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Must Reads For The Week 9/27/14

September 27, 2014

The pen is mightier than the sword… (Photo credit: mbshane)

Economic Policy Treats Symptoms, Not Underlying Causes, by Logan Albright, at mises.ca. Individuals in Government pass laws to solve a percieved problem in the economy. The new regulation creates an unintended consequence. These individuals then try to regulate the unintended consequence, instead of repealing the previous law which created the new problem. They are like dogs chasing their tails.

Who Wants War, by Thomas Sowell, at jewishworldreview.com. Here are the money quotes from the article, “Barack Obama has done more than anyone else to promote the dangerous illusion that we can choose whether to have a war or not. But our enemies have already made that choice. Retired Marine Corps General James Mattis said: “No war is over until the enemy says it’s over. We may think it’s over, we may declare it over, but in fact, the enemy gets a vote“.”

Where The Housing “Recovery” Is, In One Chart, at zerohedge.com. Electronically printed counterfeit money always benefits the people who receive it first. The people who can afford the $1 million plus homes are working for those who have access to the counterfeit money first.

Peter Thiel “Fixes” America’s Anti-Business Policies In 6 Words, at zerohedge.com. The six words are, “Get Government Out Of The Way“. This was the Co Founder of Pay Pal, Peter Thiels, response when asked; what kind of support do businesses need, especially small businesses, to flourish?

Climate Marchers Leave Trail Of Trash Everywhere, by Greg Campbell, at tpnn.com. The global warming cult is the do as I say and not as I do crowd. They have to trash the planet in order to save the planet.

The Thought Police In The Climate Movement, at economicpolicyjournal.com. Robert Kennedy Jr. wants laws that punish global warming skeptics. He wants people to go to jail for what they think. Totalitarians never want to be challenged about their positions.

5 Reasons To Counter Climate Change Regulation, by Diana Furchtgott-Roth, at marketwatch.com. Only wealthy countries can clean up after themselves. These regulations will shrink the over all wealth of our country. Therefore the passage of these regulations will lead to more pollution.

Seattle To Fine Residence, And Businesses For Wasting Food, at economicpolicyjournal.com. An example of central planners out of control. Garbage collectors are going to be allowed to inspect people’s trash and if food and compostable materials make up 10% of the garbage they will be fined. No this is not from The Onion, they couldn’t make this up.

Best Headline Of The Month, at economicpolicyjournal.com. “SYRIA IS 7th (MUSLIM) COUNTRY BOMBED BY 2009 NOBEL PEACE PRIZE WINNER. This is what happens when utopian visions run head first into reality.

VIRTUAL REALITY. I saw this at theburningplatform.com.

Categories: Must Reads For The Week
Tags: Business Regulations, Climate Change Regulations, Climate Movement, Headline, Housing Recovery?, Seattle city Council, Thomas Sowell, Thought Police, Who Wants War

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Federal Reserve Policies Cause Booms And Busts, by Richard M. Ebeling

September 26, 2014

In God (or money) we trust - making money on the hand printing press - stock photo

Federal Reserve Policies Cause Booms And Busts (read here at mises.org), is a fantastic article by Richard M. Ebeling, explaining what happens when central banks, like the Fed, intervene in the economy. Electronically printing counterfeit money and artificially lowering interest rates are the tools the Fed uses to “improve” the economy. The Fed may pay lip service to the free market, but the policy makers at the Fed truly don’t like the outcome resulting from the voluntary decisions individuals make in the free market. If they did, they wouldn’t intervene after the fact to try to exchange what they want the economy to look like, for what actually exists as a result of what each individual decides to produce, consume, save, and exchange.

Their tools of intervention, electronically printing counterfeit money and artificially lowering interest rates, send false information through the market. People in the market start to make decisions on what to produce, consume, save, and exchange based on this false information. The structure of the production process has no anchor to reality and the result is distortions and malinvestment. Scarce resources are allocated to areas of the economy that can’t be sustained unless ever-increasing amounts of electronically printed counterfeit money is pushed into the economy. The economic forces of supply and demand are always trying to reach equilibrium (balance). These economic forces, that are trying to correct the interventions of the central planners, will eventually win.

HERE ARE SOME EXCERPTS FROM THE ARTICLE

“In the free market, interest rates perform the same functions as all other prices: to provide information to market participants; to serve as an incentive mechanism for buyers and sellers; and to bring market supply and demand into balance. Market prices convey information about what goods consumers want and what it would cost for producers to bring those goods to the market.”

“Market rates of interest balance the actions and decisions of borrowers (investors) and lenders (savers) just as the prices of shoes, hats, or bananas balance the activities of the suppliers and demanders of those goods...”

“…There is one crucial difference, however, between the price of any other good that is pushed below that balancing point and interest rates being set below that point. If the price of hats, for example, is below the balancing point, the result is a shortage;”

“…In contrast, in the market for borrowing and lending the Federal Reserve pushes interest rates below the point at which the market would have set them by increasing the supply of money on the loan market. Even though savers are not willing to supply more of their income for investors to borrow, the central bank provides the required funds by creating them out of thin air and making them available to banks for loans to investors. Investment spending now exceeds the amount of savings available to support the projects undertaken”

“…The twin result of the Federal Reserve’s increase in the money supply……is an emerging price inflation and an initial investment boom…”

“…The boom is unsustainable because the imbalance between savings and investment will eventually necessitate a market correction when it is discovered that the resources available are not enough to produce all the consumer goods people want to buy, as well as all the investment projects borrowers have begun.”

“Interest rates, like market prices in general, cannot tell the truth about real supply and demand conditions when governments and their central banks prevent them from doing their job. All that government produces from its interventions, regulations, and manipulations is false signals and bad information. And all of us suffer from this abridgement of our right to freedom of speech to talk honestly to each other through the competitive communication of market prices and interest rates, without governments and central banks getting in the way.“

Related Article – The Role Of Interest Rates In A Market Economy, by austrianaddict.com.

Related Article – Thomas Woods Explains The Austrian Business Cycle Theory, by austrianaddict.com.

Related Article – Counterfeiting By The Federal Reserve, Although Legal, Still Results In Theft, by austrianaddict.com.

Categories: Econ. 201
Tags: Artificially Low Interest Rates, Austrian Business Cycle Theory, Boom Bust Cycle, Electronically Printing Counterfeit Money, Federal Reserve Policies, Production Process, Richard M Ebeling, The Role Of Interest Rates

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Videos You Have To See

September 25, 2014

FEMINISM VS. TRUTH, by Christina Hoff Sommers, at Prager University.

OUT OF CONTROL COPS, at Police Check Point. It starts to go down at 3:30 on the video. This can’t happen here!

BRIGITTE GABRIEL ANSWERS MUSLIM WOMAN’S QUESTION

You can see Brigitte Gabriel’s personal bona fides on this subject here.

BILL MAHER AND CHARLIE ROSE DIFFER ON ISLAM

OUR COMMANDER AND CHIEF GIVES LATTE SALUTE

I couldn’t let this go. Does President Obama understand that this doesn’t look “presidential”? Who and where are his political advisers who understand and stage the optics of every action? Does he or does he not listen to them? What do you think was going on in the minds of the two Marines who were saluting their commander and chief? I know what I was thinking.

Categories: Miscellaneous
Tags: Bill Mahr and Charlie Rose, Brigitte Gabriel, Christina Hoff Sommers, Femminism vs. Truth, Muslims and Islam, Obama Latte Salute, Prager University, The Police State

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Hillary And Benghazi: Call In The Cleaners!

September 24, 2014

Young caucasian businessman shredding documents - stock photo

A cleaner is a person who gets rid of incriminating evidence at the scene of a crime. A cleaner is usually related to crime fiction novels, but in the case of the Clintons the line between fiction and reality may not be as blurry as you might think.

SHARYL ATTKISSON ARTICLE ABOUT BENGHAZI

I read an article last week by Sharyl Attkisson about former Deputy Assistant Secretary of the State Department, Raymond Maxwell, alleging that Hillary Clinton cronies cleaned potentially damaging documents, from State Department headquarters, concerning the Benghazi terrorist attacks (read article here). Hillary Clinton’s chief of staff Cheryl Mills was at the cleaning party. I’m not going to go over the whole article, you can read it for yourself. I’m much more interested in one question: Do you believe these allegations or not?

ISOLATED INCIDENT OR DISCERNIBLE PATTERN OF ACTION?

If you look at this incident in isolation your first question would be: is the reporter credible? Sharyl Attkisson was a CBS news investigative journalist for 20 years before she resigned in March 2014 (read why she resigned here). She has main stream media credibility, until such time that the mainstream media decides to undercut her credibility for writing this article. In isolation this incident comes down to who you believe, Sharyl Attkisson”s reporting and the credibility of Raymond Maxwell, or a State Department spokesman who called the allegations that documents were withheld, “totally without merit”.

The question really isn’t who do you believe? The question should be: is this an isolated incident or is this part of a discernible pattern of action? Lets see if we can find a discernible pattern.

SANDY BERGER CLEANS EVIDENCE

Remember Sandy Berger former National Security Adviser Under Bill Clinton. He was convicted of stealing classified documents from the National Archives, concerning Clinton’s efforts to thwart terrorist threats. He did this before the 9/11 commission could get these documents. His actions suggest he was cleaning documents to protect the Clintons from looking weak on terrorism. These documents were never recovered. Read this article, Berger Thefts Still Weigh On Archives Agents, if you need your memory refreshed.

CLEANERS TAKE CARE OF ROSE LAW FIRM RECORDS

In the summer of 1992, before the election, and in December of 1992, after the election, Couriers of the Rose Law Firm, which Hillary worked at in Little Rock Arkansas, said Hillary called them to the Governor’s Mansion giving them her and law partners Foster, Hubble, and Kennedy’s records to have them shredded at the Rose Law Firms Offices. When special counsel began to investigate in early 1994, Rose Law Firm partners admitted they shredded more files but stated these were unrelated to Whitewater. When Deputy White House Counsel Vince Foster committed suicide on July 20, 1993, White House aides entered his office that evening and the next day. The fact that Foster was in possession of Whitewater files was not mentioned (read Shredding Foster’s Files here). On July 22, White House Counsel Bernard Nussbaum gives the box of Whitewater files to Hillary’s chief of staff Margaret Williams who took the files to the White House living quarters on the third floor and locked them in a closet, after talking to Hillary. These files were discovered on Janruary 4th, 1996 by Special Assistant to the President Ms. Carolyn Huber, and delivered to the Whitewater Committee the next day by Clintons lawyer David Kendall (read Rose Law Firm Billing Records here).

The firing of Billy Dale from the travel office, and finding out who hired cleaner Craig Livingstone, are two more examples of similar conduct.

CONCLUSION

There is a clear pattern of cleaners being used by the Clintons. The question now becomes: Is this enough of a pattern of action to help you make up your mind about the most recent cleaning of records pertaining to Benghazi? Remember human action is purposeful behaviour used to reach a particular end. The end aimed at is believed to be a better state of affairs than what exists at the moment of the action. The preferred end can be revealed by looking at the action taken. At the very least we can say the Clintons don’t want us to know about their previous actions. I think we can take a guess as to why the cleaning took place.

Categories: Government and Politics
Tags: Benghazi, Call In The Cleaners, Discernible Pattern, Hillary Clinton, National Archives, Raymond Maxwell, Rose Law Firm Records, Sandy Berger, Sharyl Attkisson, Shredding Documents, Vince Foster's Files

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Must Reads For The Week 9/20/14

September 20, 2014

The pen is mightier than the sword… (Photo credit: mbshane)

Radical Math, at radicalmath.org. You would think math would be a subject that could not be propagandized by the left. But you would be wrong. Here is a quote from the Radical Math website: “Join educators, parents, students, activists, and community members from around the country for a 3-day conference to explore the connections between math education and social justice. We will explore many questions, challenges, and opportunities to work toward social justice through math education.” We can never rest in our quest to keep what’s left of our freedom and regain the freedoms we’ve lost, because the progressive left will never rest.

Peer-to-Peer Car Rental Startup FlightCar Raises Another 13.5 Million, by Ryan Lawler, at techcrunch.com. Here is another example of the market benefiting the consumer, and not the status quo crony’s. FlightCar has lots near airports around the country. Travelers can park for free for the duration of their trip. Their cars are then used by visitors to the airport, at a discounted rate, instead of paying higher rates charged by traditional rental car companies. Both parties benefit. One party doesn’t have to pay for long-term parking, and the other party pays a discount for a rental car.

The Simple Economics Of Adjunct Abuse, at mungowitzend.blogspot.com. Why is the pay and benefits for College adjuncts so low? The supply of adjuncts is high, and the demand for adjuncts if low. Universities recruit students for their MA and PhD programs. The students aren’t told the demand for these advanced degrees is marginal at best. Producing more than the market demands lowers the price of the good or service. Economic forces are always at work.

Global Un-Warming? Antarctic Sea-Ice Reaches Record High Levels, at zerohedge.com. Another example of reality going against the conventional wisdom of the global warming cult. Here is a quote form the article, “CEO of the Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems CRC, Tony Worby, said the warming atmosphere is leading to greater sea ice coverage by changing wind patterns.” It must be nice to be able to use global warming as a universal excuse for every weather scenario.

Paul Krugman Explained, at zerohedge.com. Keynesian economist Paul Krugman is like the global warming cultists, he doesn’t have to be intellectually consistent.

Obama Met Privately With Top Journalists Before ISIS War Speech, by Michael Calderone, at economicpolicyjournal.com. I wonder if the journalists were given tips on how to propagandize the ISIS speech? Memorize the list of these unbiased journalists for future reference.

Castro Valley Winery Fined $155,000 For Using Volunteers, by Rebecca Parr, at mercurynews.com. Westover Winery is out of business after being fined $155,000 for using labor that volunteered. Here is an excerpt from the article, “The volunteers, some of them learning to make wine while helping out, were illegally unpaid laborers, and Westover Winery should have been paying them and paying worker taxes, the state Department of Industrial Relations said.” Why would people voluntarily work for no pay? Answer: Because they thought what they were getting out of working at this vineyard was more valuable than the labor they expended and also more valuable than the next best use of their time. Then government steps in and uses it’s coercive power to imposes they’re special wisdom on the people who voluntarily made this arrangement. I saw this at Carpe Diem Blog.

8 Subliminal Messages Hidden In Corporate Logos, at economicpolicyjournal.com. Individuals are really clever.

The World’s Largest Urban Zipline, at youtube.com. These people are insane.

The Economics Of American Pickers, by Joel Poindexter, at mises.org. There is a lot of depth in this short article that explains the economic principles in play on the History Channel Show, American Pickers.

Categories: Must Reads For The Week
Tags: American Pickers & Economic Principles, Expanding Antarctic Sea Ice, FlightCar, Global Un-Warming, Glut Of Adjuncts, Government Over Reach, Intellectual Conistancy, ISIS Speech, Obama and Journalists Meet, Paul Krugman, Peer-to-Peer Car Rental, Radical Math and Social Justice, Simple Economic Forces, Subliminal Messages in Logos, Supply and demand, Westover Winery, World's Largest Zipline

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The Break Down Of The Rule Of Law

September 18, 2014

Law book library - stock photo

The rule of law is defined as, 1) general rules, 2) known in advance, 3) applying to the rulers as well as the ruled. How does the break down of the rule of law happen? Because there are too many rules to even count, the “general rules” part of the definition of the rule of law doesn’t exist. The increasing amount of rules makes it impossible to know them in advance. But the third part of the definition, applying to the rulers as well as the ruled, is the part that is starting to bother people. Abuses of power and corruption by individuals who are protected by their positions of power in Government are starting to result in a push back by the public.

Here are a couple of examples of Government agents abusing power.

1) TSA Officer Tries To Search Passenger After He Lands At Denver Airport.

This guy did a great job and could have walked away a minute before he did.

2) A Lesson In Police Escalation (here), at economicpolicyjournal.com.

If the cop was an NFL player and did this, he would be out of a job.

The result of what we see happening in the above clips will be a natural push back by the average citizen. The passenger walking away in the video above is an example of push back. We should all start peaceful non compliance because if we don’t, it will escalate into what you will see in these videos below. Both sides have to dial it back, because the cost of settling our differences through mob (thug) rule, on both sides, will be greater than if we settle our differences before we get to mob rule.

3) Angry Mob Throws Ukrainian Politician In Dumpster.

I can’t say I didn’t get a chuckle out of this video.

4) Airline Passengers Throw Elitist Politicians Off Plane, (here), at economicpolicyjournal.com.

A planes departure time was delayed for two hours as the crew waited for two Pakistani politicians to arrive. The passengers were so upset, they forced the politicians off the plane. I got a kick out of this one too.

These videos show each group using force against the other. The police side uses the sanctioned force of government, to enforce non general rules, that are not know in advance, and don’t apply to the rulers but must be obeyed by the ruled. The citizenry uses the perceived power of a larger group of people who are not going to back down. How far will this escalate before Government gives up a huge portion of it’s power?

Related Article – The Ruling Aristocracy Doesn’t Abide By The Rules They Impose On The Serfs, by austrianaddict.com.

Related Article – The Result Of The Break Down Of The Rule Of Law, by austrianaddict.com.

Categories: Government and Politics
Tags: BART Officer Over Reaction, Break Down Of The Rule Of Law, General Rules, Mob Rule, TSA Officer Over Reach, Ukrainian Politician In Dumpster

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Why Has Classical Capitalism Devolved Into Crony-Capitalism, by Charles Hugh Smith

September 16, 2014

In this article, Why Has Classical Capitalism Devolved Into Crony-Capitalism, Charles Hugh Smith, (oftowminds.com) makes the point that the Elites, consisting of ; people in Government and central bankers, lesser institutions that are closest in orbit around Government and central banks, and organizations and individuals who are orbiting these lesser institutions, think the economy will eventually “heal itself” even after all they have stolen through zero percent interest rates, electronically printed counterfeit money, and Government debt. These three legs of theft are, quoting CHS, “…crippling the market’s self-healing immune system: Price discovery. Thanks to ceaseless interventions by central banks, the price discovery mechanism has been shattered: want to know the price of risk? It’s near-zero. Yield on sovereign bonds? Near-zero. And so on. Prices have been so distorted (the ultimate goal of Central Planning everywhere, from China to the EU to Japan to the U.S.) that the illusion of stability is impossible without more intervention.”

Here are his six factors of how, “...free market capitalism becomes state-cartel crony-capitalism, a Ponzi scheme of epic proportion...”

1. “Those who control most of the wealth are willing to risk systemic collapse to retain their privileges and wealth. Due to humanity’s virtuosity with rationalization, those at the top always find ways to justify policies that maintain their dominance and downplay the distortions the policies generate. This as true in China as it is in the U.S.”

2. “Short-term thinking: if we fudge the numbers, lower interest rates, etc. today, we (politicians, policy-makers, money managers, etc.) will avoid being sacked tomorrow. The longer term consequences of these politically expedient policies are ignored.”

3. “Legitimate capital accumulation has become more difficult and risky than buying political favors. Global competition and the exhaustion of developed-world consumers has made it difficult to reap outsized profits from legitimate enterprise. In terms of return-on-investment (ROI), buying political favors is far lower risk and generates much higher returns than expanding production or risking investment in R&D.”

4. “The centralization of state/central bank power has increased the leverage of political contributions/lobbying. The greater the concentration of power, the more attractive it is to sociopaths and those seeking to buy state subsidies, sweetheart contracts, protection from competition, etc.”

5. “Any legitimate reform will require dismantling crony-capitalist/state-cartel arrangements. Since that would hurt those at the top of the wealth/power pyramid, reform is politically impossible.”

6. “Understood in this light, it’s clear that central bank monetary policy—zero-interest rates, asset purchases, cheap credit to banks and financiers, QE, etc.—is designed to paper over the structural problems that require real reform.”

CHARLES HUGH SMITH INTERVIEW

If you want to hear an interesting and in-depth explanation about the rise of crony capitalism, listening to Charles Hugh Smith’s interview with Gordon T. Long would be well worth your time ( it also has some great graphs and diagrams).

Related Article – Central Bank Monetary Policy Enables Us To Put Off Real Reforms, by Charles Hugh Smith, at oftwominds.com.

Related Article – Is There Capitalism After Cronyism?, by Charles Hugh Smith, at oftwominds.com.

Categories: Econ. 201, Government and Politics
Tags: Central Planning, Charles Hugh Smith, Electronically Printing Counterfeit Money, Free Market Capitalism, Gordon T. Long, Macro Analytics, Price Discovery, State-Cartel Crony-Capitalism, Zero Interest Rate Policy

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Must Reads For The Week 9/13/14

September 13, 2014

The pen is mightier than the sword… (Photo credit: mbshane)

11 Ways You Know You Live In A Country Run By Idiots, at theburningplatform.com. Only eleven! I’m sure we can come up with a few more. How about this: If the incentives created by The Affordable Care Act raise the price of health care, you live in a country run by idiots.

New York Schools Drop Michelle O’s Lunch Program, by Victor Skinner, at eagnews.org. More schools are dropping FLOTUS’s school lunch program because sales are down. But in true totalitarian fashion FLOTUS and POTUS are in lock step in their attempt to force kids to eat healthier (healthier as defined by whom). Here is the money quote from the article, “Meanwhile, lawmakers in the U.S. House of Representatives are considering legislation to provide exemptions from the lunch regulations for schools that are losing substantial revenue, though Michelle Obama has vowed to fight for her pet project “until the bitter end. President Obama has also promised to veto the legislation if it makes it to his desk, the Associated Press reports.”

The Myth Of Obamacare’s Affordability, by Casey Mulligan, at economicpolicyjournal.com. As I said when the Affordable Care Act was passed, “If you think health care is expensive now, just wait until it becomes affordable”.

Socialist Venezuela Has World’s Largest Oil Reserves And Goes From Oil Power House To Oil Importer, by Mark J. Perry, at aei-ideas.org. If you want to destroy a productive industry, allow central planners to use their “special” knowledge to make it better. Read about why socialism is doomed to fail, in this article, “Why Socialism Won’t Work? Human Nature“.

What Ever Happened To Global Warming, at economicpolicyjournal.com. When I was in high school in the early 70’s, scientists would have been considered “global warming deniers”, because they thought the earth was cooling.

Competition Heats Up In The NYC Taxi Market As Gett Introduces $10 Rides In Manhattan, by Mark J. Perry, at aei-ideas.org. Competition in free markets means lower prices for consumers. Unfortunately many consumers unwittingly vote against their own self-interest when they vote for politicians who are for central planning and against free markets.

Registration Records Are Used For Confiscating Guns. Government Retroactively Changing Its Mind About What Is A Legal Gun, at johnlottblogspot.com. Individuals in Government who were supposed to enforce the law, are the ones who are breaking the law.

Issa Accuses Holder Spokesman Of Attempting To Conspire With Democrats On IRS Documents, by Colby Itkowitz, at washingtonpost.com. Eric Holders communication director called GOP staffers by mistake. Thinking he was talking to Democrats, he asked how he could get materials, about the IRS targeting of conservative groups, to interested reporters, before they were sent to the Republican majority, so the agency could spin the story first. This is why I hate politics. The good of the party overrides what is good for individuals.

Five Feminist Myths That Will Not Die, by Christina Hoff Summers, at time.com. Read the five myths, or watch Christina Hoff Summers talk about the five myths on this video here.

Things I Don’t Understand, by Walter Williams, at jewishworldreview.com. If Dr. Williams doesn’t understand these things, neither do I.

Categories: Must Reads For The Week
Tags: Affordable Health Care Not Affordable, Christina Hoff Sommers, Democrats Spin IRS Documents, Five Feminist Myths, Global Cooling Or Warming, Gun Confisication, Holder, Holder Spokesman, Michelle Obama's Failed Lunch Program, NYC Taxi Market, s Spokesman Scam, Venezuela - Socialism Doesn't Work, Walter E. Williams, We're Run By Idiots

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“Human Action” Helps Us Understand Mrs. Rice’s Instagram, and Obama’s Iraq Speech

September 12, 2014

How can these seemingly unrelated stories have anything in common? They are not related in any way, unless you understand the concept of human action as explained by Ludwig von Mises in his tome “Human Action: A Treatise On Economics”. Human action has nothing to do with the psychological reasons or the internal forces that result in a particular action. Trying to figure out these reasons would be guesses by anyone who is not a psychiatrist, and educated guesses by professional psychiatrists. Human action is purposeful behavior and as such can be meaningfully interpreted. The end man seeks with his action is his motive for acting. Why he is motivated to attain this end has nothing to do with human action. Human action doesn’t care about the psychological reason compelling a person to act, it only cares about the action itself. When a person acts he is not simply giving preference among many alternatives, he is displaying what he prefers at that particular moment.

In summary. A person purposefully acts using available means, to reach a particular end, an end which he thinks will bring about a more satisfactory state of affairs than the state of affairs that existed before he decided to act. A person makes a particular choice, between many competing ends, at a particular time. His choice reveals his most valued end that particular moment. The correctness or incorrectness of the action chosen will be revealed at some point in the future.

Now lets analyze these two stories.

RAY AND JANAY RICE

Ray Rice hit and knocked out his then fiancée Janay Palmer in February of 2014. On March 27th a grand jury indicted Ray Rice on aggravated assault charges, and dropped simple assault charges on Janay Palmer. On March 28th Rice and Palmer were married. On May 1st Rice rejected a plea deal and applies for pretrial intervention program which accepted him allowing him to avoid a trial. Rice is suspended in July for the first two games of the year. The video of Rice punching his then fiancée surfaces on September 8th, and later that day the Ravens terminate his contract, worth $4 million this year, and the NFL suspends him indefinitely.

Everyone from reporters, commentators, spokesmen for women’s groups, politicians, et al, have an opinion on why she would marry the guy who knocked her out. Here is how human action helps us understand this. It doesn’t matter what motivated her to marry him. Her choice reveals that she thinks being married to him is a better state of affairs than not being married to him. Trying to figure out why, assumes a level of knowledge that no one, outside of Ray and Janay, has access to. The correctness of her action will be revealed at some point in the future. The statement in her instagram message (here), “…THIS IS OUR LIFE!”, means butt out it is none of your business.

One more comment. What is the preferred end, the Ravens, the NFL, reporters, commentators, spokesman for women’s groups, and politicians think they will achieve by the actions they have taken in this case? No matter what the preferred end is, they obviously think the actions they have taken will bring about a better state of affairs, for themselves.

OBAMA’S IRAQ SPEECH

Lets start with a little background. In 08 the President campaigned on getting out of Iraq. After he got elected he set a date for withdrawal which allowed the enemy to lay low and rearm. He withdraws our troops without leaving enough of them to keep the enemy in check and help support the new Government.

If there is one thing we can be 99% sure of concerning every politician its this: the end sought in every action is to gain political power, especially when these actions happen closer to an election. This is why in the last few weeks, the President has talked about corporations using “unpatriotic tax loopholes” to pay less in taxes, and why the minimum wage should be raised. The speech about Iraq is purposeful action taken for the achievement of an end that will be preferable to the present state of affairs. Now here is the 64,000 dollar question: is this preferable state of affairs to make the Iraq situation stable, or is it to help the Presidents political situation before the November elections? Either way we will know the answer to this question at some point in the future.

The biggest difference in these two cases is, 1) In the Rice situation, Ray and Janay suffer the consequences of their actions. 2) In the Iraq situation, all of us will suffer the consequences of the actions of the President. So why are more people talking about the situation that doesn’t affect them, instead of talking about the one that does affect them?

Categories: Econ. 101, Miscellaneous
Tags: Human Action, Janay Palmer, Obama's Iraq Policy, Obama's Iraq Speech, Purposeful Behavior, Ray Rice

Comments: 2 Comments

What Creates Wealth? Freedom

September 10, 2014

Front Cover

George Gilder talks about what creates wealth in this short video below from Prager University. He talks about knowledge and innovation leading to economic growth. But the most important point he makes in this video is that freedom is the foundation on which knowledge and innovation is expanded and used productively to create economic growth. Here are some excerpts from the video.

“If freedom promotes knowledge and innovation, which leads to economic growth; why don’t all people and Governments embrace it? Innovation is a surprise, it’s unpredictable. This unpredictability makes many people uncomfortable. Their goal is to eliminate surprise. One finds this in all utopian vision, from communism, to socialism, ….in Europe with its failing welfare states and more and more in the US. We see their desire to eliminate surprise in the ever-expanding role played by Government, bigger bureaucracies, more rules, and more regulations. Every new crisis, real or imagined, brings ever more laws….Ironically the ones that benefit from all these regulations are big corporations and their teams of lawyers, lobbyists, and accountants. They’re the only ones who have the resources to untangle the mess and survive it. This drift away from freedom can be reversed, and quickly within a matte of a few years….Because it’s an economy of mind, the future can change as fast as minds can change. The opportunity for dynamic growth exists not only in the US, but all over the world if we’re only courageous enough and free enough to seize it.”

WHAT CREATES WEALTH?

Here are some related quotes by George Gilder from his books Wealth and Poverty and Knowledge and Power.

“Socialist and totalitarian Governments are doomed to support the past, because creativity is unpredictable, it is also uncontrollable. If the politicians want to have central planning and command, they cannot have dynamism and life. A managed economy is almost by definition a barren one. “

“Knowledge is about the past; Entrepreneurship is about the future regulations are rules based on past experience. Regulators are political appointees responsive to their bosses and to the rules. Only entrepreneurial owners taken their cues from the subtle signals on the crests of creation.”

“Under capitalism, economic power flows not to the intellectual, who manipulates ideas and basks in their light, but to men who gives himself to his ideas and tests them with his own wealth and work.”

“The real issue is between the rule of law and the rule of leveler egalitarianism, between creative excellence and covetous “fairness”, between admiration of achievement versus envy and resentment of it.”

“The leading enemy and obstacle for accomplishment throughout the ages is the philosophy of victimization and socialist redistribution.”

In my opinion Wealth and Poverty is a must read, not only because it will expand your mind, but also because his writing style will be pleasing to your ear buds.

Related Article – Unleash The Mind, by George Gilder, at austrianaddict.com.

Related Article – Capitalism vs. Crony Capitalism, at austrianaddict.com.

Categories: Econ. 101, Government and Politics
Tags: Economic growth, Freedom, George Gilder, Knowledge and Power, Prager University, Wealth and Poverty, What Creats Wealth

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