There are a series of big important lawsuits currently under way, exploring the question of whether or not drivers for ride hailing services like Uber and Lyft are "employees" or "contractors." It seems fairly obvious that they should be contractors -- they use their own equipment, they set their own schedules,... (more)
Uber, Lyft, and similar rideshare companies represent a direct threat to state-controlled taxi cartels and their (increasingly unsellable) medallions. Now a class action lawsuit against Uber has been cleared for a federal court jury in California, alleging that its drivers should be classified as employees rather than independent contractors. If so, Uber potentially could owe mi... (more)
As the financial crisis of 2008 took shape, the policy recommendations were not slow in coming: why, economic stability and American prosperity demand fiscal and monetary stimulus to jump-start the sick economy back to life. And so we got fiscal stimulus, as well as a program of monetary expansion without precedent in US history.
David Stockman recently noted that we have in effect had fifteen solid years of stimulus -- not just the high-profile programs like the $700 billion TARP... (more)
The most legitimate argument against Bitcoin, is the fact that it isn’t backed by anything tangible. While it does use math and cryptography to create scarcity, at the end of the day bitcoins are still just digits on a screen. In that regard, they’re aren’t that different from fiat currencies. Their value is dictated by confidence and belief, rather than real world value.
But that may be about to change. Not for bitcoin, but for digital currencies in general. The... (more)
Since I'm not a person who follows the climate-change debate or climate science in detail, I don't get involved in discussions over temperature readings or climate trends. On the other hand, I find it's a very bad idea to leave the science of economics and political economy up to climate scientists and their friends in politics who tend to be woefully deficient in their knowledge of how economies work or how scarce goods and amenities can be preserved, obtained, or manufactured.
Back in March, we wrote about a really bad bill that had been proposed in California by Assemblymember Matt Dababneh, called AB 1326. As we noted, it would basically destroy the ability of new startups in the Bitcoin space to build their businesses in California. Specifically, it would require any startup in the bro... (more)
