You are inspired by an idea. You want to share it with your friends. Why? Because it enhances your life, and you hope it will do the same for others. The idea in this case is big. It is human liberty itself, something very much under fire these days. In fact, it has been for …

Two years ago, I spoke to a gentlemen who had started and sold four companies. He was currently working on a new project that sounded very promising (for all I know, he has already sold that one too). We had just heard a talk in which the speaker told people that the whole key to …

Law enforcement agencies are increasingly using sophisticated cameras, called “automated license plate readers,” or ALPRs, to scan and record the license plates of millions of cars across the country. These cameras, mounted on top of patrol cars and on city streets, can scan up to 1,800 license plate per minute, day or night, allowing one …

The countries of the developed world are experiencing a new class of refugee — members of the middle and upper classes. These rungs of the socioeconomic ladder are realizing that their countries of residence are in many ways going rapidly downhill without much hope of a short- or medium-term reversal. This is particularly true for …

We crossed another milestone in industrial history last week. Over the weekend of May 4-5, 2013, the world’s first handgun was printed on a 3-D printer. It was fired and it worked. The implications are dazzling for people all over the world. The printers will become cheaper over time. The files for printing can be …

People seem to do the craziest things when it comes to money. They chase stock market bubbles. They throw good money after bad investments, like a home that’s hopelessly underwater. They spend and spend while racking up crushing debt. They destroy their own businesses with dishonesty and deception. Given all of this, the idea that …

The latest unemployment data reveal the hope and tragedy of the American economic plight. Cheers went up for a modest increase in hiring, one that: barely keeps up with population; features mostly temp workers; leaves out prime-age males and all young workers; and keeps labor participation rate at a low level from 1979. This is …

The 20th century was an age of big business. And investors did well backing the giant blue chips on their march to glory. But those days are over. In its simplest terms, my thesis is to bet with the small guys. I think of them as cottage industrials. A cottage industry brings up images of …

Walking away is not just for homeowners anymore. Now banks have joined in and are walking away, leaving thousands of homes vacant because they don’t want to be responsible for maintaining them. While housing bulls urge investors to buy up houses, banks that could control property ownership merely by foreclosing and paying the back taxes, …

A contributing factor in the rise of Internet commerce, a feature that gave it a kick-start, was that you didn’t have to pay sales tax on what you purchased out of state. Ah, the glory days of the 2000s, when you could order anything and, for once in your life, not get hammered by the …

Here we go again with the Earth Day/global warming nonsense. Monday was Earth Day, and this week is Earth Week, so a politically correct network like the NBC family, including CNBC, has turned its peacock green with the tagline “Green Is Universal.” Tell the folks in the upper Midwest that global warming will destroy the …

Now that Bitcoin seems to be on the way toward monetization, or at least the long process is noticeably under way, there are a number of issues that are troubling people. I will deal with a few here. Note this crucial distinction that is somehow lost on many commentators on the Bitcoin issue. The flaws …

Back in 2010 the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA), a government agency, sued 14 executives of failed credit union Wescorp seeking at least $1 billion from the defendants or their insurers. The giant credit union was seized by the government in March 2009 after incurring nearly $7 billion in losses, “largely because of bad investments …

Beware the government that provides “more.” Fear the government that provides “extra.” “More government” always means more of something, but not always more of something a productive individual desires. More government means more rules and regulations, more agencies to enforce the proliferating rules and regulations, more taxes to pay for the proliferating agencies that enforce …

As someone who only recently dived into the rocky Bitcoin waters — and discovered a world I had never imagined — I enjoy talking to others who have been there longer. There are some amazing stories out there. We are sitting here today with Bitcoin comfortably trading at 1 BTC to $134, and we take …

It was once incontrovertible: The mainstream press leans left-liberal. It’s been a proven fact that Republican presidents receive 20-30% less positive economic coverage from the nation’s newspapers. But times seem to have changed a bit. Now a new mainstream has emerged that leans right-conservative. It takes the form of Fox News, mainly, but there are …

I am often asked, “How can anyone not see the problems of growing debt in the U.S.? Why can’t we get a consensus to change?” Part of the problem is that too many in power just don’t see the impending crisis that you and I see, or at least they don’t see the need to …

The voting machine that is the market deemed an ounce of gold to be worth $1,600 a few days ago and then, whoops, two days later, that same market, the collection of rational minds that trade in the metal, valued that same ounce to be worth less than $1,400. Keep in mind: These prices are …

The Supreme Court — a politically appointed gang of black-robed lawyers — is soon going to decide on one of the most contentious issues in medical science: Can human genes be patented, and to what technologies can those patents be extended to cover? The particular issue concerns one company, Myriad Genetics, and its claim to …

Last Friday, I participated in a short debate on BBC Radio 4’s Today program on the future direction of gold. Tom Kendall, global head of precious metals research at Credit Suisse, argued that gold was in trouble. I argued that it wasn’t. So yours truly is on record on national radio the morning of gold’s …

Change is inevitable. Conditions are never frozen in time. As the clock and calendar move forward, people and organizations must adapt to different circumstances. Human thought and creativity is constantly exploring ways to make our lives better. The fruits of technology change our expectations and our demands. The market is spectacular at adapting to people’s …

The least of the problems with the income tax is that it takes your money. The really big problem is that the income tax takes your life. It gives the government direct access to the things you own and sets up the political/bureaucratic sector to be the final arbiter of what you can and cannot …

So the jobs report came out last week and rattled the market a bit. But there is a different perspective to this whole thing that I think is far more important. It also fingers a much more sinister trend afoot. First, the conventional view: The unemployment rate fell to a new four-year low of 7.6%. …

Emblazoned across the lucre-basted exterior of the Internal Revenue Service Building in Washington, D.C., is one of the most intellectually polluted quotes any free mind is ever likely to encounter: “Taxes are what we pay for a civilized society.” Its effortlessly officious author, Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., …