America
Victory or Surrender?
“You cannot reason with a tiger when your head is in its mouth.” Winston Churchill. I love a lot of Winston Churchill’s sayings, but the one above fits the subject of this blog today pretty [more…]
Economics
America
Notes from a briefing paper discussed under Chatham Rule
Chatham Rule Named after Chatham House (the Royal Institute of International Affairs), which introduced the rule in 1927: “When a meeting, or part thereof, is held under the Chatham House Rule, participants are free to [more…]
Business
Government as the Ultimate Cause of the Tragedy of the Commons
A good definition of the Tragedy of the Commons is that “Resources that are un-owned and/or un-ownable will be plundered to extinction”. Consider the fishes of the seas, especially those that migrate such as whales [more…]
Economics
Designing Tax Policy – it should be obvious!
A well-designed tax policy would extract from citizens’ wealth what’s needed by the government to protect their lives and civil liberties. It would not be designed to achieve purely political objectives, no matter how dressed [more…]
America
A salute to small business owners!
I went to a bookstore and asked the saleswoman, ‘Where’s the self-help section?’ She said if she told me, it would defeat the purpose. George Carlin! The above has nothing to do with this blog!! [more…]
Business
A fork in the road: Digital Fiat vs. Decentralized Money
I have long thought about and written about the incredible opportunities that decentralized digital technologies have brought forward, especially when it comes to solving financial and monetary problems. The more these technologies and their applications [more…]
Collecting
Going for Gold – Part 8
Prior to becoming interested in precious metals I had never visited the inside of an auction house, let alone placed a bid. However, during the last lockdown I discovered that auctions can be a rich [more…]
Authoritarianism
Denying Reality Leads to Tyranny and Societal Failure
The common thread that connects failed societies, from Weimar Germany to the Soviet Union, is an almost pathological insistence on denying reality. Weimar Germany denied that masses of printed money would destroy civilized society. The [more…]
Arts
Memories of Japan, Centre Point to Osaka
In 1985 I worked for Mitsubishi Electric and that gave me the privilege of visiting Japan three times and getting to know something of the Japanese working and business psyche. It introduced me to Japanese [more…]