One of my many New Year's resolutions is to learn how to tie and wear a Mises.org bow tie. I thought I might try this out tonight, on New Year's Eve, to go for the full "Uncle Murray". Alas, there are hundreds of YouTube videos to figure this out, and most of them are woeful. Here's my current favourite, if you're similarly stuck trying to figure it out, from the Green Mountain state:
Happy New Year!
Thursday, December 31, 2009
LewRockwell Roundup: New Year's Eve 2009
1. Shorting the Economic 'Recovery'
A Q&A with Kevin Duffy and Bill Laggner on the economy's next leg down.
Read through to the end of the article for this great quote:
Will Grigg is suspicious.
Is all what it seems with the recent airline bomb 'scare'? Will Grigg examines the last 20 years of the 'War on Terror'.
Worth reading for another great quote:
Some forms of alcohol make you feel worse.
Seasonal help. (I'm actually thinking myself about avoiding alcohol entirely, tonight - though I'm not taking any bets on actually being able to manage this amazing feat.)
A Q&A with Kevin Duffy and Bill Laggner on the economy's next leg down.
Read through to the end of the article for this great quote:
For bear markets to end, they have to teach lessons.2. The Old False-Flag Trick?
Kevin Duffy, Bearing Asset Management
Will Grigg is suspicious.
Is all what it seems with the recent airline bomb 'scare'? Will Grigg examines the last 20 years of the 'War on Terror'.
Worth reading for another great quote:
Government is the only human enterprise that profits from failure. Once that principle is understood, many otherwise inexplicable choices made by ruling elites and their servants can be made intelligible.3. Hangover Alert!
William Norman Grigg
Some forms of alcohol make you feel worse.
Seasonal help. (I'm actually thinking myself about avoiding alcohol entirely, tonight - though I'm not taking any bets on actually being able to manage this amazing feat.)
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Why you've got to see Avatar
Walking into the cinema, 3D glasses in hand, I was prepared for the endurance test of three hours in a cinema full of teatime children. Clutching my large Pinot Grigio to my chest, and accompanied by a large bag of Maltesers as reinforcements, I settled into the aisle seat on Row B, which was handy for late escapes.Rather bizarrely, as the film came on, the house lights stayed up. Nobody moved. Not even a certain famous person who we'll come to later. Do the houselights have to stay on for 3D films, I thought? Surely not. So even before the first scene was over I was up on my feet and back to the bar to enquire about the lights being on. This was a very surreal experience; as I walked back towards the exit, about a hundred fully lit people in Gary North glasses looked up at me and muttered about why I was walking out in the first ten seconds of the movie.
One of these must have been this very famous man. So at least I now know that I am more capable than him of overcoming social inertia; which came as a mild surprise when I saw him walking out of the cinema at the end of the film.
Anyway, the cinema staff were very apologetic and turned the house lights off just as I returned to my seat. I expected a round of applause, but I just got more muttering from the ungrateful hordes. C'est la vie.
So, back to the film.
Basically, you've just got to go and see it in your very own Gary North 3D glasses. I should imagine that in 10 years time, all films will be in 3D, and James Cameron will be a multi-billionaire after having propelled this technology into the mainstream.
And what a film it is. I won't spoil it by revealing any of the plot. But essentially libertarians are going to love it, with The Sky People as Mordor-on-the-Potomac Jarheads, and the native people as a combination of all the peoples the US military machine has slaughtered over the last 200 years, fighting back against their invading Washington DC oppressors.
Fantastic.
Alas, there's a whiff of 'Gaian' environmentalism, but I'll forgive Mr Cameron for that, just for using this leitmotif as good commercialism to suck some more audience in.
Yes, three hours is a bit long, and some of the Jocks do only seem capable of speaking in militaristic cliché, however don't let this put you off. Just get a big tub of popcorn in and make sure you're on the aisle to get out for pit stops and refills.
You've just got to see this film. It's almost as good as The Return of the King, and even better if you haven't managed yet to blank out the bit where Aragorn sings.
Oh, and who was the famous man? Why, Jeremy Paxman of course, the presenter of Newsnight and Nemesis of every major British politician since after the fall of Her Blessedness.
Pip pip!!
Graeme Swann rampant in England's rout of South Africa in second Test
Crikey! What's going on? England beating South Africa in South Africa?
Marvellous.
Peter Schiff: GDP, spending, Time, Constitution
Mr Schiff's emailing system seemed to get in the holiday mood recently and sent me three identical emails about a previous video blog. I discovered today that two of those emails should have pointed me towards the two other videos below.
In the first, The Duke discusses recent GDP figures and how they merely reflect phoney growth created by a massive debt-fuelled 'stimulus' (i.e. money taken from taxpayers or borrowed from investors, that otherwise would have been used to create real productive growth, but instead was used to reward government favourites and failures). He describes how the next decade will be the Decade from Hell, rather than the previous one, because we will be paying the price for all the Fed's mistakes in the first ten years of this century. He asks why we are still believing those who predicted the last ten years would be fantastic for stocks, when over 10 years the S&P has dropped by 20%. Later, he discusses the disconnect between the US Constitution and Obama's health bills, and how the government now has the power to force people to buy whatever it wants (such as government-licensed health insurance). He wonders what they will force people to buy next. This disconnect goes further, because Nebraska now has special 'rights' with regards to Obama's health bills, which goes directly against Section 8 of the US Constitution (you know, the thing Obama swore on twice, to uphold). Another tour de force.
In the second, Mr Schiff discusses the passing of Obama's health bills and the raising of the US government debt ceiling to $14 Trillion dollars (some ceiling!). Moving to the markets, The Duke discusses the 200 people who have been invited to a US government investigation into the causes of the 'financial crisis' and why he appears to have been excluded despite his obvious credentials as being one of the few who predicted it and why it would happen, in the face of enormous Wall Street media hostility. He then re-iterates his opposition to the further destruction of the US Constitution by Obama's health bills. (There can't be much left of it by now! :-)
In the first, The Duke discusses recent GDP figures and how they merely reflect phoney growth created by a massive debt-fuelled 'stimulus' (i.e. money taken from taxpayers or borrowed from investors, that otherwise would have been used to create real productive growth, but instead was used to reward government favourites and failures). He describes how the next decade will be the Decade from Hell, rather than the previous one, because we will be paying the price for all the Fed's mistakes in the first ten years of this century. He asks why we are still believing those who predicted the last ten years would be fantastic for stocks, when over 10 years the S&P has dropped by 20%. Later, he discusses the disconnect between the US Constitution and Obama's health bills, and how the government now has the power to force people to buy whatever it wants (such as government-licensed health insurance). He wonders what they will force people to buy next. This disconnect goes further, because Nebraska now has special 'rights' with regards to Obama's health bills, which goes directly against Section 8 of the US Constitution (you know, the thing Obama swore on twice, to uphold). Another tour de force.
In the second, Mr Schiff discusses the passing of Obama's health bills and the raising of the US government debt ceiling to $14 Trillion dollars (some ceiling!). Moving to the markets, The Duke discusses the 200 people who have been invited to a US government investigation into the causes of the 'financial crisis' and why he appears to have been excluded despite his obvious credentials as being one of the few who predicted it and why it would happen, in the face of enormous Wall Street media hostility. He then re-iterates his opposition to the further destruction of the US Constitution by Obama's health bills. (There can't be much left of it by now! :-)
Peter Schiff: Liberty, Fannie & Freddie, Fed, housing
Following his earlier talk, The Duke spends some more time speaking about the PATRIOT Act and why it's not a 'Price Worth Paying', and why if you throw the US Constitution away to 'catch terrorists' then you have just lost to the terrorists.
Mr Schiff also discusses the pay packages, of between $4 million and $6 million dollars apiece, for the Fannie and Freddie 'executives' who are currently running bankrupt government agencies held up on the back of the American taxpayer.
He follows this by describing the Roach Motel the Fed have created in the financial system, where no-one can ever leave because there is no exit from this phoney recovery without putting up interest rates and thus causing the necessary recession. To cap off this analysis, he explains why US housing prices must fall further, except in the case of massive price inflation in everything else:
Here's those two quotes from The Duke, in the video above:
Mr Schiff also discusses the pay packages, of between $4 million and $6 million dollars apiece, for the Fannie and Freddie 'executives' who are currently running bankrupt government agencies held up on the back of the American taxpayer.
He follows this by describing the Roach Motel the Fed have created in the financial system, where no-one can ever leave because there is no exit from this phoney recovery without putting up interest rates and thus causing the necessary recession. To cap off this analysis, he explains why US housing prices must fall further, except in the case of massive price inflation in everything else:
Here's those two quotes from The Duke, in the video above:
They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.
Benjamin Franklin, 1775
If a nation values anything more than freedom, it will lose its freedom, and the irony of it is that if it is comfort or money that it values more, it will lose that too.
W. Somerset Maugham, 1941
LewRockwell Roundup: December 30th
1. German Physicist Refutes Al Gore Weather
Is this the final nail in the coffin of AGW?
Never mess with educated German scientists or engineers when they start getting technical.
2. America's Looming Class War
The regime vs. the rest of us. Article by Mark Crovelli.
It could all get very ugly in the US when the worm finally turns. Mark Crovelli helps explain why.
3. The Case Against New Year's Eve
Midnight revelry is sheer malarkey, says Simon Winchester.
I've never really liked New Year's Eve very much, what with all that standing around in kitchens waiting for a clock to tell you to stop drinking and to go home. Simon Winchester helps explain why this atheistic festival, which only really came about with the invention of accurate clocks in the fifteenth century, is so awful. Bah, Humbug, etc. (Though yes, hypocrite that I am, I'll still be in the kitchen at Midnight on New Year's Day, secretly thanking God that I can now go home again after another pointless four hours standing about trying to avoid drinking too much.)
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
The Evils of Intellectual Property
Sir Jeffrey Tucker expounds brilliantly on the evils of 'Intellectual Property'. Listen out for his thoughts, particularly, on Eli Whitney, Alexander Graham Bell and the (Patent) Wright Brothers, plus his thoughts on how the fashion industry has 'survived' despite being unprotected by 'Intellectual Property' rights:=> http://mises.org/MultiMedia/mp3/AUL_Tucker_11-18-2009.mp3
Quote of the day
Mr Schiff's video blog below reminded me of an alleged 2005 quote by George Bush:
Let's hope they don't do something really stupid first, before this happens, such as anything involving nuclear weaponry and the Middle East.
At least the Romans and the British had the decency to just go home, when their time came for the End of Empire; I fear their modern counterparts in Mordor-on-the-Potomac may prove a lot noisier as their own imperial project collapses under their feet.
“Stop throwing the Constitution in my face. It’s just a goddamned piece of paper!”I wonder how many people are actually beginning to miss Dubya now that we have the hopeless Obama floundering around too in the blood of Afghani women and children? I suspect this number may rise quite quickly over the next couple of years:
George W. Bush
“Sooner or later, every President makes you nostalgic for his predecessor.”In fact, Obama could break the record quite quickly for being the most hated US President of all time, as the US economy begins tipping up at the prow ready for a long slide down to the bottom of a worthless dollar and the evacuation of all its troops back to continental North America due to lack of funds.
Calvin Trillin
Let's hope they don't do something really stupid first, before this happens, such as anything involving nuclear weaponry and the Middle East.
At least the Romans and the British had the decency to just go home, when their time came for the End of Empire; I fear their modern counterparts in Mordor-on-the-Potomac may prove a lot noisier as their own imperial project collapses under their feet.
Peter Schiff: Health Care, The "Patriot" Act & the U.S. Constitution
The Duke explains how Obama's health bill explicitly contravenes the US Constitution, how governments mask their true legislation intentions with crude naming games, why one of the PATRIOT act's main hidden purposes was to prevent tax evasion, why he is forced to spy on his own customers under government fiat, and wonders what other terrible pieces of legislation the US government will pass as the financial crisis (which they caused) deepens:
The AustroCasino App
And don't go thinking that between the mince pies, the turkey, the New Zealand Pinot Noir, and all the rest, that there hasn't been some productive effort going on here at Maturin Towers in the last few days.
For fear ye not, bold free peoples of the world, for the AustroCasino App has been born. Check this:
Yes, six of our favourite Austrians have been immortalised forever within this classy iPhone application. Get three in a row, and their name appears in the screen. Just what you've always wanted, and only $1.99 from an iPhone App Store near you! (Well, that's the marketing plan, anyway).
Right, the Christmas Cake and the Stilton is calling, washed down with a fine Alsatian Gewurztraminer.
Pip pip!!
For fear ye not, bold free peoples of the world, for the AustroCasino App has been born. Check this:
Yes, six of our favourite Austrians have been immortalised forever within this classy iPhone application. Get three in a row, and their name appears in the screen. Just what you've always wanted, and only $1.99 from an iPhone App Store near you! (Well, that's the marketing plan, anyway).Right, the Christmas Cake and the Stilton is calling, washed down with a fine Alsatian Gewurztraminer.
Pip pip!!
Late news just in
The news below is so old it's ridiculous, but I thought it essential to broadcast this important development:=> Supermodel Gisele Bundchen Joins Hedge Funds Dumping Dollars
These are the kinds of news stories I think we all need to know as this is the kind of service we, on AngloAustria, like to provide.
I hope everyone has had a wonderful Christmas!
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Hobbyist hacker goes mad on MacBook
After the colossal excitement of my first ever Mac App, yesterday, this morning marked the advent of my first ever iPhone App:
Wow! Exciting, huh? Tomorrow, I'll be getting a life.
Wow! Exciting, huh? Tomorrow, I'll be getting a life.
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
UK recession longest and deepest since war, says ONS
The UK is still officially the only G20 country remaining in recession.
The funny thing about this, of course, is that every G20 country is still in recession, but they have printed and borrowed enough money to pump up their price figures enough to appear to be out of recession.
Whereas Gordon Brown is such a Klutz that despite furious Bank of England monetary pumping for months and months, with no end in sight, he still can't get the price figures to go up sufficiently to generate a faux escape from recession.
Brown really will go down in history as being the worst British prime minister of all time. And with a rogues gallery of other incompetent idiots to pick from (e.g. Attlee, Baldwin, Blair, Callaghan, Eden, Heath, Lloyd George, MacDonald, Major, etc), that really is saying something.
The funny thing about this, of course, is that every G20 country is still in recession, but they have printed and borrowed enough money to pump up their price figures enough to appear to be out of recession.
Whereas Gordon Brown is such a Klutz that despite furious Bank of England monetary pumping for months and months, with no end in sight, he still can't get the price figures to go up sufficiently to generate a faux escape from recession.
Brown really will go down in history as being the worst British prime minister of all time. And with a rogues gallery of other incompetent idiots to pick from (e.g. Attlee, Baldwin, Blair, Callaghan, Eden, Heath, Lloyd George, MacDonald, Major, etc), that really is saying something.
My first ever Objective-C Mac App
After figuring out how to run Xcode this morning, I have completed my first ever Objective-C Cocoa App. Now most people say "Hello, World!" or other such hackneyed stuff.
I thought I might try something with a dash more pizazz. The left-hand button uppercases the input text. The right-hand button lowercases the input text. Here's my first test of this staggeringly good new program:
I thought I might try something with a dash more pizazz. The left-hand button uppercases the input text. The right-hand button lowercases the input text. Here's my first test of this staggeringly good new program:
Peter Schiff: Interest rates, death tax, health care
The Duke starts off by explaining why 10-year US Treasuries are beginning to yield more and more, as inflation rises.
He then expands on his earlier thoughts on why death taxes are so bad, and why supporting them is nothing more than envy.
He concludes with a description of how the US health insurance industry is going to be brought to its knees, once again via the politics of envy, and why the US health industry will fall apart once all of Obama's health plans start coming on stream.
Britain really is screwed
Take a look:
The United Kingdom is an interesting economy in particular because its aggregate consumer debt alone ($2660 US Billion) is roughly equal to the nation’s total GDP. In this sense, the UK is just like your friend that spends exactly what they make, or even beyond their means to try and impress his/her friends. This is worse than living month to month – it’s like living a month to two months behind! And now, the UK is accumulating new debt at a faster rate than the economy. If the UK were a private citizen, it might be time for him/her to sell off what they can and move to Panama, or declare some type of bankruptcy.Hint taken.
LewRockwell Roundup: December 22nd
1. Faber and Rogers Are Bullish on Ag
Because the Fed-created disaster is looming, and people will be hungry.
The depression has just begun. Article by Edward Harrison.
Fred Reed on Santa and the elves.
Because the Fed-created disaster is looming, and people will be hungry.
According to Rogers, governments have not addressed the underlying problems which triggered the crisis, but instead have "flooded the world with money." He argues that trying to solve the problem of too much consumption and too much debt with more consumption "defies belief," and will result in epic failure.2. The Recession Is Over
The depression has just begun. Article by Edward Harrison.
So where are we, then? We are in a fake recovery that could last as long as three or four years or could peter out very quickly in a double dip recession.3. Worse Than War Criminals
Fred Reed on Santa and the elves.
Tell you what, people. I’m the crack of economic doom. I’m not going to buy anything. I’m going to spend Christmas – I still call it that, no offense to Mithra – at home, with Vi and Natalia, three useless dogs and four cats, a good blaze in the fireplace, and not one lone forlorn iPod.
Xcode on the MacBook
After almost two decades since I left LISP and ProLog programming on the Mac II, along with HyperCard, I am finally back in the Apple fold with the delivery of a MacBook, which I purchased to start learning how to develop iPhone applications via the Xcode development platform, after first putting myself through the jagged hoop of learning Objective-C.Dear. Absolute. God. What a COMPLETE nightmare.
Now I'm not blaming Apple. The machine is fabulous, the interface immense, and Xcode looks amazing. The Objective-C programming language also 'feels' much nicer than the horrible Java or the appalling C++. Yes, it'll take me six months to learn enough to actually write an AppStore App, however, I am finally back to the lovely Mac II world I left all those years ago back in the computer modelling lab.
But the pains of re-adjusting are simply horrific, after 20 years in either X-Windows Unix land or Windows XP NetBeans land, where all of my mental synapses have been moulded by Bill Joy of Sun, or Charles Simonyi of Microsoft. To have placed myself once again in the hands of Steve Jobs, and his band of Hawaiian-shirted coffee hippies, after all of these years away from the chief pirate of Silicon Valley, is simply excruciating.
EVERYTHING is in the wrong place. I know NO utilities. I can't even find out where the pictures are stored, and installing Xcode to get it to work with Cocoa Frameworks has provided unendurable hours of pain beyond what would be believed in a court of law; now I know how Gollum felt to see the ring in the hands of Frodo.
But.
Thank God I'm home.
Posted from my MacBook
Will the last one to leave please turn out the lights
Take a look at the picture below:
Because of the criminal Stalinist Brown and the rest of his gang of corrupt Marxist crooks in the Labour Party, Britain is completely, totally, and utterly screwed.
Thanks Gordon.
Now sod off back to Scotland and enjoy your £5 million pound public pension.
Merry Christmas.
Because of the criminal Stalinist Brown and the rest of his gang of corrupt Marxist crooks in the Labour Party, Britain is completely, totally, and utterly screwed.Thanks Gordon.
Now sod off back to Scotland and enjoy your £5 million pound public pension.
Merry Christmas.
Monday, December 21, 2009
George Osborne: Arise, Sir Simpleton
George Osborne, our aspiring Chancellor of the Exchequer, proves what a financial clot he is, in the following article:
=> The threat of rising interest rates is a Greek tragedy we must avoid
We need free market interest rates and we need them now, to clear out all of the malinvestments of the last 15 years. Yes, it will be a hard and painful time, but the sooner we stop trying to prop up unwanted businesses with artificially low credit, the sooner this Depression will end.
What will these free market interest rates be? I have no idea, because I do not possess the knowledge in my single head of six billion investors, but using an educated guess, I would reckon that this rate is currently in the 8% to 9% range, and is slowly rising with each passing month of the British government artificially holding them down with the counterfeit confetti money pouring out of the Bank of England.
I hate Fisking as much as the next man, so I'll leave you to read the article yourself (if you can be bothered), but let's just check out a single quote from the article:
Either Osborne is a simpleton, and he doesn't understand that when the Bank of England buys anything, it does so with counterfeit money out of thin air, or he knows the full score of this purchasing action, which makes him a shystering snake.
Take your pick, George. I'll be generous and offer you simpleton.
But in the meantime, if you want to know what will really work, here is the plan:
1. Cut taxes in half.
2. These tax cuts are to be funded by government spending cuts, and government spending cuts only. No inflation. No borrowing.
That's it.
Too bold, Sir Osborne? Then just privatise every government 'service' that there is, until you have the necessary savings. Cut all government 'aid' to overseas dictators. Get out of Iraq. Get out of Afghanistan. Limit the top government salary to £100,000 for anyone. If people don't like it, tough. They'll find no tears outside of their privileged group. Cut all MP salaries to £25,000 a year. If they don't like it, let them resign and get a proper job elsewhere, to be replaced by people who are willing to do it for this. Where they haven't been cut already, cut all other government 'worker' salaries by 10%. No exceptions. If they don't like it, let them resign and offer their job to someone unemployed who can take on the job if it's necessary (such as being a nurse), however, don't replace any Guardian non-jobbers. Appoint me as the Guardian non-job Czar. I will decide what is a proper job and what is a non-job. I will do this for FREE (and believe me, not much will get through). Cut government departments. Remove at least half of them. Just as a special bonus, Sir George, I'll give you a special £10,000 pound bonus for every billion you cut from government spending. OK, let's be super-generous. I'll offer this to every member of the Cabinet, limited to 20 places. For each Cabinet minister whose department you can axe, I'll offer each minister a £10 million pound bonus to sod off, disappear, and die of too much sex in Thailand (or whatever else takes their fancy).
All of this is possible, though I'll be happy if you just do what the Irish finance minister did. Let's take a look at what he said, again:
Sorry. I was confusing you there with someone with a backbone.
=> The threat of rising interest rates is a Greek tragedy we must avoid
We need free market interest rates and we need them now, to clear out all of the malinvestments of the last 15 years. Yes, it will be a hard and painful time, but the sooner we stop trying to prop up unwanted businesses with artificially low credit, the sooner this Depression will end.
What will these free market interest rates be? I have no idea, because I do not possess the knowledge in my single head of six billion investors, but using an educated guess, I would reckon that this rate is currently in the 8% to 9% range, and is slowly rising with each passing month of the British government artificially holding them down with the counterfeit confetti money pouring out of the Bank of England.
I hate Fisking as much as the next man, so I'll leave you to read the article yourself (if you can be bothered), but let's just check out a single quote from the article:
Already investors are demanding higher interest rates on our national debt – heading towards a whole percentage point above the equivalent rates on German debt. If the Bank of England stops buying government bonds next year, as is expected, it believes market interest rates will rise almost another percentage point on top of that.First of all ignoring the point that it is 'our' debt, when it is in fact the British government's debt, which I totally repudiate and only pay off because the alternative is kidnap and incarceration, just look at the disingenuousness of that last line.
Either Osborne is a simpleton, and he doesn't understand that when the Bank of England buys anything, it does so with counterfeit money out of thin air, or he knows the full score of this purchasing action, which makes him a shystering snake.
Take your pick, George. I'll be generous and offer you simpleton.
But in the meantime, if you want to know what will really work, here is the plan:
1. Cut taxes in half.
2. These tax cuts are to be funded by government spending cuts, and government spending cuts only. No inflation. No borrowing.
That's it.
Too bold, Sir Osborne? Then just privatise every government 'service' that there is, until you have the necessary savings. Cut all government 'aid' to overseas dictators. Get out of Iraq. Get out of Afghanistan. Limit the top government salary to £100,000 for anyone. If people don't like it, tough. They'll find no tears outside of their privileged group. Cut all MP salaries to £25,000 a year. If they don't like it, let them resign and get a proper job elsewhere, to be replaced by people who are willing to do it for this. Where they haven't been cut already, cut all other government 'worker' salaries by 10%. No exceptions. If they don't like it, let them resign and offer their job to someone unemployed who can take on the job if it's necessary (such as being a nurse), however, don't replace any Guardian non-jobbers. Appoint me as the Guardian non-job Czar. I will decide what is a proper job and what is a non-job. I will do this for FREE (and believe me, not much will get through). Cut government departments. Remove at least half of them. Just as a special bonus, Sir George, I'll give you a special £10,000 pound bonus for every billion you cut from government spending. OK, let's be super-generous. I'll offer this to every member of the Cabinet, limited to 20 places. For each Cabinet minister whose department you can axe, I'll offer each minister a £10 million pound bonus to sod off, disappear, and die of too much sex in Thailand (or whatever else takes their fancy).
All of this is possible, though I'll be happy if you just do what the Irish finance minister did. Let's take a look at what he said, again:
“Some have argued we should continue to borrow and wait for the economy to grow again before tackling the budget deficit. There are three reasons why this is not a viable proposition.Show some similar backbone, Sir Simpleton.
First, we know from the 1980s how large deficits, left unchecked, can lead to a dangerous spiral of mounting debt and ever increasing interest payments. Never again should we return to a position where all of our income taxes go to pay interest on the national debt.
Second, international debt markets have become more crowded and more fragile. If lenders were to lose faith in our ability to restore order to the public finances, the consequences for our economic well being would be profound.
Third, only decisive action will restore confidence. Consumers will only start to spend and business owners will only invest and create jobs if they believe we are tackling our deficit problem now.”
Sorry. I was confusing you there with someone with a backbone.
LewRockwell Roundup: December 21st
1. Weapon of Monetary Destruction
Lew Rockwell on the Fed.
(Hardcore Rockwell, bang on the money. Literally! :-)
2. Coming: a 400% (and Higher) Excise Tax
Mike Rozeff on Obama’s rip-off plan for you.
(Remember those Bostonians who threw that tea into the harbour? The tax they were complaining about was the Stamp Duty Tax. The revolt from that tax produced the united states of America, as opposed to 'America' simply being the southern neighbour to Canada, in the British commonwealth. There is just one thing left that is keeping Lincoln's United States economy going, and that is its relative investment freedom, and a widespread knowledge of investment throughout the US public, because of relatively low transaction and taxation costs. Obviously, the socialist parasites in Washington can't stand to see an ordinary man in Milwaukee making a few bucks which could be used to buy even swankier cars and jets for the elites of the Beltway, so they're going to introduce a more modern version of the Stamp Duty Tax, to cut one of the last few remaining threads of American entrepreneurship. This is all going to be very ugly when it finally unravels in a few years time. My bet is still on either Texas or Vermont to secede first, once the dollar collapses and Washington can no longer pay its soldiers enough to get them to shove gun barrels into the faces of Texans and Vermonters. What do you think?)
3. The Growth of Jobless Claims, the 'Shadow Inventory' of Houses
The depression continues, says Bill Bonner.
(Choice three was hard today, with at least two other significant contenders, but Bill Bonner wins for coming at the problems from a different angle.)
OK, so it's all a bit miserable. How about this to cheer you up?
Lew Rockwell on the Fed.
(Hardcore Rockwell, bang on the money. Literally! :-)
2. Coming: a 400% (and Higher) Excise Tax
Mike Rozeff on Obama’s rip-off plan for you.
(Remember those Bostonians who threw that tea into the harbour? The tax they were complaining about was the Stamp Duty Tax. The revolt from that tax produced the united states of America, as opposed to 'America' simply being the southern neighbour to Canada, in the British commonwealth. There is just one thing left that is keeping Lincoln's United States economy going, and that is its relative investment freedom, and a widespread knowledge of investment throughout the US public, because of relatively low transaction and taxation costs. Obviously, the socialist parasites in Washington can't stand to see an ordinary man in Milwaukee making a few bucks which could be used to buy even swankier cars and jets for the elites of the Beltway, so they're going to introduce a more modern version of the Stamp Duty Tax, to cut one of the last few remaining threads of American entrepreneurship. This is all going to be very ugly when it finally unravels in a few years time. My bet is still on either Texas or Vermont to secede first, once the dollar collapses and Washington can no longer pay its soldiers enough to get them to shove gun barrels into the faces of Texans and Vermonters. What do you think?)
3. The Growth of Jobless Claims, the 'Shadow Inventory' of Houses
The depression continues, says Bill Bonner.
(Choice three was hard today, with at least two other significant contenders, but Bill Bonner wins for coming at the problems from a different angle.)
OK, so it's all a bit miserable. How about this to cheer you up?
Sunday, December 20, 2009
There'll be nowhere to run from the new world government
Janet Daley gets the real meaning of the Copenhagen conference:
=> Thank You, China!
And if the EU model is anything to go by, then the agencies of global authority will involve vast tracts of power being handed to unelected officials. Forget the relatively petty irritations of Euro‑bureaucracy: welcome to the era of Earth-bureaucracy, when there will be literally nowhere to run.Though let us hope that Lew Rockwell is right to think that Copenhagen was a fantastic failure to midwife in the birth of the new fascist world government:
=> Thank You, China!
Peter Schiff Headquarters - Grand Opening
Ron Paul for President in 2012?
If Schiff becomes a senator, how about President Schiff, in 2012?
Saturday, December 19, 2009
Peter Schiff: Dollar rally, jobs bill, death tax
Mr Schiff is particularly eloquent on the destructive power of death taxes towards the end of the above video blog.
To our US readers, Mr Schiff's current donation total is $1,257,654 out of a target of $2,000,000. If you'd like to contribute to his campaign, please click through the picture below:
Rage Against the X-Factor
For all those Joe McElderry fans out there, including me, we have a special treat (this really does have to be seen to be believed):
(For more on this story, click here.)
UPDATE: Here's the proper song:
UPDATE II: And I suppose I better put up this quite good interview with 'RATM', followed by a a live version of their (uncensored) song (close your ears near the end if you don't like bad words):
And here, of course, is where RATM were at their unsurpassable best:
(For more on this story, click here.)
UPDATE: Here's the proper song:
UPDATE II: And I suppose I better put up this quite good interview with 'RATM', followed by a a live version of their (uncensored) song (close your ears near the end if you don't like bad words):
And here, of course, is where RATM were at their unsurpassable best:
Terence Kealey: War is the Health of the State - How the British Government took over the British Universities
It's always puzzled me how the rabidly independent 19th century universities in Britain ended up within the claws of the state. It's a background question that's been galumphing around the back of my mind for some time, but this question finally found an answer for itself while watching the video below:
The whole thing is worth watching, but after 70 minutes, the debate turns to the very question posed above. (It's tricky to scroll through to 70 minutes, so just watch the whole video instead for lots of other great stuff! :-)
I'm paraphrasing, and I'm embellishing a little, but here's the answer:
Between 1815 and 1914, there was a 99-year period of deflation. As money continually increased in value for this entire period, backed solidly by gold, the most sensible investments were long-term highly-secure bonds paying fixed coupons. (For instance, by buying a 10-year 3% bond with 100 gold sovereigns, after 10 years you got your 100 sovereigns back, which because of deflation were worth more than when you started, and for each of the 10 years you also picked up another 3 sovereigns a year, with each year's 3 sovereigns being worth more than the previous year's set. It's a complete no-brainer, and such investments would be available today, if it weren't for the establishment of fiat currencies.)
This gold-based investment strategy went on for decade after glorious decade, with Victorian society becoming increasingly wealthy along the way, with perhaps the greatest century of growth in human history.
It was such a no-brainer investment strategy, that all the British universities had set up endowments to invest in exactly this way, seeded with students' private fees. The universities lived off the coupons, with the principal sums continuing to grow the whole time in the background. Praise be to peace, prosperity and freedom, plus private enterprise and the free market.
And then the First World War came along. This completely stuffed the British universities on two fronts. First of all, with all the money printing by the Bank of England to pay for increasing government control of the economy, plus all of the munitions being blown up in France, massive inflation took hold, with a quadrupling of the money supply. Fixed income investments lost most of their value, with billions of new British paper pounds chasing a limited amount of actual gold.
Just as with the US Ivy League universities recently, the British universities' endowment funds were wiped out by deliberate British government inflation (which also later was used as the excuse to come off the gold standard completely), hidden under the cover of fighting a preposterous bloody war over a few yards of turf in France.
George, a former British university student (and now an American doctor), is joined by two other uniformed bureaucrats to discuss the 'success' of capturing 17 square feet of French turf
The second whammy was that the students who had previously been paying healthy fees in gold coinage in a free passport-less society, were now all being blown up and killed in France by the same munitions that all of this wealth was being wasted on. So the universities lost virtually all of their endowment income and virtually all of their fees, in a financially disastrous four-year period.
Hence, by 1919 most of them were on the verge of bankruptcy. So guess what happened next? Yes, step forward the 'magnificent' British government to 'save' the universities, having destroyed them all in the first place through the waging of one of the most senseless wars of all time.
The previously powerful independent universities, filled with independently-funded scientists with independent views, were thus transformed overnight into subservient tax-eaters. Obviously, it took a long time for the culture of scientific independence to die down, but die down it did, to be replaced by the kind of attitude noted by Henry Bauer, here.
The corruption of the HadCRUT data by the tax-eaters in the University of East Anglia, is thus no mistake. It is a direct consequence of the instigation of World War I to massively grow the power of the British state at the expense of everyone else in Britain. You thought the Iraq war was utterly stupid. World War I was the blueprint.
War truly is the Health of the State.
The whole thing is worth watching, but after 70 minutes, the debate turns to the very question posed above. (It's tricky to scroll through to 70 minutes, so just watch the whole video instead for lots of other great stuff! :-)
I'm paraphrasing, and I'm embellishing a little, but here's the answer:
Between 1815 and 1914, there was a 99-year period of deflation. As money continually increased in value for this entire period, backed solidly by gold, the most sensible investments were long-term highly-secure bonds paying fixed coupons. (For instance, by buying a 10-year 3% bond with 100 gold sovereigns, after 10 years you got your 100 sovereigns back, which because of deflation were worth more than when you started, and for each of the 10 years you also picked up another 3 sovereigns a year, with each year's 3 sovereigns being worth more than the previous year's set. It's a complete no-brainer, and such investments would be available today, if it weren't for the establishment of fiat currencies.)
This gold-based investment strategy went on for decade after glorious decade, with Victorian society becoming increasingly wealthy along the way, with perhaps the greatest century of growth in human history.
It was such a no-brainer investment strategy, that all the British universities had set up endowments to invest in exactly this way, seeded with students' private fees. The universities lived off the coupons, with the principal sums continuing to grow the whole time in the background. Praise be to peace, prosperity and freedom, plus private enterprise and the free market.
And then the First World War came along. This completely stuffed the British universities on two fronts. First of all, with all the money printing by the Bank of England to pay for increasing government control of the economy, plus all of the munitions being blown up in France, massive inflation took hold, with a quadrupling of the money supply. Fixed income investments lost most of their value, with billions of new British paper pounds chasing a limited amount of actual gold.
Just as with the US Ivy League universities recently, the British universities' endowment funds were wiped out by deliberate British government inflation (which also later was used as the excuse to come off the gold standard completely), hidden under the cover of fighting a preposterous bloody war over a few yards of turf in France.
The second whammy was that the students who had previously been paying healthy fees in gold coinage in a free passport-less society, were now all being blown up and killed in France by the same munitions that all of this wealth was being wasted on. So the universities lost virtually all of their endowment income and virtually all of their fees, in a financially disastrous four-year period.
Hence, by 1919 most of them were on the verge of bankruptcy. So guess what happened next? Yes, step forward the 'magnificent' British government to 'save' the universities, having destroyed them all in the first place through the waging of one of the most senseless wars of all time.
The previously powerful independent universities, filled with independently-funded scientists with independent views, were thus transformed overnight into subservient tax-eaters. Obviously, it took a long time for the culture of scientific independence to die down, but die down it did, to be replaced by the kind of attitude noted by Henry Bauer, here.
The corruption of the HadCRUT data by the tax-eaters in the University of East Anglia, is thus no mistake. It is a direct consequence of the instigation of World War I to massively grow the power of the British state at the expense of everyone else in Britain. You thought the Iraq war was utterly stupid. World War I was the blueprint.
War truly is the Health of the State.
LewRockwell Roundup: December 19th-20th
1. A New World War for a New World Order
Andrew Gavin Marshall on the origins of WWIII.
(Dear God, it's worse than I thought. It's a long hard article that you must read, if you want to know what's really going on.)
2. Secession and State Militias
Russ Longcore on the possible future after economic meltdown.
(Will the seeds of a free world spring once again spring from America, as it did 250 years ago before the cancer of statehood eventually wiped liberty out with the mass-murderer Lincoln? We can but hope.)
3. Laugh at the State
Paul Green on learning from P.G. Wodehouse.
(I laugh at the state every day, but it's good find help to do so.)
Andrew Gavin Marshall on the origins of WWIII.
(Dear God, it's worse than I thought. It's a long hard article that you must read, if you want to know what's really going on.)
2. Secession and State Militias
Russ Longcore on the possible future after economic meltdown.
(Will the seeds of a free world spring once again spring from America, as it did 250 years ago before the cancer of statehood eventually wiped liberty out with the mass-murderer Lincoln? We can but hope.)
3. Laugh at the State
Paul Green on learning from P.G. Wodehouse.
(I laugh at the state every day, but it's good find help to do so.)
Knowledge Monopolies - The New World Order in Science
In a follow-up article to Suppression of Science Within Science, which I first noted here, Professor Henry Bauer discusses how the racket of 'Big Science' has become the captive of a scientific-technological elite:=> The New World Order in Science
Here's a quote:
One consequence of the bubble’s burst is that there are far too many would-be researchers and would-be research institutions chasing grants. Increasing desperation leads to corner-cutting and frank cheating. Senior researchers established in comfortable positions guard their own privileged circumstances jealously, and that means in some part not allowing their favored theories and approaches to be challenged by the Young Turks. Hence knowledge monopolies and research cartels...With administrators in control because the enterprises are so large, bureaucrats set the rules and make the decisions. For advice, they naturally listen to the senior well-established figures, so grants go only to "mainstream" projects.Splendid.
Henry H. Bauer, Dean Emeritus of Arts & Sciences and Professor Emeritus of Chemistry & Science Studies at Virginia Tech
Friday, December 18, 2009
Shock News Just In! - Canadian Socialist Environmentalist Makes Some Kind of Sense
I still can't work out whether it's a hoax or not, but Paul has uncovered a seemingly HEROIC Canadian Socialist Environmentalist, David Crowe, whose views on 'Climate Change' are almost indistinguishable from my own.
Remarkable.
=> My Position on Global Warming and Climate Change
You'll have to make up your own mind on whether or not it's a hoax.
Remarkable.
=> My Position on Global Warming and Climate Change
You'll have to make up your own mind on whether or not it's a hoax.
TIME Magazine: Person of the Year
First there was Adolf:
Then there was Josef:
And now there's Ben:
The Southern Avenger thinks that there's someone else who ought to be declared by everybody, not just TIME magazine, as 'Person of the Year'. We agree:
HT to Paul
Then there was Josef:
And now there's Ben:
The Southern Avenger thinks that there's someone else who ought to be declared by everybody, not just TIME magazine, as 'Person of the Year'. We agree:HT to Paul
Peter Schiff: Wall St Unspun, December 16th Edition
Yes, it's The Duke himself from his campaign headquarters:
=> http://www.europac.net/media/PeterSchiff_12-16-2009.mp3
=> http://www.europac.net/media/PeterSchiff_12-16-2009.mp3
Peter Schiff: TIME Magazine 'Person of the Year' - Ben Bernanke!?!?!
The Duke comments upon Ben Bernanke's winning of the TIME Magazine, 'Person of the Year' award.
Crivens:
Crivens:
Little Ice Ages - Life on Mars
Take a look at the two pictures below. Can you spot the difference?
The main difference is that the first one represents a scene from 1565, in the Little Ice Age, and the second one represents Henley On Thames about an hour ago.
Yes, I know it's anecdotal eco-tapeworms, but fortunately as well as taking the above photograph today, I also had the good fortune to be the first human being to meet a Martian. One beamed down and stood by my side as I snapped the image above:
Little Green Man: Gee Jack, it sure is cold for the time of year!
Jack Maturin: How'd'you know my name?
LGM: Well you get hardly any readers here on Earth, but you're number three on Mars, behind Lew Rockwell and Mises.org.
JM: Well, it's nice to know someone's out there.
LGM: We've been here for ages too, spinning around the Earth taking photographs and such like. Did you know the Antarctic is really expanding, especially on the eastern side?
JM: So I heard.
LGM: So we think it's great that you folks are taking it seriously, with the Climate Change conference in Copenhagen, and all.
JM: How'd'you mean?
LGM: Well, it's good to know you have guys there who are planning to try to warm things up.
JM: They're actually trying to cool things down.
LGM: (Taken aback) You cannot be serious?
JM: They are the most deadly serious people on Earth. They want it to make it colder, for the sake of 'The Children'.
LGM: But all of your children will either freeze to death or starve? Didn't you know it's getting colder and has been for the last ten years?
JM: Apparently, rising carbon dioxide emissions mean it's actually getting warmer.
LGM: You guys are nuts. We were drilling at the South Pole two decades ago. Our ice core samples showed us that first the Earth warms, then about 800 years later carbon dioxide starts going up. The warming is causal to the carbon dioxide, not the other way around. The warming is caused by changes in solar activity.
JM: Our latest ice core samples show that too.
LGM: So why are you ignoring the latest studies?
JM: Because the results don't fit the 'Consensus'.
LGM: What about the stratospheric balloon tests which have failed to find any hot spots, thus falsifying any kind of carbon dioxide warming hypothesis.
JM: The results don't fit the 'Consensus'.
LGM: And once you add a certain amount of carbon dioxide to an atmosphere, it stops making any difference anyway. No, don't tell me...
Both Together: The results don't fit the 'Consensus'.
LGM: Right. Still, all the Canadians must be against this madness, of trying to make the world colder. Surely they'll all realise that the Tundra and Permafrost will turn all the habitable parts of Canada into Northern Alberta?
JM: If you took a random Canadian off the streets of Vancouver, and so long as this wasn't Walter Block, then you'd pretty much find a hard-core believer in Anthropogenic Global Warming, and someone desperate to try to cool the Earth.
LGM: You guys really are nuts. The Antarctic is rapidly expanding, there are no tell-tale hot spots in the stratosphere, the latest ice core samples show that it is heating first and carbon dioxide second, the greenhouse effect of carbon dioxide dissipates the more you have, and for ten straight years it's been getting colder, and you still think the Earth is heating up due to Anthropogenic Global Warming? Even dumb asses in the 1970s knew you were in a volatile inter-glacial period and were really worried about an upcoming Ice Age! And now you've forgotten that and you're trying to deliberately make it colder?
JM: That's pretty much it.
LGM: Well good luck to you, sir. I better get back up into orbit before whatever mad virus it is that's infected your brains gets into my eco-system.
JM: The virus is socialism.
LGM: (Disappearing rapidly into beam-up fuzz) You too, huh? We had that junk for over 10,000 years. It took us over 40 years to eradicate it, once we figured out the cure.
JM: What was that?
LGM: (Almost invisible now) A combination of Atlas Shrugged, Human Action, and Man, Economy and State, translated into the Martian - We're all Austrians now back on Mars, Mein Freund. Good luck! (He disappears, with the weird Star-Trek-like buzzing sound fading away to nothing)
JM: (Looking up to the sky) Be Seeing You.
The main difference is that the first one represents a scene from 1565, in the Little Ice Age, and the second one represents Henley On Thames about an hour ago.Yes, I know it's anecdotal eco-tapeworms, but fortunately as well as taking the above photograph today, I also had the good fortune to be the first human being to meet a Martian. One beamed down and stood by my side as I snapped the image above:
Little Green Man: Gee Jack, it sure is cold for the time of year!
Jack Maturin: How'd'you know my name?
LGM: Well you get hardly any readers here on Earth, but you're number three on Mars, behind Lew Rockwell and Mises.org.
JM: Well, it's nice to know someone's out there.
LGM: We've been here for ages too, spinning around the Earth taking photographs and such like. Did you know the Antarctic is really expanding, especially on the eastern side?
JM: So I heard.
LGM: So we think it's great that you folks are taking it seriously, with the Climate Change conference in Copenhagen, and all.
JM: How'd'you mean?
LGM: Well, it's good to know you have guys there who are planning to try to warm things up.
JM: They're actually trying to cool things down.
LGM: (Taken aback) You cannot be serious?
JM: They are the most deadly serious people on Earth. They want it to make it colder, for the sake of 'The Children'.
LGM: But all of your children will either freeze to death or starve? Didn't you know it's getting colder and has been for the last ten years?
JM: Apparently, rising carbon dioxide emissions mean it's actually getting warmer.
LGM: You guys are nuts. We were drilling at the South Pole two decades ago. Our ice core samples showed us that first the Earth warms, then about 800 years later carbon dioxide starts going up. The warming is causal to the carbon dioxide, not the other way around. The warming is caused by changes in solar activity.
JM: Our latest ice core samples show that too.
LGM: So why are you ignoring the latest studies?
JM: Because the results don't fit the 'Consensus'.
LGM: What about the stratospheric balloon tests which have failed to find any hot spots, thus falsifying any kind of carbon dioxide warming hypothesis.
JM: The results don't fit the 'Consensus'.
LGM: And once you add a certain amount of carbon dioxide to an atmosphere, it stops making any difference anyway. No, don't tell me...
Both Together: The results don't fit the 'Consensus'.
LGM: Right. Still, all the Canadians must be against this madness, of trying to make the world colder. Surely they'll all realise that the Tundra and Permafrost will turn all the habitable parts of Canada into Northern Alberta?
JM: If you took a random Canadian off the streets of Vancouver, and so long as this wasn't Walter Block, then you'd pretty much find a hard-core believer in Anthropogenic Global Warming, and someone desperate to try to cool the Earth.
LGM: You guys really are nuts. The Antarctic is rapidly expanding, there are no tell-tale hot spots in the stratosphere, the latest ice core samples show that it is heating first and carbon dioxide second, the greenhouse effect of carbon dioxide dissipates the more you have, and for ten straight years it's been getting colder, and you still think the Earth is heating up due to Anthropogenic Global Warming? Even dumb asses in the 1970s knew you were in a volatile inter-glacial period and were really worried about an upcoming Ice Age! And now you've forgotten that and you're trying to deliberately make it colder?
JM: That's pretty much it.
LGM: Well good luck to you, sir. I better get back up into orbit before whatever mad virus it is that's infected your brains gets into my eco-system.
JM: The virus is socialism.
LGM: (Disappearing rapidly into beam-up fuzz) You too, huh? We had that junk for over 10,000 years. It took us over 40 years to eradicate it, once we figured out the cure.
JM: What was that?
LGM: (Almost invisible now) A combination of Atlas Shrugged, Human Action, and Man, Economy and State, translated into the Martian - We're all Austrians now back on Mars, Mein Freund. Good luck! (He disappears, with the weird Star-Trek-like buzzing sound fading away to nothing)
JM: (Looking up to the sky) Be Seeing You.
LewRockwell Roundup: December 18th
Another great day on LRC, with too much choice for your digester. I thought, seeing as we're about to be bamboozled into a world socialist government, to spend our lives 'redistributing' our wealth to African dictators, so they can buy gold bars in Switzerland and lend us more money to pay them off with, I thought we ought to concentrate on Climategate:
1. Climategate Goes Serial
James Delingpole on Russian proof of eco-lies
(Dear Lord, the world's socialists are about to create the first world socialist government in Copenhagen today, and it's all based on a pack of lies. Who'd'a thunk it?)
2. Shakedown in Copenhagen
Pat Buchanan on the climate con job.
(The Antarctic ice sheet is thickening and expanding. It has been doing this for four decades straight. Why haven't the environmentalists mentioned this in Copenhagen, never mind explained it. Mr Buchanan thinks he knows.)
3. Some Books I Like
Eighteen of Lew's favorites for Christmas.
(Got your Crimbo shopping all done yet? Here's a few last minute purchase ideas.)
1. Climategate Goes Serial
James Delingpole on Russian proof of eco-lies
(Dear Lord, the world's socialists are about to create the first world socialist government in Copenhagen today, and it's all based on a pack of lies. Who'd'a thunk it?)
2. Shakedown in Copenhagen
Pat Buchanan on the climate con job.
(The Antarctic ice sheet is thickening and expanding. It has been doing this for four decades straight. Why haven't the environmentalists mentioned this in Copenhagen, never mind explained it. Mr Buchanan thinks he knows.)
3. Some Books I Like
Eighteen of Lew's favorites for Christmas.
(Got your Crimbo shopping all done yet? Here's a few last minute purchase ideas.)
Quote of the day
From the story of Saul, who came to be known as Paul, we draw the lesson: that when people want freedom they will get it. When the desire of the business man for "free enterprise" is so strong that he will risk bankruptcy for it, he cannot be denied. When youth prefers prison to the barracks, when a job in the bureaucracy is considered leprous, when the tax collector is stamped a legalized thief, when handouts from the politician are contemptuously rejected, when work on a government project is considered degrading, when, in short, the state is recognized to be the enemy of society, then only will freedom come, and the citadel of power collapse.
Frank Chodorov
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Terence Kealey - 'The Myth of Science as a Public Good'
Here's a fabulous video about government funding of science:
Terence Kealey - 'The Myth of Science as a Public Good' from oxford libertarian on Vimeo.
Here's the quote on the main website supporting the above video:Vice Chancellor of the University of Buckingham (Britain's only independent university), Terence Kealey is a vocal critic of government funding of science. His first book, 'The Economic Laws of Scientific Research,' argues that state funding of science is neither necessary nor beneficial, a thesis that he developed in his recently published analysis of the causes scientific progress, 'Sex, Science and Profits.' In it, he makes the stronger claim that not only is government funding not beneficial, but in fact measurably obstructs scientific progress, whilst presenting an alternative, methodologically-individualist understanding of 'invisible colleges' within which science resembles a private, not a public, good.Once again, thanks to Paul
Kuhn Knew - The Pied Piper is Calling
I had the very great privilege last year of meeting Professor Peter Duesberg, who was once known as the greatest retrovirologist in the world. That was until he had his knees cut out from under him when he dared to utter his thoughts that the AIDS story is more complex than the simple one of HIV infection.Essentially, those who take massive amounts of recreational drugs and indulge in other habits, over long periods of time, which severely stress the immune system, may pick up the HIV virus in their activities, but that it is their behaviour , or some other major stressor such as long-term starvation, which is the major story behind their acquisition of AIDS.
Shocked?
Well, I was, when I questioned the Professor, but he made a great deal of sense.
Now does any of this sound familiar? A 'scientific consensus' is reached (that HIV causes AIDS). This consensus is then used to justify massive worldwide governmental interventions via the UN.
Anyone who dares to criticise the 'consensus' is cast into the outer darkness.
Yes, it's ClimateGate again, only this time I suppose we could call it 'AidsGate'. This apparently has also happened with 'Big Bang' research, where those who doubt the Big Bang theory are similarly treated (QuasarGate), and in dinosaur disappearance research (AsteroidGate). In fact, the New World Order in Science is probably doing this to every major science.
It's actually hard to tell, because those who disagree with the conventional contemporary scientific wisdom won’t get grants, won’t get published, and will be compared to Holocaust deniers. Or so Professor Henry H. Bauer thinks.
Read more, below:
=> Suppression of Science Within Science
What's really surprising about all of this is that anyone is surprised. A hundred years ago most science was done independently at independently-managed universities or funded privately via independent wealth. These days it is virtually all funded by government-sequestered tax-eater revenues, and virtually all the tax-eating scientists have forgotten the old saw about he who pays the piper calls the tune.
The scientists all stuck their hands into the bottomless pit of governmental largesse, funded through coercive taxation, and they are outraged and horrified when they realise that the price of this is to support all measures which increase governmental power. Poor loves. The Devil always gets his price paid in the end.
Kuhn knew all of this would happen, of course. Which is why all tax-funded scientists should read him, as well as Popper.
Thanks to Paul
Quote of the day
The dogma that the State or the Government is the embodiment of all that is good and beneficial and that the individuals are wretched underlings, exclusively intent upon inflicting harm upon one another and badly in need of a guardian, is almost unchallenged. It is taboo to question it in the slightest way. He who proclaims the godliness of the State and the infallibility of its priests, the bureaucrats, is considered as an impartial student of the social sciences. All those raising objections are branded as biased and narrow-minded. The supporters of the new religion of statolatry are no less fanatical and intolerant than were the Mohammedan conquerors of Africa and Spain.
Ludwig von Mises, Planned Chaos
LewRockwell Roundup: December 17th
Have to be quick today as I'm babysitting a couple of small girls. I've taken the only way out a man can. I've booked three cinema tickets at a movie house where they do splendid Gin and Tonics just fifteen feet from the screen. Marvellous:
1. The Latest Problem for Dollar Hegemony
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard on the Gulf petro-powers' new currency.
(All those out there, and you know who you are, who think the dollar is forever, better think again. Read this piece by Evans-Ambrosia Pritchard, and you just might.)
2. Saul vs. Paul
Frank Chodorov on official suppression of truth.
(Simply brilliant.)
3. Austrians Win, Keynesians-Friedmanians Lose
Gary North on who's up and who's down in the economic crisis.
(Superb, by the Northster.)
Right, Gin and Tonic here we come. Yes, I know it's before the Sun is below or even behind the Yard-Arm, but it's Christmas. Plus, the Sun gets pretty low at this time of year, so I'm only a few minutes out.
Cheers! *<|:-)))
1. The Latest Problem for Dollar Hegemony
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard on the Gulf petro-powers' new currency.
(All those out there, and you know who you are, who think the dollar is forever, better think again. Read this piece by Evans-Ambrosia Pritchard, and you just might.)
2. Saul vs. Paul
Frank Chodorov on official suppression of truth.
(Simply brilliant.)
3. Austrians Win, Keynesians-Friedmanians Lose
Gary North on who's up and who's down in the economic crisis.
(Superb, by the Northster.)
Right, Gin and Tonic here we come. Yes, I know it's before the Sun is below or even behind the Yard-Arm, but it's Christmas. Plus, the Sun gets pretty low at this time of year, so I'm only a few minutes out.
Cheers! *<|:-)))
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Quote of the day - Up to 8in of snow on the way, Met Office warns
All this Anthropogenic Global Warming is really making it cold round my way, with snow having fallen all day. But don't worry about my heretical views, because I'm just an 'irresponsible denier'.However, my dad always told me that you should always believe the bookies, because they always know the real deal. Which is why the following quote caught my eye:
The wintry conditions prompted Ladbrokes, the bookmaker, to cut the odds on a white Christmas in London to 5/2, one of the lowest ever.Superb.
Peter Schiff: Dial for Votes update
Mr Schiff has been having problems with his emailing system letting us Schifferites know about his VBlogs. The stagecoach has arrived though, through the snow, carrying its overdue backlog of video mail:
Dial for Votes update (Posted 16th December):
Dollar, inflation, interest rates, Obama (Posted 15th December):
Dial for Votes! Schiff for Senate volunteer phone bank DO NOT CALL AFTER 9PM EASTERN TIME (Posted 15th December):
dollar, gold, growth, volcker, debt. senate race (Posted 11th December):
Peter Schiff debates David Epstein of Columbia University -- Nov 11 2009 (Posted December 10th):
UPDATE: The video above is so good, I thought we should have a commentary:
Mr Schiff finally stands up after a very tedious 19:54 minutes from David Epstein, in which I considered slashing my wrists on several occasions, in this 1hr 33 minute video! :-)
And of course, Mr Schiff makes up for that tedious 19:54 minutes with a splendid virtuoso performance of straightforward Austrianism at its finest.
Bravo, sir!
(I take back everything I said earlier.)
The Duke stops delivering his main speech at 42:44.
There then follows a Q&A session, where Der SchiffMeister shreds David Epstein into an angry gesticulating blubbering pulp.
For amusement, Mr Epstein begins his first response by accusing Mr Schiff of being a Keynesian. The response then starts at 53:52, with Epstein doing the usual socialist thing of demanding to be heard without interruption and hogging the timeline, but constantly interrupting Schiff with what little time he allows him, fidgeting, rolling his eyes, and desperately looking for points at which to interject with inane comments.
There's a splendid abducto ad absurdum at 1:00:30, where Epstein flails like a flaccid popped balloon, which is splendid.
It reaches a point where Epstein looks like he's going to punch Schiff, as Schiff leans back laughing at him. Marvellous. Epstein certainly doesn't like it up 'im! ;-)
Here's the 2006 Mortgage Bankers speech that Peter mentions at 1:12:00:
Dial for Votes update (Posted 16th December):
Dollar, inflation, interest rates, Obama (Posted 15th December):
Dial for Votes! Schiff for Senate volunteer phone bank DO NOT CALL AFTER 9PM EASTERN TIME (Posted 15th December):
dollar, gold, growth, volcker, debt. senate race (Posted 11th December):
Peter Schiff debates David Epstein of Columbia University -- Nov 11 2009 (Posted December 10th):
UPDATE: The video above is so good, I thought we should have a commentary:
Mr Schiff finally stands up after a very tedious 19:54 minutes from David Epstein, in which I considered slashing my wrists on several occasions, in this 1hr 33 minute video! :-)
And of course, Mr Schiff makes up for that tedious 19:54 minutes with a splendid virtuoso performance of straightforward Austrianism at its finest.
Bravo, sir!
(I take back everything I said earlier.)
The Duke stops delivering his main speech at 42:44.
There then follows a Q&A session, where Der SchiffMeister shreds David Epstein into an angry gesticulating blubbering pulp.
For amusement, Mr Epstein begins his first response by accusing Mr Schiff of being a Keynesian. The response then starts at 53:52, with Epstein doing the usual socialist thing of demanding to be heard without interruption and hogging the timeline, but constantly interrupting Schiff with what little time he allows him, fidgeting, rolling his eyes, and desperately looking for points at which to interject with inane comments.
There's a splendid abducto ad absurdum at 1:00:30, where Epstein flails like a flaccid popped balloon, which is splendid.
It reaches a point where Epstein looks like he's going to punch Schiff, as Schiff leans back laughing at him. Marvellous. Epstein certainly doesn't like it up 'im! ;-)
Here's the 2006 Mortgage Bankers speech that Peter mentions at 1:12:00:
Poor Sir Simon Huffchester
Poor Simon Heffer criticises democratic politicians for following the power path of democracy. I've posted the following comment on the article, God help me:Jack Maturin on December 16, 2009 at 11:37 AMUPDATE: Yes, I know it's a hopeless task trying to change the world via the LabourGraph's comment pages, but it does make me feel better. Here are some bold, intelligent, and discerning people who took the trouble to reply:
The problem, Sir Huff, is that when you put out cheese you get mice. When you put out democracy you get democratic politicians. David Cameron and George Osborne must appeal to the tax-eaters who spend everything, who form almost half the electorate, as well as to the tax-payers who pay for everything, if they want to win power, hence all of the bowing and scraping towards all the non-job Guardian readers in the land.
The first real problem is democracy itself, not democratic politicians. The second real problem is that men of your immense intelligence and drive do not yet possess the wit to see it. Where you can see the problems of Alistair Darling, the rose-tinted spectacles of democracy have failed to allow you to see why your favourites, Michael Fallon and John Redwood, are 'unelectable' and why UKIP will never win 'power' in this country.
Michael Fallon and John Redwood may be very intelligent, just like you, Sir Huff. But democracy gives us intellectual pygmies like Cameron and Osborne precisely because it derides and destroys intelligence, as it drags everyone down to the level of the common herd. Democracy is socialism and socialism is democracy. The two are the same. They are one.
Margaret Thatcher was an aberration, Sir Huff, a force of nature who proved the rule through her exceptionalism and through her Hayekian Austrianism.
Until eminent men like you can see this, we are doomed to be stuck in the same downward spiral we have been on especially since the Reform Act of 1832, a socialising measure propagated by radical Benthamites and economic Ricardians, under the direction of James Mill, groups who later coalesced with the Ricardian Marxists to become the modern socialists of today.
The only possible way we might square the circle of democracy is to give everyone in the country, each year, a tax audit, to see if they are net tax-eaters or tax-payers. Only the tax-payers would be allowed to vote. Even better would be to award numbers of votes on the basis of net tax paid. But does this even sound remotely workable? Would any of the tax-eaters stand for it? Of course not. The only other way is then to reduce and remove the power of government over our lives, to make political elections irrelevant. The route to this is to privatise everything that moves. And then to privatise everything that doesn't move, until there's nothing left in the government's cupboard except perhaps a land registry office. But even that should be removed too, to prevent it becoming the infective agent from which the cancer of government at some point re-emerges.
And what is the route to this privatisation? It is for people like you, Sir Huff, to realise that it is democracy that is the problem, and for you then to completely withdraw your support from the democratic process, and especially from democratic political half-wits such as David Cameron and George Osborne.
You can start this process, Sir Huff, just by stopping voting and telling your readers to do the same. All the lizards in British politics are the same. And they will remain the same until we take away their power by refusing to vote for them. Once enough of us have done so, and these lizards have thus been de-legitimised and then made powerless, can we then begin the programme of rebuilding this country though steady and then accelerating privatisations.
Everything must go.
Democracy is a God that has failed, Sir Huff, and its death is coming, whether anyone likes it or not. You can speed up its replacement with a peaceful prosperous society based on the free market and private property by recognising this elephant in the room and marking it for destruction. The alternative is the slow and chaotic growth of the nascent world government, eventually dominated by the voters of India and China, who will then strangle the world through poverty-inducing wealth-redistributing socialism. The wealth of the West, such as it is, will be siphoned away to feed our democratic masters in the East. This world socialist government will inevitably lead to eventual global economic collapse and perhaps to a few terrible wars along the way, spilling out of the stupid mess in Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistan.
We can short-circuit this hundred-year horror by withdrawing from our efforts to try to fix the Tory party. It is unfixable. The rogues, the chancers, and the half-wit demagogues like David Cameron will almost always rise to the top. Even Margaret Thatcher only stabilised the growth of government. She never actually reversed it. And she was a Titan in a land of pygmies.
You will not remove the greed, the envy, and the laziness of the British people, as long as they support the immorality of democracy and socialism. Do not steal and do not be envious says the Bible, and yet these are the very cornerstones of socialism, which is the lifeblood of democracy and the fountain well belief system for most of our population, especially those who have been indoctrinated over many years by the state-run 'education' system. They will thus continue using the government to try to rob their neighbours until we take away the legitimate power of government to do so by throttling democracy.
Are you up to it, Sir Huff? Or are you just going to continue bleating into the wind?
Oh well. Back to the Christmas shopping.
john rigby on December 16, 2009 at 01:00 PMIt did indeed, Mr Rigby. Just got one more prezzie to go.
Jack Maturin 11.37
Excellent stuff.
Hope the shopping went well
Capitalist on December 16, 2009 at 12:44 PMUPDATE II: More bold discerning types...
Jack Maturin on December 16, 2009 at 11:37 AM
Great post. Only thing is I don't think that not voting will ever deligitimise democracy in the eyes of statists.
I do agree with you though that it is fundamentally wrong to support "half-wits such as David Cameron and George Osborne".
Diogenes on December 16, 2009 at 02:25 PM
Pre-f'in-cisely!
Give the products of the British moron factories, i.e the state educayshun system the vote and you get the group of gangsters, war criminals and thieves we have as a New Labour government. And we are very very likely to have one again in May 2010 because the parasites will vote in more parasites to feed them.
This country is now utterly screwed, backwards, forwards and sideways thanks to good old Socialism - the Parasite's Charter!
JoeK on December 16, 2009 at 02:30 PM
I have seen for the first time from another poster something that I have believed for a long time. Congratulations Jack Maturin, 11:37am.
The only people to vote should be those of us who make nett tax contributions.
I've said it often enough but no harm repeating. ALL public sector employees pay no tax because their gross taxable salary comes from the earnings of the private sector.... (more on the LabourGraph page)
LewRockwell Roundup: December 16th
There's some great stuff on LewRockwell this morning, especially for his American audience or those who want everything on Climategate, but I've gone for a few things with a more general Austrian appeal:
1. Mission Not Accomplished
The economy is not improving, as even Obama admits. Article by Peter Schiff.
(Yes, I know this is based on the US economy, but Schiff's analysis works equally well on the British economy.)
2. Convincing Fake Gold Bars
Theo Gray on how government and private crooks make them.
(If you're stashing gold coins and bars, make sure you don't get caught out, as some central banks have been.)
3. The Hangover Quotient of Holiday Drinks
Make sure you know.
(Drop the gin and the beer and go for the vodka tonics instead - in moderation, obviously.)
1. Mission Not Accomplished
The economy is not improving, as even Obama admits. Article by Peter Schiff.
(Yes, I know this is based on the US economy, but Schiff's analysis works equally well on the British economy.)
2. Convincing Fake Gold Bars
Theo Gray on how government and private crooks make them.
(If you're stashing gold coins and bars, make sure you don't get caught out, as some central banks have been.)
3. The Hangover Quotient of Holiday Drinks
Make sure you know.
(Drop the gin and the beer and go for the vodka tonics instead - in moderation, obviously.)
Robert Blumen: Peak Gold?
Analysis of the economics of gold price formation by the financial media is nearly all wrong. The majority of articles and research reports obsess about mine supply, as if it mattered (which it doesn't see 1 and 2). There are additional pointless discussions about whether the gold industry is in a phony deficit or surplus (neither).Read the rest here...
A variant of this fallacy is forecasting the gold gold price by looking at its cost of production. We know as Austrians that costs do not determine price. While it is true that a positive differential between the price of gold and the cost of operating current mines results in profits for gold miners, the market adjustment to eliminate this differential takes place mostly through a rising cost, rather than a falling price. The mining industry would surely respond to profit opportunities by producing lower-grade deposits with a higher cost per ounce, but this will not increase the total supply of gold by much because marginal costs rise so dramatically with increasing supply. Even if twice as much gold could be mined at a cost of $1000/ounce than at a cost of $500/ounce, this would only increase the growth rate of current supply from 1.5% annually to 3%.
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Why does BA have any passengers left?
The people in Britain who still 'strike' are either directly in the public sector or in the privatized sector with a large overhanging union inertia from the 1970s when these concerns used to be 'proper' British government monopolies.
The most obvious of these is British Airways.
It used to have a self-proclaimed (and possibly deserved) reputation as the world's favourite airline. This reputation has long since crashed and burned, especially since BA staff have got into the habit of having annual strikes, bringing the company to its financial knees.
Every time they do this they lose another tranche of customers who will never come back and gain a terrible reputation amongst other potential future customers (many of whom do the sensible thing and swear never to book British Airways).
I got caught up in this once, having to phone before my flight took off to make sure it was still flying, and being served cold food all the way to the grim concrete delights of Washington's Dulles airport.
Never again, I swore.
But what I'm puzzled by with the latest threatened strike action, deliberately designed by the unions to minimize their member's inconvenience over the Christmas holiday, but to maximise it for BA's customers, is why anyone still books flights with BA?
I can understand those who might want to save a few bob, by taking the risk for a reduced fare, but why would anyone else use them? Let's hope this latest strike finishes British Airways off, and BA completely disappears, to have its routes and planes sold off to much better entrepreneurs managing much more grateful employees.
I bet Beardy Branson is loving it.
But then his staff never got used to flying all of their families and friends around the world for free in business class, being paid twice the industry rates, and being over-manned on all flights, when they had the 'civil service like' monopoly hold on the British airline industry.
As competition slowly forced BA to be less 'generous' to its civil servants, sorry, staff, the chippiness has grown to the point where even in the teeth of a recession, where they all might out of a job by January, they want to bring on the day when BA goes bust completely rather than just losing hundreds of millions of pounds each year; bless them.
I do hope they're as happy with their decision to strike when they're signing on the dole next year, as they are now.
Well, we can but hope.
So, Happy Christmas then, from all of your friends in the British Airways cabin crew. They'll all be at home on the Big Day having a nice cooked Turkey, with all the trimmings. Where will you be?
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