If all the world’s informal markets were formed into a single independent nation, its $10 trillion economy would be the second-largest on the planet (behind only the US). These markets thrive in places where taxes are low, poverty is high, and resources are scarce. The colors on this map indicate the size of each country’s underground economy, as a percentage of its GDP

The fact that the provision of "governmental" services was a competitive rather than a monopolistic enterprise was arguably one of the Free State’s greatest strengths; just as in any other market, the competitive discipline imposed by the fear of losing clients to rival service providers served as a check on inefficiency and abuse of power. Icelandic law owed its resilience and flexibility to this decoupling of authority from geography.

You can now pay with Bitcoins at more than 30 restaurants in St Louis Missouri!

Read this article eating lunch the other day, and was curious to fellow FTL listener's opinions on public ISP's competing with private cable companies. Most of the time you get a local monopoloy from a cable company and that's your only real choice for broadband internet service, and I know my service SUCKS. I'm in favor of free-market solutions and competition, but it doesn't really exist for Cable and Broadband services. This LA city has a public ISP that supposedly operates reliable at advertised speeds, for MUCH less per subscriber.

Remy sings about the departure of our old friend the incandescent light bulb and the free market