Exchange rate graph from the largest Bitcoin exchanger, Mt Gox (click to enlarge):

Parity party! Go, go deflation!

265 trades occurred, with a total volume of BTC 49,632.50.

The Bitcoin economy is now worth more than US$5.5 million, or more than 3750 ounces of gold.

One hundred trillion Zimbabwe dollars (uncirculated) - a real steal at $6.99!

Several 1993-series Yugoslav dinar hyperinflation issues have also been added to the catalogue for your consideration.

Aren’t Black Markets and Free Markets mutually Exclusive?

Free markets don’t exist in any real sense anywhere today. State prohibitions, subsidies, taxes, regulation, privilege and the rest make them impossible on any substantial scale.

“Black market” as commonly understood is a problematic term, since it encompasses both harmless things that governments ban (the cannabis trade, for instance) in most places, as well as harmful things that governments also ban (murder for hire, for example).

I personally favor the market analysis given by agorist theory, which breaks down things along two axes:

• White market: State-approved, moral (i.e. non-rights-violating) (e.g. on-the-books employment)
• Gray market: Banned unless done in state-approved manner, moral (e.g. off-the-books trade)
• Black market: State ban, moral (e.g. drugs)
• Red market: State ban, immoral (e.g. murder for hire)
• Pink market: State-approved (and largely state-conducted), immoral (e.g. taxation, conscription, compulsory education)

Visual illustration on slide 7 of a powerpoint I made for a presentation to a libertarian meeting this summer at http://www.nostate.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/What-Sort-of-Libertarian-Are-You1.ppt (reproduced for readers of this blog below).

The five markets

If the pressure of new money can cause growth in the economy, why not then pump it in massively, and evoke tremendous economic growth? By doing so, the central banks could long ago have created everlasting prosperity on earth for every individual.

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Five hundred billion dinars. Yugoslavia, 1993.

Five hundred billion dinars - Yugoslavia 1993 XF/EF - Click image for full-size scan

This note once held the dubious honor of being that with the largest number of zeros — eleven! — ever placed into circulation. Lately, though, Robert Mugabe’s wholesale robbery of the population of Zimbabwe has beat the record, with notes in the hundreds of trillions (yes, including printed zeros) being issued.

I have a few of these for sale. They’re collector’s items, and the perfect gift for your economics teacher or the uppity Austrian economist in your family. US$15 will get you one, shipped anywhere in the world at no additional charge. If you’re interested, please contact me by email. You may not receive the serial number or exact note pictured. All are in XF/EF condition, which means very lightly circulated with small corner bending and minimal very light creasing.

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For American families, the list of insurance types they subscribe to includes most of the following at various times, with some variances:

• Homeowner’s or renter’s insurance
• Mortgage insurance
• Title insurance
• Life insurance
• Health insurance (multiple policies)
• Auto insurance (multiple policies)
• Social “insurance”, in the form of Social Security
• Credit insurance, via credit card fees
• Unemployment insurance
• Disability insurance
• Bank deposit insurance (FDIC, and does FSLIC even exist any more?)

All that adds up to a whole bunch of money over a lifetime. With the exception of Social Security — more accurately described as a fraudulent investment scheme based upon extortion — insurance premiums are almost always paid to (generally large) corporations with insurance and/or banking licenses.

Lots of folks will tell you that insurance is one of the best businesses to get into. Why? Because operating as a privileged corporation with an insurance license makes you a member of an elite cartel uniquely positioned to extract massive rents from the market. If an entrepeneur wants to start an insurance business, the barriers to entry are very high: university educations, certifications, licenses, capital reserve requirements, specific corporate and capital structures, legal fees, accounting and audit compliance, government reporting and so on.

There is no free market for insurance today. The economic distortions introduced by artificial barriers to entry, extensive government regulation and all the privileges which attach to holding an insurance license make it impossible to say that anything like free competition in insurance exists. Indeed, because of this, we can’t look at today’s insurance markets for a whole lot of guidance as to what free market insurance might look like.

It’s quite possible that today’s policyholders are being ripped off relative to a free market, in that premiums would be lower absent the distortions. It’s also possible that premiums for some types of coverage would tend to be higher, since many of the distortions can be interpreted as subsidies which allow insurance companies to offer lower rates than possible otherwise. Additionally, providers of mandated forms of insurance might enjoy fewer policyholders.

Much of the insurance market in the United States today is decidedly un-free, though you can spot signs of freer times in some insurers’ names, where they include words like “mutual”. Time was when a lot of the insurance functions being provided today by the state and by large, privileged and even global corporations were handled by local mutual aid societies, industrial sickness funds, benefit societies, rural co-ops, fraternal associations, churches and just plain old good neighborliness within local communities.

The modern insurance system seems to me a great game, a trick increasingly used to enslave people. And with America now heading full-steam toward some sort of either mandated or state-provided health insurance scheme, well… the profits for politicians and their buddies in the insurance and banking industries will be enormous, while the average American is shackled with ever more mandatory premiums and compulsory coverage while service quality falls.

For the agorist, this is a business opportunity.

Originally posted by Darian Worden at Fr33 Agents Social (join now!):

Roderick Long wrote a great article on how mutual aid groups enabled low-income people to provide for each others’ health care needs until government shut the system down.

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, one of the primary sources of health care and health insurance for the working poor in Britain, Australia, and the United States was the fraternal society. Fraternal societies (called “friendly societies” in Britain and Australia) were voluntary mutual-aid associations.

How Government Solved the Health Care Crisis

The article was made into a neat .pdf pamphlet by Invisible Molotov.

If you don’t have the means to make the pamphlet yourself, New Jersey Alliance of the Libertarian Left would be happy to send you a bundle. We also have a large number of other radical libertarian fliers.

It would also be interesting if mutual aid groups could spring up again, possibly in the counter-economy, as a counterweight to the government-corporate bureaucratic mess.

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EzSmoke.net claims to be selling major brand cigarettes at damned cheap prices by most places’ standards. Ownership in Dominica, operating company in Moldova, prices in US$, payment via check, shipment worldwide.

US$20.95 for a single carton of European-standard Marlboros is a pretty solid deal, and the prices only get better from there. The last year or so I was living in the States I was regularly ordering similar ones from

L&M Classic Reds US$17.95? W00t!

wesmoke.com, which was based in the duty-free zone at an airport in Switzerland, but later shut down for some sort of customs and excise violation. As I recall, the domain name ended up being transferred to Philip Morris, who put up some kind of “Das ist Verboten!” page in its place, referencing how wesmoke.com was doing something naughty by, uh… not complying with some stupid law or something, while satisfying thousands of paying customers.

I haven’t actually tried this company out, but considering that I’m paying €19.90 for L&M Reds here in relatively low-tax Slovakia, I might have to give it a shot considering they’re offering those for only US$17.95/carton. €6-7 off each carton, and I get the pleasure of learning a bit of Ukrainian in the bargain? How could I resist!?

Why assume that the amount you’re being assessed really does represent your fair share?

And if that makes sense, why not pay it forward?

If the state is so good at doing the things it does, why not give it more of your income, your wealth and your labor?

Next time a tax reduction comes around, keep paying at the old rate.

When there’s a chance to show solidarity on your income tax or VAT returns, do so by adding a few extra percent on top.

Quit taking exemptions, deductions and credits.

When you’re going to pay for a meal at a restaurant, give the waitperson a few extra of the local currency unit and explain that it’s not a tip, but that you’d like it to be sent to the treasury.

Try those things and see how they feel.

And if you’re not willing to, you really ought to be ready to explain why not.