State-Wrecked: The Corruption of Capitalism in America – David Stockman

"As the federal government and its central-bank sidekick, the Fed, have groped for one goal after another — smoothing out the business cycle, minimizing inflation and unemployment at the same time, rolling out a giant social insurance blanket, promoting homeownership, subsidizing medical care, propping up old industries (agriculture, automobiles) and fostering new ones ('clean' energy, biotechnology) and, above all, bailing out Wall Street — they have now succumbed to overload, overreach and outside capture by powerful interests. The modern Keynesian state is broke, paralyzed and mired in empty ritual incantations about stimulating 'demand.'" Continue reading

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Decentralizing Science: Local Biohacking

"Far-out ideas make established scientists uncomfortable. If your entire career was built around the fax machine, phrenology, the geocentric model or the beeper, you’re not too excited about these crazy kids and their ideas. There is a lot of untapped brainpower out there. The state education mill is a barrier to entry, a great divider — a credential firewall. MOOCs and badges may displace the academic cartel, but not without vested interests fighting to halt creative destruction along the way. Statistician and philosopher Nassim Nicholas Taleb recognizes that 'stochastic tinkering' rather than systematic, institutional agendas yield the greatest discoveries." Continue reading

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Without a Shot

"On January 16, 2013, President Obama released 23 'Gun Violence Reduction Executive Actions' of which Action #2, #14, #16, #17, #21, and #22 utilize the national healthcare system to collect gun ownership information. As Obamacare grows over the next decade, unwary citizens will voluntarily divulge firearm ownership information including serial numbers in exchange for routine healthcare. Through the power of incrementalism, placing this information in a federal database seems harmless at first. However, someday in the future, imagine a loved one in your care needing critical medical attention, so you rush into an Obamacare facility because no other option exists." Continue reading

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Obamacare will hurt young people most

"Younger, healthier people, many of whom voted for Mr. Obama in droves, will see their insurance premiums climb sharply as Obamacare demands that insurers provide them with more medical coverage than they want or need. Older Americans and retirees already are seeing a steep rise in their insurance bills, too. Businesses great and small are either curtailing their employee health care plans or dropping them entirely in anticipation of rising costs. Many seniors who have supplemental policy plans — which cover 20 percent of the medical bills that Medicare does not — have seen their premiums rise this year." Continue reading

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George Orwell Surely Would Be Amused by the Statolatry in the United Kingdom

"I criticized Gordon Brown, the former Labor Party Prime Minister, for being a compulsive redistributionist, big spender, and taxaholic. But nothing’s really changed under Tory leadership. David Cameron is a vacuous statist, undermining the Conservative Party in the same way that George W. Bush eroded the brand name capital of the Republican Party. This sign was on a train I rode today. It is sponsored by the UK version of the IRS, and it pretty much symbolizes how the United Kingdom has turned into a predatory state. And what are taxpayers getting for their money, other than Orwellian signs?" Continue reading

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The Management-free Organization

"Recently I heard that Valve, a highly successful video game company, has four hundred employees and no management structure. According to all reports, they make that model work. I spent a lot of time trying to imagine working for a company with no management. How do they resolve conflicts, set priorities, measure performance, fire laggards, and all the rest? I couldn't picture it working. Keep in mind that I earn my living by shouting that management is mostly worthless, yet even I couldn't accept the idea that management is 100% unnecessary. I was skeptical." Continue reading

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What does crowdfunding replace or displace?

"Look at the sum of these trends. If a startup has a successful crowdfunder, its bargaining power with the VCs increases in two ways. First, it’s going to be less desperate for capital than a company that can’t run out and do another crowdfunder for the next product. Second, the VC’s uncertainty about its ability to build and sell will be reduced. These changes will both increase the startup’s ability to bargain for doing things its way and reduce the VC’s pressure for an early IPO. At the extreme, we might end up with a new normal in which VCs compete with each other to court startups that have done successful crowdfunders, neatly inverting the present situation." Continue reading

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Cyprus and the Unraveling of Fractional-Reserve Banking

"The 'Cyprus deal' as it has been widely referred to in the media may mark the next to last act in the the slow motion collapse of fractional-reserve banking that began with the implosion of the savings-and-loan industry in the U.S. in the late 1980s. This trend continued with the currency crises in Russia, Mexico, East Asia, and Argentina in the 1990s in which fractional-reserve banking played a decisive role. Even more than the unprecedented financial crisis of 2008, however, recent events in Cyprus may have struck the mortal blow to fractional-reserve banking. For fractional-reserve banking can only exist for as long as the depositors have complete confidence." Continue reading

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Bauman’s Little Black Book of Buffoons

"Public servants who no longer serve the best interests of the public should always follow Sir Anthony Eden’s example and resign on moral grounds. And here in the U.S., the list of useless officials in our government is shocking and even demoralizing. Resign! What follows is just a small sample of them, albeit the top five in my little black book of who should fall on their swords – all of them buffoons." Continue reading

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An Investment that Thrives, Even in a Weak Economy

"New mechanisms for productivity help drive existing businesses to be more efficient, and that is always in demand – especially during tough economic times. And, yes, the last 20 or 30 years of R&D is really just starting to peek its head into the markets. Everything from robotics to genetics to artificial intelligence are just now making their way to true commercial viability. The last five years of economic fear have created an innovation vacuum at the top of the tech stratosphere. This has opened opportunities for startup companies to seize upon the reticence of their much larger competitors." Continue reading

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