Must Reads For The Week 2/28/15

Posted February 28, 2015 by austrianaddict
Categories: Must Reads For The Week
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,
The pen is mightier than the sword...

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

A BAD WEEK FOR LIBERTY

FCC Votes In Favor Of Net Neutrality Has The Slippery Slope Of Web Censorship Begun? at zerohedge.com. The FCC passed 317 pages of net neutrality regulations that no one outside of the FCC commissioners have read, (“you have to pass it to find out what’s in it”). FCC commissioner and dissenting voter, Ajit Pai, described what happened with the passage of net neutrality regulations, “…imposes intrusive government regulations that won’t work to solve a problem that doesn’t exist using legal authority that FCC doesn’t have.”

The Net Neutrality Scam, by Ryan McMaken, at mises.org. A great article explaining what net neutrality is and what will happen when it is implemented. He asks a great question: “Who Will Control The FCC? It will all come down to what they can get away with politically, because we certainly don’t live under the rule of law.

Mark Cuban’s Surgical Take Down Of Net Neutrality, by Erica Ritz, attheblaze.com. Here is an excerpt from the article. “Cuban said the uncertainty and legal challenges of having the government regulate the Internet will be enormous, and predicted that it will slow down innovation. He also said there are many unexpected issues that will arise from such an enormous change.”

Verizon Answers Net Neutrality Vote In Morse Code, by Christina Sterbenz, at businessinsider.com. Verizon uses Morse code to respond to 1930’s style regulations.

Chicago Has CIA Type Black Sites, at targetliberty.com. Cops in Chicago are violating individuals constitutional rights when they try to get them to talk at these black sites. This can’t happen here!

Obama To Ban Bullets By Executive Order, Threatens Top Selling AR-15 Rifle, by Paul Becard, at washingtonexaminer.com. Politicians and bureaucrats can mandate that you buy health insurance, on the one hand, and ban you from buying bullets on the other. Can we all agree that Government has grown too big and powerful?

Forced Blood Draws, DNA Collection and Biometric Scans: What Country Is This, by John Whitehead, at targetliberty.com. What ever happened to the fourth amendment: “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall be issued, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”

President Obama Vetoes Keystone XL Pipeline, at economist.com. The President vetoes a source for energy that will be built with private capital, but has spent billions of tax payers dollars “investing” in green energy companies that have since gone bankrupt. Read Government Investment Or Government Waste, to see a list of green companies the have gone bankrupt.

Sliding Into Totalitarianism, at economicnoise.com. The movement into totalitarianism is not a categorical change, it is an incremental change. The change is slow and difficult to perceive because we are living inside the incremental change. It is like looking at yourself in the mirror everyday for 30 years. You don’t realize how you’ve aged until you see a picture of yourself from 30 years ago.

SOME CARTOONS

Comments: Be the first to comment

Net Neutrality?

Posted February 26, 2015 by austrianaddict
Categories: Government and Politics
Tags: , , , , , , , ,

Here is a video of The President talking about net neutrality.

Sounds like he really wants to protect us, the little guys, from big corporations doesn’t it. Why should we believe the man who pushed a bill titled, “The Affordable Care Act”? Obamacare has made individuals less free to choose how they want to pay for their healthcare. Insurance companies were for this law because they thought they would benefit from its passage. With the stroke of the pen, the law created 30 million more costumers for insurance companies. The fact that it expanded Governments power over the individual makes politicians and bureaucrats happy. But who among us wouldn’t want our power expanded? Is the term “Net Neutrality” any different from “The Affordable Care Act”.

You can bet your life that Net Neutrality regulations will make the internet less neutral, less free, and more expensive.

Net neutrality laws will help the already established tech companies and hurt the upstart competitors who, under normal market conditions, would normally be a check on the big providers. The threat of competitors trying to get market share keeps them in line. This is what Uber is doing to the taxi cartel. Big tech companies will be for this, or at least be tepid in their resistance to it. Once Government regulates the internet, these tech companies will be the protected cartel.

Politicians and bureaucrats will not only be able to tax the internet more easily, they will be able to make rules about content, access, and will probably make you get a license to have a website. Think of what bureaucrats (Lois Lerner) in the IRS did to stifle liberty minded groups from getting their message out. Politicians and bureaucrats are only in favor of free speech if they agree with what is said, they are never neutral when it comes to losing power.

Politicians and bureaucrats have been trying for years to figure out how to intervene into the internet. The internet is what has allowed our economy to grow in spite of the interventions by the Government and the Fed. Now, for some reason, the President and bureaucrats want to intervene into an area of the economy that has had exponential expansion without the “help” of Government regulations.

IS THE DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERNET COMING SOON?

DEMOCRATICALLY ELECTED TYRANTS

Tyrants want to control information because truth is never on their side. Even democratically elected tyrants want to have the ability to control and/or propagandize their message. The internet is a marketplace where truth can be discovered, and lies can be uncovered, because of the volume of information that can be brought to bear almost immediately.

The President, the FCC, most democrats, and some republicans are showing their true tyrannical colors by supporting these regulations, but the internet Jeannie is out of the bottle. The marketplace will find ways to deliver this highly demanded economic good outside of these Government regulations. The tighter they squeeze, the more we will slip through their hands.

Related Article – Beck Breaks Down What He Thinks Is The Real Goal Of Net Neutrality, at theblaze.com.

Related Article – Internet Fast Lanes Would Be Banned Under Planned FCC Proposal, at entrepreneur.com.

 

Comments: Be the first to comment

Must Reads For The Week 2/21/15

Posted February 21, 2015 by austrianaddict
Categories: Must Reads For The Week
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
The pen is mightier than the sword...

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

What Are The College Degrees That Are Worth More Than Decades Of Job Experience, at economicpolicyjournal.com. Think twice before you go into debt for a college degree that won’t land you a job that pays enough to service that debt.

The Crony College Text Book Sector, at economicpolicyjournal.com. College students are paying through the nose for text books, on top of what they are accumulating in debt for being indoctrinated while in College.

BIZARRE: Government Panel Says Consider Planet Before You Eat, at targetliberty.com. When will this “recommendation” by the Department Of Health And Human Services and the Agriculture Department become a “mandate” backed by government force? The global warming hoax along with Obamacare have opened the door for bureaucratic totalitarians to tell you what you can and can’t eat.

Federal Reserve Economist Calls For Government E-Currency To Replace Bitcoin, at targetliberty.com. Two excerpts from the article. “If the government attempts to takeover the e-currency space, tracking of individuals via their money trails will reach spectacular new levels of intrusion.” and “Always keep in mind the Swiss proverb: “Gold has no smell.” It means it can’t be tracked. It is the ultimate libertarian currency (along with silver) and a great alternative to government created money. That’s why governments hate it.”

Leading Anti-Gun Attorney Arrested After Airport Security Found Hand Gun In Carry On, by John Lott, at johnrlott.blogspot.com. Do as I say not as I do.

Always Keep Your Eye On Production, by Bryan Caplin, at econlog.econlib.org. Production comes before consumption. You can’t consume something that has yet to be produced. No amount of money printing can change this reality.

How To Teach Kids About Socialism, by Pedro Gonzales, at americanthinker.com. This is a great way to show them about how intrusive government truly is.

Secret Stash Of Moon Artifacts Found Hidden In Neil Armstrong’s Closet, by Jesus Diaz, at sploid.gizmodo.com. I was so into the Apollo moon landings when I was growing up, I had to post this. The video below of  Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin, who walked on the moon with Armstrong on the Apollo 11 mission, punching a guy who is bothering him about the moon landings being faked is priceless. The video is longer than what is shown below. I liked seeing a 70 something year old guy playing by a set of rules that the other guy really didn’t understand.

 

 

 

Comments: Be the first to comment

Global Warming?

Posted February 20, 2015 by austrianaddict
Categories: Miscellaneous
Tags: , , , , ,

The temperature is going to get down to -14 degrees (or 247 degrees Kelvin) tonight here in Ohio,  so I thought I would post a video about global warming that I saw on economicpolicyjournal.com. In the video below Dr. Pierre Latour uses physics, chemistry, mathematics, engineering, economics, history and ethics to show the futility of attempting to designing a thermostat to control Earth’s temperature by adjusting CO2 levels. It’s long but very interesting when you get into the meat of the talk.

 

IS DR. LATOUR RELATED TO GEORGE CARLIN?

Dr. Latours voice and delivery reminds me of George Carlin. If you get board watching the above video, watch the George Carlin video below. It is a shorter and funner version of Dr Latour’s talk.

 

 Related Article – Thomas Sowell: Stormy Weather And Politics, at austrianaddict.com.

 

 

Comments: Be the first to comment

Printing Money Doesn’t Equal More Savings

Posted February 17, 2015 by austrianaddict
Categories: Econ. 201
Tags: , , , , ,

In this article titled, You Can’t Create More Savings By Printing More Money, Frank Shostak (mises.org) shows us that what you produce is actually what you can consume or exchange for something that you haven’t produced but want to consume. What you don’t consume or exchange is what you save. Savings is real production. Money is what we use to make the exchange process easier. Money is how we figure out exchange ratios between goods and services. Exchange ratios represented by prices in money is how 1 gallon of gas costing 2$ can be exchanged for two 1$ candy bars, or four 50 cent news papers, without ever exchanging the actual goods. Printing money isn’t the creation of any good of service. It is the creation of the demand for a good or service that is not backed by actual production. Printing money is theft.

Here are some excerpts from the article.

“Savings has nothing to do with money. For instance, if a baker produces ten loaves of bread and consumes one loaf, his savings is nine loaves of bread. In other words, the “savings” in this case is the baker’s real income (his production of bread) minus the amount of bread that the baker consumed.”

“When a baker sells his bread for money to a shoemaker, he has supplied the shoemaker with his saved, unconsumed bread. The supplied bread sustains the shoemaker and allows him to continue making shoes. Note that the money received by the baker is fully backed by his unconsumed production of bread.”

“Money can be seen as a receipt, as it were, given to producers of final goods and services that are ready for human consumption. Thus when a baker exchanges his money for apples, the baker has already paid for them with the bread produced and saved prior to this exchange. Money therefore is the baker’s claim on real savings. It is not, however, savings.”

“The printing of money therefore cannot result in more savings as suggested by mainstream economists, but rather to its redistribution”

“…. savings is not about money as such, but about final goods and services that support various individuals that are engaged in various stages of production. It is not money that funds economic activity but the flow of final consumer goods and services. The existence of money only facilitates the flow of the real stuff.”

Related Article – What Comes First, Production or Consumption, at austrianaddict.com.

Related Article – Capital Consumption, aka Eating Our Seed Corn, by austrianaddict.com.

Related Article – Does The Supply Of Money Have To Increase To Accommodate Increasing Production, by austrianaddict.com.

 

Comments: Be the first to comment

Must Reads For The Week 2/14/15

Posted February 14, 2015 by austrianaddict
Categories: Must Reads For The Week
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
The pen is mightier than the sword...

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

FREE MARKETS LOWER PRICES

Uber For Helicopters In NYC, by Mark J. Perry, at aei.org. The Uber model for transportation via helicopters. Gotham Air charges $219 per person. It would normally cost close to $1000 to charter a helicopter. Lower prices through technological advances in relatively free markets.

Cheap Gear Disrupts Commercial Video Industry, at nalert.blogspot.com. This is how an economy is supposed to work. Prices should go down (deflation) over time as productivity and advancing technology make things less costly to produce. Most people think that increasing prices (inflation = printing money) is how an economy is supposed to work. Prices will generally go down if the money supply can’t be increased easily. Prices will go up if money can be created out of thin air via the printing press. I saw this at Mark J. Perry’s carpediem blog.

Theranos, With Walgreens, Revolutionizes Healthcare, at brandchannel.com. Technology is bringing down the cost of healthcare. Theranos can test blood for multiple medical conditions at a 50 to 90 percent lower cost needing only one drop of blood. Do you think the status quo testing labs are happy about this? No, but the consumer is. It will be interesting to see how technological advances like this lower the cost of healthcare while at the same time Obamacare is increasing the cost of healthcare. The Republicans shouldn’t be saying repeal and replace, they should be saying repeal and let the free market work it’s cost reducing magic. This is a great article that I saw at Mark J. Perry’s carpediem blog.

OTHER ARTICLES

US Senator Demands A Federal Reserve Bailout Of Greece, at zerohedge.com. To the surprise of no one, self described democratic socialist Bernie Sanders wants The Fed to bailout his socialist buddies from Greece. Why would we do this when the first bailout of Greece didn’t work?

Prepare For Higher Gas Prices, at economicpolicyjournal.com. Oil refinery workers are going on strike led by the United Steel Workers union. Aren’t they being greedy?

Brian Williams SEAL Team Six Stories Latest To Come Under Fire, by Caitlin Dickson, at news.yahoo.com. Brian Williams is channeling Forrest Gump. Except he is not as likable or believable as Forrest, Forrest Gump.

Gallup CEO Worried About “Suddenly Disappearing” For Truth Telling About The Real Umemployment Rate, at inquisitr.com. Either that or he will find a horse head in his bed.

Getting Serious About Keeping Children Safe, by Logan Albright, at mises.ca. You can never go too far when it comes to the safety of “the children”.

John Stossel – Trust And Reputation, at libertypenblog.blogspot.com.

Who do you trust? Businesses who are greedy for money that they won’t get unless you voluntarily give it to them in exchange for their product or service. Or politicians and bureaucrats who are greedy for power to make decisions concerning your life that you have to obey or else.

Comments: Be the first to comment

Vaccine Controversy! Private Property Trade Offs vs. A Government Solution

Posted February 12, 2015 by austrianaddict
Categories: Government and Politics

Robert P. Murphy has an interesting take on how to solve the recent “vaccine controversy”. In his article, (click here), he shows that their isn’t any “solution” that would satisfy everybody. How could there be in a country populated by 330 million people? Trade offs have to be allowed for, as each individual makes particular decisions concerning vaccinations.

Read the whole article, it is well worth your time. Here are some excerpts to give you a small taste of Robert P. Murphy’s thoughts on the subject.

“The only way to address these fundamental conflicts is to take the State out of the equation. Let private property owners set the relevant rules on their land. Privately run schools, daycare centers, youth clubs, and pediatricians can set their individual policies regarding vaccination requirements for participating children. Health insurance companies can decide if they will insist on vaccination in order for a newborn to remain on a parent’s plan.”

“Private property doesn’t eliminate conflict, but it is a necessary foundation for the peaceful resolution of very heated disagreements. Bringing the State into the picture will hurt all children.”

Most people today can’t even fathom something as simple as property rights being an alternative answer to government solutions concerning any problem, let alone the vaccine controversy.

Related – Robert P. Murphy’s Blog: Free Advice, at consultingbyrpm.com.

Comments: Be the first to comment

Thomas Sowell: Obama Versus America

Posted February 10, 2015 by austrianaddict
Categories: Government and Politics
Tags: , , , , ,

Thomas Sowell

Her is another outstanding article by Thomas Sowell, “Obama Versus America” read here, in which he tries to answer the question: Why does the President “denigrate the United States in front of foreign audiences“?

The President is always comparing the history of the US to some standard of perfection that can’t possibly exist. Why can’t it exist? Because nothing human is perfect. He wants us to agree with him that if the US doesn’t match up to a standard of perfection, as defined by him, than our whole system must be in need of “fundamental transformation“.

The President is using the straw man of perfection as the standard to be judged against, when in fact it is the history of the US that should be compared to the standards set by the histories of other countries. Or better yet, it is other countries histories that should be compared to the standard set by the history of the US.

Here are some excerpts from the article.

“In his recent trip to India, President Obama repeated a long-standing pattern of his – denigrating the United States of America to foreign audiences. He said that he had been discriminated against because of his skin color in America, a country in which there is, even not, “terrible poverty.”

“Make no mistake about it, there is no society of human beings in which there are no rotten people. But for a President of the United States to be smearing America in a foreign country, whose track record is far worse, is both irresponsible and immature.”

“Years after the last lynching of blacks took place in the Jim Crow South, India’s own government was still publishing annual statistics on atrocities against the untouchables, including fatal atrocities. The June 2003 issue of “National Geographic” magazine had a chilling article on the continuing atrocities against untouchables in India in the 21st century.”

“Nothing that happened to Barack Obama when he was attending a posh private school in Hawaii, or elite academic institutions on the mainland, was in the same league  with the appalling treatment of untouchables in India. And what Obama called “terrible poverty” in America would be called prosperity in India.”

“The history of the human race has not always been a pretty picture, regardless of what part of the world you look at, and regardless of whatever color of the rainbow the people have been.”

“If you want to spend your life nursing grievances, you will never run out of grievances to nurse, regardless of what color your skin is. If some people cannot be rotten to you because of your race, they will find some other reason to be rotten to you.”

Even with all of its present and past imperfections, the US is still the standard of judgement.

Related Article – Thomas Sowell: Stormy Weather And Politics, at austrianaddict.com.

Comments: Be the first to comment

Must Reads For The Week 2/7/15

Posted February 7, 2015 by austrianaddict
Categories: Must Reads For The Week
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
The pen is mightier than the sword...

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

Video Of Cops Pulling Gun On Teens For Having Snowball Fight, Not Telling The Whole Story, at nydailynews.com. When I saw this video on another site, I was skeptical because there was no film of the snowball fight and no evidence of snowball residue anywhere in the video. Always try to check everything out that you see on the internet. This is a perfect example of how cops would be protected if they were wearing body cameras. The full story would be there for everyone to see.

Venezuela’s Socialist Paradise Turns Into Nightmare, by Peter Foster, at telegraph.co.uk. Individuals deciding what to produce, consume, exchange, and save in a free market increases people’s standard of living, and socialist central planning is “The Road To Serfdom“.

What Paul Krugman Thinks The Secret To The Universe Is, at economicpolicyjournal.com. This guy teaches economics at Princeton University! The students should ask for a refund. Does he understand that consumption is the result of production? Or does he think that what we consume appears magically out of thin air because of demand?

I Meet A Climate Concern Activist And Cave, at economicpolicyjournal.com. Trying to change the world, one person at a time. Their wasn’t much hope for this one.

Fixed, The App That Fights Parking Tickets, by Sarah Perez, at techcrunch.com. This is in the spirit that founded this country. Americans are always trying to find ways around Government interventions.

The Police No Longer Work For You, by Daniel Payne, at thefederalist.com. A SWAT team raided ten people playing poker. Fairfax police pocketed 40% of the money that was seized. Gambling is illegal in Virginia unless of course it is sponsored by the State. Government politicians and bureaucrats want anything outside of their regulates to be illegal. They want to control every aspect of people’s lives.

Wow…And Interest Rates Aren’t Even Climbing Yet, at economicpolicyjournal.com. The chart shows how the interest we pay on our national debt each year will almost quadruple in the next ten years. And that’s if the interest rates stay as low as they are right now. Unfortunately they have only one way to go, and that’s up. We all know who will pay for this.

Five Ways Liberals Ignore Science, by David Harsanyi, at thefederalist.com. Vaccines, global warming, genetically modified foods, fracking? What does the scientific process say about these and many other issues? Science is never settled. No one experiment can prove a theory correct, but all it takes is one experiment to prove it wrong.

Plane Hits Bridge In Front Of Car In Taiwan

Pilot’s Body Found Still Clutching Joystick Of Crashed Taiwan Plane, at reuters.com. The pilot saved lives by steering the plane away from buildings before crashing in river.

PEOPLE ARE AMAZING, OR INSANE!

1500′ Feet Tower

Most Insane Ski Line EVER

Comments: Be the first to comment

Thomas Sowell: Stormy Weather And Politics

Posted February 5, 2015 by austrianaddict
Categories: Miscellaneous
Tags: , , , , ,

Thomas Sowell

I always read everything Thomas Sowell writes. His RSS feed is on my site so you can also enjoy his clear thinking. All his articles are outstanding, which is a bit of a curse, because that means they are all average. Some of his articles surpass his normal brilliance and these are the ones I post.

His recent article “Stormy Weather and Politics“, is outstanding. He talks about global warming theoretical models and how they can be fudged to fit the desired result. Click on the article and read it all. Here are some excerpts from the article if you can’t.

  -“The ultimate test of any theoretical model is not how loudly it is proclaimed but how well it fits the facts. Climate models that have an unimpressive record of fitting the facts of the past or the present are hardly a reason for us to rely on them for the future.”
  -“Putting together a successful model — of anything — is a lot more complicated than identifying which factors affect which outcomes….. the challenge is to determine precisely how those factors interact with each other. That is a lot easier said than done when it comes to climate.“
  -“Everyone can agree, for example, that the heat of the sunlight is greater in the tropics than in the temperate zones or near the poles. But, the highest temperatures ever recorded in Asia, Africa, North America or South America were all recorded outside — repeat, OUTSIDE — the tropics.”
  -“None of this disproves the scientific fact that sunlight is hotter in the tropics. But it does indicate that there are other factors which go into temperatures on earth.”
  -“American cities like Phoenix and Las Vegas often hit summer temperatures of 110 degrees or more, because they are located where there are not nearly as many clouds during the summer as are common in most other places, including most places in the tropics. The highest temperatures on earth have been reached in Death Valley, California, for the same reason, even though it is not in the tropics”.
  -“Putting clouds into climate models is not simple, because the more the temperature rises, the more water evaporates, creating more clouds that reflect more sunlight back out into space. Such facts are well known, but reducing them to a specific and reliable formula that will predict global temperatures is something else.”
  -“Meteorology has many facts and many scientific principles but, at this stage of its development, weather forecasts just a week ahead are still iffy. Why then should we let ourselves be stampeded into crippling the American economy with unending restrictions created by bureaucrats who pay no price for being wrong?”
 -Related Article – Thomas Sowell: The Economics And Politics Of Race, at austrianaddict.com.
 -Related Article – Thomas Sowell Discusses “Fact Free Liberals“, at austrianaddict.com.
 -Related Article – Thomas Sowell Sums Up “Fact Free Liberals” In Part IV, at austrianaddict.com.

Comments: Be the first to comment

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »