Essays

“I’m Going to Take Him Out”

"'You’re dead, mother****r!' Those were the last words spoken to 41-year-old Kamas, Utah resident Wade Pennington as he bled to death from two gunshot wounds inflicted at point-blank range. The man who hurled that sadistic taunt at Pennington, Brett Lopez, wasn’t the shooter; his role had been to trap the unarmed victim in the kill zone while his associate, Jared Nichols, pulled the trigger. Neither Nichols nor Perez faced criminal charges, because they were police officers, and their victim was a man with a lengthy criminal record who was on probation at the time of the May 28, 2009 shooting." Continue reading →

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The Original Value of Bitcoins

"Two centuries ago, oil was less than worthless. It was a blight that people would pay to have removed from their land. However, suppose one day a mysterious stranger appeared claiming to be a time-traveler. He told everyone that one day oil would be the world’s most valuable fuel. It would called 'black gold'. Wars would be fought over it and enormous machines would be built to collect every last drop. Though no one knew if the purported time traveler was telling the truth or how to develop the technologies that would one day make oil valuable, some entrepreneurs believed him and began to collect oil to prepare for the day that it became black gold." Continue reading →

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The Original Value of Bitcoins

"Two centuries ago, oil was less than worthless. It was a blight that people would pay to have removed from their land. However, suppose one day a mysterious stranger appeared claiming to be a time-traveler. He told everyone that one day oil would be the world’s most valuable fuel. It would called 'black gold'. Wars would be fought over it and enormous machines would be built to collect every last drop. Though no one knew if the purported time traveler was telling the truth or how to develop the technologies that would one day make oil valuable, some entrepreneurs believed him and began to collect oil to prepare for the day that it became black gold." Continue reading →

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Banks Get One Last Mulligan in Payments

"In true startup fashion, the bank-owned card brands of Visa and MasterCard eventually had successful IPOs. The inspiration is clearly there. But where are the visionaries in banking now? With the breakthrough development of cryptographic money, banks appear paralyzed about understanding and harnessing its transformative power. This does not bode well for the future of banks. Just as they block and freeze the accounts of competitive money transmitters in the U.S., banks routinely freeze the bank accounts of innocent bitcoin exchanges, hiding behind the rationale that they are being watchful of and adhering to regulator guidelines." Continue reading →

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Banks Get One Last Mulligan in Payments

"In true startup fashion, the bank-owned card brands of Visa and MasterCard eventually had successful IPOs. The inspiration is clearly there. But where are the visionaries in banking now? With the breakthrough development of cryptographic money, banks appear paralyzed about understanding and harnessing its transformative power. This does not bode well for the future of banks. Just as they block and freeze the accounts of competitive money transmitters in the U.S., banks routinely freeze the bank accounts of innocent bitcoin exchanges, hiding behind the rationale that they are being watchful of and adhering to regulator guidelines." Continue reading →

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Nasser Al-Awlaki: The Drone That Killed My Grandson

"The missile killed him, his teenage cousin and at least five other civilians on Oct. 14, 2011, while the boys were eating dinner at an open-air restaurant in southern Yemen. I visited the site later, once I was able to bear the pain of seeing where he sat in his final moments. Local residents told me his body was blown to pieces. They showed me the grave where they buried his remains. I stood over it, asking why my grandchild was dead. Nearly two years later, I still have no answers. The United States government has refused to explain why Abdulrahman was killed. A country that believes it does not even need to answer for killing its own is not the America I once knew." Continue reading →

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Be Prepared When the ATMs Go Dark…

"Best way to establish a 'go-to' fund is by buying gold bars in the largest size you can afford and storing them in your name overseas. Here’s why this is the smartest play: 1) Overseas gold storage is not reportable as long as it is not tied to a foreign bank account. 2) Buying gold in the largest amount you can afford is more financially sound than buying it in smaller bars or buying fractional gold. 3) In the event that you need to sell your gold to access cash, large banks and precious- metals dealers are more likely to want to purchase large gold allotments rather than several smaller ones. This provides superior liquidity in times of need." Continue reading →

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Bill Bonner: Has gold bottomed out?

"Is there any reason to doubt? Any reason for worries? Any reason to stash a gold coin in your safe, just in case this reprise of credit-based money doesn’t pan out? It took the Soviets 70 years to realise that their experiment with primitive communism wouldn’t work. They tried to run a huge, modern nation as though it were a paleolithic tribe. It took Zimbabwe nearly 30 years to discover that it couldn’t cover its expenses by printing up its own credit-based money (though it didn’t begin running the presses at full speed until near the end). And how long did it take the Thousand-Year Reich to discover that ignoring the laws of civilised nations would be fatal? Only 12 years!" Continue reading →

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Jeffrey Tucker: Is There A Viable Alternative To College?

"We are going to see the emergence of more credible one- and two-year alternatives to college. These programs will combine real work experience with rigorous learning and cost a small fraction of college. It can’t work for some professions like law and medicine, mainly because of government controls and guild-like admissions certifications. But in fields like technology, design, and business, this seems like a great idea. Sound good? I know of two such programs now. These programs smash the paradigm that’s been around since after the Second World War. They are the grass growing up in the sidewalk cracks." Continue reading →

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Bill Bonner: The war on the young

"Rules, regulations, restrictions - he doesn't recall voting for a single one. Instead, they were imposed upon him. So were the costs of today's omni-eternal state with claims - in the US alone -- on (according to Niall Ferguson) some $238 trillion of future output. Dear reader, between the time when we grew up and today the world has changed. It has been taken over by zombies, desperate to drain the future so they can enjoy it now. Old people get their benefits. Their laws. Their privileges. They get to have things more or less as they want them. And the young? Take it or leave it. No wonder so many are trying to leave." Continue reading →

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