AUSTRIAN ECONOMICS ADDICT

Donald Trump Didn’t Create Danger Of Presidential Dictatorship…..He Inherited It, at zerohedge.com. Over time the Presidency has incrementally stolen more power than the Constitution allows.      Excerpt from the article: “The sheer amount of punitive power possessed by the federal government is one of the best gauges of potential tyranny. do we really need 4,000 federal criminal laws and 200,000 regulations with criminal penalties to punish wayward citizens? As Benjamin Constant wrote in 1815, “It is in fact the degree of force, not its holders, which must be denounced. …There are weights too heavy for the hand of man.” Unfortunately, many Trump opponents will never make an adverse inference against arbitrary power because they seek to put government itself back on a pedestal. Trump won the election last year in part because he promised to “make America great again.” But America will not be great again until people expect and tolerate far less from presidents. And Only illiterates believe that toppling Trump is the only “dictator insurance: that America needs.”     The executive, legislative and judicial branches of our government have far exceeded their constitutional limits. It is time to rein them in.

Disaster In Red: The Hundredth Anniversary Of The Russian Socialist Revolution, by Richard Ebeling, at mises.org. Maybe the reason many young people think socialism is a wonderful economic system is because our education system hasn’t taught these kids about the deadly history of socialist central planning. The fall of the USSR in the early 90’s should have settled the argument. Excerpt from the article. “The battle between the ideologies of freedom and individualism versus political planning and collectivism, therefore, continues in slightly different forms and permutations than those expressed in the communist slogans and ideological language of 1917 and after. But the combat is no less real and is no less the same at its foundational basis.”

How Central Banks Widen Wealth and Income Gaps, by Hal Snarr, at mises.org. Excerpt from the article: “Federal Reserve (Fed) board member Kevin Warsh referred to the Fed’s monetary policy during the financial crisis as being “reverse Robin Hood.” This view has merit because the Fed’s purchases of securities push interest rates down and expand the money supply. The expansion of money then inflates the prices of financial assets, which are disproportionately owned by the rich…..Although the Federal Reserve was created to provide the US with a flexible and stable monetary and financial system, it has not. Its policies have caused economic booms and busts, reduced the value of the dollar to about a penny in just over 100 years, and may be causing substantial income and wealth inequality.”

The Ponzi Scheme That’s Over 100% The Size Of Madoff, at zerohedge.com. Pension plans are underfunded just like Social Security. When economic reality hits pensioners will have to take cut, or tax payers will be forced to pay the bill. Read this, It Begins: Pensions Bailout Bill To Be Introduced This Week.

Unions Want Freedom Of Association – But Only For Themselves, by Gary Galles, at mises.org. Unions are in favor of freedom of association. As long as the worker associates with the Union. Freedom of association is not a one way street. It means you can voluntarily decide to associate with someone, and they can voluntarily decide to associate with you. It also means each has the freedom not to associate with the other. It is a two-way street.

Diplomats Fear Tillerson Transparency Push Is Linked To Clinton Emails, by Nahal Toosi, at politico.com. State department employees who are complaining show their political bias. I thought government employees were non political public servants. Just do your job and shut up. This is how you drain the swamp. Here is an excerpt from the article: “Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s assignment of as many as several hundred State Department officials to quickly clear a huge backlog of public records requests is being met with deep skepticism by rank-and-file employees…..The staffers also suspect the move — which will reassign many of them from far more substantive duties and has already sparked a union complaint — is meant to force many of them to resign out of frustration with what are essentially clerical positions. The issue spotlights the deepening distrust toward Tillerson at Foggy Bottom, where his attempts to restructure the department, cut its budget and centralize policymaking have already hurt morale.”

Ninety percent of ‘public servants’ are for increasing the size of government. And any individual or group of individuals who want to shrink government is the enemy. (Remember what the IRS did to tea party and liberty groups.)

When Gunmen Strike, You’re On Your Own, by Ryan McMaken, at mises.org. In any situation you are the first responder, no matter what you decide to do. Because how you respond is the first response. Here is an example- Men with Guns Save More People Than Cynics Like Stephen Colbert, by Eric Hoover, at thefederalist.com. The mass shooting at a church in Sutherland Springs Texas was stopped by NRA member Stephen Willeford. He used his AR-15.

What Nation On Earth Has Reduced Its Carbon Emissions More Than Any Other, by Mark J. Perry, at carpediemblog. Was it China the communist utopia? Or was it the evil capitalist United States? It’s the USA. Thanks to fracking and efficiency.

Facebook Founder Warns “God Only Knows What It’s Doing To Kids’ Brains“, at zerohedge.co. You should think about limiting the time you let your kids spend on social media. Excerpt from the article: Founding president of Facebook: “I don’t know if I really understood...the unintended consequences of a network when it grows to a billion or 2 billion people and ….it literally changes your relationship with society, with each other.….It probably interferes with productivity in weird ways. God Only knows what it’s doing to our children’s brains…..The thought process that went into building these applications….was all about: ‘How do we consume as much of your time and conscious attention as possible?‘.

Senate Passes Measure Requiring Sexual Harassment Training For Senators And Aides, at politico.com. I think the members of this august body already know how to sexually harass women. It is too bad Ted Kennedy isn’t with us anymore. He could teach these Senators a few tricks about how to sexually harass women. Oh! You mean anti sexual harassment training.

CARTOONS at therightreason.net.