Author: Pater Tenebrarum

A Major Crisis Last week Jayant Bhandari related the story of the overnight ban of certain banknotes in India under cover of “stamping out corruption” (see Gold Price Skyrockets In India after Currency Ban Part 1 and Part 2 for the details). Banned 500 rupee banknotes The problem is inter alia that the sudden ban of these banknotes has hit the Indian economy quite hard, given that 97% of all transactions in the country are cash-based. Not only that, it has certainly created fresh avenues for corruption – which should have been expected (whether it will succeed in its aim … Continue reading →

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The Asset They Love to Hate … Back in the 1960s, Alan Greenspan wrote a well-known essay that to this day is an essential read for anyone who wants to understand the present-day monetary and economic system (which is a kind of “fascism lite” type of statism, masquerading as capitalism) and especially the almost visceral hate etatistes harbor toward gold. Greenspan’s essay is entitled “Gold and Economic Freedom”, and as the title already suggests, the two are intimately connected. What makes Greenspan’s essay especially noteworthy is that it manages to present both theory and history in a concise, easy to … Continue reading →

Politicians have always labored under the entirely mistaken impression that one can keep people from doing what they actually want to do, or that markets can be suppressed by outlawing them. The greatest monument to this folly is the utter failure known as the “war on drugs”. Even those who believe in the notion that the government should look after the “Volksgesundheit”, or, as is far more likely in the case of drug prohibition, should enforce Puritanical morals on people against their will (while ensuring the profitability of officially sanctioned drug pushers in the form of the pharmaceutical industry on … Continue reading →