Wednesday, October 23rd, 2013
Thomas Hobbes said that words are wise men’s counters, but the money of fools. This is as true today as it was 400 years ago when Hobbes said it. Using words is very different from taking words so literally that the words “use” you. Take the simple phrase “rent-control.” New York is the city with
Friday, October 18th, 2013
All around the world, food availability, income, and life span are up, while disease, child mortality, and violence are down. Though the world is still far from perfect, nearly everything is more affordable, not always in dollar...
Wednesday, October 16th, 2013
Auburn Alabama prides itself on friendship and civility. So it was a bit of a shock when that Southern charm was smashed over a few weeks, in which friend turned against friend, becoming antagonists and enemies. Politics....
Wednesday, October 2nd, 2013
Imagine that you could pay for anything with an IOU that you scribble on a piece of paper. Wouldn’t that be great? New car? IOU. New house? IOU. All the tea in China? IOU. All the oil...
Monday, September 30th, 2013
“Breaking rocks in the hot sun. I fought the law and the law won.” That’s how the song goes. And many men find themselves working for nothing, by ignoring the law. But most had no idea “what”...
Wednesday, September 18th, 2013
Khun Anuphan, a 76-year-old Muslim fisherman from Rawai, sold a piece of ancestral land to developers for ten million dollars. He and his son, who brokered the deal, took the papers to his wife, Noina, for her...
Saturday, August 17th, 2013
Who Will Be the Next Fed Honcho? Bernanke is on the way out, and the hunt for a replacement to lead America’s central bank is on. It’s a pretty short list. Anyone smart enough to see the...
Friday, August 16th, 2013
When George Ayittey saw rock star Bono in the audience at a conference, he made a special effort to rip into the foreign aid establishment. Bono later told Ayittey that he liked his speech but did not...
Wednesday, August 14th, 2013
Over the past 20 years I’ve bought two cars for my personal transportation. In 1994 I bought a 1-year old Toyota pickup for $10,000. I paid cash. That same year, a friend of mine bought a brand...
Thursday, August 8th, 2013
I’m going to burn my house down. Then I’m going to push my car off a cliff. And then for a finale, I’m going to throw my television into the ocean. Besides being a tremendous amount of...
Friday, August 2nd, 2013
MSNBC host Ari Melber, recently blamed the death of Detroit on the “Free Market.” One can only assume that Mr. Melber was simply reading the teleprompter and did not have the slightest idea what he was saying....
Wednesday, July 31st, 2013
Despised by some, deified by others, Ayn Rand is mostly known for her overly thick novels: The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged. She also wrote a book outlining her philosophy called, The Virtue of Selfishness. It has provided...
Wednesday, July 17th, 2013
In the never-ending quest to make things affordable, I’ve decided to ‘go big’ and get a free Ferrari. I wouldn’t want to be called greedy, so therefore there will be free Ferraris for everyone. I suspect that...
Monday, July 8th, 2013
A little while ago, I was invited to participate in a Class Action lawsuit for 13 million dollars. If successful, my share of this loot would only be a small fraction, perhaps a thousand dollars at most....
Friday, July 5th, 2013
The Fed has been hinting that it might bring an end to QE sometime soon. Markets have been panicking at that prospect. Since most people don’t have the foggiest notion of what the heck QE is, this...
