I recently found Our Enemy the State, by Albert Jay Nock, under a chair in my kids’ playroom–I must have bought it long ago and misplaced it. I flipped the book open to a chapter: “Politics and Other Fetiches,” and despite the unpromising chapter heading I was immediately riveted. Although written in 1935, Our Enemy (more…)
“What? You Don’t LOVE It?!”
I read in today’s Wall Street Journal that Homeland Security bought Montgomery County, Texas, a $300,000 surveillance drone. Not only does this smack of both the surveillance state and crony capitalism–the US government is promoting drone sales abroad as well–but it’s an abuse of taxpayers’ money to use federal funds to pad the policing power of municipalities. Federal funding of municipal responsibilities eliminates even the indirect possibility of connecting the costs and (alleged) benefits of government spending. In this case in particular, the benefits themselves are clearly mixed. The title of the article tells the story: The Law’s New Eye in the Sky: Police Departments’ Use of Drones Is Raising Concerns Over Privacy and Safety.
I just read a great article by one of my favorite Austrian economists, Jesus Huerta de Soto, explaining an aspect of the financial crisis that I never heard anyone point out. The government cannot be trusted with the money, the law or, apparently, accounting standards! I found the following article at Professor Huerta de Soto’s page “articles in English” on his website jesushuertadesoto.com. Here is the full text:
They don’t know it, but Occupy Wall Street craves more capitalism, not less. Listen to my views on the subject in this podcast:
Monica Perez OWS
And if you really want to have some fun, watch this video (there’s a clip from this in the podcast above, but here’s the full rant).
A Congressional Budget Office report reveals that income inequality is increasing. In this excerpt from Saturday’s show, I explain that the progressive tax system and expansionary monetary policy are at the root of the growing disparity between rich and poor in America. Monica Perez income inequality debunked If like I do, you crave economic truth (more…)
Ron Paul points out that the booms are what cause all the cyclical devastation in our economy. Until we stop the booms we will always have the terribly damaging busts. What does he mean by that? Listen to my explanation from last week’s show. Monica Perez boom bust
I don’t know where Peter Schiff gets the patience to go down to Wall Street and try to explain economic principles to the protesters there. To their credit many are reasonable, but others won’t accept his arguments even though they have none of their own. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGL-Ex1CD1c]
It is my view that the corporate tax rate should be zero for the exact reasons laid out in this mainstream media report intended, as usual, to make us conclude the opposite of the truth–in this case that corporations should pay more taxes. Biggest Public Firms Paid Little US Taxes, Study Says Complex corporate tax (more…)
In a truly free society there would be no way for anyone to amass great wealth or earn high levels of income without offering a product or service commensurately valuable to the individuals in society—the nature of voluntary exchange guarantees that. But do we have a truly free society? People are upset about a CBO report showing an increase in income inequality between the highest earning 1% and lesser paid earners. But why exactly? I don’t think people are upset because they think it’s unfair
The Vatican has just released a Note on Financial Reform from the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace. I am reading it with horror on many levels. As I attempt to fully digest its contents (without losing my lunch), I thought I would pass along the following great article on a similar subject by Tom (more…)