“One ought never to turn one’s back on a threatened danger and try to run away from it. If you do that, you will double the danger. But if you meet it promptly and without flinching, you will reduce the danger by half. Never run away from anything. Never!” — Winston Churchill It’s with the […]
Laissez-Faire Today
The Hustlers of the U.S. Health Care System
Every time you buy a drug at a pharmacy — be it by prescription or over the counter — there’s a middleman that makes a huge profit… And it doesn’t matter what pharmacy you go to, either. It could be Walgreens, Rite Aid or part of a larger, more integrated health care network… Regardless, the […]
The Making of a Modern Debt Slave
In the ancient world, when people got themselves into debt, they were often forced to sell their daughters into prostitution and their sons into slavery. More about that in a minute… First, a quick look at the financial markets. Looks like gold might have put in a bottom. We figured it would be around $1,100 […]
The Joys of Living
“What are you complaining about all the time?” people sometimes ask me. “I’m just about as free as I want to be.” Here’s the problem. How can we really know what we want if we’ve never had it before? The less free we are, the less we know what freedom feels like and how it […]
How a Pacifist Accidentally Infused the FBI with Cash
Back in 1972, when I was a 10-year-old technology and news geek in Chicagoland, a particular story grabbed my attention. Someone had planted time bombs in safe deposit boxes across the country. Their timing systems could be set up to seven months in advance — an impressive feat in 1971 — using common wireless electric […]
The Political Class and the Counteroffensive
That Edward Snowden has put the whole political, corporate, and governing class in a bind. With his revelations that a heretofore obscure agency has long been collecting all data on our digital lives, Snowden very plainly blew up the whole perception that government is somehow of, by, and for the people. The picture he paints […]
Gun Control Is Violence
Mohandas Gandhi, the greatest pacifist of the 20th century, is widely quoted as having said, “Among the many misdeeds of the British rule in India, history will look back upon the Act depriving the whole nation of arms as the blackest.” Some have struggled to reconcile his pacifism with an opposition to disarmament. But there […]
Five Most Absurd Ways Governments Will Promote Obamacare
Like it or not, the Affordable Care Act — Obamacare, for short — is coming. Enrollment in state exchanges, online marketplaces for purchasing health coverage or applying for government-run programs, opens Oct. 1. Between now and then, governments across the land will blow millions of dollars in public relations campaigns to reach target audiences and […]
Getting Serious About Freedom
Is there anything that we can do to stop the government’s data mining of our email, phone calls, and other digital habits? I moderated an entire panel on this subject during FreedomFest in Las Vegas last week. The room was packed from front to back, standing room only. Clearly, there is a great deal of […]
An Oasis of Freedom in the Desert
Struggling savers, of which there are plenty here at FreedomFest, have been getting plenty of investment wisdom during this year’s largest gathering of free minds. However, there is no consensus as to what a person is to do.