Sooooo good.  Thank you, thank you, WiseOne.

You get to collect tolls or an assessment payable by the village's residents.  You pay me back with interest.  Everyone is richer and happier. Well, perhaps not everyone is happier. From a Macro perspective, private credit needs to constantly increase in order for the population to pay the toll eve...

The trick is in expanding opportunities to gain wealth without reducing the heard-earned wealth of others in the process. I'm pondering this... I wonder if this is somewhat impossible. How do we preserve wealth while simultaneously allowing others to become wealthier? By definition, as others becom...

Gumby: I truly appreciate your magnanimous response.  As far as informational blinkers are concerned, we have all been victims at one time or another.  In fact, due to the conventional content of academic history texts, I used to teach certain themes in ways that closely followed the line you origin...

I think it is important not to bail out irresponsible banks as a way to bail out share holders or bond holders (irrespective of whether they wear monocles :) ). If banks can't fail, then banks have carte blanche to bloat up to the point where everyone is either a banker or a government employee and...

Gumby: Having lectured on American history over the years, I assure you I'm aware of the greenback movement, populism and Coxey's Army.  Revealing the shortcomings of a theory espoused in a certain video (Baum's Oz and the idea of debt-free money) doesn't signify unfamiliarity with, a failure to ack...

It comes down to an argument for debt-based money vs. debt-free money. I prefer the idea of debt-free money, in certain situations, since debt-based money tends to lead to an ever-increasing money supply (in order to keep things solvent). Thomas Edison and Henry Ford were supporters of debt-free mo...

TBV, did the big discoveries of gold in California and the Yukon make gold less of a "hard currency" during that period and was that instrumental for gold functioning well as money? I'm just struck by how successful monetary metal systems seem to coincide with massive discoveries of new m...

Having watched the movie myself, I am VERY interested to see TBV's questions/observations addressed by someone smarter than I (I'm looking at you, Gumby!  :) ) Meh. I think TBV has a certain opinion that I don't share. We can agree to disagree. He seems to think that bankers had our best interest i...

A less feverish monetary system would, I suggest, offer greater predictability, sustainability and the possibility of personal financial security through savings and the avoidance of excessive debt.  Not only that but a marked reduction in cronyism and speculation. There are two sides to the story....

If it's different and doping doesn't confer that much of an advantage, why do you think so many cyclists do it? I don't care either, but the whole story is pretty bizarre.  How do we know that whoever won second place in the Tour de France in 1999-2005 wasn't also doping? I didn't say it didn't con...

Compared to baseball players or weightlifters, tour cyclists are supermen.  Juicing to gain a prohibitive advantage in a sport where a few seconds of exertion is all that's required to win is truly despicable.  Having to submit to grueling weeks-long ordeals under all kinds of conditions while weavi...

Gumby:  It would not surprise me to have "mixed up a few historical realities."  But since the President was a Republican, the House only 24% Democrat and the Senate only 30% Democrat when Greenback legislation was passed, I don't think it's a stretch to conclude that Greenbacks came about...

Gumby:

Here's a prior link where we exchanged thoughts about who benefits from sound money.

http://gyroscopicinvesting.com/forum/ht ... 1#msg33721

http://i0.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/000/175/315/PicardDoubleFacepalm-1.jpg?1316330080 I used to agree with things like this... before I arrived here. These people don't seem to understand that a highly restricted money supply doesn't only prevent governments from spending recklessly (and i...

Intelligent people SHOULD have a problem with Marxism, whether it be the theory or the practice.  The jury is no longer out.  We have 160 years of experience with what Marxism means and what it leads to.  It leads to the legitimization of political violence.  It leads to the de-legitimization of all...

This site attracts folks whose insights are immensely interesting and entertaining.  However, forums that specialize in politics don't interest me much at all because EVERYONE has already heard/read the bullet points that get exchanged.  I hope we don't go too far down that road.  But let me offer u...

Stone: If I ran a tiny indefensible outpost of global excellence in Asia, I'd look for ways to encourage others to care what happens to me and my country.  Selling stakes in a rock-solid government's "debt" to all comers seems an excellent way to win friends and influence people.  Isn't th...

Neither Romney nor Ryan have to be libertarians or Austrians, though it would be great if they were.  They simply have to offer a level of competence that exceeds that of the current administration.  That shouldn't be hard.

TBV, Those numbers appear to be the 50+ catchup numbers of both 401k and IRA, whether Traditional or Roth. I do honestly feel there's very little to lose and very much to gain by defaulting to maxing out that Roth contribution before building up other forms of monetary wealth or maybe even paying d...

1) Asset protection in a Roth IRA is not as ironclad as a 401K or pension plan.  However, it all depends on which state you live in. http://www.latimes.com/la-ira-story3,0,6977190.story 2) @Notsheigetz: Roth IRA contribution of $21,500 plus $6,000???  How is that allowed? The stated limits are much ...

It was the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in support of the then existing communist government, against Muslim rebels. The Soviets did not invade in order to support the existing government.  Not unless you count using Spetsnaz shock troops to assassinate the Afghan president on day one as a show o...

John Hussman's latest commentary (the first paragraph especially) offers an apt description of how central bank and government intervention are part of everyone's expectations these days. http://www.hussmanfunds.com/wmc/wmc120730.htm A press release from the usual suspects, or the lack of one, seems...

 I'm still trying to reason out the philosophical case for government for myself, so I try to keep a fairly open mind about it; it seems to me that some government is better than no government, but where do you draw the line, and how can you make a logically consistent argument for it?   i struggle...

Instead, let me be so bold as to say that all public goods (be they highways, schools, police, defense, etc.) are a gift to society (though not quite as voluntary as the word gift might imply) by the relatively few among us who pay most of the income taxes.  Let's not forget the other benefactors, ...