


People who refer to themselves as “libertarians” spend a lot of time arguing over exactly what they mean by “libertarian.”
Personally, I try to be fairly “big tent,” figuring that people who self-identify as libertarian tend to get more libertarian after doing so, if a) accepted and b) encouraged to explore libertarian ideas.
So, when I disagree [...]
I have a column When should a government agency have autonomy?, in the Financial
Express today. This is a hot subject in India today, in the aftermath of the ULIPs ordinance. While on this
subject, also see:
An editorial in Mint.
Tamal Bandyopadhyay in Mint.
Gautam Chikermane in the Hindustan Times.
Jayanth Varma in the Financial Express.
[...]
Trace: Welcome back to the RunToGold Podcast, I have a special guest with us today, Thomas Woods. He is a senior fellow at the Ludwig von Mises Institute, a bastion for Austrian economics, he holds a degree from Harvard in history and a Ph.D. from Columbia, and he has a new book out called [...]
The Cooper Super System Review has been looking at the issue of collectables held in Self Managed Superannuation Funds (SMSFs) and has a preliminary recommendation that:
a) the acquisition of collectables and personal use assets by SMSF trustees be prohibited;
b) SMSFs that own collectables or personal use assets be provided a transitional period,
up to 30 [...]
Ever since the original proposition by a 19th century German economist Adolph Wagner, Wagner’s law has undergone significant theoretical and empirical discussion on its long-run validity. In the most basic and rudimentary version, the law states that alongside the economic development of industrial societies, there is a persistent tendency of an increasing share of government [...]
The entire system around which daily life is organized in the United States, undergirded by the Federal Reserve Note dollar, is crumbling. Both long-term trends and externalities, like the BP mess, are natural and predictable consequences. Inertia is such a strong force that the avoidable often becomes, in the macro, unavoidable. But individually you can [...]
While gold, silver and platinum are risk-free the precious metals industry contains both sterling actors and unscrupulous shysters. All are trying to make a profit which, if done morally, is commendable. The Glenn Beck and Goldline issue raised by Mr. Weiner is nonsense. But as a purchaser I want to get the best value. Oftentimes [...]
In recent years, there has been an upsurge of difficulties in Indian finance, rooted in the `financial regulatory architecture’ – the block diagram of which agency does what. A lot of what is found in India’s present block diagram is rooted in obsolete legislation.
On the [...]
There is no such thing as a free market. There are only markets regulated by customers, and markets regulated by politicians. If you want your markets regulated by politicians, you have to believe that they are better at running your own life than you are. I don’t understand why you think that.
The problem
The best thing that you can ask for, in getting around a city, is a comprehensive underground metro system, where a tube station is at worst 200m away from wherever you might be. There is no city in India that has this. While the Delhi Metro is very impressive, it is still not aiming [...]





