John Tamny

John Tamny is an economics columnist who uses crypto and money debates to challenge standard views about markets and political power. He writes as a longtime contributor on economics for Forbes and as editor of RealClearMarkets, alongside his work at The Parkview Institute, where he explores trade, money, work and the sources of economic progress. His current crypto beat sits inside a broader focus on how monetary ideas, new technologies and policy choices shape economic freedom.

Money, Bitcoin And The Meaning Of ‘Money’

Tamny’s crypto coverage grows out of a long-running preoccupation with what money is and how it emerges from production rather than policy. In his column on bitcoin’s uselessness as “money,” he treats the cryptocurrency as a way to clarify what genuine money must do in a real economy, rather than as a new payments system to be hyped or defended.

He uses bitcoin’s limits as a springboard into questions of value, pricing and the role of markets, keeping the focus on economic function rather than technology.

That same thread runs through his broader money writing. At Forbes Japan he argues that ideas like Modern Monetary Theory are an old failure and that production is what gives rise to money, not the other way around. Across his books and columns he returns to themes of “money confusion,” mispriced risk and the distortions that follow when policymakers misunderstand what money represents.

Crypto, in this context, is one more test case in a larger campaign to separate real economic signals from political narratives about currency and debt.

Markets, Information And Prediction Platforms

Tamny frequently writes about markets as information systems rather than abstract price charts. In a recent Forbes column on prediction markets, he describes them as mechanisms for aggregating dispersed knowledge and turning that knowledge into wealth, contrasting them with casinos that destroy wealth by suppressing information. The piece treats prediction platforms as part of a broader ecosystem of market tools that sharpen incentives and reveal what people truly believe when they have money at stake.

This focus on information and incentives also shows up in his commentary on securities markets and monetary policy, where he links tax, trade and central bank decisions to the quality of signals that investors receive. His crypto beat reflects the same concern: digital assets are evaluated less for their code than for whether they improve or confuse the information that markets need to allocate capital well.

Law, Energy And The Global Reach Of Policy

Tamny’s political economy work ties legal action and regulation back to global markets. In his Forbes column on the Suncor v. Boulder case, he dissects how local lawsuits over fossil-fuel production and emissions can reach across borders and affect energy companies operating around the world. The article frames the dispute as an example of how local legal tactics can become a form of economic control with global implications for investment, production and innovation in the energy sector.

He treats these legal and regulatory stories not as standalone political fights but as part of the same system that shapes money, credit and growth. Crypto sits adjacent to this work: it is one of several arenas where new instruments and technologies collide with existing legal frameworks, forcing questions about who has the power to define value and risk.

Technology, Trade And Economic Progress

Tamny regularly connects technology and trade to long-term economic progress. In a Forbes Japan column on artificial intelligence, he argues that AI would not exist if its development had been left to “the people” and government, using the technology as an example of how entrepreneurial initiative and private investment drive breakthroughs.

Another recent piece in the same outlet examines currency circulation and questions the need for economists in resolving monetary issues, reinforcing his skepticism toward technocratic management of markets.

His work at The Parkview Institute and RealClearMarkets is described as a sustained exploration of how money, trade, technology and work interact to create prosperity, and how policy can either support or suffocate that process. Within that framework, crypto is treated as part of the story of technological and financial experimentation: important not for speculative hype, but for what it reveals about the institutions, incentives and freedoms that allow real economic progress.