Privatised Currency

Introductory Economics teaches that there are 3 fundamental properties of money: divisibility, transferability, and storing of value. Traditionally, various commodities which were rare, small, and relatively indestructible such as precious metals were the dominant currency or at least backed the value of dominant currencies. As governments became more stable and dominant in people's lives in the last two centuries, they were able to abandon all commodity backing of their treasury notes whilst letting currencies stand on their own merit as stores of value. This served to further governments grip over its populace by permitting enormous macroscopic control over wealth, interest rates, and inflation in the economy for good or ill.

We are now entering the information age where anyone may be able to create their own effective "virtual" currencies through modern technology. This soon will allow encrypted and anonymous transactions which will effectively transfer value beneath the radar of government. Governments will try to suppress this activity, but ultimately currency simply represents information and the preservation of information is a law of physics. With satellite internet available in a wristwatch, who will possibly be able to destroy the flow of information? Currency is an important example of the gradual inevitable decline in power and authority of governments and the rise of the multinational corporations as the dominant world powers of the future. After all, the modern system of Nation-States is an idea less than 200 years old, having been created at the Congress of Vienna. It will pass, like all previous forms of rule and diplomacy, into mere history texts.

The currencies of the near future will be varied, exchangeable, customised to individual financial needs and desires, and backed by a tradable basket of securities. To buy a haircut, you could be paying with shares of IBM and GOOG whilst the barber is receiving credit towards his new telescreen and futures contracts on organic wheat. I must thank David Friedman for first sharing this revelation with me in his book 'The Machinery of Freedom.'

This post was prompted by this WSJ article describing the current "virtual" currency, QQ, now being suppressed in Zhong Guo for doing just what I have described, undermining the legitimacy of the Yuan. As with other forms of information oppression, Zhong Guo is doomed to fail.

LEDs

A FT article about the development of the Blue LED, which makes possible white LEDs. This technology is set to vastly reduce world energy consumption and improve quality of life. Note the willingness of some corporations to completely screw employees that have made them billions of dollars for extremely little pay. Yet another reason to have a significant ownership or partnership interest in your company.

Starting Your Own Business

For anyone who has ever thought about starting their own business, this essay by Paul Graham may be encouraging. I am among many people I know who have started a business. Most of them have not yet acheived great success and even if it has to be a part time gig at first, it is all still worth it for the experience alone. If you can do it full time and make good money, tant mieux. Working at a start-up is also much better in terms of setting your own schedule. As such, the BBC found that flexible hours were the most valuable job benefit.

Freedom of the Press

I had a discussion recently with a friend regarding sensationalistic television news stories in the United States and what it says about our society in general. The discussion was provoked by a local Bay Area television news story which targeted the fears and frustrations of drivers concerning high gasoline prices in California. Rather than addressing the root causes of rising petroleum price or the strong economic arguments behind high consumption taxes on fossil fuels, the story instead targeted the anger and frustration of lower-income, uninformed drivers.

I have almost completely given up consuming television news media, but these stories get to the heart of the failure of modern American "democracy". The founders of the United States realised that freedom of the press and more abstractly, freedom of information, was fundamental to the proper functioning of a representative republic where the will of the masses translates ultimately into political policy and law. Unfortunately, the capitalist environment in which this "free press" operates, has transformed mass media into either infotainment, sensationalism, or fear-mongering. The purpose is simply to sell advertising by any psychological technique necessary to attract viewership and boost ratings. A society whose press is controlled by commercial interests is arguably as bad as or worse than one with governmental controls over the dissemination of information. The same distortions and manipulations are possible: media-driven public support for the invasion and occupation of Iraq proves the point.

The makers of the gasoline price stories are probably reasonably intelligent people of above average education. They likely understand that raising gasoline prices and especially raising prices through taxation are extremely beneficial overall to the global economy and environment. However, the stories lament high gasoline taxes, claiming they are an injustice. Ignoring economists or sensible policy makers who might actually enlighten the public, they focus on the petty frustrations of gasoline consumers of low education and attempt to elicit similar anxieties in the viewer and thereby making the viewer more likely to sit through the commercial. The wider repercussions of misinforming the public are of no concern to the television producers. En masse, people are controlled by fear, not responsibility. Their consumption of information and their political reactions will follow the same overall trend.

As a college student exploring the ideas of libertarianism, one of the strongest arguments I found for maintaining a government paternalistic presence in the media was the manifestly brilliant quality of BBC, PBS, NPR and other publicly sponsored media in stark contrast to the base intellectual standards and low overall quality of commercially driven and advertisement interrupted media. While a high value should be placed on freedom and choice, it should not completely supersede pragmatism, efficiency, and social progress.

Immigration Policy

Legendary businessman and philanthropist, Bill Gates criticises immigration policy in the United States before a Senate committee. WSJ article. FT article. Many foreign students lucky enough to be given subsidised graduate-level education in the United States are then forced to return home right at their economic prime. An economy only benefits from the import of high skilled, high income labour. Conversely, brain drain in undeveloped countries tends to maintain a vicious cycle of poverty. Much fuss has been made recently in the US calling for anti-immigration policies. Maintaining tight limits on the numbers of H1-B visas owing to a large influx of low skilled illegal Mexican immigrants is a travesty of economic policy.

Air Traffic

Last weekend I was one of the unhappy passengers to be screwed by the JetBlue fiasco. Hopefully I will be compensated and the company will improve.

On another note, FlightAware is a useful website which tracks and displays US air traffic information. Maps are available showing all airborne planes and flight paths for public airlines.

Apple Plays a Different iTune

Given the recent drama in Norige, Steve Jobs has started playing a different tune on DRM. Now he has joined me in calling for open standards for iTMS, but is blaming record labels for Apple's inability to do so. Whether or not this is just a well calculated move to ingratiate himself with disgusted customers while seeking greater control for Apple in the music sales business, it is nonetheless a positive development and hopefully will gain momentum. After all, whatever system allows for the continued creation of high quality media at the lowest cost to the consumer is the socially optimal one. Apple's motives are irrelevant. And what of the incentives for artists to create media in a DRM free, copy friendly world? As the boys of South Park conclude in the episode 7 x 9, 'Christian Rock Hard:'

Kyle: ...[A]ll this time we've been so caught up with how to protect our music that we forgot to just play.

Lars: But why play if we're not gonna make millions of dollars?

Kyle: Because that's what real artists do. People are always gonna find a way to copy our music and swap it for free. If we're real musicians, then we should just play and be stoked that so many people are listening.

Stan: Besides, maybe our songs would have gotten downloaded for free, but if they were good songs then people still would have bought tickets to see our band in concert.

It is that simple.

Virgin America

Last month the US Department of Trade denied Virgin America, the new US airline hopeful, the permission to fly domestically within the United States on the ground that it is too much controlled by foreigners. Anyone who has ever flown a US carrier knows how disgustingly poor the overall experience is, with the possible exception of JetBlue. Virgin America promises to change that. This is the sister company of Virgin Galactic, the company aiming to send passengers into space affordability. Who would you rather fly, Delta? I encourage all US citizens who read this blog to enlist their support of Virgin America in their next attempt to secure the needed go-ahead from the US government. I further encourage readers to boycott Continental for lobbying heavily to keep VA grounded. I cannot imagine who would choose to fly Continental in the first place.

Knowing an employee at Virgin America, I can attest to the quality this airline will bring to the industry.

*Update* Freakonomics commented on this as well.

*Update 2* via Digg, yet another great reason to campaign for Virgin to fly.

Virgin Stem Cell

I have previously posted on another of Sir Richard Branson's brands Virgin America. Since airlines, music, space travel, and cola clearly are not sufficient, Virgin is moving into Stem Cell storage for parents hopeful for the potential future benefits for their newborn children.