The Risky Vegas Market

Countrywide Mortgage CEO Angelo Mozilo believes that the “housing market officially turned south in January,” according to Banc Investment Daily, and that some overheated markets may see prices plunge by up to 40 percent. Mozilo mentioned Las Vegas as one of those risky markets.

The G-String Tax

Money is said to be the mother’s milk of politics. And for Las Vegas politicians the local strip club industry has provided a rich vein of cash that has been voraciously mined by politicians at all levels.

Hoppe Talks Turkey

In 484 BC, Herodotus, the father of written history, was born in the ancient city of Halikarnassos, known today as Bodrum, Turkey. During the winter, Bodrum is a sleepy town of 35,000, but come summertime the population explodes as half a million tourists from all over the world come to enjoy the beaches, boating, history, shopping and nightlife offered by this ancient city by the Aegean Sea.

History was again made in Bodrum recently with the inaugural meeting of the Property and Freedom Society, the brainchild of Professor Hans-Hermann Hoppe.

Property and Freedom

The price of gold’s collapse of $44 one day last week prompted a quick call to Camino Coin. Sales on gold have been few and far between this year and the sudden move below $600 per ounce was too good of a buying opportunity to pass up. However, in addition to selling me cheaper insurance against the coming dollar collapse, my guy at Camino was interested in learning more about the first Property and Freedom Society conference held last month in Bodrum, Turkey.

Planning vs. Affordable Housing

Local government growth-management planning has been a bone of contention during debates in Nevada between Democratic gubernatorial candidates state Sen. Dina Titus and Henderson Mayor Jim Gibson. Titus championed a bill in the 1997 Legislature that would have limited development in Clark County. The measure, based upon restrictions used in Portland, Ore., would have severely limited development outside of a “ring around the valley.”

A Single Mom vs. the Unions

What do you suppose the prospects are for a single mother who drops out of high school? Big government types point to these women as a shining example of a group that any rich, compassionate society needs to take care of. “What would happen if we turn our backs on these women and their families?” “We can’t let them fall through the cracks.”

White contra Mises on Fiduciary Media

Several recent blog posts indicate that the modern supporters of “free banking” continue to misconstrue the fundamental theoretical challenge posed by their critics. The main question is not about the ethical-legal issue of whether or not fractional-reserve banking is “fraud” under all circumstances. Nor, ultimately, is it even about fractional-reserve banking versus 100-percent reserve banking.

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