theDrahos

Contra Corner is not about investment advice, but its unstinting critique of the current malignant monetary regime does not merely imply that the Wall Street casino is a dangerous place for your money. No, it screams get out of harms’ way. Now! Yet I am constantly braced with questions about the US dollar and its impending demise. The reasoning seems to be that if America is a debt addicted dystopia—-and it surely is—- won’t the US dollar sooner or later go down in flames as the day of reckoning materializes? Won’t you make money shorting the doomed dollar? Heavens no!  At least … Continue reading →

Conscription (i.e., “the draft”) was ended in the United States more than forty years ago, but it continues to be widely used outside North America and Western Europe. Recently, conscription in Ukraine has become an international issue as the Ukrainian state has reinstated the draft and met with significant opposition in many areas of the country. The use of forced military service in the region is hardly unique to Ukraine — Russia has a draft, too — but recent opposition has highlighted the fact that conscription is fundamentally incompatible with even a moderate amount of respect for private property. Conscription … Continue reading →

If you read between the lines on a recent report from American Express, it looks like more Americans are veering away from the traditional bank savings accounts: A majority consumers say they’ll keep their savings at a local bank (57% vs. 55% in 2014) but more than half of those who keep their savings in cash plan to hide bills in a secret location at home (53%). This means that 43% of the people who are saving money are not putting it in the bank.  This is good news for those of us who wish people would wake up and … Continue reading →

When did blacks become a bunch of old ladies clutching their pearls and fainting all over the place? “Owe my lowde,” they say in their angora cardigans and blue-tinted hair, “Somebody across the country used the most horrendous verbiage.” They’re like British aristocrats in Victorian England. Only, they’re not. We’ve created this mythical version of African America and some of them just can’t resist playing the role, especially when they’re being egged on by sobbing, white liberals. This week some “horrific” footage of fratboys singing, “There will never be a nigger at SAE” and “You can hang him from a … Continue reading →

Day in and day out, your skin gets exposed to harmful toxins. Because of that, you want to protect it. And just in case you aren’t as careful with skin care as you should be, I want to share these 5 facts about your skin so you can get a better idea of what it’s exposed to on a daily basis. 5 Basic Skin Facts You Should Know Your skin is the largest organ of your body, and it is under constant assault by a variety of environmental toxins. UV light from the sun, pollution, and chemicals in our water … Continue reading →

All sorts of officials accuse Russia of aggression in Ukraine. Is this true? It is not. It is fiction. It is a big lie. It is a specious claim, an absurd claim, a ridiculous claim, an unreal claim. Russia and Russians have been involved in certain respects in Ukraine, but by no sensible stretch of the imagination can such involvements be termed aggression. If there were an actual war aggression, it could not be hidden because the scope of a typical war aggression is very large. The photographic evidence for it would be overwhelming. No such evidence has been provided … Continue reading →

As the European Coal and Steel Community of Jean Monnet evolved into the EU, we were told a “United States of Europe” was at hand, modeled on the USA. And other countries and continents will inevitably follow Europe’s example. There will be a North American Union of the U.S., Canada and Mexico, and a Latin America Union of the Mercosur trade partnership. In an essay, “The E.U. Experiment Has Failed,” Bruce Thornton of Hoover Institution makes the case that the verdict is in, the dream is dead, the EU is unraveling, One Europe is finished. Consider, first, economics. In 2013, … Continue reading →

Be proud, America! You have the very best Congress that money can buy. It’s no secret that many in the House and Senate have long been  corrupted by money and special interests. The constant need to advertise on TV makes all politicians slaves of the money lenders and other big donors. The great Mark Twain called Congress “America’s only native criminal class.” Nothing much has changed. Members of Congress are held in even lower public esteem than murderers, lawyers and…journalists. It’s often cheaper to buy a legislator than a second-hand car. One of the biggest outrages has been the way … Continue reading →

The car business has become like the computer business – things change fast. Models change – radically – every four years (and sometimes everythree) rather than once every eight (or ten) as they used to back in the ’90s and before. Features undreamed of or found heretofore only in very expensive/exotic cars are now as common as floor mats. What else has changed? And what else should you “hip” yourself to? Here are a few to chew on: * For the first time ever, it may make more sense to lease – that is, to rent – rather than to buy. Part … Continue reading →

“So, what is the answer or is there no workable solution?” Random (but rational) thoughts on “a workable solution” in response to Nelson Hultberg’s editorial “Ayn Rand and Murray Rothbard: The Verdict After Fifty Years” “Have Rand and Rothbard given us an undergirding philosophy of rationality upon which to fight for freedom? Or have we launched a freedom movement upon a ship resplendent in sail, but possessed of a leaky hull and faulty tiller? Are our basic premises rational and irrefutable?” Yes, No and Yes. One of the distinguishing characteristics of Mr. Hultberg’s piece is the notable paucity of facts which  inconveniently … Continue reading →