"Centralization induces apoplexy at the center and anemia at the extremities." ~ Lamenais The present political system is clearly insane. It suffers from schizophrenia. Around the world, almost no one trusts the politicians, yet almost everyone votes for incumbent politicians who promise to reform the government. Voters now suspect (correctly) that all ...read more

Sometime in the next few weeks we're going to find out if Greece can afford to stay in the euro. We're also going to find out if Spain and Italy can afford to leave the euro. Access to credit markets is the key issue. The stigma of default will lock ...read more

Libertarianism is, obviously, an idea whose time has come. Or maybe you don't like that term. There are plenty of others. My preference is old-fashioned. I like the term "liberal" -- or maybe "radical liberal" -- to distinguish my own intellectual commitments from the generation that naively believed that government ...read more

The Keynesians and declared anti-Keynesians have joined hands in order to promote an intensely Keynesian error: European fiscal austerity as a negative factor. One contributor in Forbes refers to austerity as a death spiral. The word "austerity," beginning with the Greek government's debt crisis two years ago, has been used by ...read more

We hate being right. After all, we have been predicting that people in the US and most of the western world will soon find themselves living in a Terminator-esque world where they will be tracked every moment of the day (US Government Builds World's Biggest Domestic Spy Complex), 1 the US ...read more

"Europe fights back against austerity" was how The Daily Telegraph headlined its weekend election coverage. "Anti-austerity movements are gathering pace across Europe following political earthquakes in France and Greece. A total of 12 European governments have now been dismissed in three years." As the European welfare state is officially in its ...read more

"I've got better things to do than broadcast a message to the world about my lunch." An uncountable number of people have said this or something similar to me about Twitter. I've stopped responding. It's the same kind of faux snobbery that causes people to look down on Facebook, YouTube, Angry ...read more

It must be "Bash Gold" week on the CNBS network. Warren Buffet has been leading the charge by talking down the precious metal in a recent newsletter to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders and followed up today on CNBS's "Squawk Box" where he warned that despite the declining value of the dollar, ...read more

How would you like to drive from New York to Los Angeles with just one stop for gas? It seems incredible and wonderful, but it can happen. In late 2010, the Volkswagen Passat BlueMotion set a new world record for the "longest distance traveled by a standard production passenger car ...read more

Retirement is a marketing construct. You've been sold a bill of goods for the last few decades of your life. You've been told that nation-states, democracy and socialism are good. You've been told our monetary system prevents instability. And -- while the government and central banks put your unborn children or ...read more