“Destined to be a classic”
The Art of Being Free, by Wendy McElroy, reviewed: The triumphant exposition laid out over the course of the entire book is uplifting and inspirational for anyone who – like the author herself – has doubts about the future and is despondent over any one individual’s relative inability to affect change on a grand scale.… read more
Read More CommentRonald Bailey on Biotech Patents
Ronald Bailey writing for Reason.com bravely comes to the defense of Monsanto’s seed patents, arguing that a court case should certainly be decided in favor of Monsanto. I say bravely because those very patents have turned Monsanto into the poster child of the evils of capitalism, mostly through the portrayal on “Food Inc.” of fat… read more
Read More CommentThe Tinkers Save the World: Review of “Oz the Great and Powerful”
The absolutely dazzling film “Oz the Great and Powerful” contains the best definition of an entrepreneur/capitalist I’ve ever heard expressed on film: a person “who sees the future and makes it real.” In fact, this is entire thematic structure of this prequel to the great “Wizard of Oz” classic. The ostensible plot purpose is to… read more
Read More CommentAudio-Video review of Young Pioneers
You can join the club and download or buy the book here.… read more
Read More CommentVegas Baby, and FreedomFest
Have you been to FreedomFest in Las Vegas? The first time I attended it was a revelation, sort of what it’s like for a country kid to see the city for the first time. Everyone was there. Thousands. There were so many speakers and ideas and organizations and merchants — all centered around the goal… read more
Read More CommentThe D.C. Shake
Read More CommentTwo Clips from SchoolSucksPodcast
Read More CommentBubbles on Top of Bubbles
In a piece for The Freeman, I write about the boom in student housing.… read more
Read More CommentGovernment thinks that you are an idiot
The European Commission has fined Microsoft $732 million for failing to give options on the opening Windows screen for downloading other browsers. This proves that consumers are smarter than governments. After all, most consumers have figured out on their own that they have other options to Internet Explorer. Chrome is the number one browser in… read more
Read More CommentInterview with Bitcoin Expert Vijay Boyapati
It was a pleasure to interview this brilliant thinker.… read more
Read More CommentA case for child labor (really!) on Schoolsucksproject.com
Hope you enjoy this interview, which the host says is “one of all-time favorite interviews”… read more
Read More CommentBitcoin Mania
Well, make that a tripling since the first of the year. It does feel these days that we are in the process of real monetizing. There are stores opening up such as Bitcoinstore.com. More merchants are embracing it. I’m starting to see people exercise a preference for BTC over government currency. Is it a speculative… read more
Read More CommentBank Rescue Update
Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke’s attempt to drive all cash out of..well…cash and into riskier assets continues apace. The American Banker reports that the market for bad loans is brisk with higher prices. Through the first two months of this year, sales of more than $5.2 billion of residential loans and $1.9 billion of commercial loans… read more
Read More CommentEnvironmental Crisis? Yawn
A new poll shows that there is less public concern about environmental issues than in twenty years — or maybe people have just become bored with the unrelenting propaganda. Especially during a recession and hard times, people turn to stuff that matters like whether you can get a job and have some measure of financial… read more
Read More CommentInterview on the biggest barrier to liberty
JSD: What do you think is the greatest hindrance to the libertarian cause? The obvious answer is the state, but do you agree? JT: Sometimes I think that the greatest hindrance is ourselves, the way we beg government to listen to us and give us freedom while wrecking our own lives with personal debt and despair. There… read more
Read More CommentGot Bullets?
My wife and I went shopping for ammunition a week or so ago and were stunned looking at the virtually bare shelves at the guns and ammo store favored by many locals. They had a few boxes of this and that, but no 22 caliber rounds. None. We asked when they would be getting resupplied.… read more
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The Triumph of Social Cooperation
Last month a fire broke out in the engine room of a 14-story cruise ship in the Gulf of Mexico. The fire disabled the vessel, leaving 4,200 people on an inoperative tub in the middle of the ocean. What happened next? Political theorists of the Hobbesian persuasion would assume that violence would take over. After… read more
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Hollywood Fact and Fiction
The Academy spread the Oscars around nicely the other night with no movie grabbing a big haul. Virtually all the contenders received a little slice of voter love. Just remember what is being shown love here. What looks like history is really just good entertainment. There’s nothing wrong with that — unless we confuse the… read more
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Building a Freer Life
In New Hampshire at the Liberty Forum, I spoke to an old timer in this sea of young people. He offered a fascinating big picture on the prospects for political reform. He spoke to me about what it was like in 1964 when Goldwater received the Republican nomination for president. It was the culmination of… read more
Read More CommentInterview with Michael Shanklin
Read More CommentAnother Condo Boom Already?
Bet you didn’t think you’d be hearing this already. “Developers realize the next South Florida condo construction boom is just beginning,” said Peter Zalewski, principal of Condo Vultures. “There is a tremendous pressure on every developer to get started sooner rather than later in hopes of delivering their units earlier than the competition.” Boom just… read more
Read More CommentCitizens Take the 4th Amendment into Their Own Hands
Read More CommentGovernment Housing Marches On
Housing’s dead cat bounce has the financial press all a twitter. There is a lack of existing homes on the market as the foreclosure pipeline remains clogged. Homeowners underwater (11 to 20 million nationwide) can’t sell. So builders are back in business, because as one buyer told the Wall Street Journal, “It’s much easier to… read more
Read More CommentAnarchism (the good kind) is all around us
Here is my latest contribution to The Freeman: People often ask me “when did you become an anarchist?” It’s not an easy question to answer. Deep changes in one’s intellectual outlook do not happen overnight. You first entertain the idea. Then you assess its plausibility. You might even embrace the idea fully, but only in… read more
Read More CommentSpecter of the Sequester
Anytime there are threatened cuts to government spending the crying starts about government “services” that will be interrupted, curtailed, or stopped. Private businesses cut budgets all the time and maintain service levels. But, even the smallest budget cut, or even a cut in the projected increase of a government budget and suddenly, whoa….”if you do… read more
Read More CommentMy new Bitcoin life
Last night after dinner, some people were having some drinks and I picked up the check for a guy and he paid me in Bitcoins. How is that possible? I downloaded an app for my smartphone that serves as my wallet. He scanned my square bar code and sent the money. It arrived an instant… read more
Read More CommentWashington: Do as We Say, Not as We Do
SMU’s Dwight Lee has a wonderful piece in today’s Wall Street Journal pointing out that while President Obama and his supporters on Capitol Hill are agitating for a higher minimum wage, interns in the capitol don’t make anything. They don’t even get their expenses reimbursed. Barbara Boxer, Al Franken, Jerrold Nadler, Charley Rangel, and so… read more
Read More CommentAuthor Interview with Gary Galles for this week’s book release
The book is Apostle of Peace: The Radical Mind of Leonard Read, by Gary Galles… read more
Read More CommentHappy Birthday Robert Mugabe
We say that sarcastically to the 89 year old dictator of Zimbabwe, a resource rich country he’s ruled for 33 years and has essentially destroyed economically. Pope Benedict XVI is four years younger than Mugabe and has decided to hang up his cross and robes. Mugabe intends to follow Rothbard’s law, “no one retires.” A… read more
Read More CommentInterview with Tejarat-e-Farda
Interview with Tejarat-e-Farda, a news weekly with a large circulation in Iran and throughout the Middle East. Q: What do you think about current alternative social movements in American society? How popular are movements such as anarcho-capitalists, left-wing anarchists, radical liberals and etc. among American people? How do you see future of these movements? Tucker:… read more
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