Late 1890's redux

I don't know who said it, but it's a great quote: "The only thing we learn from history is that we don't learn from history." Well, we're not learning, and the ones really not learning are the fascists in Washington.

In the late 1890's, after the Panic of 1893 was over, big business and a new group of "progressives" kicked off what's called the Progressive Era. These groups called for more government regulation because, they claimed, that free- market or laissez-faire capitalism failed. They spun the whole story, making it sound good to an uniformed public that the government was good and that they were here to help.

Now the powers that be (the government and the mainstream media) are spinning the whole story again, and once again are blaming capitalism. As you can read in this article (thanks to prudentbear.com), politicians and pundits alike say that de-regulation is the root cause of our economic woes. Actually, it's the Federal Reserve's reckless behavior of printing almost worthless dollars that is the root cause.

Don't buy into the spin! Instead, read Murray Rothbard's great, short book, The Case Against the Fed. Find out the truth, and don't let the government dupe us once more. Entrepreneurs create wealth; the government, through taxation and regulation, destroys wealth. So let's say no to more government intervention in the economy.

Just click on the title of Murray's book and you can purchase it for only $7.00. And be careful of Wikipedia's entries on the Progressive Era and the Panic of 1893. They may have been written by statists who also blame the free market.

Turn off your TV!

Turn off your television and no longer watch the loons in Washington, D.C. or the crazy financial pundits talk about how they are going to fix all of our financial problems. As you can see by this article, a major U.S. bank has gone under. This is serious stuff. Lehman Brothers, a Wall Street investment bank, is also looking quite shaky. Remember, Bear Stearns became insolvent and went away a few months ago. May it rest in peace.

Mark my words: the government will step in and make things worse. They'll spin it and make it sound good, and they'll even blame the free market and laissez-faire capitalism. They'll say we're here to save the day, and only the Fed, acting in concert with Congress and the Treasury, can fix our problems.

Nothing is further from the truth! There will be more regulation and oversight, and things will get worse. The rest of this year and the next will be brutal. The market will get hit, more banks will fail, unemployment will rise, and the foreclosures will continue.

Start saving your weak dollars, which are only worth four cents. Don't buy that new car or big screen TV. You might need the money to get out of Dodge.

W to attack yet another country?

It seems that the decider-in-chief, George W. Bush, is preparing the way for an attack on yet another country that does not have the capability or desire to attack the United States. Interesting article that states that Congress approved money for covert operations in Iran. All according to the Constitution, right?

Government fails child

Here's yet another example of why the government should not be in the protection of children business. This article from yahoo.com describes the horrible life this little boy led, and how different, inefficient arms of the government failed to protect him.

The private sector works more efficiently because it has an incentive: the profit motive. Let's get the low-paid inefficient bureaucrats who don't care out of the way so we can protect our children.

What'll it be, soldier, Zoloft or Prozac?

War is not good for anyone, especially the young men and women who are actively engaged in fighting it. Not only are U.S. armed forces personnel committing suicide at an alarming rate, they are, as reported on cnn.com here, also taking antidepressants at an increasing rate.

Over 4,000 U.S. troops dead, $12 billion a month bill for Iraq and Afghanistan, hundreds of thousands of Iraqi men, women, and children dead, increased animosity toward the American empire, over 30 thousand permanently injured U.S. troops - need I go on?

The purpose of this unconstitutional war was what?

They're not careful because it's not their money

Entrepreneurs have balance sheets, profit and loss statements, etc. to keep an eye on their money. But government agencies have budgets. They spend more than they have, and they don't keep an eye on the money. Why? It's not their money, so they don't care how it's spent.

As you can read in this article, here's yet another example of how the government spends billions of our dollars but really can't account for it. Hmm, I wonder how long McDonalds would have stayed in business if they treated their accounting this way?

Make sure you get that little piece of government paper

If you don't pay homage to the state, the state's henchmen take you to jail. Here, in this cnn.com article, we see that a woman in East Hampton, New York committed the terrible crime of not getting government permission (a license) to serve drinks to her guests. What a thug! How dare she and other adults do what they want to do without the government's permission first!

She was infringing upon the life, liberty, and/or property of . . . ? That's right, no one.