Bagelshop Blues

Posted on November 23, 2012 by ben

So I was on the way home with Mouse and bumped into Andrew Colbert playing outside the Bagel Shop.  Since I had my Zoom on me, I flipped it on.  Check it out. Continue reading →

Posted in Current Events, Eclection, Local (Ottawa), Not-so-current Events, Song | Leave a comment

Brilliant Bastiat

Posted on November 4, 2012 by ben

I have quoted from Bastiat before, and will again.  Here below is something from his “Harmonies of Political Economy”, the full text of which can be found here.

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Canadian MoneySaver Article

Posted on October 29, 2012 by ben

I was honoured in having Canadian MoneySaver publish some of my thoughts on money in their October 2012 edition.  They were also good enough to provide me a PDF of the article:

OCT12_MoneyandCurrency_Bacque Continue reading →

Posted in Economics, Investing, Science and Technology | Leave a comment

On certainty

Posted on June 14, 2012 by ben

One of the great motive forces in man’s action is the desire to reduce uncertainty.  Almost everything we do can be viewed as “insurance”.  We eat now in case we are unable to eat later.  We build a roof over our head on a sunny day so that we might be dry in case it rains.  We save money for the same reason.

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Best convocation rant ever?

Posted on June 13, 2012 by ben

This found its way to my email inbox, and it was such a good rant I feel compelled to give it voice here: Continue reading →

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Truth is not a four-letter word

Posted on June 12, 2012 by ben

A man claiming to be Truth arrives at the temple, and wishes to meet the Dalai Lama.
Announced, Truth enters, sits, and the two sit long, in silence, examining each other.
Truth eventually breaks the silence, and says: “I am here.”
The Dalai Lama asks: “What took you so long?”
Truth responds: “I did not know what I was, nor where I was to be found.”
Dalai Lama: “Do you know now?”
Truth: “I cannot know.”
Dalai Lama: “Welcome, Truth” Continue reading →

Posted in Eclection, Economics, Not-so-current Events, Politics, Science and Technology, Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Order, or dark matter?

Posted on June 11, 2012 by ben

In a previous post I mention emergent order in freely operating complex systems.  In this one I want to make a scientific prediction.  I believe that it will be discovered that “dark matter” and “dark energy”  do not exist.  John Moffat’s arguments in “Reinventing Gravity” are strong.  Continue reading →

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Gold standards that work

Posted on June 11, 2012 by ben

In previous posts I talked about how we discovered money, and about the failed Bretton Woods gold standard.  One must ask: is it possible to have gold as our money, yet still use paper or digital currency?  The answer is yes.

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Bacq 2 Bretton Woods

Posted on June 11, 2012 by ben

I hope if you are reading this, you understand that we didn’t invent money, we discovered it, and that gold is money, or more correctly, currency.  We should really reserve “money” to describe the idea alone, and “currency” for what we use to trade.

We have all lived in a time when things other than gold are used as money, i.e. our fiat currencies.  When I was born and through my childhood, gold was still very much in use, and that “gold is money” was common knowledge.  Continue reading →

Posted in Economics, Not-so-current Events, Politics, Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Why gold, why tree?

Posted on June 11, 2012 by ben

Seeing as we still have the site up, I thought it might be a good idea to try and find all the old passwords etc, find my way in, and try to recall how to create a post here.  Done.  Now, do I have anything to say?  Um, well yes.  Lets start with some jokes…

Continue reading →

Posted in Economics, Politics, Uncategorized | 2 Comments