All the President's Economists | Richard W. Rahn | Cato Institute: Commentary

All the President's Economists | Richard W. Rahn | Cato Institute: Commentary: "budget deficits will average nearly $1 trillion per year for the next decade. There is no school of economics (classical, Austrian, Keynesian, etc.) that says deficits of this magnitude for a decade or longer will not result in great economic hardship or worse. Greece, here we come."

Lobbyists | Doug Bandow | Cato Institute: Commentary

Lobbyists | Doug Bandow | Cato Institute: Commentary: "The nation accused of committing genocide no longer exists. Every government official who plotted the murders and almost certainly every soldier or civilian who committed a murder is dead. Whether or not the actions technically constituted 'genocide' does not affect the obvious brutality and inhumanity of the killings.

And the pronouncement of Congress will not matter. American legislators can neither make a genocide where none existed nor eliminate one that did occur. No historian will care one whit how a majority of American lawmakers opine."

Inventive Progress, Part 2 - Henry Grady Weaver - Mises Institute

Inventive Progress, Part 2 - Henry Grady Weaver - Mises Institute: "No matter how much money John Deere may have made, it would be insignificant in comparison with the tremendous overall benefits shared by millions of people. And it's just possible that good old John Deere wouldn't have bothered his head about the plowing problem if he hadn't been living in a free country, where an ambitious blacksmith had a chance to become a prosperous manufacturer. Free minds are inventive minds. That is why America has always been a land of inventors."

Russ Feingold: In the News - Press Releases

Russ Feingold: In the News - Press Releases: "To review Feingold’s record of bipartisanship, click here."

Is he worried about being re-elected?

Russ Feingold: In the News - Press Releases

Russ Feingold: In the News - Press Releases: "The Feingold-McCain legislation would cap the number of political appointments at 2,000"

Would that actually reduce the number of government employees or just change some from appointed to hired?

Line-Item Veto Is No Quick-Fix | Gene Healy | Cato Institute: Commentary

Line-Item Veto Is No Quick-Fix | Gene Healy | Cato Institute: Commentary: "A recent Federal Reserve journal article summarizes the state research: 'There is no statistically significant effect on the budget in the long run.' Instead, the state [Line-Item Veto] 'simply alters the composition of spending.'"

"during the two years President Clinton had enhanced veto power, he cut under $2 billion from a multitrillion-dollar federal budget."

"We'd all like to have a mechanism to knock out earmarks. But bridges to nowhere aren't breaking the bank. Our problems, as always, are entitlements and defense, which make up over two-thirds of the federal budget."

Inventive Progress - Henry Grady Weaver - Mises Institute

Inventive Progress - Henry Grady Weaver - Mises Institute: "When the American Revolution had its beginning, living conditions had scarcely changed since the reign of Nebuchadnezzar. The colonial woman gathered her own firewood and cooked over an open fire, just as women had cooked since the dawn of history, and just as more than two-thirds of the women on earth are cooking today. She spun thread and wove coarse cloth, with a spindle and loom handed down from the early Egyptians. Every housewife made her own soap and candles and carried water from a spring or well. A crude millstone, dating back to ancient Babylon, ground the grain that the American farmer cut and threshed with knives and flails that were older than history.

These were the conditions existing when our forefathers threw off the shackles of Old World tyranny in order that human beings might be in control of their own lives and make full use of their individual initiative."

"From the Old World viewpoint, time was unimportant, and the conservation of human energy also seemed unimportant. It is only when men are free that they begin to place a value on their time; and when men begin to place a value on human time, they begin to realize the importance of preserving human life.

Down through the ages, the principal business had always been war. When a people won a war, they made slaves of the defeated people; if they lost, they became slaves of their conquerors. In either case, there was always a surplus of burden bearers. Long hours of drudgery helped to keep the slaves submissive, so there was no incentive to develop labor-saving techniques — no point in worrying about time."

"His first shipment of low-priced clocks to England was held up at the Liverpool Customs House on grounds of suspicion. The Customs officials knew the value of clocks, and they knew that clocks just couldn't be produced at the low prices shown on the Peck invoice — fraudulent payments must have been made on the side in order to avoid the full effect of the tariff.
British law provided that under such conditions the goods in question would be confiscated by paying the amount of the invoice plus 10 percent. The clocks never reached the consignee. They were taken over by the government. What the government did with them, I don't know.

But Peck, being a practical man, didn't put up any argument. He was a hardheaded manufacturer, not a salesman. The 10 percent extra profit was "pure velvet," and he rather relished the idea of disposing of his output without any sales expense or credit risk. He added more workers and continued shipping his clocks to Britain and collecting from the Customs Office until they finally got wise to him."

The Scandinavian-Welfare Myth Revisited - Markus Bergstrom - Mises Institute

The Scandinavian-Welfare Myth Revisited - Markus Bergstrom - Mises Institute: "At one point during the mid-'70s, the top marginal tax rate was an unbelievable 102 percent."

Talk about a dis-incentive to work!

FOXNews.com - Social Security to Start Cashing Uncle Sam's IOUs

FOXNews.com - Social Security to Start Cashing Uncle Sam's IOUs: "Social Security's shortfall will not affect current benefits. As long as the IOUs last, benefits will keep flowing. But experts say it is a warning sign that the program's finances are deteriorating. Social Security is projected to drain its trust funds by 2037 unless Congress acts, and there's concern that the looming crisis will lead to reduced benefits."

The IOUs are worthless because both with them and without them, the government has to raise funds to cover benefits the same way (tax, cut spending elsewhere, or borrow).