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Ten Questions For Everyone Who Supported Obama
General | Posted 16 years agoAuthor: Stewart Browne
Obama supporters, you got everything you wanted on Election Night. Obama won big, the Democrats won big in Congress, the Democrats cleaned up at the state level. But the only change you got was even more of what you hate. An escalation in our wars overseas, blatant, disgusting government windfalls for the wealthiest Americans, and an overwhelming sense that a group of oligarchs have partnered with the President to enrich themselves at everyone else's expense.
http://www.strike-the-root.com/91/b.....e/browne2.html
Obama supporters, you got everything you wanted on Election Night. Obama won big, the Democrats won big in Congress, the Democrats cleaned up at the state level. But the only change you got was even more of what you hate. An escalation in our wars overseas, blatant, disgusting government windfalls for the wealthiest Americans, and an overwhelming sense that a group of oligarchs have partnered with the President to enrich themselves at everyone else's expense.
http://www.strike-the-root.com/91/b.....e/browne2.html
1819: America's First Housing Bubble
General | Posted 16 years agoAuthor: CJ Maloney
The Panic of 1819 lasted about three years — the Great Depression lasted well over a decade. When looking for solutions to our current mess, we should study a winning team; instead we seem determined to channel FDR, the same arrogant fool who took an economic downturn and stretched it into a decade-plus tragedy.
http://mises.org/story/3395
The Panic of 1819 lasted about three years — the Great Depression lasted well over a decade. When looking for solutions to our current mess, we should study a winning team; instead we seem determined to channel FDR, the same arrogant fool who took an economic downturn and stretched it into a decade-plus tragedy.
http://mises.org/story/3395
Supporters of Capitalism Crazy, Says Harvard
General | Posted 17 years agoAuthor: Thomas Woods
Last weekend, Harvard University sponsored a conference called "The Free Market Mindset: History, Psychology, and Consequences." Its purpose was to try to figure out why, since everyone knows the current crisis amounts to a failure of the market economy, the stupid rubes continue to believe in it. The promotional literature for the conference opened with That Quotation from Alan Greenspan — the one in which he suggested that there was, after all, a "flaw" in the free market he hadn't noticed before.
Well, that does it, then! If our Soviet commissar in charge of money and interest rates says the free market doesn't work, who are you to disagree?
In short, the conference was about this: Why do people still think the interaction of free individuals is a superior economic system to one directed by Harvard Ph.D.s like us? I mean, apart from the failure of central planning in every case in which it's been tried, a failure so staggering that only a blockhead could miss it, why would people cling to the idea that being herded into a collective run by the experts isn't the best way to live?
http://mises.org/story/3379
Last weekend, Harvard University sponsored a conference called "The Free Market Mindset: History, Psychology, and Consequences." Its purpose was to try to figure out why, since everyone knows the current crisis amounts to a failure of the market economy, the stupid rubes continue to believe in it. The promotional literature for the conference opened with That Quotation from Alan Greenspan — the one in which he suggested that there was, after all, a "flaw" in the free market he hadn't noticed before.
Well, that does it, then! If our Soviet commissar in charge of money and interest rates says the free market doesn't work, who are you to disagree?
In short, the conference was about this: Why do people still think the interaction of free individuals is a superior economic system to one directed by Harvard Ph.D.s like us? I mean, apart from the failure of central planning in every case in which it's been tried, a failure so staggering that only a blockhead could miss it, why would people cling to the idea that being herded into a collective run by the experts isn't the best way to live?
http://mises.org/story/3379
Human Action at Sixty
General | Posted 17 years agoAuthor: Richard Ebeling
In September of 2009, it will be sixty years since the appearance of Ludwig von Mises's Human Action, one of the truly great "classics" of modern economics. Not only among Austrian economists but also for a growing number of other people, Mises's brilliant treatise continues to be read and taken seriously as a cornerstone for understanding the nature of the free society and the workings of the market economy.
http://mises.org/story/3363
In September of 2009, it will be sixty years since the appearance of Ludwig von Mises's Human Action, one of the truly great "classics" of modern economics. Not only among Austrian economists but also for a growing number of other people, Mises's brilliant treatise continues to be read and taken seriously as a cornerstone for understanding the nature of the free society and the workings of the market economy.
http://mises.org/story/3363
Science Is as Science Does
General | Posted 17 years agoAuthor: Benjamin Richards
The logical positivists devised a rigid criterion of knowledge: you cannot know anything you cannot empirically verify. The logical positivists' criterion did not meet its own demand. But scientists never got the memo, and there persists to this day a widespread prejudice that the only "real" sciences are empirical sciences. And Keynesians want to be scientists too!
http://mises.org/story/3369
The logical positivists devised a rigid criterion of knowledge: you cannot know anything you cannot empirically verify. The logical positivists' criterion did not meet its own demand. But scientists never got the memo, and there persists to this day a widespread prejudice that the only "real" sciences are empirical sciences. And Keynesians want to be scientists too!
http://mises.org/story/3369
Beating Back Obamanomics
General | Posted 17 years agoAuthor: Lew Rockwell
We find ourselves facing the horror of what has always been the Achilles heel of the left wing: its abysmal ignorance of economic science. The ideological tendency has gone from Keynesianism to outright socialism in a matter of a few weeks. And the trajectory seems to be accelerated mainly by the logic of the interventionist cycle.
http://mises.org/story/3367
We find ourselves facing the horror of what has always been the Achilles heel of the left wing: its abysmal ignorance of economic science. The ideological tendency has gone from Keynesianism to outright socialism in a matter of a few weeks. And the trajectory seems to be accelerated mainly by the logic of the interventionist cycle.
http://mises.org/story/3367
Stimulation by government
General | Posted 17 years agoAuthor: Lew Rockwell
The great failing of the Obama administration is that it is packed with people who show no apparent knowledge of the essential truths of liberal theory. That theory — which is the core of the American political contribution to, and the driving force of, modernity itself — is that freedom is the foundation of and the reason for social and economic flourishing. All evidence suggests they know nothing of this.
http://mises.org/story/3360
The great failing of the Obama administration is that it is packed with people who show no apparent knowledge of the essential truths of liberal theory. That theory — which is the core of the American political contribution to, and the driving force of, modernity itself — is that freedom is the foundation of and the reason for social and economic flourishing. All evidence suggests they know nothing of this.
http://mises.org/story/3360
The Victorian Bushfires...
General | Posted 17 years ago...How Environmentalism Leads to Disaster
Author: Ben O'Neill
Fires are transformed into huge infernos and spread uncontrollably across Victoria only because of extremely high fuel loads throughout the state's bushland. Local governments have neglected to manage fire hazards on their land in order to be faithful to the principles of environmentalism.
http://mises.org/story/3343
Author: Ben O'Neill
Fires are transformed into huge infernos and spread uncontrollably across Victoria only because of extremely high fuel loads throughout the state's bushland. Local governments have neglected to manage fire hazards on their land in order to be faithful to the principles of environmentalism.
http://mises.org/story/3343
The Water Wizards of Oz
General | Posted 17 years agoAuthor: Chris Brown
It is near impossible to imagine any private company not enjoying the "problem" of high demand for its products and services. Yet there are some products that are repeatedly reported as shortages. There is one thing these products have in common: government intervention, typically in the form of price controls. This is especially the case with water in Melbourne, Australia.
http://mises.org/story/3338
It is near impossible to imagine any private company not enjoying the "problem" of high demand for its products and services. Yet there are some products that are repeatedly reported as shortages. There is one thing these products have in common: government intervention, typically in the form of price controls. This is especially the case with water in Melbourne, Australia.
http://mises.org/story/3338
The Left in Power
General | Posted 17 years agoAuthor: Lew Rockwell
It is tragic that Obama should be president at all. If we had a position called "national well wisher," "national greeter," or "national symbol of accomplishment," he would be perfect for the job. He is elegant and graceful and articulate, and inspires people in an unusual way. As chief policymaker, however, he has revealed himself as nothing more than a two-bit socialist.
http://mises.org/story/3344
It is tragic that Obama should be president at all. If we had a position called "national well wisher," "national greeter," or "national symbol of accomplishment," he would be perfect for the job. He is elegant and graceful and articulate, and inspires people in an unusual way. As chief policymaker, however, he has revealed himself as nothing more than a two-bit socialist.
http://mises.org/story/3344
The Music and Book Killers
General | Posted 17 years agoAuthor: Jeffrey Tucker
Copyright is a subject replete with mythology. People toss around junk legalisms that they pick up on the street while knowing nothing about the facts or the law. They imagine that copyright is important for protecting rights, even though the practical reality is that it is a killer of ideas and a rights violator on a massive scale. Indeed, something must be done to crush this institution before it brings the creative and literary arts to a grinding halt.
http://www.lewrockwell.com/tucker/tucker128.html
Copyright is a subject replete with mythology. People toss around junk legalisms that they pick up on the street while knowing nothing about the facts or the law. They imagine that copyright is important for protecting rights, even though the practical reality is that it is a killer of ideas and a rights violator on a massive scale. Indeed, something must be done to crush this institution before it brings the creative and literary arts to a grinding halt.
http://www.lewrockwell.com/tucker/tucker128.html
Enemies of capitalism
General | Posted 17 years agoAuthor: Briggs Armstrong
New Rule: neomercantilists, neoconservatives, and statists are no longer allowed to call themselves "free marketers." People who call themselves free marketers such as Bush, Paulson, Greenspan, and Bernanke are the primary threat capitalism faces. These false prophets of capitalism are the greatest friends that proponents of socialism have.
http://mises.org/story/3306
New Rule: neomercantilists, neoconservatives, and statists are no longer allowed to call themselves "free marketers." People who call themselves free marketers such as Bush, Paulson, Greenspan, and Bernanke are the primary threat capitalism faces. These false prophets of capitalism are the greatest friends that proponents of socialism have.
http://mises.org/story/3306
On "Private Tyrannies"
General | Posted 17 years agoAuthor: Ben O'Neill
If you have ever read much of the political philosophy and commentary of renowned anarchosyndicalist intellectual Noam Chomsky, then you are probably familiar with his view that large private business organizations are "private tyrannies" — oversized and antidemocratic institutions that function according to that most hated of organizational principles, the hierarchy!
http://mises.org/story/3304
If you have ever read much of the political philosophy and commentary of renowned anarchosyndicalist intellectual Noam Chomsky, then you are probably familiar with his view that large private business organizations are "private tyrannies" — oversized and antidemocratic institutions that function according to that most hated of organizational principles, the hierarchy!
http://mises.org/story/3304
The peaceful transfer of violent power
General | Posted 17 years agoAuthor: Sheldon Richman
Apologists for government undertake bizarre mental contortions to show that we have consented to be taxed. Balderdash. I was never asked to consent, and I’m sure you weren’t either. I refuse to accept the nonsensical argument that by not vacating the parcel of land I purchased, I have signaled my “tacit consent” to be plundered and bullied. That implies the government owns the territory it rules and therefore can set the conditions under which it is used. That sounds like feudalism. Are we merely tenants of the governmental landlord?
http://fff.org/comment/com0901h.asp
Apologists for government undertake bizarre mental contortions to show that we have consented to be taxed. Balderdash. I was never asked to consent, and I’m sure you weren’t either. I refuse to accept the nonsensical argument that by not vacating the parcel of land I purchased, I have signaled my “tacit consent” to be plundered and bullied. That implies the government owns the territory it rules and therefore can set the conditions under which it is used. That sounds like feudalism. Are we merely tenants of the governmental landlord?
http://fff.org/comment/com0901h.asp
A Book that Changes Everything
General | Posted 17 years agoAuthor: Jeffrey Tucker
At a taped video interview in my office, before the crew would start the camera, a man had to remove my Picasso prints from the wall. The prints are probably under copyright, they said.
But the guy who drew them died 30 years ago. Besides, they are mine.
Doesn't matter. They have to go.
What about the poor fellow who painted the wall behind the prints? Why doesn't he have a copyright? If I scrape off the paint, there is the drywall and its creator. Behind the drywall are the boards, which are surely proprietary too. To avoid the "intellectual-property" thicket, maybe we have to sit in an open field; but there is the problem of the guy who last mowed the grass. Then there is the inventor of the grass to consider.
Is there something wrong with this picture?
The worldly-wise say no. This is just the way things are. It is for us not to question but to obey. So it is with all despotisms in human history. They become so woven into the fabric of daily life that absurdities are no longer questioned. Only a handful of daring people are capable of thinking along completely different lines. But when they do, the earth beneath our feet moves.
Such is the case with Against Intellectual Monopoly by Michele Boldrin and David Levine, two daring professors of economics. They have written a book that is likely to rock your world, as it has mine.
With piracy and struggles over intellectual property in the news daily, it is time to wonder about this issue, its relationship to freedom, property rights, and efficiency. You have to think seriously about where you stand.
http://mises.org/story/3298
At a taped video interview in my office, before the crew would start the camera, a man had to remove my Picasso prints from the wall. The prints are probably under copyright, they said.
But the guy who drew them died 30 years ago. Besides, they are mine.
Doesn't matter. They have to go.
What about the poor fellow who painted the wall behind the prints? Why doesn't he have a copyright? If I scrape off the paint, there is the drywall and its creator. Behind the drywall are the boards, which are surely proprietary too. To avoid the "intellectual-property" thicket, maybe we have to sit in an open field; but there is the problem of the guy who last mowed the grass. Then there is the inventor of the grass to consider.
Is there something wrong with this picture?
The worldly-wise say no. This is just the way things are. It is for us not to question but to obey. So it is with all despotisms in human history. They become so woven into the fabric of daily life that absurdities are no longer questioned. Only a handful of daring people are capable of thinking along completely different lines. But when they do, the earth beneath our feet moves.
Such is the case with Against Intellectual Monopoly by Michele Boldrin and David Levine, two daring professors of economics. They have written a book that is likely to rock your world, as it has mine.
With piracy and struggles over intellectual property in the news daily, it is time to wonder about this issue, its relationship to freedom, property rights, and efficiency. You have to think seriously about where you stand.
http://mises.org/story/3298
Israel and Palestine: A Statist War
General | Posted 17 years agoAuthor: Markus Bergstrom
The problem, however, isn't which side is right, i.e., which of the two governments is entitled to control all or parts of the Israeli/Palestinian territory. The problem is the very existence of these two governments to begin with — and the fact that they lay claims to any land at all.
http://mises.org/story/3285
The problem, however, isn't which side is right, i.e., which of the two governments is entitled to control all or parts of the Israeli/Palestinian territory. The problem is the very existence of these two governments to begin with — and the fact that they lay claims to any land at all.
http://mises.org/story/3285
On the Need for a Final Arbiter
General | Posted 17 years agoAuthor: Per Bylund
Nothing disturbs me as much as the minarchist argument that there is a need for a final arbiter and that this arbiter must be external to the market. Without a final arbiter there will be biases and problems of unjust rulings, and therefore there must be a State, goes the argument.
http://www.perbylund.com/the_librar.....nalarbiter.htm
Nothing disturbs me as much as the minarchist argument that there is a need for a final arbiter and that this arbiter must be external to the market. Without a final arbiter there will be biases and problems of unjust rulings, and therefore there must be a State, goes the argument.
http://www.perbylund.com/the_librar.....nalarbiter.htm
The Left, The Right, and The State
General | Posted 17 years agoAuthor: Lew Rockwell
What is the state? It is the group within society that claims for itself the exclusive right to rule everyone under a special set of laws that permit it to do to others what everyone else is rightly prohibited from doing, namely aggressing against person and property.
Why would any society permit such a gang to enjoy an unchallenged legal privilege? Here is where ideology comes into play.
http://mises.org/story/3282
What is the state? It is the group within society that claims for itself the exclusive right to rule everyone under a special set of laws that permit it to do to others what everyone else is rightly prohibited from doing, namely aggressing against person and property.
Why would any society permit such a gang to enjoy an unchallenged legal privilege? Here is where ideology comes into play.
http://mises.org/story/3282
Want to understand libertarian attitudes?
General | Posted 17 years agoHere's the classic explanation, from Murray Rothbard in "For a New Liberty":
For centuries, the State (or more strictly, individuals acting in their roles as "members of the government") has cloaked its criminal activity in high-sounding rhetoric. For centuries the State has committed mass murder and called it "war"; then ennobled the mass slaughter that "war" involves. For centuries the State has enslaved people into its armed battalions and called it "conscription" in the "national service." For centuries the State has robbed people at bayonet point and called it "taxation." In fact, if you wish to know how libertarians regard the State and any of its acts, simply think of the State as a criminal band, and all of the libertarian attitudes will logically fall into place.
http://www.lewrockwell.com/blog/lew.....es/024574.html
For centuries, the State (or more strictly, individuals acting in their roles as "members of the government") has cloaked its criminal activity in high-sounding rhetoric. For centuries the State has committed mass murder and called it "war"; then ennobled the mass slaughter that "war" involves. For centuries the State has enslaved people into its armed battalions and called it "conscription" in the "national service." For centuries the State has robbed people at bayonet point and called it "taxation." In fact, if you wish to know how libertarians regard the State and any of its acts, simply think of the State as a criminal band, and all of the libertarian attitudes will logically fall into place.
http://www.lewrockwell.com/blog/lew.....es/024574.html
The Amazing Mr. Burris
General | Posted 17 years agoOklahoma public high-school history teacher Charles Burris is grading a final tonight. Here is the exam:
WORLD HISTORY SURVEY
Semester Final Examination (300 Points)
Summary Statement: History As A Race Between Social Power and State Power
Economist and historian Murray N. Rothbard described history as a race between Social Power (the creative economic productivity which makes civilization possible by the peaceful exchange of goods and services) versus State Power (the coercive and parasitic seizure of this economic production) – a draining of the fruits of society for the benefit of a few...
http://www.lewrockwell.com/blog/lew.....es/024527.html
WORLD HISTORY SURVEY
Semester Final Examination (300 Points)
Summary Statement: History As A Race Between Social Power and State Power
Economist and historian Murray N. Rothbard described history as a race between Social Power (the creative economic productivity which makes civilization possible by the peaceful exchange of goods and services) versus State Power (the coercive and parasitic seizure of this economic production) – a draining of the fruits of society for the benefit of a few...
http://www.lewrockwell.com/blog/lew.....es/024527.html
Deflation: Nothing to fear
General | Posted 17 years agoAuthor: Jeff Bonn
The same mistakes that were made during the Great Depression are being made now, writes Jeff Bonn. The call to prop up prices will grow to a din as the self-interests of businesses push themselves on the Federal Reserve and Treasury.
http://mises.org/story/3249
The same mistakes that were made during the Great Depression are being made now, writes Jeff Bonn. The call to prop up prices will grow to a din as the self-interests of businesses push themselves on the Federal Reserve and Treasury.
http://mises.org/story/3249
The end of the US piano industry
General | Posted 17 years agoAuthor: Jeffrey Tucker
Today the highest-price good that people buy besides their houses is their car, and this reality leads people to believe that we can't possibly let the American car industry die. Between 1870 and 1930, the biggest-ticket item on every household budget besides the house itself was its piano. The entire American piano industry rose up, conquered all, and went away, as Japan, Korea, and China took up the task. There was no great calamity.
http://mises.org/story/3253
Today the highest-price good that people buy besides their houses is their car, and this reality leads people to believe that we can't possibly let the American car industry die. Between 1870 and 1930, the biggest-ticket item on every household budget besides the house itself was its piano. The entire American piano industry rose up, conquered all, and went away, as Japan, Korea, and China took up the task. There was no great calamity.
http://mises.org/story/3253
The Great Society: A Libertarian Critique
General | Posted 17 years agoAuthor: Murray Rothbard
[First published in The Great Society Reader: The Failure of American Liberalism, 1967.]
The Great Society is the lineal descendant and the intensification of those other pretentiously named policies of 20th-century America: the Square Deal, the New Freedom, the New Era, the New Deal, the Fair Deal, and the New Frontier. All of these assorted Deals constituted a basic and fundamental shift in American life — a shift from a relatively laissez-faire economy and minimal state to a society in which the state is unquestionably king.
http://mises.org/story/3232
[First published in The Great Society Reader: The Failure of American Liberalism, 1967.]
The Great Society is the lineal descendant and the intensification of those other pretentiously named policies of 20th-century America: the Square Deal, the New Freedom, the New Era, the New Deal, the Fair Deal, and the New Frontier. All of these assorted Deals constituted a basic and fundamental shift in American life — a shift from a relatively laissez-faire economy and minimal state to a society in which the state is unquestionably king.
http://mises.org/story/3232
Private-sector health-care leading the way
General | Posted 17 years agoAuthor: Chris Brown
It is easy to criticize the US healthcare system, but we should be clear on one thing: it is not "free market" or "private" healthcare. A free market in healthcare would be more efficient and innovative, and offer better quality products and services, with lower prices than is currently the case. Wal-Mart is leading the way.
http://mises.org/story/3233
It is easy to criticize the US healthcare system, but we should be clear on one thing: it is not "free market" or "private" healthcare. A free market in healthcare would be more efficient and innovative, and offer better quality products and services, with lower prices than is currently the case. Wal-Mart is leading the way.
http://mises.org/story/3233
Nonsense about deflation
General | Posted 17 years agoAuthor: Robert Higgs
We are now hearing ominous warnings about imminent deflation. Checking the welcome page at AOL this morning, I see that the lead item in the financial news section heralds "The Looming Threat of Deflation." This headline encapsulates two highly problematic ideas. The first is that deflation would necessarily be a bad thing. The second is that deflation is likely to occur in the near term.
http://mises.org/story/3236
We are now hearing ominous warnings about imminent deflation. Checking the welcome page at AOL this morning, I see that the lead item in the financial news section heralds "The Looming Threat of Deflation." This headline encapsulates two highly problematic ideas. The first is that deflation would necessarily be a bad thing. The second is that deflation is likely to occur in the near term.
http://mises.org/story/3236
