Essays

The Ultimate Cheat Sheet For Starting And Running A Business

"No joke. This is going be a bullet FAQ on starting a business. If you're a lawyer, feel free to disagree with me so you can charge someone your BS fees to give the same advice. If you can think of anything to add, please do so. I might be missing things. If you want to argue with me, feel free. I might be wrong on any of the items below. There are many types of business. Depending on your business, some of these won't apply. All of these questions come from questions I've been asked. The rules are: I'm going to give no explanations. Just listen to me." Continue reading →

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The Century of Arbitration and Peace

"All of this provides a real-world example of the possibility of adjudicating disputes in a private and contractual manner. It does not take a huge leap of faith to conclude that a decentralized arbitration system could be extended to smaller and smaller segments of the population, ultimately leading to a private security environment. If it can be done between states, why not between individuals (or private insurance / security companies) in a world without states as we currently use the term? Why limit the possibilities by geographical boundaries – some form of panarchy, if you will?" Continue reading →

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Cameron Herold: Let’s raise kids to be entrepreneurs [2010]

"Bored in school, failing classes, at odds with peers: This child might be an entrepreneur, says Cameron Herold. At TEDxEdmonton, he makes the case for parenting and education that helps would-be entrepreneurs flourish -- as kids and as adults." Continue reading →

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Debt Excess and the Liquidation Process in a Historical Context

"We find it constructive to divide debt into three categories based on the criteria of capital consumption. We'll start with liabilities taken on with the intent of making a subsequent sale at a profit: in other words, debt that increases the capital base, such as business loans. We call this 'good' debt. In the second category, we have mortgages, financial sector loans and foreign debt, all of which are classified as 'bad' debt. In the third and last category, we have debt that allows pure capital consumption, such as consumer credit and government debt. It should be obvious that consumptive debt cannot exceed productive debt for an indefinite period of time." Continue reading →

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“The Biggest Growth Opportunity in the History of Capitalism”

"While America’s middle class is disappearing, there’s a whole new middle class rising around the globe. Over the past two decades, urbanization and market-oriented economic policies have powered the growth of this new consumer class. This new middle class is demanding access to clean water, clothing, TVs, health care, housing, food … you name it. McKinsey Global Institute calls the rise of this new middle class 'the biggest growth opportunity in the history of capitalism … an economic force that’s over 1,000 times as big as the Industrial Revolution.'" Continue reading →

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Are commodity prices about to explode?

"Prices in financial markets are determined by psychology, by what people think stocks, bonds and commodities are worth rather than what they actually are worth. Recent sentiment readings for some key commodities, such as copper, gold, sugar, wheat, cattle, etc., were at extreme levels of negativity. From a contrarian aspect of course, that's very bullish. We see a similar pattern in many, but not all commodities in respect to commitment of traders, where knowledgeable commercials are comfortably long. On the other hand, speculators, who as a group usually guess incorrectly at turning points, are taking the other side of the trade with bearish bets." Continue reading →

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The Problem With Altcoins

"Because it was started earlier and has had a greater opportunity to grow and attract users, Bitcoin has a market larger by a wide margin than all the markets of all the altcoins put together, and this makes it vastly more useful as a currency. To defeat Bitcoin, an altcoin would require not just superior technology, but such vastly superior technology as to be an advance over Bitcoin comparable to the advance Bitcoin represents over fiat currency." Continue reading →

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Killing Without Consequences: “Counter-Insurgency” Warfare in Greenfield, CA

"A three-member 'break and rake' team approached the house, shattered a window, and threw in a flash-bang grenade. The fire quickly propagated itself through the house, generating a dense black cloud of highly toxic smoke. The SWAT team then trained its weapons on the house, which effectively prevented the victim from escaping from the burning building. The Fire Department responded quickly once fire enveloped Serrato’s home – but the SWAT team held them at bay for nearly a half-hour while the screaming victim was trapped inside. By the time the firefighters could enter the home, Serrato was dead." Continue reading →

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Memory’s Half-Life: A Social History of Wiretaps

"American attitudes towards wiretapping significantly shifted during the 1940s, as the war and changes in the class distribution of telephones helped shift judicial acceptance of wiretaps. President Roosevelt issued a secret executive order authorizing widespread Justice Department wire-taps of 'subversives' and suspected spies. Hoover used these vague new powers to investigate not just Nazis but anyone he thought subversive. The social history of wiretaps is a history of mission creep, where FBI agents initially hunting for wartime Nazi spies soon monitored progressive activists fighting racial segregation." Continue reading →

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Ladar Levison’s Lesson

"Bureaucrats, inspectors, cops, and soldiers have guns. All of them, whether they realize it or not, have the power to damage and even ruin lives. When that happens, some maintain they're just following orders. Instead, I want them to have a crisis of conscience. I want them to learn Ladar Levison's lesson and declare, 'I don’t want to become complicit in crimes against the American people.' Right now, there’s a vast and growing body of evidence that the police are not here to protect and serve. They’re being given unlawful or immoral orders. Yet they’re NOT responding with Ladar Levison's words." Continue reading →

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