Over at the Tocqueville Asset Management website, there’s a cool graphic they have been running:

Garet Garrett in one of my favorite essays the world over, Ex America, on keeping the masses fat and happy through monetary mischief: By a long lure of planned grass a society of bisons may be decoyed to captivity in the Valley of Security. In moments of uneasiness its bulls may be soothed by the [...]

All of us Austrians knew about this, but David Skarbek puts the ha-ha into it with a fun, little post.

In a Business Week article (pay only), Jack and Suzy Welch do an excellent job of praising Wal-Mart and its benefits to the world. He makes several excellent points, especially this one about the mom-and-pop shop fantasy that alot of folks seem to have: Yes, Wal-Mart has meant the end of many local stores. And [...]

Maybe. On behalf of the Free Enterprise Fund, Mr. Starr is challenging the burdensome and tyrannical Sarbanes-Oxley Act. Of course, the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board is an absolute monster given that it has the powers of subpoena and disciplinary action. Starr & Company are challenging the powers of this board as a violation of [...]

The Mexican government just voted to decriminalize the possession of heroin, cocaine, and marijuana in small amounts for personal use. The reaction from the jack boots in Washington – including Bush – will be most interesting. The legislation came as a shock to Washington, which counts on Mexico’s support in its war against drug smuggling [...]

An absolutely smashing and brilliant essay on General Motors and the US government by the world’s preeminent bond guru Bill Gross. Writing this piece took some huge coconuts on the part of Bill. He essentially lays out comparisons between GM and the US economy in a “as GM goes, so goes the nation” analysis of [...]

San Diego’s For Sale inventory is way up. As with most places, the housing market is saturated with houses that cannot sell, resulting in foreclosures, and when that’s not the case, severe price reduction. A neighbor of my friend KC, both of whom are in the “way north” Detroit ‘burbs, had their house up for [...]

One thing my father said when I was real young, that always stuck true to me, was in noting that the most dangerous sort of people – in regards to stirring up trouble and raining down misery – are those who have too much time on their hands. Nothing rings more true as time goes [...]

A nice piece on not reading Wittgenstein. Ok, I’ve read Wittgenstein in a patchy sense, but it isn’t fun. Philosophical Investigations can he handled in 10-minute increments up to 25% of the content. Even Brenner’s work is demands an alarm clock next to your chair. I tried, I got bored, I failed. It takes a [...]