free market

Portrait of a Bitcoin miner: How one man made $192K in virtual currency

"Eric has been mining Bitcoins since 2010, and at one point quit a high-paying job as a software engineer to devote all of his time to, figuratively speaking, extract gold from silicon. His move was bold and risky, but yielded an awesome reward: To date, Eric has accumulated 2500 bitcoins, which is worth a cool $191,900 as of this writing. (At Bitcoin’s highest exchange rate, that amount was $665,000.) He doesn't trade them and has no immediate plans to cash out. Instead, he's hanging on to them, and waiting to see how their value changes." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingPortrait of a Bitcoin miner: How one man made $192K in virtual currency

Sticky Thoughts: The Market, Not The Government, Gave Us Super Glue

"It was the competitive market that finally gave the product life, but first it had to struggle through an incredible array of barriers, from disincentives to monopoly grants to regulatory restrictions. What might have helped people at daily life since the 1940s took a half a century. Part of that time passage is inherent in the market process, but much of the rest of it was due to intervention. It was not science as such that made the difference. It was science given flight by market forces. At each stage of its development, the market was there, encouraging, prodding, guiding, and leading to the light, despite all odds." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingSticky Thoughts: The Market, Not The Government, Gave Us Super Glue

3D Printer for $1,000

"A British firm is selling a 3D printer for home use for about $1,000. It’s for people who are technologically savvy, and who want to be on the cutting edge. Watch it build a gadget. This is the equivalent of the Altair 8800 microcomputer in 1975. Soon, there will be an Apple I, then a TRS-80. Then a PC. Then there will be the equivalent of Visicalc, a 'killer app' for business. That is when this technology will get into the general population. This will change the world. It will take a decade or two, but we can see what’s coming. When a home brew version starts out at $1,000, the cost will fall, and capabilities will increase." Continue reading →

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OKC hospital posting surgery prices online, creating bidding war

"An Oklahoma City surgery center is offering a new kind of price transparency, posting guaranteed all-inclusive surgery prices online. The move is revolutionizing medical billing in Oklahoma and around the world. Dr. Keith Smith and Dr. Steven Lantier launched Surgery Center of Oklahoma 15 years ago, founded on the simple principle of price honesty. 'What we’ve discovered is health care really doesn’t cost that much,' Dr. Smith said. 'What people are being charged for is another matter altogether.' Surgery Center of Oklahoma started posting their prices online about four years ago. The prices are all-inclusive quotes and they are guaranteed." Continue reading →

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Insurers dropping Kansas schools over concealed-carry law for teachers

"At least three insurance companies have refused to renew their coverage policies for Kansas schools in the wake of a new law allowing teachers to carry firearms on campus, The Des Moines Register reported on Sunday. The New York Times reported that school district administrators in Oregon are balking after the state School Boards Association, which manages liability coverage for the vast majority of school districts there, instituted an additional premium worth $2,500 for every faculty member who has a firearm on campus." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingInsurers dropping Kansas schools over concealed-carry law for teachers

With Bullets Scarce, More Shooters Make Their Own

"Gun stores around the country have had difficulty keeping up with demand for ammunition in recent months. Fears of government tightening of gun and ammunition controls have meant that retailers, from Wal-Mart to mom-and-pop gun shops, haven't been able to keep bullets on the shelves. Shopper Robert Nicholson, like thousands of other shooters, is going a different route. He's making more of the bullets he shoots. Shop owner Cliff Poser says the scarcity of ready-made bullets has frustrated shooters to the point they're spending between $200 and $1,000 to get into the hobby known as 'reloading.'" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingWith Bullets Scarce, More Shooters Make Their Own

A Rich Fantasy Life: Sports Fans Dream of Making a Living Off Games

"Friday is Drew Dinkmeyer's last day of work. Mr. Dinkmeyer, a 31-year-old Florida investment analyst, is leaving the finance industry altogether. He is becoming a full-time fantasy sports player. Daily-fantasy games, which condense full-length seasons into nightly competitions, were responsible for $492 million of the $1.7 billion spent on fantasy sports in 2012. There are more than 30 million fantasy-sports players in the U.S., and almost 25% dabble in daily games, the FSTA found in a report released this month. Up to 100 people earned at least $40,000 in 2012, industry experts estimate. The market is lucrative enough to support some full-time players." Continue reading →

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Human breast milk has become a new luxury for China’s rich

"Xinxinyu, a domestic staff agency in the booming city of Shenzhen, which borders Hong Kong, provided wet nurses for newborns, the sick and other adults who pay high prices for the milk’s fine nutrition, the Southern Metropolis Daily said. 'Adult (clients) can drink it directly through breastfeeding, or they can always drink it from a breast pump if they feel embarrassed,' the report quoted company owner Lin Jun as saying. Wet nurses serving adults are paid around 16,000 yuan ($2,600) a month — more than four times the Chinese average — and those who were 'healthy and good looking' could earn even more, the report said." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingHuman breast milk has become a new luxury for China’s rich