When Political Stability Comes at a Cost

What happens when a political crisis is resolved through a bargain that trades long-term principles for short-term stability?

In this episode of History of the Future, Jonathan Hofer and Caleb Petitt examine the disputed 1876 election and the political deal that became known as the Corrupt Bargain of 1877.

With the country facing the possibility of renewed political violence, Southern Democrats agreed to accept Rutherford B. Hayes's presidency in exchange for a series of concessions, including the withdrawal of federal troops from the South and an end to Reconstruction.

But the consequences went far beyond resolving a contested election. The compromise effectively gave Southern states greater freedom to determine their own racial policies, helping create the conditions in which Jim Crow would take hold.

The episode raises a difficult historical question: when political stability depends on compromise, what happens when the costs of that compromise are paid by people who have little say in the deal?

🎧 Listen to the full episode of History of the Future: youtube.com/watch?v=Yttv8J…

Starter dream home vs. neighborhood reality.

Watch the entire season of Love Gov, out now! ⬇️

Can broad economic statistics hide what's really happening beneath the surface?

Robert Higgs believed that understanding individual decisions, incentives, and markets often reveals far more than aggregated data ever could.

Discover why his insights remain relevant in today's The Indispensable Robert Higgs: A Reader.

The four most expensive categories of government spending in 2025 and 2026 share a unique characteristic. They consist predominantly of mandatory spending programs. Spending on these programs is on autopilot. Their spending increases each year without any action by the U.S. Congress. buff.ly/MNQ19kp

Lord Acton told us that “power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” Markets defuse power, giving it to millions of households rather than greedy, powerful bureaucrats.

Let’s honor Smith’s insights on the 250th year of the publication of his Wealth of Nations, which not coincidentally coincides with the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, which led to an enormous worldwide reduction in poverty and misery.
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Today’s AI boom is haunted by 2008-style risks: excessive leverage, short-term financing, opaque counterparty guarantees, and circular transactions that make demand look stronger than it is. buff.ly/BgSAf1S

Tariff advocates fail to acknowledge that the ability to import steel also comes with the benefit of access to cheaper steel for steel-using industries, such as manufacturing. buff.ly/4Y9fL43

California voters are being told that Proposition 40 is a one-time levy on billionaires, but the economists who designed it have bigger plans. buff.ly/Z9CeMqq

People complain that nobody knows what the Fed will do, but they've missed the point of central banking. Predictability is good, but the Fed can’t credibly commit to a specific interest rate quarters in advance.

More importantly, only central banks without rules-based policy need to preannounce their decisions. It’s the lack of rules that needs fixing. buff.ly/qU4KgLQ

Economists warn that Brazil’s public debt, which hovers above 80% of GDP, has reached unsustainable levels. However, curbing spending in Brazil is notoriously difficult due to its federal system.

To make matters worse, over 90% of public spending is legally mandated; altering uire rewriting the law. Should the incoming president fail to enact changes, the debt crisis will worsen.

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If Dr. Heidi Overton is confirmed as the next director of the FDA, one of her top priorities should be to help drive President Trump’s mandate to study the safety and comparative outcomes of the current vaccine schedule to that of other countries. buff.ly/Yskjszh

CEQA has increasingly been criticized as a major reason California can’t build enough housing, water, and transportation infrastructure or public service facilities – including important projects approved and funded by taxpayers – because all projects subject to CEQA must also comply with myriad other laws to protect human health and the environment, only projects approved by elected and appointed officials can be challenged, and litigation delays increase project costs and sometimes derail projects altogether. buff.ly/ZNL2ZDv

Laws should govern future conduct, not rewrite the consequences of past decisions. Individuals should know the rules before they act, not discover them afterward. A retroactive tax moves in precisely the opposite direction. buff.ly/Unl5YHD

After school district bans licensed pistols, license holder saves children. buff.ly/MVI9GtS

Congratulations to Independent Institute Senior Fellow Alvaro Vargas Llosa on his appointment as Peru's ambassador to the United States.

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.@joshrauh: “Imagine you start a company… [and] some venture capitalist gives you $8 million and… they own 25% of the company… Let's say you do a really great job… you've hired a bunch of people, you're eating ramen noodles, so you're not actually living high off the hog… [offers to] invest $50 million in exchange for 3% of the company. [If the Wealth Tax passes], according to the state tax authorities, you are a billionaire, and you'd now owe 5% of your stake… around $58 million to the state… the total of what you've raised from venture capitalists.

Not only do you not have the cash, but your company also isn't formally actually worth that because… the value fluctuates up and down; it's not really correct to [say] you're a billionaire… [so] the state is going to be taxing people on wealth they don't actually have.”

Once celebrated as a city of liberty, opportunity, commerce, and private enterprise, New York now finds itself at the center of a renewed socialist movement.

As the City celebrates America’s 250th anniversary, join the Independent Institute for a timely discussion about the the city and where it stands today.

Get Tickets: buff.ly/9uEev35

Paying taxes while self-employed? Gov has a couple of suggestions...