#reason.com

Ludwig von Mises, a foundational figure of modern libertarianism, was also for decades a hero of the American right. In George H. Nash's magisterial 1976 history The Conservative Intellectual Movement in America Since 1945, the very first chapter stars the Austrian economist and his students and associates, saying that "it would be difficult to exaggerate the contributions of…Ludwig von Mises to the intellectual rehabilitation of individualism in America."

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Over the past decade, more than 150,000 properties in Detroit have gone through the tax forfeiture process, according to data collected by Jerry Paffendorf, the founder of Loveland Technologies, a Detroit-based mapping firm. The process, says Paffendorf, is "punitive for property owners and profitable for the county."

American Crime Story Takes on Versace’s Murder

No, don’t run screaming based on the source and the headline--this is actually a fantastic example of a place where libertarians and the left have a ton of common ground to forge coalitions. Because the point of the article isn’t that payday lenders with outrageous fees and interest rates are a good thing--the point is that people who live paycheck-to-paycheck have very specific, concrete needs for services that banks do not offer. The ultimate conclusion is that this is an area ripe for financial-tech companies to undercut check-cashers and payday lenders, by coming up with ways to offer short-term micro-loans and immediate use of funds without the ruinous penalties.