"President Obama said the Republican reluctance to raise the debt limit was the equivalent of a diner who had ordered and enjoyed a meal who then decides to leave the restaurant without paying the bill. The President is actually arguing that if the diner had no cash on hand, it would be much more responsible to simply use a credit card. In taking this moral high ground, the President ignores the fact that the diner (who has indebted himself through habitual restaurant meals) intends to pay his credit card bill with another card, and then repeat the process until he runs out of cards. So in the end, it’s not the restaurateur who gets stiffed, but the issuer of the last card the diner is able to acquire. As with the platinum coin, this is a distinction without a difference."
Peter Schiff (via antigovernmentextremist)
"Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong remedies."
Groucho Marx (via libertariancontrarian)
How Many Companies Have Announced Closings or Layoffs Since Obama Re-Election?
Do elections have consequences? If you have been paying attention to the financial markets, you might think so. Wall Street has had two horrible days since President Obama won a second term.
However, stock prices are not the only thing taking a hit. It appears that the job market is also suffering. In the last 48 hours, the following major corporations have announced layoffs in America (each is linked to the news release with details):
(Source: the-capitalist)
Myth of the oppressed Chinese worker
(Source: lordchuckle)
Capitalism?
Is it really as simple as blaming these problems on capitalism? If one defines capitalism as an economic arrangement of private property rights and the freedom to justly acquire, use, and dispose of property, then how is the following in any way capitalism?
Crisis — Created by central banks, either privately run but sanctioned by the state or directly run by the state, causing a cycle of booms and busts that sends economies into recession and/or depression.
War — Created by the state, enabled in part by corporate collusion with the state as well as central bank inflationary policies that create money out of thin air.
Poverty — Exacerbated by the state through government welfare programs, perpetuating the plight of the poor by making them dependant on the state for their survival, as well as through increased barriers of entry to the market such as taxes, regulations, and minimum wage, preventing the poor from helping themselves.
Corruption — Enabled by the state, fed by collusion between politicians and special interest groups.
Exploitation — Enabled by the state.
Inequality — See exploitation.
Pollution — See inequality.
Depletion — Enabled by the state mainly through inadequate property rights. Resource extraction becomes destructive thanks to governments leasing land for mining or logging rights rather than selling the land outright. With no incentive to maintain the value of the land, corporations deplete all the natural resources they can and move on.
Waste — Derived from the statist Keynesian idea that in order to stimulate the economy one must spend rather than save, the cultural phenomenon that pervades the world today is one of excess and extravagance, rather than conserving resources and maximising lone-term benefit.
Climate — Not much to say here except that more evidence is required before one can say with a high degree of certainty that human action is affecting the climate. It is important to question the political and economic motives of those pushing for anthropogenic climate change theory when it entails increased power for the state and its corporate cronies.
When politics is so interwoven into economics, we are no longer talking about simple capitalism. It would be more accurate to describe what we have today as state capitalism, crony capitalism, corporatism, or fascism. Similarly, when one examines capitalism absent the state, it would be more accurate to call it stateless capitalism, laissez-faire capitalism, or anarcho-capitalism.
(Source: amodernmanifesto, via thinksquad)
"Who will build the roads? Who will start the wars? Who will run the Gulags, detention camps, and prisons packed with pot smokers and growers? Who will tax 40% of income? Who will spy on email, monitor our cell phone conversations, arrest people for political dissent, shut down free speech, destroy the money, create the bubbles, bail out the big banks, protect the labour cartels, make education unaffordable, stop pharmaceutical development, ban pesticides to unleash bed bugs, ban real light bulbs, make medicine inaccessible, wreck indoor appliances, drive up costs for all business, and mandate and/or forbid peaceful associations?"
Jeffrey Tucker (via anarchei)
(Source: eltigrechico, via anarchei)
What is labor without capital? The Foundation for Economic Education tells us why we should celebrate both!
SHARE this graphic with your friends!Good question.
Technically we do have a capitalism day. What do you think Thanksgiving is really about, after all? The harvest was only successful because each were given their own land and encouraged to compete against one another. That is capitalism. At the end they were so grateful to have so much food they declared a feast and marked it a day of celebration. Unfortunately, everybody just uses it to whine on and on about racism and stealing things from people who don’t own them. ActualCapitalismDay would be much cooler though, agreed.
Why Elizabeth Warren Wants America to Be More Like Communist China
I didn’t realize just how nefarious she really was.
Warren’s approach is so flawed that it’s amazing that her campaign would spend the money on putting it into a prime-time Olympics commercial that was presumably designed not to alienate people but rather to get them to vote for her. You really have to see it to believe it.
The first problem is mathematical. U.S. gross domestic product is about $15 trillion a year. Increasing infrastructure “investment” to the 9% Chinese level that Warren cites would mean an additional $1 trillion a year in government spending. That’s an immense spending increase. To put it in context, the entire federal government spent about $3.6 trillion in 2011, on revenues of about $2.3 trillion.
Where would this money come from? Not tax increases, right? Warren has already reportedly promised nearly a trillion dollar tax increase, spread over ten years, by raising the estate tax, imposing the Buffett Rule, and letting the Bush tax cuts expire for those earning $250,000 a year or more. But that money, she has said, would go toward deficit reduction. If Warren really wants to spend $1 trillion a year more on infrastructure, she’d need to eliminate all national defense spending ($705 billion) or all Social Security spending ($730 billion) and then find another more than quarter trillion dollars. Or else she’d have to go on the biggest borrowing or taxing binge in American history.
The feeble mind of Elizabeth Warren rationalizes paying a trillion more on roads and bridges by taxing people more when they die. And libertarians are the less compassionate?
Liberal Economics in 10 Steps
I think that X is a good thing.
Because I think X is a good thing, it is therefore a right.
Because X is a right, the government needs to make sure that everyone that wants X can get X.
I know that without government providing X, the free market would fail to provide X as I see fit.
I know the market would fail to provide X as I see fit because free markets are based on greed and profit motive.
Greed and profit are evils that produce inequality; something only government can remedy.
The benefit of getting X will be Y, and even though recently people to get X in the exact method I am advocating are unable to get Y, there is obviously no connection between my method of providing X and the current failure to obtain Y.
Because there is no connection between the government providing X and the current inability to obtain Y, I therefore know that the private sector is to blame for the lack of Y.
If you disagree with me then you must want to deprive people of X. No one can disagree with me for any other reason.
Because you want to deprive people of their right to X in the manner I am advocating, I will not listen to your reasons for your disagreement because I know (a priori) that they are wrong.
If you run into difficulty remembering the ten steps, keep the bonus step in mind:
- Because X is a good thing and I am demanding that the government provide X to everyone I can claim moral superiority.
(Source: reddit.com)
More Hypocrisy: Obama’s top fundraising bundler is a Bain Capital outsourcer
Oh, this is just getting ridiculous. First we find out that Obama has $450,00 invested in companies that outsource jobs overseas. Now, even as the Obama campaign continues to accuse Mitt Romney of outsourcing jobs while at Bain, we find out that it wasn’t Romney at the helm during the period in question- it was Obama’s top Bundler Jonathan Levine.
from ABC News:
The Obama campaign’s latest attack tells the story of workers at an Indiana office supply company who lost their jobs after a Bain-owned company named American Pad & Paper (Ampad) took over their company and drove it out of business.
Here’s what the Obama Web video doesn’t mention: A top Obama donor and fundraiser had a much more direct tie to the controversy and actually served on the board of directors at Richardson, Texas-based Ampad, which makes office paper products.
Jonathan Lavine is a long-time Bain Capital executive and co-owner of the Boston Celtics. He is also one of President Obama’s most prolific fundraisers. He has alreadyraised more than $200,000 for the Obama campaignthis election, according to Federal Election Commission records.
Lavine started working for Bain in 1993. He was one of three Bain executives who served on the board of directors of Ampad for several years, a post he held until 1999. Here’s anews release announcing his departurefrom the company in April 1999.
Lavine’s placement on the board of Ampad suggests he had a more direct role than Romney in the series of events surrounding the layoffs, labor disputes and eventual bankruptcy of the Marion, Ind., factory featured in the Obama campaign video.
Obama’s narrative continues to crumble, and Democrat hypocrisy plays no small part.
We first read about this story on Gateway Pundit where Jim Hoft is doing some of the best Conservative politics blogging out there.
NO SUCH THING AS CRONY CAPITALISM. MOVE ALONG. DOESN’T EXIST.
Broken Record: Obama uses same excuse for poor jobs report over 30 times
The Romney camp has done a little digging in the White House archives and found a pretty redundant excuse for poor jobs reports.
June 2012: “Therefore, it is important not to read too much into any one monthly report and it is informative to consider each report in the context of other data that are becoming available.” (LINK:http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2012/07/06/employment-situation-june)
May 2012: “Therefore, it is important not to read too much into any one monthly report and it is helpful to consider each report in the context of other data that are becoming available.” (LINK:http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2012/06/01/employment-situation-may)
April 2012: “Therefore, it is important not to read too much into any one monthly report and it is helpful to consider each report in the context of other data that are becoming available.” (LINK:http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2012/05/04/employment-situation-april)
March 2012: “Therefore, it is important not to read too much into any one monthly report, and it is helpful to consider each report in the context of other data that are becoming available.” (LINK:http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2012/04/06/employment-situation-march)
February 2012: “Therefore, as the Administration always stresses, it is important not to read too much into any one monthly report; nevertheless, the trend in job market indicators over recent months is an encouraging sign.” (LINK:http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2012/03/09/employment-situation-february)
January 2012: “Therefore, as the Administration always stresses, it is important not to read too much into any one monthly report; nevertheless, the trend in job market indicators over recent months is an encouraging sign.” (LINK:http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2012/02/03/employment-situation-january)
December 2011: “Therefore, as the Administration always stresses, it is important not to read too much into any one monthly report.” (LINK:http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2012/01/06/employment-situation-december)
November 2011: “Therefore, as the Administration always stresses, it is important not to read too much into any one monthly report.” (LINK:http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/12/02/employment-situation-november)
October 2011: “The monthly employment and unemployment numbers are volatile and employment estimates are subject to substantial revision. There is no better example than August’s jobs figure, which was initially reported at zero and in the latest revision increased to 104,000. This illustrates why the Administration always stresses it is important not to read too much into any one monthly report.” (LINK:http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/11/04/employment-situation-october)
September 2011: “Therefore, as the Administration always stresses, it is important not to read too much into any one monthly report.” (LINK:http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/10/07/employment-situation-september)
August 2011: “Therefore, as the Administration always stresses, it is important not to read too much into any one monthly report.” (LINK:http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/09/02/employment-situation-august)
July 2011: “Therefore, as the Administration always stresses, it is important not to read too much into any one monthly report.” (LINK:http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/08/05/employment-situation-july)
June 2011: “Therefore, as the Administration always stresses, it is important not to read too much into any one monthly report.” (LINK:http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/07/08/employment-situation-june)
May 2011: “Therefore, as the Administration always stresses, it is important not to read too much into any one monthly report.” (LINK:http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/06/03/employment-situation-may)
April 2011: “Therefore, as the Administration always stresses, it is important not to read too much into any one monthly report.” (LINK:http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/05/06/employment-situation-april)
March 2011: “Therefore, as the Administration always stresses, it is important not to read too much into any one monthly report.” (LINK:http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/04/01/employment-situation-march)
February 2011: “Therefore, as the Administration always stresses, it is important not to read too much into any one monthly report.” (LINK:http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/03/04/employment-situation-february)
January 2011: “Therefore, as the Administration always stresses, it is important not to read too much into any one monthly report.” (LINK:http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/02/04/employment-situation-january)
December 2010: “Therefore, as the Administration always stresses, it is important not to read too much into any one monthly report.” (LINK:http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/01/07/employment-situation-december)
November 2010: “Therefore, as the Administration always stresses, it is important not to read too much into any one monthly report.” (LINK:http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/12/03/employment-situation-november)
October 2010: “Given the volatility in monthly employment and unemployment data, it is important not to read too much into any one monthly report.” (LINK:http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/11/05/employment-situation-october)
September 2010: “Given the volatility in the monthly employment and unemployment data, it is important not to read too much into any one monthly report.” (LINK:http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/10/08/employment-situation-september)
July 2010: “Therefore, it is important not to read too much into any one monthly report, positive or negative. It is essential that we continue our efforts to move in the right direction and replace job losses with robust job gains.” (LINK:http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/08/06/employment-situation-july)
August 2010: “Therefore, it is important not to read too much into any one monthly report, positive or negative.” (LINK:http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/09/03/employment-situation-august)
June 2010: “As always, it is important not to read too much into any one monthly report, positive or negative.” (LINK:http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/07/02/employment-situation-june)
May 2010: “As always, it is important not to read too much into any one monthly report, positive or negative.” (LINK:http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/06/04/employment-situation-may)
April 2010: “Therefore, it is important not to read too much into any one monthly report, positive or negative.” (LINK:http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/05/07/employment-situation-april)
March 2010: “Therefore, it is important not to read too much into any one monthly report, positive or negative.” (LINK:http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/04/02/employment-situation-march)
January 2010: “Therefore, it is important not to read too much into any one monthly report, positive or negative.” (LINK:http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/02/05/employment-situation-january)
November 2009: “Therefore, it is important not to read too much into any one monthly report, positive or negative.” (LINK: http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2009/12/04/employment-situation-november)
Ok, so one bad jobs report doesn’t provide any context. How about 30? Can we start reading into it yet?
This is the copy/paste administration.
I hardly even believed this was real. Oh my god. Obama. No. No, no. You’re doing it wrong.
"When the government makes loans or subsidies to business, what it does is to tax successful private business in order to support unsuccessful private business."
Henry Hazlitt (via europeanlibertarian)
(Source: alzati-prometeo, via 21st-century-classical-liberal)
Yaron Brook answers: What is wrong with free healthcare?
(Source: anobjectivistblog)
Videos on Obamacare
Heading into the new week we are preparing for the Supreme Court’s ruling on Obamacare. Over the years I’ve posted A LOT on the legislation. Here are my favorite videos that put the issue into context in a cohesive and articulate manner.
- Is the Affordable Care Act Constitutional?
- Can The Federal Government Mandate the Purchase of Health Insurance?
- Wheat, Weed and Obamacare: How the Commerce Clause Made Congress All-Powerful
- Commerce Clause Gone Wild
- What Do We Mean by “Uninsured?”
- 3 Reasons to End Obamacare Before it Begins
- Obamacare at the Supreme Court: Day 1
- Obamacare at the Supreme Court: Day 2
- Obamacare at the Supreme Court: Day 3
- Why Obamacare is the most important case in 50 years
- Institute for Justice on the Individual Mandate
- Why Obamacare is Wrong for America
Watching these should give you a good idea of the libertarian argument against Obamacare. Fingers crossed that it struck down in its entirety this week.
