Economics. Typical reactions range from blank stares to annoyed grumbles. It never has been sexy or hip, even if sexy or hip wouldn’t really exist without it. Since Fan Li wrote the “Golden Rules for Business” in 517 BC, people have been studying, writing about, and arguing economics nearly continuously. All of this studying,writing, and…
“Beware the pitfalls of the $20,000 free t-shirt!” One way or another, we have all heard of the “perils” of revolving credit. About how greedy corporatists will sucker naïve young consumers into signing up for a credit card with a $1,500 credit line at a 20% annual rate for a free t-shirt, and how those…
First appearing as “hire purchase” in the United Kingdom in the 1930’s, Rent-to-own(RTO) has grown into an $8.5 billion dollar industry serving almost 5 million people. Making billions and serving millions doesn’t mean it’s a good deal, and the industry has long fought a reputation of making money off the backs of the poor. “Buyer…
Milton Friedman was a tiny little Jewish fellow who grew up in New Jersey, the son of Eastern European immigrants. Famously logical, he was able to distill complex ideas into snippets palatable to even those with short attention spans. Saying things like “There is no such thing as a free lunch” and “Hell hath no…
“One of the great mistakes is to judge policies and programs by their intentions rather than their results.” ― Milton Friedman Our nation is driven by people who want to do good. Too often government policies and programs are enacted with the very best intentions and that’s all that seems to matter. The actual effectiveness…
Why your cash would likely test positive for drugs It is commonly known that about four out of five federal reserve notes in circulation at any one time will test positive for cocaine residue. Snopes calls them “dollar bills,” but it’s an accepted fact that your cash probably has cocaine on it. Trace amounts get…
Whether it’s Black Market or Legal, Weed is a Serious Cash Crop From the legal markets thriving in states like Colorado and Washington, to the underground trade that generates billions of Mexican cartels, the economics of weed are crazy. Ganja. Smoke. Dro. Chronic. Spliffage. The names are as varied as the opinions about it: from…
Regulatory Capture is a process by which regulatory agencies become dominated and directed by the corporations or special interests they are supposed to be regulating. It’s like putting the mafia in charge of writing regulations for bookmaking. Most generally associated with Nobel laureate George Stigler and postulated as an actual theory in the early 1970’s,…
Most people try to avoid being criminals. I believe that even in the darkest depths of any bureaucracy, there are good people who really desire to be “public servants.” This belief can be difficult to maintain when abuses and abusers are exposed but it is important that we realize that things left ignored become habits…
No. I do not hate “poor people”. I’ve been one. It was not much fun. Ramen noodles and stolen cable is no way to live. I am not a huge fan of being poor but I do not hate poor people. That being said, I do despise the minimum wage. Here are ten reasons why:…