AUSTRIAN ECONOMICS ADDICT

Are We Losing Economic Freedom?

Posted October 15, 2014 by austrianaddict
Categories: Econ. 101, Government and Politics
Tags: Annual Report On Economic Freedom, Federal Reserve Counterfeiting, Fraser Institute, Hong Kong vs The US, Obamacare, Property Rights, Regulations, Regulator - Industrial Complex, Sound Money

Capitalism 3D sphere Word Cloud Concept with great terms such as economic, private, free and more. - stock photo

The Fraser Institute published a paper titled, Economic Freedom Of The World: 2013 Annual Report, which shows how the US is in the slow lane on the Road to Serfdom, because we as individuals have lost economic freedom over the past 12 years. Economic freedom is nothing more than each individual deciding what to produce, consume, exchange, and save without anyone, especially Government bureaucrats, hampering or intervening in his activities. Individuals are less free today than they were in 2000.

Scroll down to page 148 in the report to see the statistics for the United States in different categories related to freedom, from 1980 to 2011. The report rates 154 countries on economic freedom, with a 10 being the highest rating. It also ranks each country in order of most free to least free. Our freedom rating and rank has dropped since our high in 2000.

CATEGORY (rate/rank) 80 90 00 11

UNITED STATES

Summary (rating/rank) 7.92/3 8.35/3 8.65/2 7.74/19

Size of Government 5.08/49 6.71/24 7.03/34 6.83/47

Legal System/Property Rights 8.35/1 8.35/10 9.23/9 6.93/38

Sound Money 9.22/5 9.68/7 9.78/2 9.30/36

Freedom Of Trade Inter. 8.77/7 8.77/11 8.78/22 7.92/30

Regulation 8.11/4 8.23/4 8.43/2 7.75/17

Below is Hong Kong’s summary rating and rank for economic freedom. Go to page 62 to see a more detailed report on Hong Kong.

HONG KONG 80 90 00 11

Summary (rating/rank) 9.02/1 8.59/1 8.86/1 8.87/1

Hong Kong was under British rule for 156 years until 1997 when it was turned over to China. Hong Kong has had more economic freedom under British colonial rule, and Chinese communism than the US has had under a constitutional republic with leaders elected democratically. People in Hong Kong have been protesting recently because it looks like China is going back out on its promise to allow democratic elections in 2015. The people in Hong Kong should take a look at the US to see what democratic elections have done to our economic freedom, before they go all in for democracy. Democracy is just one possible means for gaining individual freedom, but it is no guarantee of individual freedom. Read, Thomas Sowell Explains How Democracy And Freedom Are Not The Same Thing.

Three of the categories, listed in the above article, that the Fraser Institute rates and ranks countries on their level of economic freedom are; legal system/property rights, regulation, and sound money. The US has decreased in rate and rank in these three categories over the last decade.

REGULATION

The Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) is just one example of the thousands of pages of regulations, passed by congress and signed into law by the President, that take away economic freedom by imposing huge costs on businesses. Where does the Government get the power to interfere with an individuals right to make a contract with another party on how he chooses to pay for his healthcare? Nowhere in the constitution do politicians and bureaucrats have a right to do this. They’ve usurped the power from us, and the Supreme Court, which has turned into a nine seat legislature, uphold their lawlessness. Read Regulatory-Industrial Complex, by Lew Rockwell, at mises.org, for more analysis on what regulation does to economic freedom.

SOUND MONEY

We could talk endlessly about how important sound money is for economic freedom, but here is the short version. When the Federal Reserve electronically prints counterfeit money, it is theft. What you produce each day at work is represented in the money your employer gives you in exchange for your labor. You in turn can demand goods and services with the money you are paid. The stable purchasing power of the monetary unit is what sound money guarantees. When the Federal Reserve electronically prints counterfeit money, it is decreasing the purchasing power of each dollar you have, and therefore stealing your production. If you or I counterfeit money it is theft. If the Fed counterfeits, it is still theft, it is simply theft that is sanctioned by the legislative, executive, and judicial branches of Government. Read, Is The Surge In Capital Goods Orders Do To Malinvestment, by Frank Shostak, at mises.org, to understand what happens when the Fed counterfeits.

PROPERTY RIGHTS

Without property rights there is no economic freedom. If an individual has no assurances that what he produces or owns can’t be taken away, then economic freedom is just meaningless rhetoric by politicians. There is the obvious taking of property through eminent domain laws (Kelo vs. New London), civil asset forfeiture laws, federal taxes etc, and then there is the unseen taking of property through the cost of complying with regulations, and out right stealing it by electronically printing counterfeit money. Read “Human Rights As Property Rights, by Murray N. Rothbard, at mises.org, to see how property rights are the foundation of economic freedom.

As F. A. Hayek said, “the battle for freedom must be won over and over again, the socialists of both parties must be persuaded or defeated if they and we are to remain free men.” These words are more true today then when he wrote them.

-I found the, Economic Freedom Of The World: 2013 Annual Report, in this article titled, The “Land Of The Free” Ranks 36th In The World In Respecting Property Rights, at zerohedge.com.

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Must Reads For The Week 10/11/14

Posted October 10, 2014 by austrianaddict
Categories: Must Reads For The Week
Tags: 3D Printing Homes, Affordable Care Act, Civil Asset Forfeiture Laws, Economic Freedom: US Ranks 12th, Fracking Revolution, Freedom vs. Tyranny, Mayo Clinic Medical Kiosks, Michelle Obama's Failed Lunch Program, Minimum Wage Laws, No Global Warming, Obamacare, Reasons For Hope, Rethinking Wind, Technology Advances, US Highest Corporate Tax Rate, Wal-Mart Cuts Health Care

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

How Michelle Obama’s Daughters Eat vs. The Rules She Has Set Down For Public School Kids, at economicpolicyjournal.com. The fact that the ruling elite don’t have to abide by the rules they impose on the benighted masses is one thing. The more important point is, a Government that has the power to make this mandate has too much power, and is therefore tyrannical.

How The Real World Reacts When Minimum Wage Laws Raise The Cost Of Labor Above What It Produces, at economicpolicyjournal.com. Here is the money quote from the article,“If government could transform unskilled entry-level positions into middle-income jobs, the Soviet Union would be today’s dominant world economy. Spain and Greece would be thriving.”

Mayo Clinic To Bring A Medical Kiosk To An Employer Near You, by Jeff Hansel, at m.postbulliten.com. Health care “affordability” would have taken care of itself if politicians in the Democrat party would have passed legislation that moved healthcare toward a free market system instead of passing “The Affordable Care Act”. This article is an example of markets reducing costs and providing a better product for the consumer.

Obamacare Causes Wal-Mart To Cut Benefits For Some Part Time Workers, by John Lott, by johnrlott.blogspot.com. This is the opposite of what you read about in the above post regarding the Mayo Clinic. Government intervention in the free market produces outcomes that have higher costs and inferior products.

3D Printing Entire Homes And Neighborhoods May Be Just Around The Corner, by Michael Krieger, at libertyblitzkrieg.com. Technology is in the process of changing how we do things in ways we can’t even imagine. Technology is advancing faster than Government can regulate it (the fracking revolution is another example). This gives me hope that at some point, our current experiment with big government will someday be a chapter in history that people will read about and say, “what made them think that would work”.

“Common People Do Not Carry This Much Currency”. How Police Justify Theft via Civil Asset Forfeiture Laws, at zerohedge.com. Taking money without probable cause, is only going to escalate the tension between police and citizens. Watch the video in this post, it makes great points in a humorous way.

Hong Kong Ranks First In Economic Freedom, The US Is Twelfth, at freetheworld.com. We were ranked second in ‘2000’ , but a decade of regulation, Fed counterfeiting, loss of property rights, and growth of Government has us cheering, “we’re number 12, we’re number 12”! We are not moving toward more individual, economic, and political freedom.

How The US Ranks In Corporate Tax Rates (Not Pretty), at economicpolicyjournal.com. The US has the highest corporate tax rate in the world! We’re number 1, We’re number 1!

Upcoming Anniversary: Oct. 1st Will Mark 18 Years Of No Global Warming, by Barbara Hollingsworth, at cnsnews.com. The evidence doesn’t match the chicken little rhetoric.

A Decade After Welcoming Wind, States Reconsider, by Sean Murphy, at eaglefordtexas.com. Here is a quote form the article, “Today, many of the same political leaders who initially welcomed the wind industry want to regulate it more tightly, even in red states like Oklahoma, where candidates regularly rail against government interference.” Politicians used Government subsidies and tax breaks to allow an industry to exist that would have probably had problems competing in a free market. Government picked the winner. Now they want to regulate an industry that wouldn’t have existed without the previous regulation. Here is my advice; repeal all regulations pertaining to wind, and allow the market to pick the winners and losers.

Reasons For Political Hope, by Bruce Thornton, at victorhanson.com. I know it’s hard to believe, but I am optimistic that freedom will win out over tyranny. It may not seem like it right now but there are signs that we are starting to wake up.

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Must Reads For The Week 10/4/14

Posted October 4, 2014 by austrianaddict
Categories: Must Reads For The Week
Tags: Bra Cam, Breast Cancer Awareness, Climate Change Affects Gravity?, Communist Manifesto, Drone Footage, Goverment Forgiving Student Loan Debt, Government Rolls Over Debt, Hong King Protest, Hong Kong Secession, Internet Tax, Status Quo, Swiss Vote On Healthcare, theburningplatform.com, Uber and School Choice

No America Isn’t Communist; It’s Only 79% Communist, at zerohedge.com. Look at the 10 planks of The Communist Manifesto and tell me we aren’t traveling down the collectivist road. We’re playing incremental Russian Roulette with our freedoms.

Will You Soon Be Taxed To Use The Internet, at economicpolicyjournal.com. A moratorium keeping state and local governments from taxing the internet is set to expire if congress doesn’t act to extend it.

US Government Promises To Forgive Student Debt…If You Work For Them, at zerohedge.com. This is how bureaucrats create more believers in Government central planning. They will eventually mandate what a students major should be in order to get the college loan that will eventually be forgiven (at tax payers expense).

The Latest Insane Scare: The Pull Of Gravity Is Decreasing Because Of Climate Change, at economicpolicyjournal.com. How do you measure the pull of Gravity?

Good Work Fed: US Now More Unequal Than Roaring Twenties And Ancient Rome, at davidstockmanscontracorner.com. Electronically printing counterfeit money by the Fed benefits the people who have access to it first. The rest of us lose purchasing power as the counterfeit money works its way through the economy. Our labor buys fewer goods and services.

What Do Uber And School Choice Have In Common? by Mark J. Perry, at Carpe Diem Blog. Uber and school choice are threats to the taxi and public school monopolies, which is why they will fight Uber and school choice to the bitter end. Competition produces better products at lower prices, benefiting consumers.

Sensible Swiss: 62 Percent Of Voters Reject Replacing Private Health Insurance With Public System, at johnrlottblogspot.com. I guess what we did with Obamacare served as an example to the Swiss of what not to do!

Roll Over Plan: Treasury Debt Increasing, by Terence P. Jeffery, at cnsnews.com. Every year the Treasury has to redeem debt that comes due, by issuing new debt. It is similar to someone paying off a credit card with another credit card. This year the Treasury issued $8.3 trillion of new debt, in order to redeem $7.5 trillion in debt that came due. This means the Treasury (tax payers) went in the hole for another $777 billion. Oh the magic of compound interest. Look at the chart at the bottom of the article.

Drone Footage Reveals Just How Massive Hong Kong’s Protests Really Are, at economicpolicyjournal.com. After 156 years of relative freedom under British rule, Hong Kong was returned to China in 1997. Now Hong Kong wants freedom from China (read here). Hong Kong has a culture of freedom similar to what colonial America had. We fought the Revolutionary war to seceded from England. Hong Kong may be able to secede from China without going to war, much like Eastern Europe seceded from the Soviet Union in 1989 when the Berlin Wall came down. We have our own battle for freedom going on in America today. Will we lose more individual freedom to ever expanding Government, or gain back what we’ve lost by shrinking Government?

Breast Cancer Awareness: Woman Wears Bra Cam To Catch Strangers Sneaking Peek, at youtube.com. No explanation needed.

Some Humor, from theburningplatform.com.

154149 600 Hell freezes over cartoons

154191 600 Catch 22 cartoons

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Climate Change: Religion? Economics? Science?

Posted October 2, 2014 by austrianaddict
Categories: Econ. 101, Miscellaneous
Tags: Ales Epstein, Cleaner Environment, Climate Change Religion, Climate Change Science, Climate change Trade Offs, Econommics of Climate Change, People's Climate March, Robert Kennedy Jr. Climate High Priest, Science vs. Religion, UN Climate Summit, Wealth Creation

The climate march that coincided with the UN’s climate summit a few weeks ago was entertaining to say the least. These two videos show how true believers act when the religion of climate change is challenged. They worship at the altar of climate change, and demand that all infidels accept the teachings of their climate science catechism. True believers never stop to think about trade offs.

QUESTIONS ABOUT TRADE OFFS

A world without fossil fuels is a utopian vision that exists cost-free in the minds of true believers. To their way of thinking, getting rid of carbon based fuels has no consequences. They never ask; how do we get there from here? What is the cost of trying to implement a world of carbon free energy? Will there be enough “green energy” alternatives to make up for the loss of the energy formerly produced by carbon based fuels? What is the cost in dollars per kilowatt-hour for “green energy”, compared to the cost in dollars per kilowatt-hour for carbon based energy? What was the standard of living in the US before we started using coal, oil, natural gas, and nuclear power? How would your present standard of living change if you had to function on 33% less energy a day? What about 40% less, or 50%less? Would you be willing to trade off diminishing amounts of cleaner air against your present standard of living?

CREATING WEALTH ALLOWS US TO AFFORD A CLEANER ENVIRONMENT

Countries like India and China didn’t even attend the climate summit. They are willing to accept more polluted air for a higher standard of living. They won’t clean up after themselves until they have created enough wealth to make it possible to have both a higher standard of living and a cleaner environment. Only wealthy countries can afford to clean up after themselves. People in poorer countries are just trying to make it to the next day. In the case of the US we have clean air to breath and water to drink. Using increasing amounts of scarce resources to make infinitesimal increase in the quality of our air and water, will kill the wealth creation that allowed us to clean up our messes in the first place. There is a diminishing return for trying to create a utopian world. And at some point you start traveling down the “road to serfdom“.

TWO GREAT VIDEOS

Here is a video of Robert Kennedy Jr being interviewed at the People’s Climate March. How condescending is this guy? It wouldn’t take much to push him into a Ray Rice moment.

Here is a video of Alex Epstein at the People’s Climate March. I like the green “I ♥ Fossil Fuels” t-shirt he is wearing.

SCIENCE VS. REALITY

This article, “Stop The Scare Climate Models vs. Human Needs“, by Willie Soon and Christopher Monckton at masterresource.org, asks great questions about the trade offs involved in the discussion (actually it’s a monologue) about climate change. Here are some excerpts from the article.

“India’s Prime Minister Modi, ….. knows that a quarter to a third of India’s people – at least 300 million of its citizens – still have no electricity. In Bihar, four homes in five are still lit by kerosene. His priority is to turn the lights on all over India.”

“Electric power is the quickest, surest, cheapest way to lift people out of poverty, disease and subsistence agriculture, and so to stabilize India’s population, which may soon overtake China’s. Families that no longer have to worry about children dying before they are five, or need them to tend starvation-level crops, tend to downsize their families.”

“Not one climate model predicted the severe Indian drought of 2009, followed by the prolonged rains the next year – a rainfall increase of 40% in most regions. These natural variations are not new. They have happened for tens of thousands of years.”

“Models are not ready to predict the climate. Misusing computers to spew out multiple “what-if” scenarios is unscientific. Most of the fundamental problems in our immature understanding of climate have remained unresolved for decades. Some cannot be resolved at all. The UN’s climate panel admitted in 2001 what has been known for 50 years: because the climate is a “coupled, non-linear, chaotic object,” reliable long-term climate predictions are impossible.”

“Misuse of climate models as false prophets is costly in lives as well as treasure. To condemn the poorest of India’s poor to continuing poverty is to condemn many to an untimely death…..It is time to put an end to climate summits. Real-world evidence proves they are not needed.”

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Must Reads For The Week 9/27/14

Posted September 27, 2014 by austrianaddict
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

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.

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

Posted September 26, 2014 by austrianaddict
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

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.

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Videos You Have To See

Posted September 25, 2014 by austrianaddict
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

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.

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Hillary And Benghazi: Call In The Cleaners!

Posted September 24, 2014 by austrianaddict
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

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.

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Must Reads For The Week 9/20/14

Posted September 20, 2014 by austrianaddict
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

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.

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The Break Down Of The Rule Of Law

Posted September 18, 2014 by austrianaddict
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

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.

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