Monday, December 1, 2008
Liberals -- now controlling both the White House and Congress -- are ready to revive the so-called “Fairness” Doctrine to destroy conservative talk ra
http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=29696
SNL Erases Dem Fatcats From Bailout Skit
http://sweetness-light.com/archive/snl-edits-dem-fatcats-from-bailout-sketch
never trust democrats
"don't make me look bad"
never trust democrats
"don't make me look bad"
Socialist Republic by Patrick J. Buchanan
http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=29681#continueA
Socialist Republic
by Patrick J. Buchanan
11/27/2008 Print This
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Barack Obama and George W. Bush seem to have come away from their study of the Great Depression with similar conclusions:
To wit: After the Crash of 1929, the Federal Reserve did not move fast enough to save the banks and inject cash into the economy. Second, the New Deal, far from being wastrel deficit spending, was not bold enough. So it was that America wallowed in depression for a decade until the unbridled spending and mammoth deficits of World War II pulled us out.
Bush and Obama seem determined not to make the same mistake.
We are all Keynesians now.
Continued
Sponsored Links:
Thus, we have the $700 billion Bush bank bailout, the $700 billion "stimulus package" Obama wants by inauguration to "jolt this economy back into shape" and the $800 billion fund Hank Paulson created to get consumers borrowing and buying again.
These come on top of Bush $455 billion deficit, the $29 billion bailout of Bear Stearns, the $105 billion in pork to grease the $700 billion bailout, the $100 billion to $200 billion to keep Fannie and Freddie afloat, the $140-billion-and-counting for AIG, the $25 billion for the greening of GM, Ford and Chrysler, the $25 billion more to save the Big Three and the $20 billion for CitiGroup.
Now much of this overlaps, and some will be retrieved. But we are still staring at a deficit that could approach $2 trillion.
How would this stack up historically?
A deficit of $1.4 trillion would be 10 percent of gross domestic product, dwarfing the postwar record 6 percent run by Ronald Reagan in the Jimmy Carter recession.
Bewailing the "Reagan deficits" has been a staple of Democratic oratory. This will stop. But the politics of this is not the point, the policy is.
Consider what we are about to do. Bush in 2008 spent 21 percent of GDP. States, counties and cities spent another 12 percent. Thus, one third of GDP is spent by government at all levels. Obama and Co. propose to raise that by another 10 percent of GDP. We may soon be north of 40 percent of gross domestic product controlled and spent by government.
That is Eurosocialism.
And where, exactly, are we going to get the money?
Americans save nothing. We spend more than we earn. Thus the levels of consumer debt, credit card debt, auto debt and mortgage debt. U.S. foreign-exchange reserves amount to a piddling $73 billion.
The only nation with the kind of cash on hand we need now -- if we don't print the money and invite another gigantic bubble -- is China, with its $2 trillion in foreign-exchange reserves.
Will Beijing lend back the dollars it has piled up by selling to us?
China certainly has an incentive to keep Americans spending. For our purchases of Chinese-made goods have often been responsible for 100 percent of China's growth. China does not want to kill the American goose that lays those golden eggs -- until the goose can't lay any more eggs. Then they won't need the goose.
But should China decide to lend us the money, what will Beijing demand in interest rates and assurances that we will not default. After all, the U.S. debt is 70 percent of GDP, our savings rate is near zero, and our merchandise trade deficit is still running at 5 percent to 6 percent of GDP.
Unlike the 1950s, we are today dependent on foreigners for two-thirds of our oil and for much of our manufactured goods -- toys, TVs, radios, cameras, cars, shoes, clothes, bikes, motorcycles -- and for the $700 billion to $800 billion we borrow each year to pay for these imports.
With U.S. homeowners, consumers, companies and banks now going bust, why must the nation borrow trillions more to bail them out? So we can maintain our status and standard of living as the last superpower.
Bush and Obama are competing to shovel out trillions of dollars, so we can return to the good times of yesterday.
But wasn't yesterday the root cause of today? Didn't saving nothing and spending more than we earn, purchasing what we cannot afford in cars, consumer goods and houses, buying far more from abroad than we sell abroad -- didn't that cause this crisis and crash?
A family man in America's condition, awash in debt, spending more than he makes, would cut back consumption, find a second job and get out of debt. Or declare bankruptcy, accept the shame and humiliation, change his wastrel ways and start anew.
Is it different for a nation?
Yet we seem to believe we can borrow and spend our way out of a swamp of unpayable debt into which borrowing and spending have plunged us.
We are headed either for default on our debts and bankruptcy as a nation, or something less honorable: a quiet cheapening of the debts we have incurred by inflating and destroying the dollar, robbing our creditors of what we owe them and robbing our own people of the value of what they have earned. And so it has come to this.
What would the Founding Fathers think of us now?
Socialist Republic
by Patrick J. Buchanan
11/27/2008 Print This
Forward
Feedback
Digg This!
Subscribe
Sponsored By:
Barack Obama and George W. Bush seem to have come away from their study of the Great Depression with similar conclusions:
To wit: After the Crash of 1929, the Federal Reserve did not move fast enough to save the banks and inject cash into the economy. Second, the New Deal, far from being wastrel deficit spending, was not bold enough. So it was that America wallowed in depression for a decade until the unbridled spending and mammoth deficits of World War II pulled us out.
Bush and Obama seem determined not to make the same mistake.
We are all Keynesians now.
Continued
Sponsored Links:
Thus, we have the $700 billion Bush bank bailout, the $700 billion "stimulus package" Obama wants by inauguration to "jolt this economy back into shape" and the $800 billion fund Hank Paulson created to get consumers borrowing and buying again.
These come on top of Bush $455 billion deficit, the $29 billion bailout of Bear Stearns, the $105 billion in pork to grease the $700 billion bailout, the $100 billion to $200 billion to keep Fannie and Freddie afloat, the $140-billion-and-counting for AIG, the $25 billion for the greening of GM, Ford and Chrysler, the $25 billion more to save the Big Three and the $20 billion for CitiGroup.
Now much of this overlaps, and some will be retrieved. But we are still staring at a deficit that could approach $2 trillion.
How would this stack up historically?
A deficit of $1.4 trillion would be 10 percent of gross domestic product, dwarfing the postwar record 6 percent run by Ronald Reagan in the Jimmy Carter recession.
Bewailing the "Reagan deficits" has been a staple of Democratic oratory. This will stop. But the politics of this is not the point, the policy is.
Consider what we are about to do. Bush in 2008 spent 21 percent of GDP. States, counties and cities spent another 12 percent. Thus, one third of GDP is spent by government at all levels. Obama and Co. propose to raise that by another 10 percent of GDP. We may soon be north of 40 percent of gross domestic product controlled and spent by government.
That is Eurosocialism.
And where, exactly, are we going to get the money?
Americans save nothing. We spend more than we earn. Thus the levels of consumer debt, credit card debt, auto debt and mortgage debt. U.S. foreign-exchange reserves amount to a piddling $73 billion.
The only nation with the kind of cash on hand we need now -- if we don't print the money and invite another gigantic bubble -- is China, with its $2 trillion in foreign-exchange reserves.
Will Beijing lend back the dollars it has piled up by selling to us?
China certainly has an incentive to keep Americans spending. For our purchases of Chinese-made goods have often been responsible for 100 percent of China's growth. China does not want to kill the American goose that lays those golden eggs -- until the goose can't lay any more eggs. Then they won't need the goose.
But should China decide to lend us the money, what will Beijing demand in interest rates and assurances that we will not default. After all, the U.S. debt is 70 percent of GDP, our savings rate is near zero, and our merchandise trade deficit is still running at 5 percent to 6 percent of GDP.
Unlike the 1950s, we are today dependent on foreigners for two-thirds of our oil and for much of our manufactured goods -- toys, TVs, radios, cameras, cars, shoes, clothes, bikes, motorcycles -- and for the $700 billion to $800 billion we borrow each year to pay for these imports.
With U.S. homeowners, consumers, companies and banks now going bust, why must the nation borrow trillions more to bail them out? So we can maintain our status and standard of living as the last superpower.
Bush and Obama are competing to shovel out trillions of dollars, so we can return to the good times of yesterday.
But wasn't yesterday the root cause of today? Didn't saving nothing and spending more than we earn, purchasing what we cannot afford in cars, consumer goods and houses, buying far more from abroad than we sell abroad -- didn't that cause this crisis and crash?
A family man in America's condition, awash in debt, spending more than he makes, would cut back consumption, find a second job and get out of debt. Or declare bankruptcy, accept the shame and humiliation, change his wastrel ways and start anew.
Is it different for a nation?
Yet we seem to believe we can borrow and spend our way out of a swamp of unpayable debt into which borrowing and spending have plunged us.
We are headed either for default on our debts and bankruptcy as a nation, or something less honorable: a quiet cheapening of the debts we have incurred by inflating and destroying the dollar, robbing our creditors of what we owe them and robbing our own people of the value of what they have earned. And so it has come to this.
What would the Founding Fathers think of us now?
Amid all the political and media hysteria, national output has declined by less than one-half of one percent. In fact, it may not have declined even t
order IF DEMOCRATS HAD ANY BRAINS, THEY'D BE REPUBLICANS
QUOTATIONS FROM CHAIRMAN ANN
December 1, 2008, 2:06 AM
HOW WOULD NBC REACT IF SARAH PALIN OR BILL O'REILLY COMPLAINED ABOUT A SKETCH? - SNL Erases Dem Fatcats From Bailout Skit | Sweetness & Light
December 1, 2008, 1:58 AM
A Picture Says a Thousand Words - Bollywood actor Imraan Khan
December 1, 2008, 1:03 AM
India's Bollywood Also Denies Terrorists were Muslim - "When will these politicians realize and admit that terrorists have no religion. Terrorists are not Hindu or Muslim or Christian. They are not people of religion or God. They are people who have gone totally sick in their head and have to be dealt with in that manner."
(Or for short, "Muslims.")
BREITBART: Six degrees of Imran Khan
But the rest of the country loves Bush, having experienced Muslims up close.
Why is it that we're constantly told to distinguish between "good" and "bad" Muslims, but Muslim terrorists are never criticized for killing Israelis who have no connection to the Israeli government?
November 30, 2008, 3:15 PM
You Wouldn't Even Know They were Muslims - NYT: What They Hate About Mumbai
NYT contributor blames the cycle of violence among "religious extremists" for attacks in Mumbai.
November 29, 2008, 5:55 PM
GET DRUNK'S NEW OPTIMISTIC INCARNATION - Washington Times Notes New ‘Get Drunk’ | Get Drunk And Hope 4 The Best
November 29, 2008, 1:04 AM
COLLEGE STUDENTS NIX CYSTIC FIBROSIS EVENT: DISEASE AFFECTS ONLY WHITE MEN - Students at Canadian University Stir Controversy by Pulling Out of Cystic-Fibrosis Event
November 29, 2008, 1:01 AM
Here's a Republican we never have to be embarrassed about . . . - Dana Rohrabacher
November 26, 2008, 10:47 PM
RISING CONSERVATIVE: TOWNHALL'S MATT LEWIS - MSNBC VIDEO: Matt Lewis Ably Defends Our Beauteous Sarah Palin
November 26, 2008, 6:29 PM
In case you can't wait until 2am! - GUTFELD'S FIRST ANNUAL TURKEY BOWL
November 26, 2008, 1:25 AM
EMAIL OF THE DAY -
Did you two see the placard on Obama's podium today? Huge, official-looking blue thing that grandly read, "The Office of the President-Elect."
Is he kidding? THAT'S an "office"? When did all this happen? Have I been asleep for 40 years? AM I INSANE?
November 25, 2008, 1:30 PM
ON THE OTHER HAND, We could do worse than Eric Holder under Obama . . . - Holder for Attorney General: Bad, But It Could Be Much Worse
November 25, 2008, 12:33 PM
AG Nominee "Exhibited Cowardice" In Terrorist Pardons - Andrew C. McCarthy Opposed to Holder without Apology
November 25, 2008, 9:58 AM
THE OBAMA VOTER VIDEO EVERYONE IS TALKING ABOUT! - How Obama Got Elected dot-com
November 25, 2008, 9:54 AM
TV Cameraman Confirms What You Suspected About Palin Turkey Shot -
Reply 6 - Posted by: Rattler2, 11/24/2008 11:11:21 PM
As a former TV news cameraman/editor, I can tell you that I had by far the most responsibilty for the video that was aired. I was very aware of my background anytime I shot an interview, b-roll, etc. It is very easy to make a political point with your video. I am quite sure the photographer was either a complete idiot, a very biased liberal, a poor photojournalist, or a combination of the three. All the photographer had to do was tell Sarah Palin that the interview would be better in a different spot, and should have said something if the slaughter started after the interview began. I know I would have stopped it, and had her move. It would be interesting to learn who he/she is, and what they meant to accomplish by framing the shot this way.
--Lucianne.com: Turkey Farmer Speaks Out
November 25, 2008, 4:23 AM
Thomas Sowell: Media Pretends it's the Depression; Politicians Grab Power - Thomas Sowell: "Jolting" the Economy
. . . if you take the media's account of the economy seriously-- but should the media be taken seriously?
Amid all the political and media hysteria, national output has declined by less than one-half of one percent. In fact, it may not have declined even that much-- or at all-- when the statistics are revised later, as they very often are.
We are not talking about the Great Depression, when output dropped by one-third and unemployment soared to 25 percent.
November 25, 2008, 2:44 AM
War on Christmas continues - List of Stores that are Naughty and Nice
But . . . a post on freerepublic claims Target does not belong on the "nice" side of the ledger:
Target forbids their staff from wishing any shopper a “merry Christmas” and store managers can even write up cashiers and other employees for doing so. Also, they don’t allow the Salvation Army in front of their stores, so Target is out for me. I’ll go to my new, clean, nicely decorated Walmart and enjoy their wicked-low prices in the age-of-socialism.
Needs confirming . . . Where is Bill O'Reilly this week?
November 25, 2008, 2:31 AM
Now Price has to Worry about the NM Truth Ministry Coming After Him! -
Prince Cites Bible: Denunciations Ensue
New Mexico Civ. Rights Comm: $6,000 fine for Christian photographer who turned down gay marriage gig
November 24, 2008, 8:48 PM
A Goldmine! - RECOMMENDED READING TO MR. PRESIDENT ELECT OBAMA FROM PAMELA ANDERSON
Someone should roll a clip of her sex tape with Tommy Lee and have this letter to Obama scrolling up the screen.
November 24, 2008, 1:17 PM
HISTORY IS MADE! - Former News Magazine Time's PHOTO ESSAY: When Michelle Met Hillary… | Sweetness & Light
It's like Reagan meeting Thatcher! You know, historic.
November 23, 2008, 5:51 PM
THE NEW CLARE BOOTHE LUCE CALENDAR IS OUT! - ABCNews.com slideshow
November 20, 2008, 1:16 PM
WHAT TO EXPECT FROM OBAMA - FDR Policies Prolonged Depression By 7 Yrs | Sweetness & Light
November 20, 2008, 1:06 PM
Penn & Teller: Environmentalists Sign Petition to Ban Water - VIDEO: Environmental Hysteria Exemplified
November 20, 2008, 11:31 AM
Liberals Return to Their Obsession With Banning Flush Toilets - Experts call for end of flushing toilets on World Toilet Day
November 19, 2008, 10:03 PM
Probably just as well to keep guns out of the hands of a Democratic administration - Gun Owners not Welcome on Obama's White House Team
November 19, 2008, 7:04 PM
RECOMMENDED CHARITIES FOR END OF THE YEAR GIVING - Maniacal gay activists have helpfully assembled this list of individuals and organization who helped save marriage in California. They deserve our support.
November 19, 2008, 6:32 PM
HOT NEW MOVIE -- OPENS THIS FRIDAY! - THE DUKES
November 19, 2008, 3:59 PM
JOHN LOTT SMELLS A RAT IN FRANKEN'S SENATE NUMBERS "CORRECTIONS" - Statistics Don't Lie, Even in Minnesota
"Why did the “typo” corrections increase Franken’s total so much more than any other candidate’s? Indeed, so much more than all the other races for the presidency, Congress, and statehouse combined. The Star Tribune’s response was to [falsely] deny the claim was true."
November 18, 2008, 2:37 AM
JAPANESE DEMONSTRATE THEIR HIGH IQS - WAPO: Japanese Not Wild About Obama
They really do have higher IQs.
November 17, 2008, 3:57 PM
America's Future, Part 2 - The Cuban Way
Liberals' Fantasy: A country where there is no income inequality because everyone is equally destitute!
November 17, 2008, 2:43 PM
America's Future? - For More of Mexico’s Wealthy, Cost of Living Includes Guards
November 17, 2008, 2:41 PM
THE OBAMA RECESSION - The Inestimable John Lott on The Democrats' Recession .
November 16, 2008, 11:35 AM
GLOBAL WARMING HOAXSTER CAUGHT AGAIN - The world has never seen such freezing heat
November 16, 2008, 2:57 AM
FIRST, WE GET RID OF GOD - Then everything is permitted.
Orwell's Children
Liberals are off to a good start.
November 15, 2008, 4:59 PM
AMAZON DOES IT AGAIN! - Packages You Won’t Need a Saw to Open
November 15, 2008, 1:53 PM
MICHAEL BARONE ON THE BIG 3 BAILOUT - Detroit Automakers a Relic of the Past
November 14, 2008, 4:49 PM
FRANKEN INVENTS SOB STORY ABOUT AN 84 YR-OLD WOMAN WITH A STROKE TO JUSTIFY BALLOT LAWSUIT - Franken campaign's rejected ballot story false
November 14, 2008, 4:06 PM
Movie Review: The Dukes - Davi’s Passion for Politics and Movie Making
November 14, 2008, 1:40 PM
HAPPY 100TH BIRTHDAY, JOE MCCARTHY! - FREEREPUBLIC BIRTHDAY WISHES
November 13, 2008, 10:41 PM
2 Out of 3 Teachers Prefer Not to Be Paid Based on How Good a Job They Do - A School Chief Takes On Tenure, Stirring a Fight
November 13, 2008, 12:38 AM
Why Couldn't We Have Elected This Black Guy? -
Anti-Gay State Senator Chooses Opposition to Marriage Equality Over Party
November 12, 2008, 4:59 PM
GO MITT! - Mitt Steps Up in Minnesota Senate Recount
November 10, 2008, 1:55 PM
MN IS THE FLORIDA OF 2000 - John Lott: Minnesota Ripe for Election Fraud
Correcting these typos was claimed to add 435 votes to Franken and take 69 votes from Coleman.
Virtually all of Franken's new votes came from just three out of 4130 precincts, and almost half the gain (246 votes) occurred in one precinct -- Two Harbors, a small town north of Duluth along Lake Superior -- a heavily Democratic precinct where Obama received 64 percent of the vote. None of the other races had any changes in their vote totals in that precinct.
To put this change in perspective, that single precinct's corrections accounted for a significantly larger net swing in votes between the parties than occurred for all the precincts in the entire state for the presidential, congressional, or state house races.
HIGHLY SUSPICIOUS . . .
November 10, 2008, 1:37 AM
OUR NEW HEALTH CARE! -
Emergency-room nightmares spur calls for action
Canada's hospitals like Third World . . .
Item Archives
TERRORISTS' RESTLESS LEG SYNDROME
November 26, 2008
I thought the rest of the world was going to love us if we elected B. Hussein Obama! Somebody better tell the Indian Muslims.
As everyone but President-elect B. Hussein Obama's base knows, many of the Guantanamo detainees cannot be sent to their home countries, cannot be released and cannot be tried. They need to be held in some form of extra-legal limbo the rest of their lives, sort of like Phil Spector.
And now they're Obama's problem.
If Obama wants his detention of Islamic terrorists to be dramatically different from Bush's Guantanamo, my suggestion is that he cut off -- so to speak -- the expensive prosthetic limb procedures now being granted the detained terrorists.
Far from being sodomized and tortured by U.S. forces -- as Obama's base has wailed for the past seven years -- the innocent scholars and philanthropists being held at Guantanamo have been given expensive, high-tech medical procedures at taxpayer expense. If we're not careful, multitudes of Muslims will be going to fight Americans in Afghanistan just so they can go to Guantanamo and get proper treatment for attention deficit disorder and erectile dysfunction.
After being captured fighting with Taliban forces against Americans in 2001, Abdullah Massoud was sent to Guantanamo, where the one-legged terrorist was fitted with a special prosthetic leg, at a cost of $50,000-$75,000 to the U.S. taxpayer. Under the Americans With Disabilities Act, Massoud would now be able to park his car bomb in a handicapped parking space!
No, you didn't read that wrong, because the VA won't pay for your new glasses. I said $75,000. I would have gone with hanging at sunrise, but what do I know?
Upon his release in March 2004, Massoud hippity-hopped back to Afghanistan and quickly resumed his war against the U.S. Aided by his new artificial leg, just months later, in October 2004, Massoud masterminded the kidnapping of two Chinese engineers in Pakistan working on the Gomal Zam Dam project.
This proved, to me at least, that people with disabilities can do anything they put their minds to. Way to go, you plucky extremist!
Massoud said he had nothing against the Chinese but wanted to embarrass Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf for cooperating with the Americans. You know, the Americans who had just footed -- you should pardon the expression -- a $75,000 bill for his prosthetic leg.
Pakistani forces stormed Massoud's hideout, killing all the kidnappers, including Massoud. Only one of the Chinese engineers was rescued alive.
As a result of the kidnapping, the Chinese pulled all 100 engineers and dam workers out of Pakistan, and work on the dam ceased. This was bad news for the people of Pakistan -- but good news for the endangered Pakistani snail darter!
In none of the news accounts I read of Massoud's return to jihad after his release from Guantanamo is there any mention of the fact that his prosthetic leg was acquired in Guantanamo, courtesy of American taxpayers after he was captured trying to kill Americans on the battlefield in Afghanistan.
News about the prosthetic leg might interfere with stories of the innocent aid workers being held captive at Guantanamo in George Bush's AmeriKKKa.
To the contrary, although Massoud's swashbuckling reputation as a jihadist with a prosthetic leg appears in many news items, where he got that leg is almost purposely hidden -- even lied about.
"Abdullah Massoud ... had earned both sympathy and reverence for his time in Guantanamo Bay. ... Upon his release, he made it home to Waziristan and resumed his war against the U.S. With his long hair, his prosthetic limb and impassioned speeches, he quickly became a charismatic inspiration to Waziristan's youth." -- The New York Times
He's not a one-legged terrorist -- he's a freedom fighter living with a disability. I think we could all learn something about courage from this man.
"He lost his leg in a landmine explosion a few days before the fall of Kabul to the Taliban in September 1996. It didn't dampen his enthusiasm as a fighter and he got himself an artificial leg later, says Yusufzai."-- The Indo-Asian News Service
Where? At COSTCO?
"The 29-year-old Massoud, who lost his left leg in a landmine explosion while fighting alongside the Taliban, often used to ride a horse or camel because his disability made it painful for him to walk long distances in hilly areas." -- BBC Monitoring South Asia
Side-saddle, I'm guessing. And you just know those caves along the Afghan-Pakistan border aren't wheelchair accessible.
"He was educated in Peshawar and was treated in Karachi after his left leg was blown up in a landmine explosion in the Wreshmin Tangi gorge near Kabul in September 1996. He now walks with an artificial leg specifically made for him in Karachi." -- Gulf News (United Arab Emirates)
Karachi? Hey, how do I get into this guy's HMO?
They can't lick leprosy in Karachi, but the Gulf News tells us Massoud got his artificial leg at one of their specialty hospitals.
Anyone who thinks the Guantanamo detainees can be released without consequence doesn't have a leg to stand on.
COPYRIGHT 2008 ANN COULTER
DISTRIBUTED BY UNIVERSAL PRESS SYNDICATE
1130 Walnut, Kansas City, MO 64106
QUOTATIONS FROM CHAIRMAN ANN
December 1, 2008, 2:06 AM
HOW WOULD NBC REACT IF SARAH PALIN OR BILL O'REILLY COMPLAINED ABOUT A SKETCH? - SNL Erases Dem Fatcats From Bailout Skit | Sweetness & Light
December 1, 2008, 1:58 AM
A Picture Says a Thousand Words - Bollywood actor Imraan Khan
December 1, 2008, 1:03 AM
India's Bollywood Also Denies Terrorists were Muslim - "When will these politicians realize and admit that terrorists have no religion. Terrorists are not Hindu or Muslim or Christian. They are not people of religion or God. They are people who have gone totally sick in their head and have to be dealt with in that manner."
(Or for short, "Muslims.")
BREITBART: Six degrees of Imran Khan
But the rest of the country loves Bush, having experienced Muslims up close.
Why is it that we're constantly told to distinguish between "good" and "bad" Muslims, but Muslim terrorists are never criticized for killing Israelis who have no connection to the Israeli government?
November 30, 2008, 3:15 PM
You Wouldn't Even Know They were Muslims - NYT: What They Hate About Mumbai
NYT contributor blames the cycle of violence among "religious extremists" for attacks in Mumbai.
November 29, 2008, 5:55 PM
GET DRUNK'S NEW OPTIMISTIC INCARNATION - Washington Times Notes New ‘Get Drunk’ | Get Drunk And Hope 4 The Best
November 29, 2008, 1:04 AM
COLLEGE STUDENTS NIX CYSTIC FIBROSIS EVENT: DISEASE AFFECTS ONLY WHITE MEN - Students at Canadian University Stir Controversy by Pulling Out of Cystic-Fibrosis Event
November 29, 2008, 1:01 AM
Here's a Republican we never have to be embarrassed about . . . - Dana Rohrabacher
November 26, 2008, 10:47 PM
RISING CONSERVATIVE: TOWNHALL'S MATT LEWIS - MSNBC VIDEO: Matt Lewis Ably Defends Our Beauteous Sarah Palin
November 26, 2008, 6:29 PM
In case you can't wait until 2am! - GUTFELD'S FIRST ANNUAL TURKEY BOWL
November 26, 2008, 1:25 AM
EMAIL OF THE DAY -
Did you two see the placard on Obama's podium today? Huge, official-looking blue thing that grandly read, "The Office of the President-Elect."
Is he kidding? THAT'S an "office"? When did all this happen? Have I been asleep for 40 years? AM I INSANE?
November 25, 2008, 1:30 PM
ON THE OTHER HAND, We could do worse than Eric Holder under Obama . . . - Holder for Attorney General: Bad, But It Could Be Much Worse
November 25, 2008, 12:33 PM
AG Nominee "Exhibited Cowardice" In Terrorist Pardons - Andrew C. McCarthy Opposed to Holder without Apology
November 25, 2008, 9:58 AM
THE OBAMA VOTER VIDEO EVERYONE IS TALKING ABOUT! - How Obama Got Elected dot-com
November 25, 2008, 9:54 AM
TV Cameraman Confirms What You Suspected About Palin Turkey Shot -
Reply 6 - Posted by: Rattler2, 11/24/2008 11:11:21 PM
As a former TV news cameraman/editor, I can tell you that I had by far the most responsibilty for the video that was aired. I was very aware of my background anytime I shot an interview, b-roll, etc. It is very easy to make a political point with your video. I am quite sure the photographer was either a complete idiot, a very biased liberal, a poor photojournalist, or a combination of the three. All the photographer had to do was tell Sarah Palin that the interview would be better in a different spot, and should have said something if the slaughter started after the interview began. I know I would have stopped it, and had her move. It would be interesting to learn who he/she is, and what they meant to accomplish by framing the shot this way.
--Lucianne.com: Turkey Farmer Speaks Out
November 25, 2008, 4:23 AM
Thomas Sowell: Media Pretends it's the Depression; Politicians Grab Power - Thomas Sowell: "Jolting" the Economy
. . . if you take the media's account of the economy seriously-- but should the media be taken seriously?
Amid all the political and media hysteria, national output has declined by less than one-half of one percent. In fact, it may not have declined even that much-- or at all-- when the statistics are revised later, as they very often are.
We are not talking about the Great Depression, when output dropped by one-third and unemployment soared to 25 percent.
November 25, 2008, 2:44 AM
War on Christmas continues - List of Stores that are Naughty and Nice
But . . . a post on freerepublic claims Target does not belong on the "nice" side of the ledger:
Target forbids their staff from wishing any shopper a “merry Christmas” and store managers can even write up cashiers and other employees for doing so. Also, they don’t allow the Salvation Army in front of their stores, so Target is out for me. I’ll go to my new, clean, nicely decorated Walmart and enjoy their wicked-low prices in the age-of-socialism.
Needs confirming . . . Where is Bill O'Reilly this week?
November 25, 2008, 2:31 AM
Now Price has to Worry about the NM Truth Ministry Coming After Him! -
Prince Cites Bible: Denunciations Ensue
New Mexico Civ. Rights Comm: $6,000 fine for Christian photographer who turned down gay marriage gig
November 24, 2008, 8:48 PM
A Goldmine! - RECOMMENDED READING TO MR. PRESIDENT ELECT OBAMA FROM PAMELA ANDERSON
Someone should roll a clip of her sex tape with Tommy Lee and have this letter to Obama scrolling up the screen.
November 24, 2008, 1:17 PM
HISTORY IS MADE! - Former News Magazine Time's PHOTO ESSAY: When Michelle Met Hillary… | Sweetness & Light
It's like Reagan meeting Thatcher! You know, historic.
November 23, 2008, 5:51 PM
THE NEW CLARE BOOTHE LUCE CALENDAR IS OUT! - ABCNews.com slideshow
November 20, 2008, 1:16 PM
WHAT TO EXPECT FROM OBAMA - FDR Policies Prolonged Depression By 7 Yrs | Sweetness & Light
November 20, 2008, 1:06 PM
Penn & Teller: Environmentalists Sign Petition to Ban Water - VIDEO: Environmental Hysteria Exemplified
November 20, 2008, 11:31 AM
Liberals Return to Their Obsession With Banning Flush Toilets - Experts call for end of flushing toilets on World Toilet Day
November 19, 2008, 10:03 PM
Probably just as well to keep guns out of the hands of a Democratic administration - Gun Owners not Welcome on Obama's White House Team
November 19, 2008, 7:04 PM
RECOMMENDED CHARITIES FOR END OF THE YEAR GIVING - Maniacal gay activists have helpfully assembled this list of individuals and organization who helped save marriage in California. They deserve our support.
November 19, 2008, 6:32 PM
HOT NEW MOVIE -- OPENS THIS FRIDAY! - THE DUKES
November 19, 2008, 3:59 PM
JOHN LOTT SMELLS A RAT IN FRANKEN'S SENATE NUMBERS "CORRECTIONS" - Statistics Don't Lie, Even in Minnesota
"Why did the “typo” corrections increase Franken’s total so much more than any other candidate’s? Indeed, so much more than all the other races for the presidency, Congress, and statehouse combined. The Star Tribune’s response was to [falsely] deny the claim was true."
November 18, 2008, 2:37 AM
JAPANESE DEMONSTRATE THEIR HIGH IQS - WAPO: Japanese Not Wild About Obama
They really do have higher IQs.
November 17, 2008, 3:57 PM
America's Future, Part 2 - The Cuban Way
Liberals' Fantasy: A country where there is no income inequality because everyone is equally destitute!
November 17, 2008, 2:43 PM
America's Future? - For More of Mexico’s Wealthy, Cost of Living Includes Guards
November 17, 2008, 2:41 PM
THE OBAMA RECESSION - The Inestimable John Lott on The Democrats' Recession .
November 16, 2008, 11:35 AM
GLOBAL WARMING HOAXSTER CAUGHT AGAIN - The world has never seen such freezing heat
November 16, 2008, 2:57 AM
FIRST, WE GET RID OF GOD - Then everything is permitted.
Orwell's Children
Liberals are off to a good start.
November 15, 2008, 4:59 PM
AMAZON DOES IT AGAIN! - Packages You Won’t Need a Saw to Open
November 15, 2008, 1:53 PM
MICHAEL BARONE ON THE BIG 3 BAILOUT - Detroit Automakers a Relic of the Past
November 14, 2008, 4:49 PM
FRANKEN INVENTS SOB STORY ABOUT AN 84 YR-OLD WOMAN WITH A STROKE TO JUSTIFY BALLOT LAWSUIT - Franken campaign's rejected ballot story false
November 14, 2008, 4:06 PM
Movie Review: The Dukes - Davi’s Passion for Politics and Movie Making
November 14, 2008, 1:40 PM
HAPPY 100TH BIRTHDAY, JOE MCCARTHY! - FREEREPUBLIC BIRTHDAY WISHES
November 13, 2008, 10:41 PM
2 Out of 3 Teachers Prefer Not to Be Paid Based on How Good a Job They Do - A School Chief Takes On Tenure, Stirring a Fight
November 13, 2008, 12:38 AM
Why Couldn't We Have Elected This Black Guy? -
Anti-Gay State Senator Chooses Opposition to Marriage Equality Over Party
November 12, 2008, 4:59 PM
GO MITT! - Mitt Steps Up in Minnesota Senate Recount
November 10, 2008, 1:55 PM
MN IS THE FLORIDA OF 2000 - John Lott: Minnesota Ripe for Election Fraud
Correcting these typos was claimed to add 435 votes to Franken and take 69 votes from Coleman.
Virtually all of Franken's new votes came from just three out of 4130 precincts, and almost half the gain (246 votes) occurred in one precinct -- Two Harbors, a small town north of Duluth along Lake Superior -- a heavily Democratic precinct where Obama received 64 percent of the vote. None of the other races had any changes in their vote totals in that precinct.
To put this change in perspective, that single precinct's corrections accounted for a significantly larger net swing in votes between the parties than occurred for all the precincts in the entire state for the presidential, congressional, or state house races.
HIGHLY SUSPICIOUS . . .
November 10, 2008, 1:37 AM
OUR NEW HEALTH CARE! -
Emergency-room nightmares spur calls for action
Canada's hospitals like Third World . . .
Item Archives
TERRORISTS' RESTLESS LEG SYNDROME
November 26, 2008
I thought the rest of the world was going to love us if we elected B. Hussein Obama! Somebody better tell the Indian Muslims.
As everyone but President-elect B. Hussein Obama's base knows, many of the Guantanamo detainees cannot be sent to their home countries, cannot be released and cannot be tried. They need to be held in some form of extra-legal limbo the rest of their lives, sort of like Phil Spector.
And now they're Obama's problem.
If Obama wants his detention of Islamic terrorists to be dramatically different from Bush's Guantanamo, my suggestion is that he cut off -- so to speak -- the expensive prosthetic limb procedures now being granted the detained terrorists.
Far from being sodomized and tortured by U.S. forces -- as Obama's base has wailed for the past seven years -- the innocent scholars and philanthropists being held at Guantanamo have been given expensive, high-tech medical procedures at taxpayer expense. If we're not careful, multitudes of Muslims will be going to fight Americans in Afghanistan just so they can go to Guantanamo and get proper treatment for attention deficit disorder and erectile dysfunction.
After being captured fighting with Taliban forces against Americans in 2001, Abdullah Massoud was sent to Guantanamo, where the one-legged terrorist was fitted with a special prosthetic leg, at a cost of $50,000-$75,000 to the U.S. taxpayer. Under the Americans With Disabilities Act, Massoud would now be able to park his car bomb in a handicapped parking space!
No, you didn't read that wrong, because the VA won't pay for your new glasses. I said $75,000. I would have gone with hanging at sunrise, but what do I know?
Upon his release in March 2004, Massoud hippity-hopped back to Afghanistan and quickly resumed his war against the U.S. Aided by his new artificial leg, just months later, in October 2004, Massoud masterminded the kidnapping of two Chinese engineers in Pakistan working on the Gomal Zam Dam project.
This proved, to me at least, that people with disabilities can do anything they put their minds to. Way to go, you plucky extremist!
Massoud said he had nothing against the Chinese but wanted to embarrass Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf for cooperating with the Americans. You know, the Americans who had just footed -- you should pardon the expression -- a $75,000 bill for his prosthetic leg.
Pakistani forces stormed Massoud's hideout, killing all the kidnappers, including Massoud. Only one of the Chinese engineers was rescued alive.
As a result of the kidnapping, the Chinese pulled all 100 engineers and dam workers out of Pakistan, and work on the dam ceased. This was bad news for the people of Pakistan -- but good news for the endangered Pakistani snail darter!
In none of the news accounts I read of Massoud's return to jihad after his release from Guantanamo is there any mention of the fact that his prosthetic leg was acquired in Guantanamo, courtesy of American taxpayers after he was captured trying to kill Americans on the battlefield in Afghanistan.
News about the prosthetic leg might interfere with stories of the innocent aid workers being held captive at Guantanamo in George Bush's AmeriKKKa.
To the contrary, although Massoud's swashbuckling reputation as a jihadist with a prosthetic leg appears in many news items, where he got that leg is almost purposely hidden -- even lied about.
"Abdullah Massoud ... had earned both sympathy and reverence for his time in Guantanamo Bay. ... Upon his release, he made it home to Waziristan and resumed his war against the U.S. With his long hair, his prosthetic limb and impassioned speeches, he quickly became a charismatic inspiration to Waziristan's youth." -- The New York Times
He's not a one-legged terrorist -- he's a freedom fighter living with a disability. I think we could all learn something about courage from this man.
"He lost his leg in a landmine explosion a few days before the fall of Kabul to the Taliban in September 1996. It didn't dampen his enthusiasm as a fighter and he got himself an artificial leg later, says Yusufzai."-- The Indo-Asian News Service
Where? At COSTCO?
"The 29-year-old Massoud, who lost his left leg in a landmine explosion while fighting alongside the Taliban, often used to ride a horse or camel because his disability made it painful for him to walk long distances in hilly areas." -- BBC Monitoring South Asia
Side-saddle, I'm guessing. And you just know those caves along the Afghan-Pakistan border aren't wheelchair accessible.
"He was educated in Peshawar and was treated in Karachi after his left leg was blown up in a landmine explosion in the Wreshmin Tangi gorge near Kabul in September 1996. He now walks with an artificial leg specifically made for him in Karachi." -- Gulf News (United Arab Emirates)
Karachi? Hey, how do I get into this guy's HMO?
They can't lick leprosy in Karachi, but the Gulf News tells us Massoud got his artificial leg at one of their specialty hospitals.
Anyone who thinks the Guantanamo detainees can be released without consequence doesn't have a leg to stand on.
COPYRIGHT 2008 ANN COULTER
DISTRIBUTED BY UNIVERSAL PRESS SYNDICATE
1130 Walnut, Kansas City, MO 64106
Ignorance of Money and the Rejection of Austrian Economics by William L. Anderson
http://www.lewrockwell.com/anderson/anderson235.html
Ignorance of Money and the Rejection of Austrian Economics
by William L. Anderson
by William L. Anderson
DIGG THIS
As the traditional Thanksgiving Day shopping weekend is upon us, we hear the usual canards of hope – hope that consumers will "stimulate" the economy, or we read from people like Karl Rove that President-elect Barack Obama’s "economic team" is "first-rate," and will have the "answers" for the economy. Paul Krugman, who already had advocated trillion-dollar deficits as a way to bring the economy into recovery, says that this new government can "fix the financial system" by even more regulation, thus avoiding the next recession (if we ever recover from this one).
The spate of bad advice and outright ignorance of what actually is happening will continue into the Obama presidency, which has promised "green jobs" as a means of bringing the economy back into balance. (What Obama means is that his administration plans to destroy the relatively-healthy energy industries and replace them with unreliable substitutes like wind power and corn-based ethanol, thus destroying millions of jobs in order to create a few thousand "new" ones.) Moreover, the vaunted "economic team" so lavishly praised by the former Bush political officer Rove so far has offered nothing but more Keynesian "solutions" of massive debt and inflation.
Instead of simply attacking the newest Keynesian nonsense, however, I will note that the eternal default position on economic crises – the Keynesian one – arises because academic economists foolishly have rejected Austrian Economics and the wise counsel it provides. This hardly is an accident or a problem that can be "solved" by being more aggressive in promoting the Austrian position. Instead, the failure of economists to embrace Austrianism comes both from ignorance about the economy in general and the fact that Austrian "solutions" do not provide a central role for economists to be seen as heroes or "fixers" of the economy.
Robert Murphy, in a recent "open letter" to the famed Nobel-winning economist Gary Becker, writes the following:
Mainstream economists often have a hard time grasping the Austrian theory of the business cycle because it relies on a theory of the complex capital structure in a modern economy. Most mainstream economists, in contrast, usually think of the "capital stock" encapsulated by a single value, K. Relying on the framework of the Solow growth model, mainstream economists usually interpret the Austrian theory as one of "overinvestment" during the boom.
As Murphy continues, it is clear that modern neoclassical economists are clueless in general about capital:
In order to even comprehend the Austrian claim, the mainstream economist needs to discard the simplistic homogeneous notion of the capital stock, and seek a richer framework that reflects the time structure of production. In a modern economy, if we picked a random consumer good off the store shelf, it would probably have a "life history" going back many years, and involving thousands of workers handling resources originating in dozens of countries. (Leonard Read's wonderful essay "I, Pencil" is apposite.)
Indeed, if one were to ask a typical economist how an economy grows, he or she might reply: "Aggregate demand has been increased." (The so-called Supply-Siders might say that "aggregate supply has increased," but neither statement really makes any sense. There really is no such thing as "aggregate demand" or "aggregate supply"; they are figments of economists’ imaginations.) For now, it seems that economists, no matter if they are of the "free market" variety or if they are disciples of Keynes and Krugman, all are calling for the government to become involved in schemes to "jump start" the economy. The blind are leading the blind.
Furthermore, as Murphy points out in his "open letter," even accomplished economic thinkers like Becker seem incapable of understanding the basic Austrian notion of "malinvestment," instead mistakenly calling it "overinvestment." (Krugman refers to it as the "Hangover Theory," but presents a caricature not only of the theory itself, but also in his portrayal of Austrian economists as people who revel in the economic misery of others.)
Murphy and others of the Austrian School are correct in pointing out that typical academic economists really don’t understand capital very well, and their few attempts at formulating a theory of capital have been failures. Yet, I believe that the mainstream failure of capital theory is due to the greater failure of economists to understand that simple good: money.
About 30 years ago, I read The Biggest Con by Irwin Schiff, and I have not forgotten his opening statement that money in the United States had "disappeared." I was taken aback when first reading those words, but as I read his book and then read the Austrian economists, I realized that Schiff was right: money has disappeared in this country, and has been gone for a long time. In fact, almost all modern economists have grown up in a time when fiat "money" has been the norm. Few economists (and I include myself) ever have seen real money in circulation. The closest thing that most of us have seen was the silver (or part-silver) coinage that existed in the United States until 1965, but was replaced by government tokens.
Thus, few, if any, of us have experience in dealing with what historically has been termed "money," and that situation only adds to the overall ignorance that economists have of this subject. Furthermore, because of the artificial division of economics into "microeconomics" and "macroeconomics," economists who choose the more-popular "micro" fields have almost no contact at all with monetary theory, save a class or two from graduate school in which a near-pure quantity theory prevails.
Economists can speak of "money supply" or "price levels," but very few understand the very nature of the money economy and what happens when governments predictably abuse their monopolies of "money creation." Even the "free market" economists often stumble over the issue of money, even when they "specialize" in it, as did Milton Friedman.
This state of affairs was made clear to me in an exchange of articles by Joseph Salerno and Richard Timberlake in The Freeman nearly a decade ago. Salerno argued the Austrian position while Timberlake followed the Monetarist view. Timberlake, for example, could not understand Salerno’s contention that the 1920s was an era of Federal Reserve-induced inflation in this country because the consumer price index fell slightly during that decade. Timberlake’s reasoning was that if the government index was falling, then the 1920s had to be a time of deflation, not inflation.
Yet, Salerno and Timberlake were arguing past each other because each man was defining money in very different terms. Salerno was defining money as a good used for exchange that had all the properties of any individual good, and if the amount of money in circulation increases, the marginal utility of money falls, with inflation being the decrease of the value of money relative to the goods it is used to purchase.
Timberlake, on the other hand, defined money in the more typical neoclassical fashion of being a quantity variable monopolized by government and manipulated by the central bank as a means of influencing economic activity. The difference between the two points is crucial not only in understanding the current economic crisis, but also in understanding Austrian Capital Theory and the Austrian Theory of the Business Cycle. If one cannot understand money and capital, then one cannot understand the whole issue of malinvestments and what causes the boom and bust cycle.
The consequences of this ignorance are not esoteric. This is not a parlor discussion among economists on how many spirits of George Stigler can dance on the head of a pin. Instead, it is about understanding how this current crisis came to being, what to do about it, and, just as important, what not to do.
The upshot is that economists are creating crude models of imaginary "aggregate demand and aggregate supply," throwing in government spending and expansion of fiat currency, and calling it a "solution." However, one applies these "solutions" the same way that one pours gasoline on a house fire to extinguish the flames. The Keynesian "solution" is a disaster which is made worse because most academically-trained economists are ignorant of the causes of the problem and, thus, are not intellectually equipped to recommend the needed steps to put the economy back into balance.
Austrian economists and the intellectual tools they bring to the table are needed more than ever, yet the response of the economics profession has been to be even more aggressive in denouncing Austrians as "quacks" and "charlatans" and making sure that they are excluded from any academic and political discussions about this crisis. However, if one wishes to see just how superior the Austrian position has been, the best proof is to watch clips of Peter Schiff (Irwin’s son), who is a well-known investor and fund manager, debate mainstream economists and other "financial experts" by using the Austrian analysis against their viewpoints. Schiff clearly understands the nature of the crisis and how to stop the bleeding and cure the "patient"; the others blindly stumble about, citing the "expertise" of economic theories that lead to nowhere.
For years, economists from the University of Chicago and others influenced by them have claimed that Austrian Economics is rejected by the mainstream because it "fails the market test." Their logic goes like this: (a) Mainstream economists accept good theory and reject bad theory; (b) Austrian Economics is rejected by the mainstream; (c) Therefore, Austrian Economics is bad economics.
This is circular reasoning, not economic logic. The Chicago economists never deal with the actual Austrian arguments or if they attempt to do so, they usually get them wrong. In my view, the reason they get them wrong is because most economists do not have a clue as to understanding money. The consequences for this ignorance are serious. We have a financial and economic crisis that is going to turn into a major depression because the economic mainstream is intellectually incapable of understanding causes and solutions, and when the Austrians speak up, the other economists close their ears, start screaming, and continue to lead everyone else down the same path of destruction.
November 29, 2008
William L. Anderson, Ph.D. [send him mail], teaches economics at Frostburg State University in Maryland, and is an adjunct scholar of the Ludwig von Mises Institute. He also is a consultant with American Economic Services.
Copyright © 2008 LewRockwell.com
William Anderson Archives
Ignorance of Money and the Rejection of Austrian Economics
by William L. Anderson
by William L. Anderson
DIGG THIS
As the traditional Thanksgiving Day shopping weekend is upon us, we hear the usual canards of hope – hope that consumers will "stimulate" the economy, or we read from people like Karl Rove that President-elect Barack Obama’s "economic team" is "first-rate," and will have the "answers" for the economy. Paul Krugman, who already had advocated trillion-dollar deficits as a way to bring the economy into recovery, says that this new government can "fix the financial system" by even more regulation, thus avoiding the next recession (if we ever recover from this one).
The spate of bad advice and outright ignorance of what actually is happening will continue into the Obama presidency, which has promised "green jobs" as a means of bringing the economy back into balance. (What Obama means is that his administration plans to destroy the relatively-healthy energy industries and replace them with unreliable substitutes like wind power and corn-based ethanol, thus destroying millions of jobs in order to create a few thousand "new" ones.) Moreover, the vaunted "economic team" so lavishly praised by the former Bush political officer Rove so far has offered nothing but more Keynesian "solutions" of massive debt and inflation.
Instead of simply attacking the newest Keynesian nonsense, however, I will note that the eternal default position on economic crises – the Keynesian one – arises because academic economists foolishly have rejected Austrian Economics and the wise counsel it provides. This hardly is an accident or a problem that can be "solved" by being more aggressive in promoting the Austrian position. Instead, the failure of economists to embrace Austrianism comes both from ignorance about the economy in general and the fact that Austrian "solutions" do not provide a central role for economists to be seen as heroes or "fixers" of the economy.
Robert Murphy, in a recent "open letter" to the famed Nobel-winning economist Gary Becker, writes the following:
Mainstream economists often have a hard time grasping the Austrian theory of the business cycle because it relies on a theory of the complex capital structure in a modern economy. Most mainstream economists, in contrast, usually think of the "capital stock" encapsulated by a single value, K. Relying on the framework of the Solow growth model, mainstream economists usually interpret the Austrian theory as one of "overinvestment" during the boom.
As Murphy continues, it is clear that modern neoclassical economists are clueless in general about capital:
In order to even comprehend the Austrian claim, the mainstream economist needs to discard the simplistic homogeneous notion of the capital stock, and seek a richer framework that reflects the time structure of production. In a modern economy, if we picked a random consumer good off the store shelf, it would probably have a "life history" going back many years, and involving thousands of workers handling resources originating in dozens of countries. (Leonard Read's wonderful essay "I, Pencil" is apposite.)
Indeed, if one were to ask a typical economist how an economy grows, he or she might reply: "Aggregate demand has been increased." (The so-called Supply-Siders might say that "aggregate supply has increased," but neither statement really makes any sense. There really is no such thing as "aggregate demand" or "aggregate supply"; they are figments of economists’ imaginations.) For now, it seems that economists, no matter if they are of the "free market" variety or if they are disciples of Keynes and Krugman, all are calling for the government to become involved in schemes to "jump start" the economy. The blind are leading the blind.
Furthermore, as Murphy points out in his "open letter," even accomplished economic thinkers like Becker seem incapable of understanding the basic Austrian notion of "malinvestment," instead mistakenly calling it "overinvestment." (Krugman refers to it as the "Hangover Theory," but presents a caricature not only of the theory itself, but also in his portrayal of Austrian economists as people who revel in the economic misery of others.)
Murphy and others of the Austrian School are correct in pointing out that typical academic economists really don’t understand capital very well, and their few attempts at formulating a theory of capital have been failures. Yet, I believe that the mainstream failure of capital theory is due to the greater failure of economists to understand that simple good: money.
About 30 years ago, I read The Biggest Con by Irwin Schiff, and I have not forgotten his opening statement that money in the United States had "disappeared." I was taken aback when first reading those words, but as I read his book and then read the Austrian economists, I realized that Schiff was right: money has disappeared in this country, and has been gone for a long time. In fact, almost all modern economists have grown up in a time when fiat "money" has been the norm. Few economists (and I include myself) ever have seen real money in circulation. The closest thing that most of us have seen was the silver (or part-silver) coinage that existed in the United States until 1965, but was replaced by government tokens.
Thus, few, if any, of us have experience in dealing with what historically has been termed "money," and that situation only adds to the overall ignorance that economists have of this subject. Furthermore, because of the artificial division of economics into "microeconomics" and "macroeconomics," economists who choose the more-popular "micro" fields have almost no contact at all with monetary theory, save a class or two from graduate school in which a near-pure quantity theory prevails.
Economists can speak of "money supply" or "price levels," but very few understand the very nature of the money economy and what happens when governments predictably abuse their monopolies of "money creation." Even the "free market" economists often stumble over the issue of money, even when they "specialize" in it, as did Milton Friedman.
This state of affairs was made clear to me in an exchange of articles by Joseph Salerno and Richard Timberlake in The Freeman nearly a decade ago. Salerno argued the Austrian position while Timberlake followed the Monetarist view. Timberlake, for example, could not understand Salerno’s contention that the 1920s was an era of Federal Reserve-induced inflation in this country because the consumer price index fell slightly during that decade. Timberlake’s reasoning was that if the government index was falling, then the 1920s had to be a time of deflation, not inflation.
Yet, Salerno and Timberlake were arguing past each other because each man was defining money in very different terms. Salerno was defining money as a good used for exchange that had all the properties of any individual good, and if the amount of money in circulation increases, the marginal utility of money falls, with inflation being the decrease of the value of money relative to the goods it is used to purchase.
Timberlake, on the other hand, defined money in the more typical neoclassical fashion of being a quantity variable monopolized by government and manipulated by the central bank as a means of influencing economic activity. The difference between the two points is crucial not only in understanding the current economic crisis, but also in understanding Austrian Capital Theory and the Austrian Theory of the Business Cycle. If one cannot understand money and capital, then one cannot understand the whole issue of malinvestments and what causes the boom and bust cycle.
The consequences of this ignorance are not esoteric. This is not a parlor discussion among economists on how many spirits of George Stigler can dance on the head of a pin. Instead, it is about understanding how this current crisis came to being, what to do about it, and, just as important, what not to do.
The upshot is that economists are creating crude models of imaginary "aggregate demand and aggregate supply," throwing in government spending and expansion of fiat currency, and calling it a "solution." However, one applies these "solutions" the same way that one pours gasoline on a house fire to extinguish the flames. The Keynesian "solution" is a disaster which is made worse because most academically-trained economists are ignorant of the causes of the problem and, thus, are not intellectually equipped to recommend the needed steps to put the economy back into balance.
Austrian economists and the intellectual tools they bring to the table are needed more than ever, yet the response of the economics profession has been to be even more aggressive in denouncing Austrians as "quacks" and "charlatans" and making sure that they are excluded from any academic and political discussions about this crisis. However, if one wishes to see just how superior the Austrian position has been, the best proof is to watch clips of Peter Schiff (Irwin’s son), who is a well-known investor and fund manager, debate mainstream economists and other "financial experts" by using the Austrian analysis against their viewpoints. Schiff clearly understands the nature of the crisis and how to stop the bleeding and cure the "patient"; the others blindly stumble about, citing the "expertise" of economic theories that lead to nowhere.
For years, economists from the University of Chicago and others influenced by them have claimed that Austrian Economics is rejected by the mainstream because it "fails the market test." Their logic goes like this: (a) Mainstream economists accept good theory and reject bad theory; (b) Austrian Economics is rejected by the mainstream; (c) Therefore, Austrian Economics is bad economics.
This is circular reasoning, not economic logic. The Chicago economists never deal with the actual Austrian arguments or if they attempt to do so, they usually get them wrong. In my view, the reason they get them wrong is because most economists do not have a clue as to understanding money. The consequences for this ignorance are serious. We have a financial and economic crisis that is going to turn into a major depression because the economic mainstream is intellectually incapable of understanding causes and solutions, and when the Austrians speak up, the other economists close their ears, start screaming, and continue to lead everyone else down the same path of destruction.
November 29, 2008
William L. Anderson, Ph.D. [send him mail], teaches economics at Frostburg State University in Maryland, and is an adjunct scholar of the Ludwig von Mises Institute. He also is a consultant with American Economic Services.
Copyright © 2008 LewRockwell.com
William Anderson Archives
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