In praise of misers
Here’s what I like about Ebenezer Scrooge: His meager lodgings were dark because darkness is cheap, and barely heated because coal is not free. His dinner was gruel, which he…
Currents in currency
Away with the past: (Death to Pennies) The story of the penny starts in the first US Mint founded in 1792 which produced these one-cent pieces along with other coins…
- Chicago School
- Closed System
- Competition
- Complexity
- Distributism
- Division of Labor
- Ecology
- Economic Policy
- Economic Theory
- Free Market
- Frontier Thesis
- Interdependency
- Keynesianism
- Motivation
- Perpetuity
- Polycentrism
- Self-Reliance
- Self-Sufficiency
- Simplicity
- Solutions
- Specialism
- Systems Theory
- Trade
- Wealth
- Welfare Statism
- Zero-sum
The inefficiency of home-grown food
Recently, two members of congress have introduced legislation which is aimed at lowering carbon output by encouraging local food production and distribution. There are a number of things wrong with…
- Austrian School
- Capitalism
- Chicago School
- Closed System
- Competition
- Complexity
- Culture Divide
- Distributism
- Division of Labor
- Economic Policy
- Economic Theory
- Free Land
- Free Market
- Game Theory
- Interdependency
- Keynesianism
- Marxism
- Political Theory
- Poverty
- Self-Government
- Self-Reliance
- Self-Rule
- Self-Sufficiency
- Sociology
- Systems Theory
- Trade
- Wealth
- Welfare Statism
- Zero-sum
Zero-sum economics: the core issue of the great debate
Is the economy a zero-sum game? John Mackey, co-founder and co-CEO of Whole Foods Market says that it isn’t a zero-sum game. (WSJ.com) Business is not a zero-sum game struggling…
An insoluble problem
Excedrin’s funny and insightful campaign reveals a lot about the unnecessary complexity of modern trade.
The end of the credit card?
It’s an app called Card Case, and it’s made by Square, the brilliant payments company founded by Twitter inventor Jack Dorsey. Because Card Case runs on your phone, it may…
- 2007-08 Crisis
- Austrian School
- Autarchy
- Closed System
- Competition
- Complexity
- Culture Divide
- Current Events
- Economic Theory
- Frontier Thesis
- Game Theory
- Inflation
- Inspiration
- Interdependency
- Motivation
- Polycentrism
- Resources
- Self-Government
- Self-Reliance
- Self-Rule
- Self-Sufficiency
- Simplicity
- Solutions
- Specialism
- Systems Theory
- Trade
- Wealth
Bank Transfer Day is November 5
A group on Facebook has announced that Nov. 5th is Bank Transfer Day. The idea is simple: take your money out of the sprawling, corporate monstrosities called banks and move…
The social contract question
Granted we are social animals and engaged in a social contract, why does Warren assume that the factory owner isn’t putting forth his part of the bargain? Is it assumed…
Farms cropping up in the Bronx
(WSJ) The slice of land in the Bronx at first appears no different than many of the borough’s derelict empty lots, where any glimpse of green often resolves into a…
Local currencies could reshape Brazilian economy
The Wall Street Journal recently featured a story on a currency called the capivari, a local currency emblazoned with the face of a giant rodent. The capivari is one of…
Kon-Tiki–a reminder of possible
(Janson Media) Kon-Tiki is the Academy Award-winning film of an astonishing adventure, a journey spanning 4,300 nautical miles across the Pacific Ocean by raft. Intrigued by Polynesian folklore, Norwegian biologist…
The virtues of competition
Orson Welles as Harry Lime in the film adaptation of Graham Greene’s Third Man. Don’t be so gloomy. After all it’s not that awful. Like the fella says, in Italy…
A theory about the poor’s aversion to welfare
(The Economist) Instead of opposing redistribution because people expect to make it to the top of the economic ladder, the authors of the new paper argue that people don’t like…
Are sovereign islands the new frontier?
(Details) [Peter] Thiel spends a lot of time thinking about frontiers. “Way more than is healthy,” he admits. Not just financial frontiers, though that’s his day job: He cofounded PayPal,…
The math behind economies of scale
(TED) Physicist Geoffrey West has found that simple, mathematical laws govern the properties of cities — that wealth, crime rate, walking speed and many other aspects of a city can…
Why stop at the 51st state?
An interesting, albeit daunting, prospect has recently received some momentum in Southern California–one that would make several of its counties its own state. (Christian Science Monitor) Thirteen mostly conservative California…
The virtues of self-sufficiency
One of the central concepts of Juggernaut rests in the virtues of self-sufficiency. A summary can be found in the first part of the book: It can be assumed that…
Economist soundtracks–Smith
In our economist soundtracks series, we now turn to the man who might well be described as the father of modern economics, Adam Smith. Adam Smith (baptized 16 June 1723 –…