the government as bandit hypothesis makes a lot of sense to me.  at the least it explains where money came from (did not arise naturally from barter, was originally a tally for taxes and looting).<p>the article was tl;dr.  did they at least cite mancur olsen for the stationary bandit hypothesis?  AFAIK it originated in his book the rise and decline of nations:<p><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Rise-Decline-Nations-Stagflation-Rigidities/dp/0300030797/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&#38;s=books&#38;qid=1263961437&#38;sr=8-1" rel="nofollow">http://www.amazon.com/Rise-Decline-Nations-Stagflation-Rigid...</a>