If you think of American wage-earners as swimmers, they were mostly underwater after 2008. Then last year, wages increased a bit. It was only 2.4% for the year, but it was like coming up for a slight gulp of air. Now think of Congress and the president as the people in a boat pushing the …

It takes a shockingly long time for the masses of people to pick up on new realities. This is especially true if the new realities reverse very old trends that have burrowed certain false assumptions in our minds. As examples, most people even today assume that you should: get as much formal education as possible …

Less than 1% of the world’s gold is mined in India. The rest comes from somewhere else. Still, India can’t get enough. It is the largest consumer of gold in the world, buying nearly a third of production in recent years. Some estimates say that 10% of all gold is held in India. Indians save …

The great battle since 2008 has pitted the ghosts of F.A. Hayek against John Maynard Keynes. Team Keynes dictated the policies we know too well: more government spending, flood the economy with money, prevent liquidation. This team predicted a recovery that still hasn’t come. Meanwhile, Team Hayek has had a different set of predictions. This …

What the home and mortgage market needs — and it will not recover until then — is a rebooting to current values. To do that, principal amounts must be reset. They need to be reset not by government force, but by letting the market work. Let bankrupt mortgage holders fail. The housing market has gone …

I am one of those people who has a seriously deficient sense of direction. In other words, I feel lost most of the time. It’s been this way since I was very young. My parents would take me camping. As soon as I walked out of eyesight of the tent, I was lost and they …

The high priests of the civic religion are very worried that people no longer seem to trust government. The law stands discredited. Once-hallowed institutions are under fire and losing status. People are openly loathing public officials. Movies, television, and best-selling books urge revolt. Most people don’t bother to vote. And these priests wonder why. Here’s …

Real estate, and the careers that depend upon it, is a boom-bust business in the age of inflation. The illusion of wealth is everywhere..until it is snatched away. That’s why it’s a great time for David Mamet’s Pulitzer Prize winning “Glengarry Glen Ross” to make its third appearance on the Broadway stage. It’s a show …

Those who take prosperity for granted — and all of us do whether we admit it or not — would do well to make their way to the film Les Misérables, which features Russell Crowe playing the role of the relentless French cop Javert (not to mention an astonishingly effective presentation of “I Dreamed the …

Considering taking a job with the government? You might want to rethink that. The new survey from Partnership for Public Service paints an ugly picture of job satisfaction at government agencies. It’s worst of all at place like the departments of Housing and Urban Development, Veterans Affairs, Labor, and Education. We find that only 50-60% …

Finally, after years of economic turmoil, of boom and bust in the global economy, the great Austrian Friedrich von Hayek (1899-1992) is making an impact as the premier challenger of John Maynard Keynes and Keynesian policies of easy money, stimulus, and Big Government. The real estate boom-bust cycle and the financial crisis of 2008 caused …

One of the best features of the holidays is that many government offices are shut down. Peace on Earth, indeed. I’m travelling for the next few days. On the roads, the police presence is minimal to none. Somehow we all get by. The private sector is humming and happy. What is the private sector? It …

Interviewed by Louis James, Editor, International Speculator L: Doug, we’ve gotten a lot of follow-up questions to our conversation on currency controls. People want to know more about Argentina and why you like it so much. So, let’s talk about Argentina. Doug: Sure. This is a good time, too, because I’m having a sort of …

[Doug French is coauthor of this piece] A viral video from Australia, complete with a clever song and dance step, describes the many dumb things people do that threaten and extinguish their lives. “Dumb Ways to Die” includes warnings against selling both your kidneys on the Internet, getting toast out of the toaster with a …

The enormous tragedy for young people today is that so many are sealed off by law from any involvement in the commercial marketplace… until it is too late. This means that they know not the heartbeat of civilization itself. This terrible condition persists until their young adulthood. It is their luxury — for the first …

Gas in Vegas is a dollar cheaper a gallon than in the Golden State, or so a friend and recent LA transplant tells me. He went on to say the top tax rate in California is over 13%, while, of course, Nevada has no state income tax. Over dinner at Del Frisco’s, he explained how …

There are some authors (I could count them on one hand) who have a transforming effect on the human mind. My list of people who changed me fundamentally would include H.L. Mencken, Murray Rothbard, Ayn Rand, Noam Chomsky, and Arthur Schopenhauer. After reading Totally Incorrect, this week’s e-book download in the Spy Briefing Club, I …

My inbox has been slammed with notes concerning the killings at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Conn. Given the accessibility of information, and the pace at which it travels, people have treated this event as not just a case of a ghastly local crime, but much more than that, a signal and a wake-up call …

An old banking buddy of mine has been out of work for a full year. I met up with him yesterday, and he told me the good news that he has finally found work. It’s not enjoyable. But it pays better than sitting at home. His time of unemployment had been doubly tough because his …

Ben Bernanke began his press conference with a touching tribute to the unemployed. Oh, how he cares! And so deeply! His description of the problem was accurate enough. But then out came the smoke and mirrors. Bernanke said that to remedy the unemployment problem, he will continue the Fed’s program of asset purchases. Specifically, the …

Google bought YouTube in 2006 at the height of the infringement hysteria. The new owners got busy trying to get the platform up to legal standards and avoid billions in pending lawsuits. It seems that users had been posting a vast amount of copyrighted material, and Google was going to be held liable. Over the …

Times are tough on Main Street. Still, cheap money flows to the top 1%, wherever they live. For example, the fall season for the art market has been solid. Foreign buyers can’t get enough unique pieces for their collections. The auction house Sotheby’s had its best night ever on Nov. 14, racking up $375 million …

People talk like capitalism is some strange foreign invader, a mechanical system that was imposed on the world a couple hundred years ago, fueled by burning coal and emitting smoke, and certainly not anything organic to the social order. This is preposterous. The Christmas story that surrounds us in this season, told millions of times …

How secure are property rights if the police can take your stuff and keep it, citing no particular reason at all? Not very secure. This is the way police work in the developing world. Of course, this practice is increasingly common in the U.S. too. Municipalities around the nation are battling to stay afloat, and …