National Posts Talks Austrian Economics

Karls Comeback is an article in the National Post today, written by Martin Masse, discussing an unintended alliance between the left-wing Keynes economists and the right-wing Friedman economists coming together to destroy the free market and fulfill Karl Marx's 5th proposal to centralize production within the state, the "centralization of credit in the banks of the state, by means of a national bank with state capital and an exclusive monopoly."

Masse provides strong support for the Austrian economists in the article, citing Friedrich Hayek when he wrote in 1932, "Instead of furthering the inevitable liquidation of the maladjustments brought about by the boom during the last three years, all conceivable means have been used to prevent that readjustment from taking place; and one of these means, which has been repeatedly tried though without success, from the earliest to the most recent stages of depression, has been this deliberate policy of credit expansion. ... To combat the depression by a forced credit expansion is to attempt to cure the evil by the very means which brought it about ...".

Gotta love Dennis Kucinich...

...even though he's a socialist. At least he gets something right, "End the Manipulation of the Federal Reserve"

Ron Paul's Interview with Glenn Beck

Today Dr. Paul had an interview with Glenn Beck in which Beck forced some very blunt honesty from Paul in regards to how he sees this crisis playing out in the long-term. I listen to Dr. Paul a lot and he is always pessimistic, but him and his fellow Austrian economists, including Peter Schiff, have predicted this play by play years in advance, just as the Austrian economists Ludwig von Mises and Friedrich von Hayek were the only economists in the 20s to predict the great depression of the 30s.

Here are some of the quotes from the Beck interview, the full text here:

"I think it's going to be the collapse of Western civilization. I think, Glenn, you might not want to hear this. Our empire has to end, too, and our empire has to come home because that's what we do to ourselves. We destroy our ability to even promote ourselves overseas. We spend too much overseas. Our troops will be coming home. There will be a change, and the welfare state is going to end. But not tomorrow if we don't pass this bill."

"When the dollar goes, that will go quickly. I mean, the Soviet system ended rather quickly, you know. And that was an economic event. It wasn't a political event or an invasion by the United States."

"This has been building since 1971 when we gave up on the last link to the gold standard under Bretton Woods, we devised a dollar standard. We were the most powerful economic group as well as a military power and therefore they accepted the dollar and they had more trust in the dollar than it deserved. So we were privileged to print the gold and spend the money and the people accepted it around the world. So we are responsible in the sense that we had license to spend and borrow and inflate and we lived beyond our means and that is why it's worldwide because essentially all central banks hold a lot of dollars and that's why they inflated in their economy as well. So there's a lot of malinvestment and debt worldwide."

"I want local sovereignty, as local as possible, back to the individual, community, the state or at least our own country. But this international stuff is doomed to destroy the individual and we're all going to suffer. We could move into a dark age if we don't wake up to what is really happening.'

Who knew Republicans could do something right?

The bailout, so far, has failed.

Gold and Silver Coins

For those hoping to hedge the oncoming increase in inflation through the purchase of gold and silver I just found this:

Royal Canadian Mint

Don't bothering trying to visit the US mint as they have halted sales of gold and silver coins due to too much demand.

This guy is smart....

A Nation Of Debtors

Yesterday on one of my phone calls I was talking with a lady from Atlanta. We were discussing the bail out plan and her and I were on the same page: its no good. Typically I tread lightly in these types of conversations with customer but they are a good way to fill dead time while waiting for software to download and install.

This customer was very willing to talk about the current state of the economy in Atlanta. She painted a very bleak picture of her friends being laid off, neighbors losing their houses, fore-closure signs everywhere and local businesses shutting down. Recently, at a meeting with her children's band teacher they were advised they had a week to decide on a lease/rental for instruments for their kids. She said hardly anyone felt they could afford the cost of this program right now. The same sentiment was felt in regards to field trips the schools were asking the parents for money to support. I told her usually I was the doom and gloomer...

David Ebner of the Globe and Mail paints another pretty stark picture in Bellingham, Washington in his article, A Nation of Debtors.

Let's just hope people keep buying BlackBerrys...

Frederic Bastiat

Government is the great fiction through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else.

The Road To Serfdom

Wonderful Central Banks

As we continue to watch banks go bankrupt in the US, and watch credit lines all over the world tighten, and as foreign central banks pump billions of dollars into the market, lets remember these words:

“I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous than standing armies… if the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of currency… the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the people of their property until their children wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered.”
–Thomas Jefferson 1743-1826

What A Shock

Forbes writes about some of the issues hindering the biggest heist of any taxpayer, ever, in this history of the world, in which the following quote is dug up:

"It's not based on any particular data point," a Treasury spokeswoman told Forbes.com Tuesday. "We just wanted to choose a really large number."

That makes me feel warm and fuzzy.

The reality is that the people planning this heist know they'd need much more than $700 billion to cover all of the worthless paper in the US. A bill was just passed to hand the big three automakers a $25 billion loan and more are going to come to Washington with hats in hand for more bailouts. Just like when the government predicted the Iraq war would only cost $50 billion, this $700 billion is far from the truth.

If you don't think this has a direct affect to us as Canadians, please read this article from the Globe and Mail on Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney's thoughts on how this will hurt Canadians.

Peter Schiff Tell Us How It Is

The Credit Card of the 2nd Great Depression

This video almost brought tears to my eyes...not sure why...probably a mix of the tone of the voice and what is supposed to be inspirational background music mixed with the depressing message. Plus, there's a realization of how quickly the greatest middle class to ever exist is being wiped out...the $700 billion bailout has the support of 7% of the population in the US and the congress is hearing it...this video is a parody, I'm used to comedic parody, this is a parody of the tragic reality...


Mastercard: Official Card Of The 2nd Depression - Watch more free videos

Canada's Own Housing Crisis

They've said its not going to happen, however, mainstream news is starting to talk about it.

This article reports Merrill Lynch's prediction that "Canada could be headed for a housing and mortgage meltdown similar to the one that has devastated the U.S. economy".

The article indicates the prediction could be on the pessimistic side, but offers no explanation as to why Canada might be able to avoid this meltdown. In fact, the article provides evidence that it might be just as bad as the US,"In 2007, household net borrowing amounted to 6.3 per cent of disposable income, a wider deficit than in the U.K. and not far off the peak U.S. shortfall seen in 2005".

PLEASE READ

Here's something that could make you a little nervous...

Christmas gone?

Could people become so poor that the commercialism that has been entrenched in Christmas for so many years will disappear?

I've always hope it would anyway, just kinda hoped it wouldn't need to get this bad for it to happen.

Fascism

I found this quote on a blog I frequent. I thought it was fitting considering the socialization of worthless paper that is about to cost US taxpayers $700 billion (and also hand over full control with no oversight of the cash to 1 individual). It's fair to note that there is no market for this paper, and therefore it has no value. Why this should cost the tax payers anything is beyond me...but then again, I never thought fascism made sense anyway:

"The Italian Charter of Labour says that private enterprise is responsible to the state . . . [but] it is the state, i.e., the taxpayer, who has become responsible to private enterprise . . . . Profit is private and individual. Loss is public and social."

--Gaetano Salvemini, Under the Axe of Fascism(1936), p. 380. (Salvemini was a critic of Italian fascism under Mussolini).

Ron Paul On Neil Cavuto

Lew Rockwell on the current financial crisis

Please click HERE to be enlightened on the economy.

"The 'poetry of the possible' is that things are organized without an organizer."

Read George Will's description in Newsweek of how beautiful the free market works:

Pencils And Politics

The Law

Life, liberty, and property do not exist because men have made laws. On the contrary, it was the fact that life, liberty, and property existed beforehand that caused men to make laws in the first place.

- Frederic Bastiat

An Interesting Perspective on US Foreign Policy

On Goverment Service and Ending Poverty

In response to my posting of Steve Chapman's article in the Chicago Tribune, my brother wrote:

The author of that essay basically shoots himself in the foot in relation to democrats:

"While they value many personal liberties, they have no great attachment to forms of freedom that involve buying, selling, trading and accumulating. Those, after all, can involve selfishness, and Democrats, like Republicans, don't want to protect selfishness."

That's right. The democrats do cherish the right of the constitution. ALL OF THEM. But they definitely do not think that the market is a right, and don't have to, because they are not rights in the constitution. Instead, the democrats quite rightly associate the buying, trading, and selling of labour as the primary reason for poverty.

Cherish? While the constitution maybe a thing to be cherished, the Democrats nor the Republicans respect it. It is an obstacle to their agendas which include growing government and growing control over the people to serve the government's needs. Service to your neighbor was a going theme of both conventions. Obama said this is America's promise, but this promise was not spoken by the founders.

Both parties are asking their people to sacrifice their free will to government with the promise their government will take them in the right direction. This, of course, has worked perfectly in the past.

A free market is the consequence of the bill of rights and the protection of individual rights.

Poverty doesn't exist in countries where their governments perform economic intervention? Hardly. Poverty will always exist within society. To have a government working to end this will only be a waste of resources that would be better and more efficiently used in the private sector. Individuals and private organizations are better suited for this because they do it because they want to help. Governments talk about it and run inefficient programs for it to gain votes and to look compassionate.

The unrealistic idealist is the one who believes a socialistic government will evolve to be better and eventually build a utopia where no poverty exists and everyone lives rich, fruitful lives at a cost of following the lead of the government and losing free will. The reality of this is a growing parasitic government that sucks all wealth from society and wastes it through mismanagement and corruption.

The realistic idealist is the one who understands society is as imperfect as the human condition, and a reflection of it. Therefore society will forever be imperfect and all an individual can hope for is to live his/her life the way he/she would like and enjoy the free will given to us at birth. One can only hope to be born in a society that values and protects this free will.

The Missing Ingredient in Modern Main Stream American Politics

Steve Chapman, from the Chicago Tribune, discusses the key missing ingredient of both the Democratic and Republican conventions.

Click Here

An Interesting Comic

Since reading Calvin and Hobbes growing up I've always had a slight interest in well written and well drawn comics. Click on the picture to be taken to an interesting short story with fantastic illustrations.

WHO SAID IT?

"It is thus necessary that the individual should finally come to realize that his own ego is of no importance in comparison with the existence of his nation; that the position of the individual ego is conditioned solely by the interests of the nation as a whole...that above all, the unity of a nation's spirit and will are worth far more than the freedom of the spirit and will of an individual...we understand only the individual's capacity to make sacrifices for the community, for his fellow man."

A Beautiful Song: Universal Soldier

Pics @ home around the wedding.

Pics in Woodstock during the Wedding