The International Society for Individual Liberty published James Elwood's book review of the amazing and prescient The Sovereign Individual: Mastering the Transition to the Information Age. Here is a brief excerpt from the full review: It is the computer revolution that provides the promise of a real-world Galt's Gulch. Still in its infancy, the cybereconomy will allow the successful practitioners of computer technology to escape the regular economy and the predations of governments. Widely...

By Jon Matonis Forbes Wednesday, May 23, 2012 http://www.forbes.com/sites/jonmatonis/2012/05/23/banishing-facebooks-eduardo-saverin-harms-u-s-more/ U.S. Senators Chuck Schumer and Bob Casey Yes, the Facebook IPO was noteworthy. But just as noteworthy was the decision by Eduardo Saverin to renounce his U.S. citizenship on the eve of the historic IPO and become a permanent resident of Singapore, where there is no capital gains tax. He is already a citizen of Brazil but they don't...

I introduced digital bearer certificates and bitcoin at the 7th annual ITWeb Security Summit in Johannesburg, South Africa (May 15-16th, 2012). The Evolution of E-Money View more PowerPoint from Jon Matonis

By Jon Matonis Forbes Saturday, May 12, 2012 http://www.forbes.com/sites/jonmatonis/2012/05/12/the-somali-american-remittance-dilemma/‎ By threatening to close their Wells Fargo and U.S. Bancorp accounts this week, a group representing Somali Americans has pushed the ongoing hawala remittance issue to a head. For months now, Somalis in Minnesota have been barred from making the small regular transfers to their family members in Somalia that they have been making for years. According...

By Jon Matonis Forbes Monday, May 7, 2012 http://www.forbes.com/sites/jonmatonis/2012/05/07/bitcoin-funded-debit-cards/ Yes, it's entirely possible to fund your existing debit card, or credit card, with your accumulated bitcoin. And I don't mean that you are shipped a generic, low-limit prepaid VISA or Mastercard from some anonymous reseller. I mean that you convert bitcoin online to dollars or euros and the funds are available to spend with a card that you are most likely already holding...

Bu Jon Matonis Forbes Monday, April 30, 2012 http://www.forbes.com/sites/jonmatonis/2012/04/30/robert-wenzel-to-federal-reserve-leave-the-building-to-the-four-legged-rats/ Somebody finally turned on the lights at the Fed. As a regular subscriber to Wenzel's Economic Policy Journal, I enjoyed reading the full text of  Bob's landmark speech to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York last Wednesday. Kudos to Bob on garnering the invitation in the first place. Scott Horton joked on his...