When Bush was President the lamestream media kept talking about “recession” and yet now, with a handpicked media President in the Whitehouse, they talk about a recovery. And yet some of the real statistics belie the idea that things are recovering–sure asset prices, except real estate, are up, but compare that to how many more people are on food stamps.
This post was inspired by this headline:
Global recovery fragile, uneven: IMF
“You shall not steal.” Exodus 20.15
Walter Williams claims that if I find a needy, destitute woman and I take $200 from you at gun point to help that woman, it is stealing. If I vote a democratically elected government which takes $200 from you and then gives it to that poor woman it is no less stealing; this is just simply the majority deciding whom it robs and to whom it bestows favors and it is equally immoral to stealing on an individual level.
But socialism doesn’t work. The seeds of socialism’s own destruction is in its benefiting wrong behavior and punishing good behaviour. For it takes from the productive and gives to the non-productive. When a behavior is rewarded you get more of it; when it is punished you get less. This is the point of sin taxes on tobacco and alcohol and even socialists understand this basic concepts.
Williams further supports limiting the government’s take of the GDP to 10%. That’s a brilliant suggestion that could help socialist Western countries to get back on track. In my view, the only legitimate roles of a federal government are: (1) defense; (2) justice; and (3) regulation interstate/interprovincial commerce and foreign trade. They must get out of the business of cradle to grave socialism or fail completely.
Click on the picture to watch the video at Yahoo:
This film was certainly interesting and well-made. It is in favor of fiat money which is controlled not by central banks but by democratic government. The title is based upon Hugh Rockoff’s allegorical interpretation of the 1900 children’s book Wizard of Oz, setting the story in the political controversies at the time of the author, L. Frank Baum (1856-1919). According to this interpretation, the silver slippers are representative of silver money in competition with the gold standard, the Scarecrow, who is actually smarter than people think at first, is the American farmer who is destroyed by deflation, the Tin Man is the American industrial worker, who is in need of liquidity (oil), who comes along side the farmer in common cause and the cowardly Lion is William Jennings Bryan who was in favor of silver money and the US government issued greenback. The wicked witches of the East and West were two major banks, and the water that kills the witch is the easy liquidity of the government’s own ability to create fiat currency which is not debt-based.
In my opinion the films successfully show how the gold standard can be manipulated by big banks and can have depressive effect on money–which can (1) stifle the growth of an economy and (2) create serfs out of people who cannot pay back their debts because of inadequate liquidity in the system.
The film fails to show how giving control of fiat currency to government can stop the government from politicizing the money supply and ultimately from creating hyperinflation. The film also mistakes fiat money creation for wealth creation: While it is true that wealth creation requires liquidity, it is a mistake to confuse wealth creation with the creation of fiat money.
I would conclude that restrained form of monetarism could be the best system in that it would grow the money supply in conjunction with economic production–but that all systems of money are open to manipulation and greed–and this is why the Austrians point out that all paper currencies eventually become worthless. The advantage of a system of money which is based on precious metals is that neither a central bank nor a government can steal people’s wealth through the excess creation of money. A stable currency would also encourage saving, as currency would be store of wealth. The disadvantage of the gold standard is that liquidity can be dried up and there can arise situations in which money becomes too scarce.
Author and scholar discusses his book, Deconstructing Obama, on C-Span. His thesis, now verified, is that Bill Ayers wrote Obama’s memoir, Dreams from my Father.
The NPR’s former fundraiser, Kevin Schiller was caught on video saying a whole load of ugly things about conservatives and Christians. The Washinton Times summarizes:
“The current Republican Party, particularly the Tea Party, is fanatically involved with people’s personal lives,” he said. They are “very fundamentalist Christian – I wouldn’t even call it Christian, it’s this weird evangelical kind of move.” People on the right are “white, middle America, gun-toting,” not to mention “seriously racist people.” He also said that conservatives are “anti-intellectual,” in contrast to the “more educated, fair and balanced” liberals.
I’m a conservative and I’m a Christian. I also have a PhD, though I’m not sure that really matters much. I wonder if it is a fair question, Mr. Schiller, What is your terminal degree?
Liberal schools train little brains full of mush who become small-minded liberals who are similar to this Kevin Schiller. This is just snobbery. It is not a sign of higher intelligence.
The Righteous Investor 