August 2012
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Expansionary Monetary Policy and Decreasing... →
From the latest issue of The Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics. This seems to be a particularly strong issue from mostly relative unknowns. Here’s the abstract to the above linked piece, by Lucas Engelhardt (which works as a follow-up to this piece from a 2008 QJAE issue):
Austrian business cycle theory has been criticized on the basis of “rational expectations.” That is, reasonably...
“Taking somebody’s money without permission is stealing, unless you work for the...”
– Robert Anton Wilson
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“[I]f private individuals were to own all the lands and resources, then it would...”
– Murray Rothbard, Power & Market
The free market conserves resources.
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Amazon joins Walmart in push for online sales tax →
Corporatism in action:
Congressmen in both parties want you to pay more taxes on your online purchases, and once again, big business is lobbying for bigger government, which would hurt Mom and Pop.
Online sales taxes have been a battlefield for lobbying titans for years, pitting Walmart and the rest of the brick-and-mortar retail lobby against Amazon and other online retailers. But now Amazon...
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SIGAR Report On Afghanistan
letterstomycountry:
The National Defense Authorization Act for 2008 established the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR). The SIGAR recently released [his] report on the state of ongoing U.S. reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan. The report is less than optimistic about U.S. efforts to create a stable, functioning political infrastructure before U.S. troops are...
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“After all the accountability and transparency public service unions have brought...”
– Radley Balko on the news of the TSA unionizing.
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Government Is Shrinking? →
Jeffrey Tucker dismantles the statist distortion lie - promoted by the likes of the New York Times, ThinkProgress, and anywhere else that leftists (mostly) peddle their narratives - that government is shrinking.
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“Most conservationist arguments evince almost no familiarity with economics. Many...”
– Murray Rothbard, Power & Market
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We Must Have Parallel Currencies →
Excerpt from Ron Paul’s Speech Before the United States House of Representatives, Subcommittee on Domestic Monetary Policy, Hearing on Sound Money: Parallel Currencies and the Roadmap to Monetary Freedom, August 2, 2012 (emphasis added):
The importance of sound money is summed up nicely by Ludwig von Mises: “It is impossible to grasp the meaning of the idea of sound money if one does...
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“Compulsory unemployment is achieved indirectly through minimum wage laws. On the...”
– Murray Rothbard, Power & Market
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"You Didn't Build That" Properly Framed
Here’s the wonderful Percy Greaves, from a series of lectures delivered in Argentina in the summer of 1969, properly understanding the interconnectedness of free people (emphasis added).
The essence of freedom is that people be free, not only to select their actions, but also to deviate from traditional ways of thinking and acting, so that they may plan for themselves rather than have an...
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The Fed, Enabler of State Growth →
For the past few years the Federal Reserve has received criticism from all sides of the political spectrum, and rightly so, for its unprecedented intervention into the economy and its bailouts of large Wall Street banks and foreign central banks. Yet this criticism risks losing sight of the most insidious result of the Fed’s actions, which is to enable the growth of government.
For nearly...
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“Since outright grants of monopoly or quasi monopoly would usually be considered baldly injurious to the public, governments have discovered a variety of methods of granting such privileges indirectly, as well as a variety of arguments to justify these measures. But they all have the effects common to monopoly or quasi-monopoly grants and monopoly prices when these are obtained.
“The...
July 2012
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British teenager arrested for "malicious" tweets →
Kid tells failed olympic swimmer through twitter: “You let your dad down i hope you know that.” Olympic swimmer’s dad, who was his inspiration, died of cancer last year.
So apparently being a jerk online is punishable by up to six months in prison or a £5,000 fine if convicted.
Under the terms of [the Malicious Communications Act 1988], it is an offence to send messages to...
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Own Guns, So that Jeffrey Tucker Doesn't Have To →
While attending the Agora Financial Symposium in Vancouver, I became aware that Americans enjoy some rights that Canadians do not: among them, the limited ability to carry weapons. Even private security guards seem unable to be armed in Canada. This does not make me feel safer. Quite the reverse.
Private people who carry guns make me feel safer.
So I would like to make a plea to my fellow...
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“[When government issues grants of monopoly:] even where no monopolist or quasi...”
– Murray Rothbard, Power & Market
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FBI Agents Raid Homes in Search of “Anarchist... →
When FBI and Joint Terrorism Task Force agents raided multiple activist homes in the Northwest last week, they were in search of “anti-government or anarchist literature.”
The raids were part of a multi-state operation that targeted activists in Portland, Olympia, and Seattle. Five people were served subpoenas to appear before a federal grand jury on August 2nd in Seattle.
In addition to...
