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Can We Quantify the Economic Contribution of the Internet?
How much does the Internet contribute to our economic life? A lot, yes. But what if we tried to put a number on it? …
Governments Can’t Resist
The old adage that we don’t learn from history is true enough, but it needs amendment. Governments, in particular, don’t learn from history. That’s …
How Hunger Games Benefited From Online Piracy
So you want to see Hunger Games when it comes out on Thursday at midnight? It’s not likely that you will get the chance. …
What a Lovely Day for the Total State
Ah, what a weekend, with blue skies, singing birds, budding cherry blossoms and the government’s announcement that it has totalitarian control over everything. Wait, …
The Lorax: An Allegory on IP
Anyone who read Dr. Suess’s “The Lorax” as a kid might dread the movie version. No one really needs another moralizing, hectoring lecture from …
ISPs Becoming Enforcers for the State
Remember that battle over SOPA, in which the world’s largest websites beat back a congressional threat that would have changed the Internet forever? It …
The Mighty Return of Lard
Few things in life are as satisfying as a transformative and implausible reversal of history that carries with it stern justice for wrongdoing and …
Money Laundering
The story from The Daily swept through the Internet with blazing speed. The report: Criminals around the country are stealing an inordinate number of …
Why They Hate Free Speech
Sometimes — why not now? — you just have to reflect on what an amazing man Thomas Jefferson was. I mean, he really got …
In Defense of Homeless Hot Spots
BBH Labs is an advertising agency that specializes in new and creative ideas for marketing products. But few ideas have ever generated the heat …
Economics of the Timeline
Most of us hadn’t thought about Davy Jones of the Monkees in many years. Suddenly, he died at the age of 66 and we …
See the World Through Bonner’s Eyes
in the spring of 2012, Bill Bonner, founder of Agora Inc., took a break from his daily column in The Daily Reckoning, and, like …
The Fed Does the Figure-Four Three-Quarter Leglock
The money masters at the Federal Reserve have done a splendid job, haven’t they? Well, no, and all the more reason to End the …
Iran and the Prospect of Domestic Terrorism
I hate to be the one to bring up a very unpleasant subject, but let me begin with a question… Do you recall the …
Coercive Nannies
The term “nanny state” actually dates to the 1960s, and that’s not surprising. It was about this time that government ran out of ideas …
Put Those Kids To Work!
I was reading a wonderful set of small biographies of Gilded Age entrepreneurs and took note of something we all know once we think …
The Free State Movement: Political Migration in Our Time
If you are willing to look past mainstream media coverage of American politics, you can actually find exciting and interesting activities taking place that …
Peter Schiff on American Citizenship
You have probably seen Peter Schiff on television, not once, but many times. Among the legions of indistinguishable talking heads out there, he stands …
Economic Lessons of Silly Putty
We loved it as kids — that amazing substance called Silly Putty. I recently found a version in a hotel room the other day, …
Jetsons, Episode 5,437: The Kroger Vending Machine
You have heard of unmanned flight. Much more impressive to me is the unmanned grocery store that could be coming to a street corner …
Is Taxation Voluntary?
Have you ever heard the claim that paying income tax is voluntary? The term “voluntary” is variously used in government documents, including the 1040 …
The Banishment of the Marginal Worker
Do you know about Europe’s problem with the NEETs? This is the name being given to those mostly young workers who are not in …
Who Moved My Juice Bottle?
Most people think of the capitalist marketplace as the venue for the unleashing of the human ego. Selfishness reigns as those with financial means …
To Love the Unknown
Why do we let the police power of the state take over and inevitably wreck so many aspects of our life? Why do we …