The emergence of money and its importance in enabling trade between people has been well researched and documented in the literature of the Austrian School of economics  – Theory of Money and Credit by Ludwig von Mises and Man, Economy and State by Murray N. Rothbard being prime examples. The contribution of the Austrian greats to the understanding of money and its origin made clear exactly what money is (e.g. the most marketable commodity), the different types of media that are employed in exchange between people (e.g. commodity money, credit money, fiat money and money substitutes) and a theoretical explanation for their origin (the Regression Theorem). The Austrian School has also given arguably the most convincing analysis of the relationship between the money type in use, the manner by which it is controlled and the business cycle – emphasizing the importance of sound money. But except for a few sparse outliers, what the Austrian School has yet to do is fully recognize Bitcoin as a valid scholarly and academic topic. With this article, I hope to contribute to its recognition.

Cities across the country are experiencing more difficulty making ends meet. Consider Vallejo, CA, Detroit, MI, and Harrisburg, PA. Some people believe this difficulty is because of rising prices. Others say it is due to declining revenues. Perhaps there is another explanation — more government regulation.

The last couple of months proved a very exciting time for bitcoin and its new owners, with values increasing from $30 to $260 within a month only to come crashing down in days. It went from virtual anonymity to virtual ubiquity and back again - the only constant being that it’s virtual. The dust has now settled and the talking heads have changed topic, and bitcoin is slowly regaining strength. But does this mean we can finally, in a quiet and rational way, contemplate what this bitcoin really is and where it has room to fit into our lives? The answer to that is no, because the concept of bitcoin is so strange, unintuitive and foreign, no matter when you discuss it and with whom, it will lead to very divisive arguments. So I say now is as good a time as any to dive in and discuss it.

Warren Buffett is a well-respected stock picker (and rightly so), whose every word is hung onto by many would-be investors. Unfortunately, Mr. Buffett sometimes strays beyond his area of expertise and comments on things like taxes and gold.

Even if you detest your job, it can be devastating to get the news that you have been terminated or laid off. Instead of allowing this to send you into a downward spiral, however, it is important to look for the positive aspects that can accompany this transitional period of your career.

I recently read a book called How Money Walks. Its conclusion was that working wealth appears to move to better places, tax-wise. To demonstrate this point, the author showed how the state of Florida attracted $86.4 billion between 1995 and 2010. Arizona gained $24.5 billion, Texas $22.1 billion, North Carolina $21.6 billion, and Nevada gained $16 billion. These were all states with relatively low tax extractions.

When a person wants something, food for example, he must give something of value to the seller of the food to buy the food, or else the seller won’t sell it. Money was invented to facilitate this trade. Money is simply a medium of exchange making it possible for people to trade their goods and services for other goods and services conveniently. The best money, of course, is something that holds its value (relatively speaking), is easily divisible, and is accepted by as many people as possible. Traditionally this has been gold and silver. More recently, pieces of paper have been used as a substitute for the best money, again, for convenience. Unfortunately, pieces of paper can be printed, using ever larger numbers on them, without any backing or any relation to the value that is given in exchange for that paper. The recipients must have faith that the next person will accept that paper when it’s time to pass it along and buy something else with it. And when people realize that the paper they are receiving for their goods won’t hold its value, they will discount its value, unload it more quickly, and eventually refuse to accept it.

Originally, the U.S. dollar was defined as 371.25 grains of pure silver (plus an additional 44.75 grains of alloy for durability), or 24.75 grains of gold (plus 2.25 grains of alloy for durability). Notice that this is a 15 to 1 ratio of silver to gold. Traditionally, the ratio of silver to gold varied between 15 to 1 and 16 to 1, depending on the supply that was mined.

Socialism is a social system where the means of production is owned by government. Ownership can be acquired either through force (civil forfeiture, for example) or through purchase. If acquired through purchase, depreciating currency that is required to be accepted for all debts public and private is used.

Now that the recent presidential election is over, voters all across the country can breathe a collective sigh of relief. The deluge of campaign advertising that has bombarded the public since the start of the election process will finally come to an end, and normalcy can reassert itself and the work that elected officials are put into office to do can commence. The total cost of this election was calculated to have been about $6 billion dollars, making it the most costly election on record. Spending for both sides of the presidential campaign accounted for $2.5 billion alone. This influx of money into the election process certainly begs the question: what impact does election spending have on the overall US economy? The answer to this question is not as obvious as it might seem.

Lots of people are watching the Arab Spring with a curious fascination and wondering whether the same thing could happen in the United States.

No one likes to lose money on an investment. Markets fluctuate daily and downward trends can cost an investor a large amount of money. It is important to understand that common market movement is part of the assumed risk with investing in the market, but there are also times when an investment agent is not fully honest with the investor. This misconduct can be proven fraudulent, but it is not easy to pinpoint the intention. Caution is always a good policy when deciding on investment advice. 

Your first obligation to the poor people of the world is to not become one of them. It’s harder to help poor people if you’re one of them. As a rich person, you have a choice:  you can give people fish to eat, or you can employ them and teach them how to catch their own fish; i.e., how to be productive human beings.

Doctors have a tricky job: they have to find out what symptoms a patient is having and use those to figure out what the problem is. Sometimes, they figure out the problem, cure it, and the symptoms go away; other times, they mistake the symptoms for the problem, and just make things worse.

The modern world is expensive. Even the U.S. Mint is feeling the pinch. It costs the federal government more money to make nickels and pennies than the face value of those coins. It's not surprising that people borrow money to buy homes, get an education, replace the old clunker of a car or for emergencies of all types.