Everyone’s favorite bowtie-wearing author/speaker/all-around cool guy always makes for some good reading material, but his output as of late has been just staggering.  He has been absolutely on fire.  All of these articles are absolutely amazing and strong candidates for being my favorite articles of the year so far.  And they were published in the span of two days.  Amazing!

The Delightful Merchantcraft of the Shaved Ice Truck – Ludwig von Mises Institute Canada.

In this piece, JT does what he is absolutely best at – reminding us that some of the most rudimentary market functions require a staggering amount of planning, foresight, effort, and occasionally luck.  Whether it’s Chicken McNuggets or the Shaved Ice vendor, Tucker, more than anyone else, is capable of conveying the sense of awe and amazement that we should (but usually don’t) feel when we engage in voluntary exchange for modern products, the likes of which were completely unavailable to most of humanity for the vast majority of human history.  Consider that the Pharaoh in Egypt, the most powerful man of the most powerful empire of his time, literally considered a God, likely never could have enjoyed Shaved Ice.  But you can enjoy it for a low price that likely represents only a few minutes of your labor.

The Triumph of Scrooge McDuck.

This piece is a little more technical, dealing with interest rates and the federal reserve, but still has that level of “human touch” that makes Tucker’s writing unique.  The importance of savings and investment is a key tenet of Austrian economics, and he emphasizes it here, while sticking a proverbial thumb in the eye of government technocrats who presume to know better than we do how we should optimally allocate our own funds.

What Doesn’t Kill You : The Freeman : Foundation for Economic Education.

Talk about “defending the undefendable!”  In this piece, Tucker comes to the support of Youtube sensation Rebecca Black, highlighting a positive and inspiring story of perseverance against remarkable odds, as well as shining a spotlight on the role that modern technology plays in assisting young people’s efforts to follow their dreams and escape the “statist quo.”

Every day, Jeffrey Tucker is doing more and more to carve out his niche in what I like to refer to as “feel-good libertarianism.”  He has a unique gift for telling these sorts of personal-interest stories, the likes of which formerly were reserved for sappy and irrelevant segments that might appear on your local news broadcast.  But they aren’t just inspiring stories to make you feel good, they also contain a positive message:  You can do it too!  Embrace your individuality, find your niche, utilize your talents, and you too can be happy, successful, and contribute positively to humanity.