There is a scene in the Parable of the Talents in which the returned master berates the shabbiest of his three servants. Discovering that …

Last week’s violent government attack on the hugely popular site Megaupload — the U.S. government arresting Belgian citizens in New Zealand, of all places, …

We are getting a sense of what life is like with the new Fed policy of openness. It means that the chairman tries to …

When you eat Oreo cookies, if you do eat Oreo cookies, how many do you eat? Three sounds sort of reasonable to me. Surely, …

A horrifying aspect of modern life is how nearly daily threats to fundamental freedoms and human rights require that citizens become politically aware and …

The Financial Times continues its series on “Capitalism in Crisis.” We’re getting a little tired of it. We were hoping at least one of …

The debate about the Fed is under way, and thank goodness. But as with many policy debates, there really shouldn’t be a debate at …

The government seems determined to turn out the lights on the digital age. And this is with or without SOPA or the other bills …

You know that anti-piracy video you sometimes see at the beginning of movies? It explains how you wouldn’t steal a handbag, so neither should …

There’s been a long debate over digital technology. Does it help or harm the cause of liberty, individualism and human rights? People who say …

The two dominant trends of our time are, on the one hand, the darkening of the physical world ruled by governments and, on the other hand, the re-enlightening of the world thanks to the spontaneous order of digital media controlled by everyone else. Governments are seeking to drag it down and shut off the lights. The protests against these proposed controls constitute a mighty statement that we will not let the raiders, the barbarians, the vandals, have their way.

It is at times useful to imagine how a truly laissez-faire society, one entirely emancipated from the shackles of state coercion, might exist and …

The secrecy of the Federal Reserve is legendary, but pressure in recent years has led to some opening up. Already in the last 12 …

Governments at all levels in the United States have begun to master the art of extracting as much money from the public as possible in every conceivable situation, over and above what we normally cough up to states at all levels year-round (which is commonly 40% of our income).

You can find a coin shop in nearly every town in the United States. The proprietor is unlike any you will find in any …

We are living under a form of monetary prohibitionism today, forbidden to use any means of payment other than that maintained by the state. And it is not unlike the alcohol prohibition of old. It redistributes wealth, steers gains to the unscrupulous, strengthens the state and promotes various forms of criminality.

For more than one hundred years, governments have been trying to kill gold’s role in the monetary system. They’ve dreamed of a day when …

The political season has unleashed its predictable frenzy, much to delight of people who make a living off it. But to what end? There …

Twenty years ago, and much to the shock of just about everyone, the mighty Soviet Union, the very embodiment of Hegel’s view of the …

The other day, a local hamburger joint was advertising a 99 cent hamburger, and I took the offer. It was great. I wondered: how …

Some friends and co-workers spent their holidays at Rancho Santana in Nicaragua, where you can live like a king on a pauper’s salary. The …

If you are a visitor from another planet and you want to find out about real life on Earth, what do you watch on …

A staple of action/thriller movies like the Mission: Impossible and the James Bond series is that the government agencies have all the cool gadgets, …

The barely-defeated legislation called SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) hit out of the blue and caused a global scramble among the smart set to …