Some pretty big names in the financial prognostication business are recommending that investors start buying houses. Jim Grant has devoted lots of space in Grant’s Interest Rate Observer to the idea. Marc Faber, Donald Trump, Warren Buffett and our own Chris Mayer all like sticks and bricks. Five years ago, the unthinkable began to happen. …

“All the profits of drug trafficking and none of the risk.” That’s how the prosecutor in a federal criminal case described Carlos Garcia’s smuggling operation that has landed him in the federal pen for 13 months. Before wearing leg irons and striped pajamas, Garcia was a top executive in Marcone Inc., a leading supplier of …

The movie Inception (2010) directed by Christopher Nolan, is one of the few films I’ve seen that takes the idea of ideas themselves seriously. It’s about a team of experts that specializes in corporate espionage by extracting information from dreams. This time, their job is much harder: They are asked to implant a new idea …

There is reality and there is Ben Bernanke. The two are ever more disconnected. Speaking in Jackson Hole, Wyo., Fed Chair Ben Bernanke claimed his money printing has created 2 million jobs and pushed stock prices higher. “The odds are strong that the Fed’s asset purchases will make money for the taxpayers, reducing the federal …

Oceans of taxpayer money and patience have been devoted to propping up the banking system. Why? So that when we go to retrieve our money from an ATM our money will actually come out. At least that’s what then-Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson told us when the big banks were on the verge of hitting the …

While Ron Paul lost the battle for the presidency, he may yet win the war for sound money. At least the intellectual battle might be won, and that’s the crucial one. The GOP platform effectively calls for a new gold standard commission to consider returning gold backing to the dollar. It is vaguely stated. It …

In Mao’s Great Leap forward of 1958, and then the Cultural Revolution of 1966 and following, millions suffered persecution and death. Collectivized land led to an extreme livestock shortage. Those who survived faced famine. Living things in general were disappearing. All forms of oil had vanished. If there was food to be had, it had …

In the United States, the free (as in government is not involved) part of free enterprise has been forgotten. So it is the highest pleasure to travel to places where you can see with your own eyes how commerce is supposed to work. Here in Istanbul, Turkey, where commerce has been ongoing for centuries, business …

Google’s new Motorola unit had great ambitions to serve customers and keep dazzling us with ever more spectacular things that enhance our lives. After all, the smartphone is easily the greatest consumer innovation of our time, and maybe of all time. It accomplishes amazing feats in a tiny package and represents a greater achievement of …

The longer the recession goes on, the more people are catching on to incredible fictions we’ve been told for five years. The political class and its allies said that they could make all things better if they created more debt, spent more money, printed trillions in phony money, made credit as cheap as possible, and …

School is back and so is the grim reality that whatever the government touches, it wrecks. Government has done more than touch education, moreover; it has deeply embedded itself at all levels, leaving just enough in the way of freedom to allow families to breath but not thrive. And the situation isn’t getting better. Without …

The harder you work, the luckier you get: You never know when serendipity will smile. This week, the Laissez-Faire Club is offering for free download Murray Rothbard’s Education: Free and Compulsory and I’m reminded of one of the great fortunes of my life. After moving to Las Vegas in 1986, and the tiniest of stints …

Many political pundits doubt that an incumbent president can win re-election with an unemployment rate over 8% After all, we are told, no American president has been re-elected in the last 50 years when unemployment was above 7.2%. Is that predictive or not? I say: not. Unemployment is the focus of the government policy from …

The web is packed with some of the greatest educational material on entrepreneurship and enterprise, material that didn’t exist a decade ago and is now within the mouse-click reach of vast swaths of humanity. Are we taking advantage of it? Doug French and I set out to collect the top 15 videos on entrepreneurship — …

On a flight the other day, I noticed that a third of the passengers were reading a certain best-selling book. It got me thinking. Every politically active group wants something from government, and government is happy to oblige. It’s even more obvious in the election season, and it’s only going to get worse as we …

Capitalism and entrepreneurship make the difference in the world. Whether a country is rich or poor depends on both. The evidence is all around us, and the explanations are a click away. An example is the video below. Anthony Bourdain is a fascinating person, a great chef and also world traveller. He has his own …

The books we remember most are the ones that change our minds or redirect our thoughts. Most readers consume books and ideas that only confirm their existing worldview. Instead of seeking enlightenment, many readers wish only to satisfy themselves that they are already smart. And the books they read confirm it. But today’s world is …

The European economy is turning from stagnation to contraction. Financial journalists are concluding that “austerity” is the reason. They say that forced reduction in government services is sending not only the continent, but the U.K. into an economic tailspin and — heaven forbid — the same could happen to the United States. Look and panic: …

Excerpts from an Interview with the Daily Bell: Daily Bell: Give us some background on yourself. Where did you grow up? Jeffrey Tucker: My family has generally lived in the Southeast region of Texas since 1830, when an idealistic son of a Congregationalist minister bailed out of his homestead in Massachusetts. He was seeking a …

Politics is a lagging indicator of social-cultural trends. Politics doesn’t lead change; it chases it, incompetently and long after the underlying reality is impossible to deny. This is why it makes no sense to put faith in politics. By the time politics catches up, the rest of the world has moved on. That said, I’ve …

Corn prices are officially through the roof, spiking to record highs. It’s been headed this way through six years of crazy volatility. Now the spike is undeniable. At the same time, crop yields are lower they have been since 1995. Everyone blames the drought, as if the market can’t normally handle a supply change. The …

In 1946, oil baron William F. Buckley Sr. sent his extremely bright son Bill to Yale University. The father wanted to pass on one book to prepare him to think independently. His household had thousands of books on hand. The book he chose was Memoirs of a Superfluous Man, by a family friend named Albert …

Not too long ago, it was conventional wisdom: Personal wealth comes not from wages, but from return on investments. Stocks are for the long run. Houses always go up in value. That works so long as the economy works. But then the financial roof fell in, and the Fed came along and decided to abolish …