Justin Wolfe is the main character in the book, Optimizing America. In the book, Justin is reluctantly running for president. He is reluctant because he knows there is a big price to pay for being scrutinized by both the media and opposition research. Presidential elections always come down to a choice between two seemingly poor candidates, the choice between two …
When Germany suspended the gold standard to help fund the costs of WWI, they set in motion a series of economic dominoes that concluded with a grand finale: a system of global monetary rules and standards. While hindsight is always 20/20, it is helpful to look back at the causes for Germany’s dire economic situation in the 1910s to see …
Just like global warming, the steady march of work place robotics should instill immediate concern in the public. The World Bank estimates that, within the next twenty years, up to 57% of the world’s jobs face the prospect of automation. Where’s the outrage? Not in America, where one Pew Foundation study found half of its participants realize that automation will …
There is a lot of hypocrisy in American political history. The Civil War had as much to do with business interests as a desire to end slavery, for example. Or take the Federal Reserve. An entity created to stabilize the consumer economy has created a nation built on debt that only serves the interests of the financial sector. But perhaps the largest hypocrisy of all …
The Constitution and the Problem with Representational Government Read More »
Echoes of the Civil War are still being felt today. Although the negative impacts of slavery were outlawed years ago, the rise of automation brings to bear many of the same economic issues. Let me explain further by proposing a thought experiment. Suppose the South won the Civil War, and slavery became legal in the Confederate States. How would the …
In 1971, President Nixon permanently dislodged the USD from the gold standard, ending nearly forty years of global monetary policy in which the USD was equal to a fixed price for gold. In its place, Nixon decided to introduce a floating currency exchange system called Fiat which remains in place today. The impact was disastrous any which way you look …
America is creating wealth and not working for it. Even on the surface this statement seems dangerous, but most people can see that its true. Many companies are worth billions of dollars as startups. Take the example of Facebook acquiring Instagram for 4-billion-dollars while it only had 16 employees. This acquisition was followed up by Facebook with a 16-billion-dollar purchase …
You may have heard the expression that ‘there is no difference between Democrats and Republicans’. You may also have defended either side as different. Perhaps you have called Democrats socialists or perhaps you have called Republicans fascists. Or worse, perhaps you do, or do not, support Donald Trump. There are many differences between the left and the right, but those …