Beautiful Anarchy

Absolutely nothing–no amount of regulation, no number of belligerent articles, no plethora of hectoring denunciations by big shots–is going to stop ICOs from completely disrupting the way companies raise funding in the future. The crypto market has been too wonderfully successful without the slightest help from government or the financial establishment. We already know. We’ve seen. The idea is out there. It’s already worked. The deed is done. Some tokens represent brilliant ideas, but many are pump-and-dumps, troll coins, or outright scams. But now the counter-revolution is underway, with governments leaning in, establishment spokesmen trying to spook markets, and incumbent...

By Jeffrey Tucker Vote2 1

Many of my friends are going through the same problem. They have built up a certain following on social media. Could be YouTube, Facebook, or Instagram. Their fans expect a certain line, a tone, an approach, the voice of a cause they favor. You loved the love when it was there, but now you face the hate. Then one day, the message changes because time and circumstances change. Their friends denounce them and unfollow. Panic ensues, followed by real depression. This is true especially if one’s following is rooted in politics or religion. You take a position that your fan...

By Jeffrey Tucker Vote2 2

The hot iron stopped generating steam, which meant that it was out of water. But no one really has a special tool for filling it up -- at least not nearby-- and you really don’t want to unplug it and take the whole hot iron to the sink. What to do? I tried dragging the iron to the sink while it was plugged in, which caused the cord to tangle and me to stumble a bit. The iron hit a beautiful stemmed wine glass that was on the counter and caused it to fly across the room. Oh no! The...

By Jeffrey Tucker Vote3 2

Nearly everyone knows there is something wrong with the world as it is. The liberty-minded person believes that he or she knows a major part of what is wrong. There is not enough flexibility and adaptability in the structures of government that presume to manage the social order. State systems have made life rigid and regimented–replete with regulations, taxes, mandates, and prohibitions–with the cost that too many people are excluded, demoralized, and impoverished. For moral and practical reasons, this situation must end. The vast majority of the human family continues to live under the illusion that giving government more power...

By Jeffrey Tucker Vote1 2

The great classic of naturalist philosophy, Walden by Henry David Thoreau, is a fascinating book in so many ways: tremendously beautiful, personal, insightful, and moving. Thoreau was born 1817 and died 1862. He was an author, poet, anarchist, and abolitionist who wrote more than 20 volumes of essays. He made his home in Massachusetts and attended Harvard. He came to Walden to live after working in his parent’s pencil factory, to which he returned after leaving Walden. He made several patented improvements in the pencil. It is easy to understand why Walden has become part of the modern canon and...

By Jeffrey Tucker Vote5 2

Nearly every song, and every solo, on Miles Davis’s album “Kind of Blue” I can play in my head. But sometimes it is not enough. I have to hear it again in real audible space. It never disappoints. In fact, it is nearly transcendent. I’m hardly alone in my opinion. It’s the biggest selling jazz album of all time, a fact I only know from reading Wikipedia. Thanks to my Google Home – how did we live without home assistants? – it comes up instantly with just a few words, and I listened all over again at 3am because I couldn’t...

By Jeffrey Tucker Vote3 2

There’s a new wrinkle in the story of one of the largest data breaches in history. The hack of Equifax may have compromised the personal data of one in five Americans. The hackers have now demanded a ransom with the threat of releasing that information to the commercial marketplace (“monetizing the information”). They are demanding 600 Bitcoins, which is worth about $2.4 million. "We are two people trying to solve our lives and those of our families. We did not expect to get as much information as we did, nor do we want to affect any citizen. But we need...

By Jeffrey Tucker Vote2 0

This summer, for whatever reason, fruit flies were out in full force. If you opened your back door only briefly, you would be swatting those nasty things for days. It was so bad for me that I dreaded opening the door at all. It is not a door at all. It is a piece of mesh that fits over the whole opening of the door.Why doesn’t a screen door keep them out? It might have but I had no screen door. Because of the shape of the frame, I didn’t think there was any prospect of getting one. Then one...

By Jeffrey Tucker Vote2 0

Let’s talk about one of the most stressful aspects of professional life: asking for raises. I’ve been on both sides, asking for raises and being asked for raises. It’s a completely normal part of work life, nothing unusual. And yet people are terrified of the entire topic. It causes tremendous stress. It’s not entirely clear why. The labor contract is just an agreement between two parties, same as any other exchange. If you want to renegotiate and ask for different terms, that should be seen as just doing business. Somehow this is not what happens. Instead, the worker begins to...

By Jeffrey Tucker Vote1 0

Nothing about Jamie Dimon’s anti-Bitcoin explosion (“Bitcoin is a fraud”) made sense. The timing was weird. After all, Bitcoin has proven itself the world over since its first proof-of-concept back in October 2009. There was no real news out there that would have prompted the CEO of JP Morgan to blow up in a rage and say the following: “The currency isn’t going to work. You can’t have a business where people can invent a currency out of thin air and think that people who are buying it are really smart. If you were in Venezuela or Ecuador or North...

By Jeffrey Tucker Vote5 0

The fast and furious rise of the alt-right in Europe, the UK, and the US has caught many people intellectually off-guard. I can speak for myself in this respect. My education and reading prepared me well to understand the statism of the left. My instincts became finely tuned. The threat to liberty from the right was always an abstraction: something that happened in history but had no present relevance. The roots of this new movement are much deeper than, for example, the Trump campaign.Herein lies the danger of ever having considered yourself a completed intellectual. There is always more to...

By Jeffrey Tucker Vote3 0

There’s a new wrinkle in the story of one of the largest data breaches in history. The hack of Equifax may have compromised the personal data of one in five Americans. The hackers have now demanded a ransom with the threat of releasing that information to the commercial marketplace (“monetizing the information”). They are demanding 600 Bitcoins, which is worth about $2.4 million. "We are two people trying to solve our lives and those of our families. We did not expect to get as much information as we did, nor do we want to affect any citizen. But we need...

By Jeffrey Tucker Vote1 1

This summer, for whatever reason, fruit flies were out in full force. If you opened your back door only briefly, you would be swatting those nasty things for days. It was so bad for me that I dreaded opening the door at all. It is not a door at all. It is a piece of mesh that fits over the whole opening of the door.Why doesn’t a screen door keep them out? It might have but I had no screen door. Because of the shape of the frame, I didn’t think there was any prospect of getting one. Then one...

By Jeffrey Tucker Vote1 0

A major project of mine for the last three years has been to trace the origin and development of the ideas that led to today’s alt-right activists. They have emerged on the political scene suddenly and with impressive ferocity. Some people just assume that they represent nothing but a melange of hate and racism. Even the most dumbed-down political movement is built by slaves of defunct philosophers. This is too simple. Even the most dumbed-down political movement is built by slaves of defunct philosophers. But which ones? And does the worldview cohere to the point that we can anticipate the...

By Jeffrey Tucker Vote6 1

It is a fact: the United States is one of the best spots in the world for freedom of the press. The courts do not stand ready to persecute people for saying and printing things merely because they annoy people with power. In this way, the US is far ahead of most countries in the world, where libel law is frequently used to quash the freedom to speak. This is an especially pressing issue in times when anyone with a Twitter account has the power to reach billions. We are all members of the press. We all need the freedoms...

By Jeffrey Tucker Vote3 2

Five years ago, the following would have been inconceivable. In a 48-hour period, the dollar/bitcoin exchange ratio dropped fully $1,000. A day later, half the gains came back. In the Bitcoin community, this was hardly discussed at all. Not even the websites and writers specializing in the topic wrote much about it. Hysterical claims that “Bitcoin is dead” were at a minimum. The market cap of the entire sector, as of this writing, is an astonishing $170 billion.To me, that’s mind blowing. It’s a different world from the one I entered when I received my first bitcoin. A friend tells...

By Jeffrey Tucker Vote4 4

The fast and furious rise of the alt-right in Europe, the UK, and the US has caught many people intellectually off-guard. I can speak for myself in this respect. My education and reading prepared me well to understand the statism of the left. My instincts became finely tuned. The threat to liberty from the right was always an abstraction: something that happened in history but had no present relevance. The roots of this new movement are much deeper than, for example, the Trump campaign.Herein lies the danger of ever having considered yourself a completed intellectual. There is always more to...

By Jeffrey Tucker Vote7 1

When a Catholic does something wrong, he or she says “mea culpa.” It means: it’s my fault, and I’m sorry about that. It’s the human way to turn sad things into happy things. But what about faults that actually end up with good results? It turns out that we are surrounded by them. They are everywhere. There is a handy Latin phrase for that too: felix culpa. It means happy fault. This refers to something you did wrong or of which you are a seeming victim, something with immediate results that seem regrettable, but because of either a correction that...

By Jeffrey Tucker Vote5 0

“Economics puts parameters on people’s utopias.” Yes. That’s exactly it. That’s why the politicians hate economics. That’s why the media are so… selective over which economists they call on to talk about policy. That’s why the economics departments in colleges are put down by the sociologists, philosophers, literature professors and just about anyone else who has romantic longings for a coerced utopia. “The teachings of the principles of economics should inform as much on what not to do, perhaps even more than providing a guide to public action.” Economists just keep bursting people’s bubbles.That’s it again. Don’t control prices. Don’t...

By Jeffrey Tucker Vote5 0

It’s always an occasion of note when Paul Krugman says a true thing. And it has happened. “Given the powers we grant to the president, who in some ways is almost like an elected dictator, giving the office to someone likely to abuse that power invites catastrophe.” Abused power is indeed potentially catastrophic. Perhaps there is an alternative to creating the moral hazard in the first place? If you advertise the position of dictator, you shouldn’t be surprised when the wrong kind of person applies for the job. The hashtag #NeverTrump should really be #NeverRiskAnotherTrump.The idea of an “elected dictator”...

By Jeffrey Tucker Vote3 1

ICOs Will Not Be Defeated Sep 21, 2017

Can You Maintain Both Your Integrity and Your Fan Base? Sep 20, 2017

Just One Word: Plastics Sep 19, 2017

The Dos and Don’ts of Talking Liberty Sep 18, 2017

Henry David Thoreau Knew that Freedom Is Love Sep 16, 2017

The Musical Genius of Bill Evans Sep 15, 2017

Equifax Hackers Demand Ransom in Bitcoin Sep 14, 2017

It’s Hard to Think of Simple Things, Like My Screen Door Sep 14, 2017

How To Ask for a Raise Sep 14, 2017

Jamie Dimon Fears His Job Is Obsolete Sep 14, 2017

Nine Books to Understand the Collectivist Right Sep 13, 2017

Equifax Hackers Demand Ransom in Bitcoin Sep 13, 2017

It’s Hard to Think of Simple Things, Like My Screen Door Sep 13, 2017

A Rogues Gallery of Right-Hegelians Sep 10, 2017

Libel Law Is How Governments Kill Free Speech Sep 9, 2017

Bitcoin Drops by $1,000 and No One Cares Sep 8, 2017

Nine Books to Understand the Collectivist Right Sep 6, 2017

Just Say Felix Culpa Sep 3, 2017

You Live and Breathe Economics Sep 2, 2017

Krugman Discovers the Problem with Presidential Power Sep 1, 2017