…and all the men and women merely Doomers.
But seriously, I recently read a little piece over at Of Two Minds and Mr. Smith spends a lot of time defining Doom Loops, but not really explaining how we should be reacting to them. So, I figured I’d contribute a little analysis, and maybe some advice.
A recent article at the Mises Institute got me thinking about the concept of “passive investments.” The article was written by Daniel Moule, and is called “Taxing Capital Leads to Capital Consumption.” Setting aside the general argument Moule is trying to make, I find his concept of “passive investment” to be a possible source of confusion.
Secession is the smart and peaceful solution to irreconcilable political differences. I wrote a short essay about five especially bad arguments you often hear against secession, and the Libertarian Institute published it!
Check it out here, and if you liked it, you’ll surely like more of their content! They publish greats like Scott Horton, Ron Paul, Jim Bovard, Sheldon Richman, and more! Support them if you can!
Paul “the Internet is not a big deal” Krugman has stated that it’s paranoid to worry about Central Bank Digital Currencies. See the article at this link.
Considering his track record, did he not realize that his statement makes it more likely that concern is justified?
A bunch of topics all together this time. What is the Macro Trick? It’s the combination of things that are fundamentally different under one name. It’s a tool that many tyrants and would-be tyrants use to take control of politics, economics, and culture.
It feeds the demand for administrators, technocrats, and other “experts.” In this video, I have a breakdown of some egregious examples of this trick, as well as what we can do to fight it.
Also available on Bitchute.
The concept of exchange value versus use value has kind of gone away in modern economic analysis, probably for good reason. At first glance, it seems fairly odd to separate goods that give you direct value from those that give you value indirectly.
The concept also doesn’t mesh well with a modern Austrian “value-scale” analysis, as seen in this article by Bob Murphy. Where a good fits on your value scale is determined by what need it serves, regardless of what exactly you intend to do with it.
Yet the concept is still present in Menger’s Principles of Economics, which I’m reading right now.
A video version of part 1 (of 3) of my short essay series on money.
For the text version with links and citations, visit here.
I saw a new ad from the awful-as-usual Brady Campaign (to Outlaw Handguns) and they’re pushing “Safe Storage” laws. Of course, this isn’t about safety, it’s about tyranny, so I thought I’d peel back some of the layers here and give it some light.
Video also available on Bitchute.
It seems like everyone is talking about secession these days. Whether they call it that, or national divorce, or some other euphemism, they all have opinions about it and most of them are woefully misinformed. Setting aside the ideologues who only want to tighten their grip on their fellow man for their own benefit, there are plenty of people who argue against secession from a practical perspective, but even these people often argue from a position of ignorance, and in this case, their ignorance is definitely not our bliss.
And, right on schedule, barely a week after I say something nice about James Lindsay regarding his evaluation of Marxist offshoots as cults and his studies into Gnosticism and its modern incarnations, he decides to spout off ignorantly about secession, parroting the most absurdly weak arguments all the while maintaining a childishly mocking tone against any and all opposing voices.
So, I’m finally cracking open my copy of Ryan McMaken’s Breaking Away, and getting to work on something about secession, because apparently even reasonably intelligent people are unable to understand how the principles of secession and radical decentralization are the most promising hope we have for peace and diminution of the state’s powers.
Expect a few essays/videos soon, including a review of Breaking Away.
…This comes right as I had had a great idea for something on the absurdity of taxing unrealized economic gains that looks like it might get put on the back burner, at least for a bit. Oh, well.