So Bill Gates sold me some software when he was still in that business. He was then immensely rich, certainly compared to me. I was not compared to him. How unfair, you say? But Bill took his gains from this trade and used it to feed starving African children, while I used the software I bought from him to do something utterly trivial on my computer, like writing a dull column. Now was this a fair trade? Impossible to tell.
Over the weekend, we analyzed a Washington Post article describing the economic crisis in simple but powerful terms. The article maintained that the problem was caused by risky lending and the solution was regulation to impel "banks" to reduce practices that could lead to risky lending. We pointed out in our analysis that regulatory efforts will likely fail - as they always have in these situations (and in fact all such situations) - and that it would be much better to let the free market work.
This is a powerful video. Is it a hoax? If it is proves to be true - and not fake or mistranslated - it will go down in the annals of history (unless it goes down the memory hole) as one of the most significant and memorable video documentaries ever created. Yes, if true, it would be worthy of an Oscar and other mainstream media awards, though it likely will not receive a single one.
The Bell suggests that investors focus on the most fundamental issue of the 21st century when trying to analyze what's going on in the world from an opportunity standpoint. From our point of view this fundamental issue is the collision between the Internet and the power elite's dominant social themes. These fear-based promotions seek to frighten people into offering up power and wealth to conveniently created "globalist" authoritarian solutions. The United Nations is one such, and the IMF
This Washington Post story is a great example of how the mainstream media goes about supporting a power elite dominant social theme. In this case the fear-based promotion is that there will be another financial meltdown if "reform" isn't enacted. And to put the reform into context, the Post presents an admirably hard-hitting article about what went wrong and what can set it right. The Post then complicates the analysis slightly by explaining that while the problem and solution are simple
In numerous areas of human life treating people in nearly exactly the same way may make sense. Thus, for example, when you go to your dentist, you are probably implored to floss – and so is everyone else who visits dentists. Other doctors, too, will prescribe practices one should adopt, such as eating nutritiously, exercising, getting regular sleep and so forth, which virtually all other patients are also told they will benefit from. Although at this point diversity starts kicking in quite
The Daily Bell is pleased to present an exclusive interview with Robert Higgs. Higgs is Senior Fellow in Political Economy for The Independent Institute and Editor of the Institute's quarterly journal The Independent Review. He received his Ph.D. in economics from Johns Hopkins University, and he has taught at the University of Washington, Lafayette College, Seattle University, and the University of Economics, Prague. He has been a visiting scholar at Oxford
This article appearing recently at the Huffington Post by James Bacchus, a "former member of Congress," is noteworthy because it musters all the arguments against a Federal Reserve audit and, generally, Fed transparency. While Ron Paul (R-Tex) and others have been calling for an audit of the Fed, various defenders of the Fed's business as usual are mustering any defense they can to retain the "independence" of the said agency.
We blame American oil companies for this most recent oil spill, but not for the predictable reasons. American oil companies, in our opinion, have helped set up a situation where there is a substantial amount of oil production offshore, even though there doesn't need to be. It's been our opinion all along that US oil companies especially, have been funding Green movements in the US and abroad to help ensure that regulatory issues prevent drilling in the lower 48. This forces drilling offshore and
The idea that making a profit is somehow ignoble has ancient roots. Partly it stems from the utterly fallacious notion that when someone wins, someone else must lose. So if you go to the mall and purchase a sweater you really like, you must rip off the store where you do this. It is only after modern economics got going full blast that it became clear that when there is a purchase, both sides win. Or at least they understand themselves as having won. You got the sweater, they got the money, you