Turn Down the North Korea Volume, Argues Ron Paul - Washington Wire - WSJ

Turn Down the North Korea Volume, Argues Ron Paul - Washington Wire - WSJ: "But Rep. Ron Paul, the onetime Republican presidential candidate known for his strident libertarian policies, thinks everyone’s overreacting. His main points, released in a statement accompanying a video address:

1) North Korea has a legal right to launch a rocket into space.
2) North Korea isn’t a significant threat to the U.S.
3) The White House has reacted in an “overly bellicose and provocative manner.”

In the video, he adds: “It just seems like this an excuse for the West … to have another massive buildup. … Even if [North Korea] did have a bomb [and used it] … they would be wiped off the face of the earth within minutes.”"

Capitalism benefiting the poor?

Konkin on Libertarian Strategy - Murray N. Rothbard - Mises Institute: "the emergence of wage labor was an enormous boon for many thousands of poor workers and saved them from starvation. If there is no wage labor — as there was not in most production before the Industrial Revolution — then each worker must have enough money to purchase his own capital and tools. One of the great things about the emergence of the factory system and wage labor is that poor workers did not have to purchase their own capital equipment; this could be left to the capitalists. (Thus, see F.A. Hayek's brilliant introduction in his Capitalism and the Historians.)"

The Forgotten People

The Forgotten People: "It's not in the least surprising that Iran and Hamas ardently support Sudan's Master Mortician. According to the speaker of Iran's parliament, Ali Larijani, the global arrest warrant for Gen. al-Bashir is an 'insult to all Muslims.' (Minneapolis Star Tribune, March 27).

Mr. Larijani, what do you call the starving deaths of those four black Muslim children at the Shangil Tobaya refugee camp?"

Who does the U.N. represent?

The Forgotten People: "Meanwhile, the ghoulish head of that sovereign state - a member in good standing of the United Nations - is presumably a wanted man around the world after the International Criminal Court (ICC) last month issued warrants for his arrest on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity."

This shows one of the major problems with the U.N. -- it represents the rulers of nations, not necessarily the people of those nations. Many of the members of the U.N. are not even indirectly chosen by the people.

Blowing Bubbles - Doug French - Mises Institute

Blowing Bubbles - Doug French - Mises Institute: "The Austrian theory points out that it is government's increasing the supply of money that serves to lower interest rates below the natural rate or the rate that would be set by the collective time preferences of savers in the market. Entrepreneurs react to these lower interest rates by investing in 'higher order' goods in the production chain, as opposed to consumer goods.

Despite these actions by government, consumer time preferences remain the same. There is no real increase in the demand for higher order goods and instead of capital flowing into what the unfettered market would dictate — it flows into malinvestment. The greater the monetary expansion, in terms of both time and enormity, the longer the boom will be sustained.

But eventually there must be a recession or depression to liquidate not only inefficient and unprofitable businesses, but malinvestments in speculation — whether it is stocks, bonds, real estate, art, or tulip bulbs."

Greenspan's Bogus Defense - Robert P. Murphy - Mises Institute

Greenspan's Bogus Defense - Robert P. Murphy - Mises Institute: "Since the participants in the mortgage market wisely realized that rates wouldn't be held at 1% forever, they didn't foolishly drop their own yields down so far. Then in June 2004, when Greenspan began ratcheting the federal-funds rate back up, it is perfectly understandable that mortgage rates wouldn't rise with them.

To repeat, Greenspan's defense of his policies made it sound as if he tried to push up mortgage rates, but that they wouldn't budge. Yet, as the chart above makes clear, Greenspan didn't really push up very hard on rates."

"Greenspan repeats the claim that Asian savings were the real culprit. But there are two problems with this theory: first, global savings rates continued to rise throughout the housing boom and bust. So it's very difficult to explain the peak of the housing boom with reference to Asian saving. (In contrast, Greenspan's actions with short-term rates fit the fortunes of the housing market much more closely.)

But a second major problem is that even on its own terms, the influx of blind Asian saving — to the extent it existed at all — was itself partially a product of Greenspan's monetary inflation. Remember that the Chinese central bank had maintained a rigid peg to the dollar until it was pressured to drop it — right around the time the housing boom faltered.

To put it somewhat simplistically, when Greenspan flooded the world with more dollars, the dollar fell sharply against most major currencies. But in order for the Chinese to keep the renminbi (yuan) from appreciating against the dollar as well, they had to load up on dollar-denominated assets, such as US Treasuries. Thus, Greenspan's inflation in combination with the Chinese peg, on paper might have appeared as an irrational influx of Asian investment, which stubbornly refused to subside even as US indebtedness grew."

Is the Economy a Perpetual Motion Machine? - William L. Anderson - Mises Institute

Is the Economy a Perpetual Motion Machine? - William L. Anderson - Mises Institute: "Instead, the act of saving provides a means for producers to obtain capital, and capital goods are then used to produce more goods using fewer resources so that the newly freed resources can be used to produce those things that were unavailable before.

This is a viewpoint that recognizes the law of scarcity. It also recognizes that more consumption is made possible only by more production, but production that is done in line with both the spending and saving patterns of individuals in the economy. If lines of capital are created that are not compatible with saving and spending patterns set by consumers, then the capital is malinvested.

Malinvestment does not occur by accident. It happens because the government, through monetary authorities, has suppressed real interest rates and has touched off a credit-inspired boom that cannot be sustained."

Campaign For Liberty — Constitutional Tender Act testimony before the banking subcommittees of the Georgia House

Campaign For Liberty — Constitutional Tender Act testimony before the banking subcommittees of the Georgia House: "The Constitution of the United States recognizes sovereignty of the states in article ten of the Bill of Rights. However, the states are forbidden to make 'any Thing but gold or silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts' in Article I section 10. The central government is given no power to make a tender at all. Furthermore, on August 16, 1787 a motion to strike out the power of Congress to 'emit bills on the credit of the U. States' carried nine to two. All the discussion regarded 'bills of credit' to be 'paper money.' Article I section 8 of the Constitution allows Congress the power to 'Coin money' which obviously concerns coins and not paper. Indeed, why would the founders grant the Congress the power to create money that the States would be forbidden from making a tender? Despite Washington DC's ignorance and hostility to the Constitution of the United States, we in Georgia have an obligation to do our best to follow it. The Constitutional Tender Act is a good start at compliance with the Constitution."

Obama Denies Bailout Funds for U.S. Automakers, Sets Restructure Deadline - First 100 Days of Presidency - Politics FOXNews.com

Obama Denies Bailout Funds for U.S. Automakers, Sets Restructure Deadline - First 100 Days of Presidency - Politics FOXNews.com: "The Obama administration, however, has decided not to require the automakers to immediately repay government loan money they previously received, since that would force both companies into Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

A senior administration official told FOX�News, 'calling in the loans would not be a productive exercise for the American taxpayer since the companies don't have the money [to repay the loans] and it would simply put the companies into uncontrolled Chapter 11.'"

And why do they think the companies will be able to repay the loans later?

How FDR Promoted Price-Gouging

How FDR Promoted Price-Gouging: "First came FDR's National Industrial Recovery Act, considered the flagship of the New Deal. FDR signed that in June 1933, climaxing his heroic Hundred Days of legislative mania. Back then, the economic situation was considered so urgent that members of Congress didn't have time to seriously debate FDR's proposals.

The members probably didn't have time to read the bills, either, before the voting began. Possibly, the Hundred Days began the American tradition of having members of Congress vote on bills they haven't read. In any case, The National Industrial Recovery Act authorized the president to establish cartels via executive orders. He established some 500 cartels, and one of the things they did was fix prices above market levels."

"The bottom line was that the law made it illegal for big stores to cut prices. If private stores had conspired among themselves to maintain high prices, they would have invited prosecution under the antitrust laws."

"The CAB made clear its intent to suppress competition when it declared, "In the absence of particular circumstances presenting an affirmative reason for a new carrier, there appears to be no inherent desirability of increasing the present number of carriers merely for the purpose of numerically enlarging the industry." During the next 40 years, until airlines were deregulated in 1978, the CAB didn't issue a license for a single new interstate airline."

"The most famous private "monopoly," John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil, lost market share despite having cut the price of its principal product 90 percent, because it wasn't backed by the force of government. Perhaps the most intriguing question is why "progressives" continue to view FDR as savior, giving him a free pass as a price-gouger."