist talks Twitter Files, the end of the anti-government left, Donald Trump, and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. https://reason.com/video/2023/07/26/matt-taibbi-how-the-left-lost-its-mind/ 00:00 Introduction 3:20 The Twitter files 7:35 Suppression of the Hunter Biden laptop story 12:35 The anti-proliferation regime 16:26 Russiagate and the preemptive war against Trump 22:25 Conservatives and liberals flip stances on Russia 24:36 Leaving Rolling Stone for Substack 29:26 Matt’s Substack audience 30:40 Young liberals and progressives are turning against free speech 34:17 Breaking with identity politics 38:12 Support for prosecuting Julian Assange 41:52 The eternal villain 44:06 Similarities between RFK Jr. and Trump 46:50 Distrust in government due to COVID 51:11 Race relations and policing 54:14 Binary nature of media ________ Before Matt Taibbi was sparring with Democratic members of Congress on Capitol Hill earlier this year over the Twitter Files, he was a darling of the progressive left, appearing regularly on shows like Democracy Now! and others hosted by Bill Moyers and Rachel Maddow. Though he was always a fierce critic of the Democratic establishment, the rise of Donald Trump suddenly meant that anyone nominally left of center—including progressive journalists like Taibbi—was expected to support Hillary Clinton unconditionally. So when he attacked her as a sellout, argued that the Russiagate narrative was mostly bullshit, and equated the manipulative tactics of right and left media personalities, progressives gave him the cold shoulder. Elected Democrats started treating him like a puppet of the right. In 2020, Taibbi started publishing his work on Substack and quickly became one of the platform's most popular writers, earning far more than he ever did at Rolling Stone, where he had been chief political reporter. He became even more of a pariah by publishing exhaustive reports that documented how the government sought to control what was said on Twitter about COVID-19 and efforts by Russia to influence U.S. elections. Congressional Democrats unconvincingly pilloried him as a fake journalist, an apologist for Vladimir Putin, and a stooge for Elon Musk. I caught up with Taibbi at FreedomFest, an annual gathering held this year in Memphis, to talk about the new challenges to free speech, why legacy media is dying, and how identity politics are poisoning political discourse.

The Cato Institute's Alex Nowrasteh and attorney Francis Menton debate immigration policy. ----- The Cato Institute's Alex Nowrasteh and attorney Francis Menton debate the resolution, "The U.S. should have free immigration except for those who pose a security threat or have a serious contagious disease." Taking the affirmative is Nowrasteh, the director of economic and social policy studies at the Cato Institute where most of his work has focused on immigration. He's the co-author (with Benjamin Powell) of Wretched Refuse?: The Political Economy of Immigration and Institutions. A native of Southern California, Nowrasteh received a master's degree in economic history from the London School of Economics. Taking the negative is Menton who writes at manhattancontrarian.comand was a litigation partner at Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP before retiring in December 2015 after more than 40 years with the firm. The debate was held at New York City's Sheen Center and hosted byThe Soho Forum, which receives fiscal sponsorship from Reason Foundation, the nonprofit that publishesReason.

A widely cited paper dismissing the COVID lab leak theory "expressed conclusions that were not based on sound science or in fact," wrote the authors of a recent House of Representatives committee report entitled "The Proximal Origin of a Cover-Up." "The question is why," ask the authors. For a deep exploration of that question and the wider implications of its possible answers, join Reason's Nick Gillespie and Zach Weissmueller to discuss the lab leak theory with Matt Ridley, science writer and co-author of Viral: The Search for the Origin of Covid-19, this Thursday at 1:30 pm ET.

The country's favorite blue-collar champion calls attention to the 'skills gap' and asks why young men spend so much time online. https://reason.com/video/2023/07/19/mike-rowe-on-well-paying-dirty-jobs-nonprofit-whiskey-and-male-decline/ _______ Mike Rowe is a bestselling author, Emmy winner, and podcaster best known for his stint hosting The Discovery Channel's long-running Dirty Jobs, where he performed the sort of work we all rely on but don't want to think about too much. From cleaning septic tanks to putting hot tar on roofs to disposing of medical waste, he's done it all—and loves to talk about the value of the hard, honest work that he thinks is devalued by a society fixated on sending everyone to college. I caught up with Rowe at FreedomFest, an annual gathering held this year in Memphis. We talked about how his mikeroweWORKS Foundation matches young people interested in learning trades with employers dying for applicants, why men continue to fall farther behind women in school and work, and how Knobel Whiskey, named after Mike's maternal grandfather, is fueling his nonprofit's impact. Photo Credits: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Southeast Region, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons;Mikerowe.com;Mikerowe.com/Ben Franze; Paul Souders / Danita Delimont Photography/Newscom; Bill Vaughan/Icon SMI 726/Bill Vaughan/Icon SMI/Newscom; Tom Williams/Roll Call Photos/Newscom; CHAD CAMERON/UPI/Newscom. Music Credits: "Robot Revolt," by Alex Growl via Artlist.

The COVID-19 pandemic and the government's response to it costmillions of lives and trillions of dollarsand resulted in a major hit toglobal freedom. What should governments, private companies, and individuals do differently next time disaster strikes? Alec Stapp, co-founder of theInstitute for Progress, has assembled a team devoted to analyzing and applying the lessons of the pandemic. The institute has published papers arguing that Operation Warp Speed was a success that should be duplicated, for greater investment in indoor filtration, and for better biosurveillance. Join Reason's Zach Weissmueller and Liz Wolfe this Thursday at 1 p.m. Eastern on YouTube or Facebook for a live conversation with Stapp about how to prevent the next global catastrophe. WaPo: Opinion - Biden’s vaccine project needs to be more like Operation Warp Speed - https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/05/02/biden-vaccines-next-gen-operation-warp-speed/ Indiana University/RAND study: Vaccines may have averted up to 140,000 US deaths - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9937640/ GAO: Operation Warp Speed analysis - https://www.gao.gov/assets/gao-21-319.pdf Eric Topol on slowing FDA approval until after the 2020 election - https://twitter.com/EricTopol/status/1314979190555340800?s=20 Institute for Progress: How to re-use the Operation Warp Speed model - https://progress.institute/how-to-reuse-the-operation-warp-speed-model/ Institute for Progress: Research into far-UVC could prevent future pandemics - https://progress.institute/response-to-the-epas-request-for-information-on-better-indoor-air-quality-management/ Institute for Progress: Weighing the cost of the pandemic - https://progress.institute/weighing-the-cost-of-the-pandemic/ Our World in Data: Vaccine innovation by type - https://ourworldindata.org/vaccination Our World in Data: Land use by energy source - https://ourworldindata.org/land-use-per-energy-source Alec Stapp in The Atlantic: What Many Progressives Get Wrong About Climate Change - https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/09/capitalism-clean-energy-technology-permitting/671545/ Institute for Progress: The Case for High-Skilled Immigration - https://progress.institute/the-case-for-high-skilled-immigration/

In two much-anticipated decisions, the Supreme Court struck down the use of race-based affirmative action in college admissions and upheld the right of a web designer to decline to create products celebrating same-sex marriages. Writing for the 6–3 majority in Students for Fair Admissions v. President and Fellows of Harvard College, Chief Justice John Robertssaid that when it came to admissions at public and private universities, "Eliminating racial discrimination means eliminating all of it…. The student must be treated based on his or her experiences as an individual—not on the basis of race." In 303 Creative LLC v. Elenis, Justice Neil Gorsuchwrote for the 6–3 majority that the government can't compel expression. "The opportunity to think for ourselves and to express those thoughts freely is among our most cherished liberties and part of what keeps our Republic strong," he said. "Tolerance, not coercion, is our Nation's answer" to differing points of view. Are these good decisions from a libertarian point of view? Do they expand freedom or legitimize discrimination against minorities? What will the actual effects be in terms of college admissions and retail commerce? Join Nick Gillespie, the Cato Institute'sWalter Olson, and podcaster Coleman Hughesfor a live, freewheeling discussion of two of the most controversial Court rulings in years.

Próspera Inc. is creating a voluntary free market mini-state inside one of Latin America's poorest nations. ----- "Próspera is the first time in human history that a group of people has said there's a way to deliver governing services, privatized for profit in a completely free market way," says Joel Bomgar, a Mississippi state representative and president of Próspera Inc., the company that's building a privately run charter city on the Honduran island of Roatán called Próspera Village. In Honduras, about half of the population lives in extreme poverty, and gross domestic product per capita is 25 times higher than in the United States. And yet the country has abundant natural resources and is close to major shipping lanes. The problem is governance: Nobody wants to invest in Honduras because the country has a long history of political instability, expropriating private land, and legal agreements that aren't particularly binding. Honduras is ranked 154th out of 190 countries in contract enforcement on the World Bank's Ease of Doing Business Index and 133rd overall in ease of doing business. Narco gangs once made Honduras the murder capital of the world, and though crime has dropped in the last 12 years, life there is still extremely dangerous in comparison to the U.S., which is one reason so many Hondurans make the risky journey to immigrate. U.S. Customs and Border Protection has reported more than 73,000 encounters with Hondurans at the U.S.-Mexico border so far this year. Recently, the country's politics have been especially turbulent: A president was ousted by the military in 2009, and another was extradited to the U.S. for drug trafficking. The nation recently elected its first democratic socialist president, Xiomara Castro, who has called for a "refounding." She wants to rewrite the constitution to recognize that "the capitalist system doesn't work for the majority" of people. She's calling for electricity to become a "public good…and a human right" and is laying the groundwork for the outright nationalization of the entire energy sector. And she's spending billions on cash transfers. "Every millimeter of the [Honduran] homeland that [capitalists] took over on behalf of the sacrosanct free market…was watered with the blood of the native people," said Castro, who ran on abolishing the very law that authorized Próspera and similar zones in Honduras, in a September 2022 speech to the United Nations. "My government has embarked upon a process of national rebirth and is bringing profound change." Meanwhile, a group of foreign investors has embarked on its own "refounding" of sorts. They've started a radical experiment in private governance, which they hope will become a model for how to create prosperity in poor countries all over the world. "The concept of free private cities and charter cities, specifically what Próspera is trying to do, is the most transformative project in the world," says Bomgar. "There's not a big financial hub in Central America. There's not a sort of Singapore of Central America right now. And so that's what we're trying to create." Produced by Zach Weissmueller; edited by John Osterhoudt; camera by Jim Epstein; translation by María Jose Inojosa Salina. Photos: TEDxJackson/Flickr/Creative Commons; TEDxJackson/Flickr/Creative Commons; Everett Collection/Newscom; Everett Collection/Newscom; Inti Oncon/dpa/picture-alliance/Newscom; Camilo Freedman/SOPA Images/Si/Newscom; Inti Oncon/dpa/picture-alliance/Newscom; Simon Liu/Flickr/Creative Commons; Seth Sidney Berry/SOPA Images//Newscom; Seth Sidney Berry/ZUMAPRESS/Newscom; Milo Espinoza/ZUMAPRESS/Newscom; Milo Espinoza/ZUMAPRESS/Newscom; Gustavo Amador/EFE/Newscom; Milo Espinoza/ZUMAPRESS/Newscom; Humberto Espinoza/EFE/Newscom; Seth Sidney Berry/ZUMAPRESS/Newscom; Seth Sidney Berry / SOPA Images//Newscom; Album/Oronoz/Newscom; Gustavo Amador/EFE/Newscom; 總統府/Flickr/Creative Commons; 總統府/Flickr/Creative Commons; Seth Sidney Berry/ZUMAPRESS/Newscom

Economists Gene Epstein and David Friedman debate how best to persuade people to become libertarians at the Porcupine Freedom Festival. ------- On June 23, 2023, at the Porcupine Freedom Festival ("PorcFest") in Lancaster, New Hampshire, economists David Friedman and Gene Epstein debated the resolution: "The right way to persuade people of libertarianism is by showing them that its outcomes are superior by their standards, without any resort to the flawed nonaggression principle." Taking the affirmative, Friedman reviewed key arguments set forth in his 1973 book, The Machinery of Freedom: Guide to a Radical Capitalism. He sees the nonaggression principle, or NAP, as incoherent and unnecessary for convincing nonlibertarians to accept libertarian solutions to societal problems. Taking the negative, Epstein argued that what he prefers to call the zero-aggression principle, or ZAP, often plays an essential role in defending the libertarian case for reform, pointing to the case for abolishing drug laws and tariffs. The debate was moderated by PorcFest organizer Dennis Pratt. Camera by Chris Silk; edited by John Osterhoudt.

"Industry propaganda!" Robert Kennedy Jr. dismisses the evidence that vaccines save lives. Watch the full replay of Kennedy's interview with ReasonTV's Nick Gillespie and Zach Weissmueller: youtube.com/watch?v=lqtONE93APQ

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has attracted the interest of libertarians who celebrate his critiques of COVID policy and regulatory capture. He recently appeared as a keynote speaker at the National Bitcoin Conference in Miami and has declared that he will "make sure that your right to use and hold bitcoin is inviolable." But RFK Jr. also has an authoritarian streak. He has said he wants to prosecute those who fund "climate deniers" or run businesses that emit too much carbon for "reckless endangerment." He declared the NRA to be a "terror group," suggested to NBC News that, as president, he would "order his Justice Department to investigate the editors and publishers of medical journals for 'lying to the public'"; and reportedly vowed to direct health policy "from the Oval Office" through executive orders. Join Reason's Nick Gillespie and Zach Weissmueller this Thursday at 1 p.m. ET for a discussion of all this and Kennedy's Democratic primary challenge to Joe Biden, a contest in which he's regularly polled in double digits. Sources cited in this interview: NEJM: Measles vaccine study https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMcp1905181 Cochrane meta-analysis of vaccine studies (no evidence of vaccine-autism link) https://www.cochranelibrary.com/cdsr/doi/10.1002/14651858.CD004407.pub5/full Our World in Data: Polio Cases and Deaths in U.S., 1910-2019 https://ourworldindata.org/polio Vaccines are not associated with autism: 2014 meta-analysis of 1.25 million children https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24814559/ AP: US kindergarten vaccination rate dropped again, data shows - https://apnews.com/article/health-immunizations-children-measles-acba3eb975fdfcd41732ed87511387f2 Our World in Data (CDC data): Unvaccinated vs. vaccinated COVID-19 death rate - https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/united-states-rates-of-covid-19-deaths-by-vaccination-status RFK on lockdowns - https://twitter.com/RobertKennedyJr/status/1244710538933870597?s=20 00:00 Why RFK Jr. is challenging Biden 7:09 Lightning round (guns, drugs, and more) 17:02 Foreign policy and the war in Ukraine 27:17 Free speech and social media 35:19 Cracking down on climate change skeptics 44:39 Vaccines, COVID, and pharmaceuticals 1:08:51 Is RFK Jr. a conspiracy theorist?

The enigmatic privacy obsessive is fighting to keep the cypherpunk dream alive. https://reason.com/video/2023/06/28/can-grandmas-be-bitcoin-cypherpunks-qa-with-jameson-lopp/ _______ In October 2017, a SWAT team showed up at Jameson Lopp's house in North Carolina, allegedly because of a fake complaint called in by someone angered by a tweet. So Lopp posted a video of himself firing an AR-15 and then embarked on a journey to disappear in the physical world—unreachable by his enemies and far from the prying eyes of the surveillance state. Lopp had been obsessed with privacy long before the swatting. He's a throwback to the long-bearded mathematicians and cypherpunks of the 1990s who believed that recent breakthroughs in cryptography could enable levels of personal freedom and privacy beyond anyone's wildest dreams. Many ideas and technological breakthroughs from the cypherpunk movement were eventually folded into bitcoin. Lopp even calls himself a "professional cypherpunk," carrying on the movement's legacy. In keeping with the cypherpunk ethos, Casa, the company Lopp co-founded, is trying to make it easier for people to hold custody of their own bitcoin instead of storing their money on third-party exchanges, where regulators can impose arbitrary rules. After the SWAT raid, Lopp changed his phone number, set up LLCs to hide his true name and address, encrypted his communications, and even bought a decoy house to serve as a physical mailing address, which he needed to satisfy the DMV's requirement for a drivers license. To check his work, he hired private investigators to tail him. "We the Cypherpunks are dedicated to building anonymous systems," wrote Eric Hughes in his 1993 manifesto. "We don't much care if you don't approve of the software we write." Jameson Lopp is an enigmatic privacy obsessive fighting to keep that dream alive. Photos: Paul Kitagaki Jr./ZUMA Press/Newscom Music: "Brotherhood" by Young Rich Pixies via Artlist; "2050" by Cyber Runner via Artlist

Caitlin Long's Custodia Bank will hold 108 percent of customer funds on deposit... if the Federal Reserve will allow it to open. https://reason.com/video/2023/06/21/shes-suing-the-fed-to-open-a-rothbardian-bitcoin-bank/ _______ Caitlin Long wants to start a new kind of bank…based on a very oldmodel. "A 100 percent reserve bank that would keep all of our cash at the Fed," she says. She was influenced by the work of Austrian economist Murray Rothbard, who saw fractional reserve banking as "a shell game, [and] a Ponzi scheme," arguing that banks should work exactly like safety-deposit boxes, or "money warehouses," required to keep all of their customers' money on hand at all time. Long has a law degree from Harvard and had a conventional career on Wall Street, working at Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse, and Salomon Brothers. After the 2008 financial crisis, she thought all of the standard accounts explaining the meltdown fell short. In search of a better framework, she discovered the Austrians and Rothbard. "The concept here is, let's just turn this into a basic money warehouse to the maximum extent possible within the law," Long tells Reason. In March 2023, when rumors started circulating on Twitter that Silicon Valley Bank might be in trouble, its panicked customers withdrew $42 billion from their accounts in a single day, leaving it with a negative cash balance. In short order, regulators shut it down. It was a classic run on the bank, which is a phenomenon that's only possible because of a standard practice known as "fractional-reserve banking," in which the money in your account isn't actually sitting in your account. The money banks hold for you is mostly loaned out or invested. They just need to make sure that they have enough cash on hand to cover any withdrawals. The system works fine—until everyone comes for their money at once. "A lot more people in the world now recognize that the money in their bank is an I.O.U. to a leveraged institution," says Long."Most people didn't think about that until recently." So she founded Custodia Bank, based in Wyoming, which will hold 108 percent of its customers' deposits in cash at all times, serving as a true Rothbardian money warehouse that will also custody bitcoin for interested customers. In January, the Federal Reserve Board denied its application for a master Fed account, which would allow them to store cash and transact using Fed payment rails like every other major bank. Custodia has sued the Fed to force it to reverse that decision. "They're basically creating a federal veto that has never in the history of the United States existed," says Long. "And what I'm standing up for and saying is that it shouldn't be politicized, period." Reason sat down with Long in Miami at the Bitcoin 2023 conference to talk about her case against the Fed, why she believes in full-reserve banking, and how Custodia could help bitcoin go mainstream. Photo Credits: Minh Nguyen, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons; Tony Webster, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons; Lian Yi Xinhua News Agency/Newscom; Richard B. Levine/Newscom; Nicolas Economou/ZUMAPRESS/Newscom; Stefan Fussan, CC BY-SA 3.0 DE, via Wikimedia Commons; Ken Cedeno/Sipa USA/Newscom. Music Credits: "Time to Move," by VESHZA.

The Justice Department's criminal case against former President Donald Trump "will likely represent a stress test both for the criminal justice system and constitutional provisions that have rarely—if ever—been explored or invoked," wrote Clark Neily, a constitutional lawyer, an adjunct professor at George Mason's Antonin Scalia School of Law, and senior vice president for legal studies at the Cato Institute. "Buckle up—it's going to be a wild ride." Join Reason's Nick Gillespie and Zach Weissmueller this Thursday at 1 p.m. Eastern for a discussion with Neily about the case against Trump, whether it's "selective prosecution" as National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden has said and whether America's legal system and constitutional republic are likely to withstand the "stress test" that Neily is predicting. Watch and leave questions and comments on theYouTube videoabove or onReason's Facebook page.

When the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) issued a new rule to expand the definition of "firearm" to encompass "weapon parts kit[s]…designed to or may readily be assembled, completed, converted, or restored," Defense Distributed's Cody Wilson, creator of the 3D printed "Liberator" gun, did what he always does: He fought back. Defense Distributed previously fought the State Department, which in 2013 had ordered them to remove the digital gun files from their company website. The parties reached a 2018 settlement allowing the files to stay up, and the 9th Circuit Court in 2021 ruled against the 22 states that tried to stop the implementation of that State Department settlement. New Jersey's attorney general has continued to fight Defense Distributed over the right to distribute its gun files and recently lost its appeal to move the case out of the Western District of Texas. And in this latest case against the ATF, Wilson and Defense Distributed have once again prevailed—for now. In early March, Defense Distributed won an injunction from the U.S. District of Court of the Northern District of Texas that will allow the company to avoid "irreparable harm" by continuing to sell their unfinished firearms components as the case proceeds. JoinReason's Nick Gillespie and Zach Weissmueller for a live discussion with Wilson this Thursday at 1 p.m. Eastern. Topics will include Wilson's ongoing fight with the ATF, the future of "ghost guns" in increasingly hostile states like California, his methods of "practical anarchy," and the underlying philosophical beliefs that compel him to fight these prolonged legal and political battles. Everytown v. Defcad case - https://ddlegio.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Everytown-v-DEFCAD-Complaint.pdf Injunction against ATF - https://ddlegio.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/DD_Injunction.pdf LAPD seizes ghost guns - https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2023-05-31/ghost-gun-manufacturer-polymer80-settles-lawsuit-with-los-angeles-for-5-million Reason TV: Cody Wilson Thwarts Another Attempt to Stop Ghost Guns - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZRugDpYBuc Come and Take It by Cody Wilson - https://www.amazon.com/Come-Take-Printers-Guide-Thinking/dp/1476778272