The Federal Reserve is no good. Its money monopoly has wrecked havoc for 100 years. So, I welcome currency competition from Virginia, although I’d prefer it came from the free market. That said, the Federal Reserve will continue to dominate as long as legal tender laws are in full effect. Here’s more on the war on the Federal…
How well does Congress reflect the people it “serves” (“rules” might be a better word)? Not very well, it turns out. How else could lawyers make up 37% of the U.S. Congress, both now and in 1789? Not to pick on lawyers either…out of the 209 “businesspeople” in Congress, how many do you think are clerks, bakers,…
And so Saturday mail comes to an end. Is anyone really that surprised? No competition = No reason to innovate or improve service. Where’s Lysander Spooner when you need him? Here’s more on the U.S. Postal Service ending Saturday deliveries at Fox News: The U.S. Postal Service plans to announce Wednesday that it will end…
It’s been one hundred years since the modern income tax was created, via the 16th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Back then income tax rates ran from 1% for annual incomes over $3, 000 to 7% for annual incomes over $500,000 (that’s $11.6 million in today’s dollars!). Current tax rates run from 10% to 39.6%….
Two months ago, U.S. courts forced Odyssey Marine Exploration to hand over the so-called Black Swan treasure to the Spanish government. What will Spain do with it? What will happen to the Black Swan Treasure? Spain’s claim to the treasure was tenuous at best and completely lacking in proof. But as you might expect, international laws…
Who’s the better U.S. President? Barack Obama? Or the little-known Rutherford B. Hayes? Battle of the Presidents: Barack Obama vs. Rutherford B. Hayes? In what promises to be the strangest President vs. President battle of 2012, President Obama knocked President Rutherford B. Hayes (1877-1881) yesterday over his apparent dislike of the telephone. “One of my…
In 1820, the U.S. whaling industry was just a blip, generating about $1 million in revenue per year. Thirty years later, it had grown nearly 1,000%, making the U.S. the global leader in whaling. By 1900, U.S. whaling revenues had declined an astonishing 90%. What happened? The Mysterious Decline of the U.S. Whaling Industry? The rise…
On May 18, 2007, Odyssey Marine Exploration flew 17 tons of salvaged gold and silver coins to a secure facility in Florida. Now, five years later, U.S. courts have forced Odyssey to hand over this treasure to the Spanish government. What is the Black Swan Heist? Odyssey & the Mysterious Black Swan Project? Odyssey is…