AUSTRIAN ECONOMICS ADDICT

George Washington: “Government is not reason, it is not eloquence, it is force, like fire it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master.”

This quote by George Washington came to mind when I read a couple of articles this week about Greece and China.

GREECE

A Lesson From The Greek Crisis: Safe Deposit Boxes Are Not Safe, by Joseph T. Solerno, at mises.org. The Government will not allow people to withdraw cash from their safety deposit boxes. The Government, with the help of the banks, will then take the cash out of these safety deposit boxes, credit the persons checking account, and put the cash in ATM’s.

In an unrelated story, Home Safe Sales in Greece Have Boomed Over the Last 5 Years, at time.com. Some Greek citizens learned from what happened in Cyprus, and are trying to protect themselves from their Government. Unfortunately home robberies have also skyrocketed. This is the unintended consequence of the unintended consequence.

This brings to mind a quote by Thomas Jefferson: “The two enemies of the people are criminals and Government, so let us tie the second down with the chains of the constitution so the second will not become the legalized version of the first.”

CHINA

Chinese stock markets have lost over 30% of their value in the last three weeks. The Chinese government created the stock market bubble in the first place by pumping money into the market through the use of margin debt. These central planners plans have run head on into economic reality, as the market is trying to liquidate and find a bottom. The central planners are now trying to keep this economic reality from happening. The Chinese government is attempting to cure the symptom instead of letting economic forces cure the problem the planners created. They are banning major share holders from selling stock for 6 months, freezing sales of half the companies in the market, blocked fund redemptions among other things.

Now the next step in this article, Utter Desperation: Chinese Police Vow To Arrest Malicious Short Sellers, at zerohedge.com. Yes the Chinese government is threatening to arrest malicious selling of stock. I wonder, what is the Governments definition of “malicious”? Do you think it is not defined because they want Chinese citizens to be afraid of even thinking about selling stocks? Does the Chinese government have a track record of abusing it’s citizens?

Central planning by communists, socialists, or politicians and bureaucrats in a free market system, doesn’t work as the planners planned.

A quote by Ludwig von Mises comes to mind: : “Many think governments are free to achieve all they aim at without being restrained by an inexorable regularity in the sequence of economic phenomena …they maintain that the State is God.”

WHAT ABOUT THE U.S.

Milder versions of propping up equity markets has happened in the U.S. over the last 15 years. Fed money pumping via  zero interest rates and quantitative easing are examples of central planners at work.

In this article, and short video: Rick Santelli Unleashed: China Is Not Doing Anything That The U.S. Has Not Already Tried, at zerohedge.com. Santelli says central planners are in control. But as we see from what is happening in Greece and China, they aren’t. China and Greece can’t even control their communist and socialist economic systems. Will our central planners plans end up any other way except broken?

Related Article – Central Planners Don’t See The Consequences Of Their Actions. Or Do They? at austrianaddict.com

Related Article – A Look Over The Horizon At What Lies Ahead If We Continue Down The Central Planning Road, at austrianaddict.com.

Related Article – Politician’s “Affordable” Ideas Must Obey Economic Forces, at austrianaddict.com.

This entry was posted on July 9, 2015 at 9:09 pm and is filed under Government and Politics. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments.

Tags: Arrest Short Sellers, Central Planning, China Stock Market Collapse, Communism, George Washington, Government Intervention, Government Is Force, Greek Crisis, Ludwig von Mises, Safty Deposit Boxes Not Safe, Socialism, Thomas Jefferson