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“Hurry up and Die”
Japan’s “universal” health care system, like all such systems the world over, is in trouble, with costs rising and the population aging. Nearly 25% …
How the Internet Saved Civilization
I’ve just completed a heavy schedule of talks at the Agora Financial Investment Symposium in Vancouver. All my talks centered on information economics, Web …
Is the Gold Price Set for an Explosive Rebound?
In recent months, the price of gold has tumbled. Along the way, lower gold prices have undermined the share price of many mining plays. …
Living Without Boom and Bust
The stock market hovers around all-time highs, and right on cue, individual investors are starting to get back into stocks. They are tired of …
The Dark Side of Technology
“One ought never to turn one’s back on a threatened danger and try to run away from it. If you do that, you will …
The Hustlers of the U.S. Health Care System
Every time you buy a drug at a pharmacy — be it by prescription or over the counter — there’s a middleman that makes …
The Making of a Modern Debt Slave
In the ancient world, when people got themselves into debt, they were often forced to sell their daughters into prostitution and their sons into …
The Joys of Living
“What are you complaining about all the time?” people sometimes ask me. “I’m just about as free as I want to be.” Here’s the …
How a Pacifist Accidentally Infused the FBI with Cash
Back in 1972, when I was a 10-year-old technology and news geek in Chicagoland, a particular story grabbed my attention. Someone had planted time …
The Political Class and the Counteroffensive
That Edward Snowden has put the whole political, corporate, and governing class in a bind. With his revelations that a heretofore obscure agency has …
Gun Control Is Violence
Mohandas Gandhi, the greatest pacifist of the 20th century, is widely quoted as having said, “Among the many misdeeds of the British rule in …
Five Most Absurd Ways Governments Will Promote Obamacare
Like it or not, the Affordable Care Act — Obamacare, for short — is coming. Enrollment in state exchanges, online marketplaces for purchasing health …
Getting Serious About Freedom
Is there anything that we can do to stop the government’s data mining of our email, phone calls, and other digital habits? I moderated …
An Oasis of Freedom in the Desert
Struggling savers, of which there are plenty here at FreedomFest, have been getting plenty of investment wisdom during this year’s largest gathering of free minds. However, there is no consensus as to what a person is to do.
Freedom of Thought: Don’t Take It for Granted
If the Spy Briefing Club is about anything, it’s about the freedom of thought. Most of us take the freedom to think what we …
NSA Surveillance of European Allies May Block EU-U.S. Trade Talks
The first round of negotiations over a new trade agreement between the U.S. and the European Union is scheduled to start this week, but …
Money Can and Should Be Private Property
I was daydreaming over the weekend. The subject: notable intellectual epiphanies I’ve experienced in the course of my life. These are moments when someone …
America’s Globalized Racism
The race issue in America never seems to go away. We were reminded again last week when celebrity Southern chef Paula Deen was raked …
Are We Rome? Not yet, but We’re Getting There
Hanging out in Rome, surrounded by ruins of all ages, you can’t help but have big thoughts about the state of the world. Here …
Surveillance Has Changed Us
My passport is festooned with patriotic blather about freedom and democracy. It didn’t used to be this way. The less freedom we have, the …
Four Important Facts to Remember About Gold
When volatility prevails in the gold market, I love seeing so many different opinions because it promotes critical thinking and healthy markets. But because …
U.S. Senate to Retroactively Punish Runaway Tax Slaves
Years ago, it was virtually unheard-of for someone to give up his/her U.S. citizenship. Then, one by one, a handful of famous cases surfaced… …
End of QE? I Don’t Buy It
A new meme is spreading in financial markets: The Fed is about to turn off the monetary spigot. U.S. Printmaster General Ben Bernanke announced …
Gun Control and the War on Drugs
Many opponents of gun control support the war on drugs, and many critics and reformers of America’s drug laws tend to believe in gun …