Setting the future economy straight

Gennady Stolyarov II does it much better than I can in a guest post on Bob Murphy's blog.

My summary: young people are f'ed. New and existing laws, along with entrenched norms, make it effectively impossible for them to succeed through standard education and career paths. Success has become decoupled from merit, and the upcoming generation will be barred from home-ownership, even if they're responsible. A constellation of irresponsible financial policies by the government shifts most of the cost of government to these young people through ever-growing inflation, taxes, and one-size-fits-all laws. The only answer is for the new generation to break from traditional norms and bypass the standard dinosaur institutions, using new technologies -- mainly the internet -- to meet their economic needs, without the waste and inefficiency that has crept into the system over time.

Lots of thoughts I've had, but put together with rigor I have yet to match on the issue.

Paranoid comment-left-elsewhere of the day

There's been a lot of talk about whether you're money's safe in banks, and Jeffrey Tucker's recent post at the Mises blog ponders this. I've heard rumors from people at work suggesting that you need to at least make sure your money qualifies for the FDIC guarantees.

My comment:

If your friends are asking if they should worry about getting back their money that's in the bank, I'd say that's pretty ridiculous -- the FDIC will get it to them. The real concern you should be having is about the value of that money, and on that question, it really doesn't matter if your money's in an FDIC-insured account or not.

They'll get you, not by reneging on the FDIC's guarantee, but by making the money worthless when they finally get it back to you.

As always, it's not inflation that bothers me, but interests rates not reflecting it.

Couldn't have said it better myself.