The Presidential Campaign has begun! I don’t feel like it’s two ideological parties fighting for what they think is right, I feel like it’s two mob families going to the mattresses! Also, what’s all this about too-big-to-fail, too-big-to-bail or too-big-to-manage? Government regulations CREATE crazily over-sized corporations, especially banks! They should cut it out! Oh, and (more…)
Does social power mismanage banking-practice in this-or-that special instance–then let the State, which never has shown itself able to keep its own finances from sinking promptly into the slough of misfeasance, wastefulness and corruption, intervene to “supervise” or “regulate” the whole body of banking-practice, or even take it over entire.-Albert Jay Nock, 1935
Nothing irritates me more than a government-created problem that prompts cries for more government action. A great example of this is the horrible crises, fiscal and monetary, caused in Europe by socialism and central banking, respectively. George Soros and so many others respond to the European Debt Crisis with cries for greater political union and more central government control in Europe. Historical examples of government growth in the wake of government injustice include the response to bans on unionization with laws unfairly favoring unions, or the response to government-mandated segregation with laws that infringe on private property rights under the false guise of pursuing racial justice. (Want racial justice? End the Drug War.)
The latest example of this maddening phenomenon is, generally speaking, the constant demand for more regulation of the financial sector, and specifically, calls for more regulation of trading in the wake of JP Morgan’s recent losses. The fact is, like coal mining, oil drilling and nuclear power, the financial sector is one of the most highly regulated industries in the history of humanity, yet calamities that bring us to the brink of physical, financial and planetary destruction seem to be occurring in these fields at an accelerating pace.
The show this week was great! Thanks to callers and listeners alike. Who knew the European Debt Crisis could be so much fun? To tell you the truth, the truth is so horrible that ya gotta laugh at it or you’d cry! Central economic control and the socialist state are as much a failure in Europe as they were in Russia and North Korea, and as I’m sure we will find, in China, yet Europeans continue to double down by betting again on socialism (in France) and communism (in Greece) in the elections of last week. What are they crazy? (Actually, maybe they are: check out my video preview of the show and the article I reference in that post: 40% of Europeans are reported to suffer mental illness!)
European Debt Crisis
If you haven’t been following the European Debt Crisis, the upshot is that the PIIGS (Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Greece & Spain) are already effectively bankrupt and other countries, including France, are not far behind. Despite this, France replaced it’s “conservative” President Nicolas Sarkozy with a socialist, Francois Hollande, as Hollande promised to spare the French people austerity and still somehow spare them bankruptcy. I don’t even think Hollande believes this is possible, but he will raise taxes in a last ditch effort to placate the masses that he’s doing everything he can to get them their free lunch.
Austerity vs. Liberalization
Frankly, although I am the most fiscally conservative person you could imagine (I think government expenditure should be $0!) I don’t think the austerity they are talking about in Europe would work anyway.
In honor of Mother’s Day, I thought I’d post a quote by the father of our country about his mother. “My mother was the most beautiful woman I ever saw. All I am I owe to my mother. I attribute all my success in life to the moral, intellectual and physical education I received from (more…)
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=khbg5RCj6e8]
My favorite Austrian economist (actually, he‘s German!) is Hans-Hermann Hoppe. Here he is giving a lecture in Brazil (the intro is in Portuguese but his lecture is in English) about private law society. If you enjoy this, you should consider listening to his lectures on CD–they are a joy for the anarcho-capitalist and the anarcho-curious (more…)
LEAP
I was joined in studio by Jay Fisher of LEAP–Law Enforcement Against Prohibition–that’s right! Cops, prosecutors and others in the field of law enforcement who are fed up with the Drug War have banded together to spread the word: The Drug War is a lost cause. Here’s a good short video by LEAP that introduces the subject of legalizing drugs from a few of the many law enforcement agents in the organization:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LayaGk0TMDc]
Many have concluded that the Drug War is a lost cause, but as with so many lost causes I have observed (the coercive, monopoly form of government for starters), they are lost because they are wrong and unnecessary, not because evil prevails.
Violence Is Caused by the Drug War NOT by Drug Use
The fact is, the extreme violence surrounding drugs is purely a result of the Drug War and not drug use.
After the Trayvon Martin shooting I did a show about my view that the reason the powers that be were making a stink about the Trayvon Martin killing wasn’t because they care about “hate crime” but because they want to increase gun control. Here’s the opening segment of the show: The Monica Perez Show: Trayvon (more…)
I did a show a while ago discussing the similarity of foreign policy under the Democrats and the Republicans despite the anti-Bush anti-war protests which seem to be just partisan politics given the muteness of the supposed anti-war left now that Obama is president. In case you missed the show, here is the opening segment: (more…)
Drug Crazy, by Mike Gray, is a page turner on the origins and impact of the Drug War in America. I have long been against the Drug War as a matter of principle: there is no justification for the group to force an individual to do or not to do a particular thing if the (more…)