The Daily Economy

  • Central Bank or Not, Fractional-Reserve Bitcoin Violates Sound Money

    A common misconception is that the only problem with current money is the central bank, and that once we abolish government control everything is going to be fine. However, a sound-money regime has to provide for the consistent time structure of property rights in money.

    Central Bank or Not, Fractional-Reserve Bitcoin Violates Sound Money
  • The Digital Denationalisation of Money

    Cryptocurrencies are still quite new and seem to just be scratching the surface of their potential. If they are to succeed — not only as a fringe medium of exchange or speculative investment, but as real competitors with government currencies — some new programmers are going to have to come along and make currencies whose…

    The Digital Denationalisation of Money
  • How IKEA Changed Our Values and Lives

    Ingvar Kamprad, the founder of IKEA, has died at the age of 91. He is a remarkable example of how enterprise and visionary entrepreneurship can have such a profound effect on the world. Even now, walking into an IKEA store for the first time is a riveting experience. It invites you to reassess your life…

    How IKEA Changed Our Values and Lives
  • What’s Wrong with Copyright and How to Fix It

    To my mind, Creative Commons is an imperfect solution to a major problem, while the best solution would simply leave the whole problem of production, ownership, and attribution to the market itself. But that is not the world we yet live in. Until then, it’s a beautiful thing that the market has found a stop-gap…

    What’s Wrong with Copyright and How to Fix It
  • Civil Asset Forfeiture Undermines Free Enterprise and Human Dignity

    Private property rights are the foundation of free enterprise. Without property rights trade will be suppressed and pushed underground. Growth is strangled and good people resort to dealing with corrupt officials and black market sellers just to get through their lives. We are all made worse off when authorities have excessive discretion, and without proof…

    Civil Asset Forfeiture Undermines Free Enterprise and Human Dignity
  • International Survey Finds Common Factor in Unaffordable Housing

    The analysis of housing in nine developed countries reveals that urban planning is the main threat to housing affordability and human prosperity.

    International Survey Finds Common Factor in Unaffordable Housing
  • Modest Headline Masks a Strong Quarter for U.S. Economy

    The initial estimate for fourth-quarter real gross domestic product (GDP) growth came in at 2.6 percent. However, Real final sales to private domestic purchasers, a measure of private domestic demand, rose a robust 4.6 percent in the fourth quarter, well above the 2.6 percent real-GDP headline.

    Modest Headline Masks a Strong Quarter for U.S. Economy
  • Socialists Must Own Up to Venezuela

    So long as there are those who believe in socialism, we will always run the risk that they will do to us what their ideological brethren did to Venezuela.

    Socialists Must Own Up to Venezuela
  • Trump’s Tariff Threat Is Real

    Trump seems to understand what is wrong with red tape and high costs within the borders but he seems blind to the terrible costs of doing the same to goods and services that cross the border into the United States.

    Trump’s Tariff Threat Is Real
  • New- and Existing-Home Sales Are Showing Divergent Paths

    Sales of new and existing single-family homes fell in December. However, a stronger postrecession recovery in existing-home sales has pushed the current months supply to an all-time low while the months supply for single-family homes has held relatively steady in recent months.

    New- and Existing-Home Sales Are Showing Divergent Paths
  • Bettina Bien Greaves, Faithful Servant of History

    She had a beautiful and blunt way about her, never sugar-coating the history but always inspired by an ideal she fell in love with and never gave up: the idea that human freedom is the right principle for the good society.

    Bettina Bien Greaves, Faithful Servant of History
  • Localize It

    What would happen if local governments had a lot more control over policy? Some localities could lower taxes and provide fewer services, while others could do the opposite. Local school boards could have much greater control over curricula and measuring outcomes. And many aspects of the culture wars could be settled at a level where…

    Localize It