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Dark Knight Rises: Its Politics and Ours
Before the third of the Batman trilogy hit theaters, I had heard that The Dark Knight Rises was a film without hope, with a …
No More Scapegoats
In my town this week, two tribes shouted each other down, each claiming that the other is destroying the country. At issue: whether to …
Another Tech Bust Coming?
Is a blowout bust coming for high-flying Internet stocks? There was the disappointing Facebook IPO, but many people wrote that off as due to …
Tiffany’s and the Problem of Security
After Sept. 11, the American system of government became crazy obsessed with security. The implementation has not only been brutal and contrary to human …
Government Is Shrinking?
In today’s political climate, the more implausible the claim, the more likely it is to stick. One that seems to be sticking now is …
Own Guns, So that I Don’t Have To
While attending the Agora Financial Symposium in Vancouver, I became aware that Americans enjoy some rights that Canadians do not: among them, the limited …
Mises Can Save the World
If they had listened to Mises in 1927, the world might have been saved. There would have been no Holocaust, Gulag, bombing of civilians, …
Bernanke: Drug Pusher
Real economic growth has slowed to stall, even according to the official data. What will the central bank do now? Ben Bernanke says,”the FOMC …
Floods of Fake Money
Vancouver is a wonderful place, a clean metropolitan city featuring both breathtaking scenery and fascinating diversity. The place is no longer cheap, a lesson …
Condo Crazy: Canadian Edition
I’m here in Vancouver for Agora’s Financial Symposium, where there will be plenty of discussion of booms, busts and stagnation. Watching BNN this morning, …
Business Begging for Life
Even in this seemingly permanent recession, government is intensifying its regulation, taxation and harassment of regular business people. Business pages are filling up with …
The Financial Fish Rots From the Top Down
In The Dark Knight Rises, a cruel strongman rallies the people of Gotham against the corruption of the elites, instituting a violent dictatorship in …
Where the State Is Nowhere to Be Seen
There were plenty of big names speaking at FreedomFest in Las Vegas last week. There were TV talking heads like Steve Forbes and Andrew …
The Miracle at Mon Ami Gabi
I became lost the other day, wandering around in Mon Ami Gabi, an upscale French restaurant situated within Las Vegas’ Paris Hotel. Standing somewhere …
Obama Is Wrong about the Hoover Dam
In his famous “you didn’t build it” speech, President Obama cited the Internet, fire departments, the GI Bill, the Golden Gate Bridge and the …
Markets Tell the Truth
People can’t get enough of predictions. There is that basic human desire to know the future and capitalize on it. People especially like hearing …
Most People are Clueless about Politics
From what I can tell, most of what people believe about politics has nothing to do with reality. For example, remember when President Obama …
The Day Your Life Fell Apart
People tell me that I get overly worked up about small government regulations. But small matters. The building of civilization is revealed in small …
In Politics, Expect the Unexpected
Where would the European economy be today without Germany? Compared with all the other states in the European Union, Germany is the viable cash …
Report from an Underwater Wasteland
Christine Lagarde, the head fixer at the International Monetary Fund, says U.S. policymakers need to be more aggressive in dispensing medication to boost America’s …
She Nailed It, In 1943!
One of the great pleasures of releasing an ebook every week is this: I face the pressure to edit, read, and digest books at …
Why Isabel Paterson Is Great
Isabel Paterson’s The God of the Machine (this week’s Club release) was one of four magisterial libertarian works to be published in the dark …
The Birth of Sedition
It is the strangest dysmorphic transformation of any holiday in history. The day that overthrew a government, July 4, 1776, now celebrates the power …
Democracy Reaches Its Limit
Government finance at all levels seems to be unraveling. The city of Stockton, California, declared bankruptcy. North Las Vegas, Nevada, would be in the …