World History

The evidence indicates that a prevalence of slavery in an economic system is a robust predictor of subpar economic growth and a creativity deficit.

It remains extremely unclear why 2020’s trends in these metrics would justify the extreme panic and human rights violations that resulted from stay-at-home edicts and coerced medication.

Lockdowns and school closures will go down as one of the worst peacetime policy disasters of all time. Never again should the well-being of our children be sacrificed to placate the neuroses of adults.

Tulipmania—the famous bubble in tulip prices in the Dutch Republic—cannot be explained by studying the "fundamentals of the tulip market." The answer lies in manipulation of the financial sector. 

It is striking to realize that dikes were not only built without the state, but also that the dike areas can be regarded as seceding territories, which came close to private-law societies.

The classical gold standard brought the rise of central banks and state-imposed monetary "standardization."  This set the stage for later monetary disasters. 

It took many centuries for regimes to secure the sort of prestige and power necessary to claim a monopoly over money. From the state's perspective, it has been worth it.

Capitalism is not a "legacy of colonialism" in Africa. In fact, markets and interregional trade have long been practiced on the continent. And markets today are still the answer to raising standards of living.

Turgot understood primitive modes of social organization are able to support much smaller numbers of people. If population increased, an egalitarian primitive society would be unable to cope with the added burden.

So oppressive was the Inca regime that it's no wonder the Spaniards found many enemies willing to help topple the empire.