Economics brings together Herbert Sim’s writings on money, institutional power, economic liberty and the individual’s right to own, exchange and build independently.
This hub connects two related bodies of work: Political Economics, which examines how political and institutional authority shapes economic freedom; and Counter Economics, which explores voluntary and decentralised alternatives when economic systems become overly dependent on concentrated control.
The central question is simple: does an economic system expand the individual’s practical freedom, or make that freedom conditional upon permission?
Political Economics
PoliticalEconomics.com established: 23 June 2002
Herbert Sim’s Political Economics framework examines the relationship between money, political authority, regulation and economic liberty. It evaluates economic systems through the practical conditions they create for the individual: the ability to own value, preserve savings, exchange voluntarily, start enterprises and retain a meaningful right to exit.
Political Economics is not a replacement for the established academic field of political economy. It is Herbert Sim’s sovereignty-centred framework within that broader field, focused on the way economic power affects individual freedom.
Political Economics: Money, Power and the Foundations of Economic Liberty
18 August 2008
The founding public articulation of Herbert Sim’s Political Economics framework. This essay examines how monetary authority, regulation and institutional power shape an individual’s ability to own value, make choices and retain the right to refuse.
Counter Economics
CounterEconomics.com established: 20 January 2011
Counter Economics develops the practical question that follows Political Economics: what can individuals build when established systems concentrate too much control over money, exchange and participation?
It examines voluntary alternatives, decentralised networks, peer-to-peer exchange, self-custody and the right to create systems outside unnecessary dependence on political or institutional permission. Its purpose is not disorder or evasion of legitimate responsibility. Its purpose is to preserve peaceful, voluntary economic agency.
Counter Economics: Building Voluntary Alternatives to Political Control
21 January 2011
A foundational introduction to Counter Economics: the principle that individuals should be able to build, exchange and preserve value through voluntary alternatives when concentrated economic power restricts meaningful choice.
Bitcoin and Economic Sovereignty
Bitcoin is one of the most significant practical developments in the history of counter-economic monetary thought. It demonstrated that individuals can hold and transfer value through cryptographic proof and peer-to-peer architecture, rather than relying exclusively on a central issuer or trusted intermediary.
Bitcoin does not answer every economic question. But it introduced a powerful one: can money be structured so that participation is voluntary, ownership is direct and the power to transact does not depend entirely on institutional permission?
This question connects Political Economics and Counter Economics to Herbert Sim’s later work on Digital Sovereignty, Human Sovereignty and Cognitive Sovereignty.
From Economic Sovereignty to Human Sovereignty
Economic sovereignty is an essential foundation of individual liberty, but it is not its final boundary. As technology increasingly shapes identity, data, intelligence, health and cognition, the question of sovereignty extends beyond money.
Herbert Sim’s later philosophies develop this progression:
- Cypherpunkism examines Digital Sovereignty: privacy, cryptography, decentralisation and individual control in technological systems.
- Human-Sovereignty Transhumanism examines the right of individuals to direct their own enhancement, identity and technological future.
- Neuro-Cypherpunkism examines Cognitive Sovereignty: the protection of neural data, mental privacy and the right to control one’s own mind in the brain-computer interface age.
Money enables action. Economic liberty protects the ability to act. Human sovereignty protects the individual who acts.
Legacy Domains
PoliticalEconomics.com and CounterEconomics.com direct readers to this Economics hub, which serves as the central archive for Herbert Sim’s work on political power, economic liberty, decentralised alternatives and individual sovereignty.
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