In their rush to get the jump on competitors, major retailers are already starting their holiday sales offers. While shoppers are not yet lining up at box store entrances in the summer heat, they are being actively solicited by retailers with special announcements of holiday savings. Already in late August, Toys R Us declared that … Read more
When speaking of the traditional family, we must see it as more than just the sum of living members composed of a father, mother, and children. Throughout history, the family has always been understood to mean the unity of the whole lineage of ancestors and descendants. It was only with the Enlightenment that this universally … Read more
I received a very interesting e-mail from a gentleman who has bought the book, Return to Order, and raised a number of very intriguing questions and comments. His concern is that the book misdiagnoses our modern problem by not going straight to the root of the problem – capitalism. To get results, he claims, one … Read more
It’s Not an Exact Science; That’s Why Other Factors Must Be Considered, Says Socio-economics Scholar. The crux of the 2008 economic collapse was the abstract and unnatural repackaging and sale of subprime mortgages, which were sold on the false premise of being valued products. The world learned the hard way that these were toxic assets … Read more
It is largely symbolic but it does express well the problem. Japan’s economy is in trouble. The country’s debt burden has now topped 1 quadrillion yen. Japan’s central government debt at the end of its fiscal year was 1,008,628,100,000,000 yen which translates into some $10.5 trillion dollars. At 230 percent, Japan has more debt as … Read more
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
