Peter's Blog

Going from zero to one is creating something that is fundamentally new. While creating another software-as-a-service company could be extremely lucrative, it is something fundamentally different from going zero to one, as it is more like going from 28,332 to 28,333. Business ideas that already exist can be optimized and maximized by clever people but […]

Although most stablecoins are touted as the next step for currency and a needed player in financial innovation, they have several fundamental flaws that make them even less suitable than the American dollar. Stablecoins are electronic currencies tied to USD, and in most situations, stay within a few percent of the dollar’s value. While historically […]

Most Americans understand the visible harm that excessive regulation causes – higher costs and fewer choices in the marketplace. Those less familiar with Austrian economic theory may not appreciate that government regulations also actively create monopolies by shielding politically connected industries from the competitive pressures that drive innovation and spread knowledge. The following article was […]

The FTC was founded on the premise that collusion can be sustained indefinitely, and only regulation can destabilize it. This hypothesis has been questioned many times and in many different ways, but in the last six years, the FTC has had an unusual amount of utilization, primarily spurred by political motivations. Even the FTC acknowledges […]

The Chinese government anti-spy agency has recently been warning the youth to avoid lying flat. In a time of more limited economic mobility than the past, and with the same Chinese intense work culture in full effect, young people have started doing what they call lying flat. This is where they find ways to avoid […]

We are constantly being worned by politicians about the threat of private credit. Even some business leaders have warned the world about how private credit has the potential to destroy the banking system. This exposure to private credit could actually end up being quite similar to the 2008 financial crisis for the same reasons that […]

Regardless of your system of values, there is one meta-vice that is responsible for a massive share of your discontent with the world as you know it. This is not a vice that has characterized every age, but the last hundred years or so in the western world can be characterized as an increasing growth […]

Government control of roads and public transit was promised to guarantee accessibility, efficiency, and high-quality service. The time it takes most people who want a house or an affordable apartment to get to work is a clear sign that this has failed. While it would be easy to go into the theoretical problems and issues […]

Many forms of regulation have an origin story rooted in a historical example of a business damaging everyone around for quick gain. These examples of negative externalities show something that can apparently only be fixed by regulation. If a business is allowed freedom and they used it to damage the common good, the government that […]

Warren Buffett solidly trounced the S&P 500 for the first 35 years of his career, and then something terrible happened to him. While in the past, he was able to receive stock tips ahead of time, in 2000 the US government began to require uniform disclosure patterns for earnings information. Buffet had been merely arbitraging […]