Media theorist Douglas Rushkoff makes the good point that today’s stressful environments are a matter of doing too many things at the same time without adequate means of communicating with others. He writes: “When the social now is relegated to the multitasking digital envirornment, we may expect the results we have been witnessing: teen suicides, … Read more
Imagine a never-ending cruise. The bands are playing, the theaters are full, and the restaurants are crowded. Along with every modern comfort there’s fun, laughter, games and gadgets. The party always has one more joke, or one more dance to keep it going. Passengers think of the cruise as an entitlement, not a vacation. What … Read more
Token money is an unbacked currency that exceeds the value of the material of which it is made. Such money is often minted to facilitate small transactions and is usually found in coinage. A surprising description of token coinage can be found in the writings of Ludwig von Mises, who comments on the issuing of … Read more
Many have claimed the advantages of bigness in industry can be found in an increase in productivity and profitability. However, there is also a downside to bigness that is not often noted. History professor David Landes points out the disadvantages by saying: “We are often so impressed by the increase in productivity that results from … Read more
Commenting on the perils of the stock market in the nineteenth century, author Edward Chancellor notes how market operations presupposed inside information. In this period of great frenetic intemperance, operators like Daniel Drew in the early 1860’s learned the art of market manipulation. Not without its application to speculative schemes of our own days, Chancellor … Read more
Although the book, Return to Order: From a Frenzied Economy to an Organic Christian Society, was written with the American public in mind, its principles and concepts apply to the modern world in general. If there was an ideal place where the book’s universal appeal could be tested, it could be found at the 2013 … Read more
By Kevin Ritchie. The fourth annual Western Conservative Summit was organized by the Centennial Institute and Colorado Christian University on July 26-28 at the Hyatt Regency Denver. The conference was well organized, self-contained and packed with wall-to-wall talks, workshops, and breakout sessions. It was a perfect place for our table promoting the book, Return to … Read more
Dublin’s Buswell Hotel seemed a fitting place to launch the book, Return to Order. The atmosphere inside the conference room that July 25, was restrained, somewhat formal yet also inviting. Buswell’s is a traditional hotel right in the city center with the Parliament building just across the street and Trinity College nearby. One could almost … Read more
“An economist is someone who sees something happen in practice and wonders if it could work in theory”— Ronald Reagan Quoted from the 2013 book, It Didn’t Have to Be This Way: Why Boom and Bust is Unnecessary—and How the Austrian School of Economics Breaks the Cycle, by Harry C. Veryster.
When I think of the debate around the “sequester,” I think of an amusement park. I know that this is no laughing matter, but there’s something so incredibly unreal about the situation that an amusement park is what comes into mind. This comes from observing how things like quantitative easing, derivative instruments and massive debt … Read more
