Exclusive Interview
Steve Forbes on Overseas Wars, the Coming Gold Standard and the Rise of 'Citizen Agitation'
The Daily Bell is pleased to present an exclusive interview with Steve Forbes.
Introduction: Steve Forbes is Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Forbes Media. He is also Editor-in-Chief of Forbes magazine. The company's flagship publication, Forbes, is the nation's leading business magazine, with a circulation of more than 900,000. Steve Forbes writes editorials for each issue of Forbes under the heading of "Fact and Comment." A widely respected economic prognosticator, he is the only writer to have won the highly prestigious Crystal Owl Award four times. He was a Republican candidate in the U.S. presidential primaries in 1996 and 2000. The Internet site, Forbes.com, averages 18 million unique monthly visitors, and has become a leading destination site for senior business decision-makers and investors. Other Forbes Web sites are: Investopedia.com; RealClearPolitics.com; RealClearMarkets.com; RealClearSports.com; and the Forbes.com Business and Finance Blog Network. Together with Forbes.com, these sites reach nearly 40 million business decision-makers each month. Mr. Forbes serves on the boards of The Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation, the Heritage Foundation and The Foundation for the Defense of Democracies.
Daily Bell: Please answer these questions as if readers were not aware of your famous magazine, your articles or frequently quoted opinions. Thanks.
Steve Forbes: OK. Go ahead.
Daily Bell: How has Forbes magazine been holding up in the Internet era? It was probably the most successful business magazine of the late 20th century in America, but what is your strategy going forward? Does it preserve the irreverent Forbes brand or will Forbes gradually turn into something else? ... Do you have any new initiatives planned?
Steve Forbes: I think that we recognized years ago, say the mid 90s, that the Internet was for real. We invested in the Web in a very big way making sure the website was not an appendage of the magazine. We put the website in a separate building, with separate staff and let the baby grow. It grew very nicely. Today the site has 18 million unique visitors a month with our affiliated sites another 10 million or so.
We see our mission as remaining unchanged which is to give our viewers, visitors and readers the kind of unique information and inside analysis that they need to start businesses, run businesses, to invest and also live outside the office. We believe in entrepreneurial capitalism. We are, you might say, similar to a drama critic, we love it when the show is done right, hate it when it's done wrong. Same thing holds true for companies and business people and entrepreneurs. When they get it right we are delighted; when they misuse capital, we are pretty hard on them. The mission has remained the same, but now going forward the staffs of the magazine and the website have been combined, both on editorial side and the marketing side, because we believe that while the platforms are different, the missions are similar. The website is doing well.
Daily Bell: What do you think of the Internet? We think it is changing the face of media. Were you surprised by its growth and impact? How can media generally accommodate its power and influence?
Steve Forbes: Everyone is trying to figure out how you move and prosper on the Web. There are no set answers yet, and I don't think there ever will be. But clearly the Internet has given us infinitely more sources of information, which make a respected brand a vital one that people trust as something more valuable than ever before. I think people want to go to sites where they know the product and trust the information they will get.
Daily Bell: Switching gears. Do you plan to run for president again?
Steve Forbes: No. I am an agitator now.
Daily Bell: What is your overwhelming political concern these days? Is it financial? Economic? Sociopolitical? What are you most worried about for America?
Steve Forbes: Right now my biggest concern is misbegotten ideology and economic thinking from Washington. What we are experiencing now is what you might call a form of soft-core socialism or quasi-Third World socialism where the government doesn't take over industries but, in effect, dominates industries so that you can't do anything without the permission of the federal government. You see it in health care, in finance and in the new so-called financial reform bill. I think the Obama Administration is going to make a move to get its hooks in a very big way into energy. Companies will remain ostensibly independent, but their activities what they can do and how much they are allowed to make will be determined by the White House or the bureaucracy.
Daily Bell: Are you worried about a growing authoritarianism in America?
Steve Forbes: Well, I am worried about this economic authoritarianism in which you have to have government approval to do anything. Yes.
Daily Bell: Is the war on terror exaggerated to further enhance the authority of the federal government?
Steve Forbes: In the US there has always been a tension between freedom and ensuring the ability to fight an external threat. So I think what we are seeing now with the Obama administration is government omnipotence at home and impotence oversees.
Daily Bell: What do you think of the neo-conservative movement? Do you consider yourself a conservative, a classic liberal or something in between?
Steve Forbes: I think that depends on how you define neo-conservative. I am a conservative. I believe in traditional liberal principals of liberty. So anything that revives Conservatism is to be applauded. And I think the American people are now seeing first hand, the limitations of government powers in terms of being a benefit to society. Government has some unique and important functions; but as far as its running health care, energy, finance, insurance, autos and whatever else they are taking over, NO.
Daily Bell: What do you think of the American Libertarian party?
Steve Forbes: Well, I think the libertarian movement is a recognition that there needs to be bounds on government, that people need sensible rules of the road and the space to do what they wish to do. It's similar to an automobile; you are not supposed to drive when you are drinking, but that doesn't mean the government tells you what to drive, where to drive and when to drive.
Daily Bell: You have studied economics for most of your life, it appears. Do you consider yourself of the Austrian school? Are you surprised by the progress the Austrian School has made in the 21st century?
Steve Forbes: The basic tenets of the Austrian School have withstood the test of time, and while I may have some variation of views on how you'd implement say, the gold standard, I think the basic tenets are absolutely there. Hayek, Mises and – though he's not considered a fully part of it – Schumpeter had insights on entrepreneurship. Liberty is good, government domination is NOT!
Daily Bell: You mentioned a gold standard. Should the Western world return to some sort of gold standard? What would it be? Is it feasible?
Steve Forbes: We will return to a gold-based monetary system. I don't think we'll go back to a 1920s or 20th century-style gold standard. But I think monetary policy will be tied to the price of gold, which manifestly it is not today. So, yes, a gold-based system is coming back, and it will be good!
Daily Bell: Would you like to see drugs legalized?
Steve Forbes: It depends what drugs you are talking about? Lipitor, yes! I think there needs to be restrictions on hard drugs to which you can become easily addicted.
Daily Bell: Where do you stand on the immigration debate?
Steve Forbes: I am very much for legal immigration. We need to institute policies that will fulfill our own internal needs, whether it's for workers with high-tech skills, or for traditional starting service jobs. We ought to face up to the problem of illegals doing the work many of our citizens will not perform instead of averting our eyes. One of the things that has to be done is to reform our immigration service so that people who play by the rules don't get punished.
Daily Bell: Is President Obama doing a good job? Why or why not?
Steve Forbes: He is not doing a good job, particularly regarding the economy. Look at all of his binge spending; he ignores the issue of where the money is coming from. It's not from heaven or a ship from Mars; it is money taken from the people, either through borrowing, taxation or inflation. One way or another it comes out of our pockets. His raising tax is very destructive. His taking over health care is highly destructive to people's health. These massive bills, 2,300 pages at a pop, are written in vague language, which gives enormous discretionary powers to the bureaucracy. And that's deliberate! Obama realizes you don't have to nationalize industries to in-effect control them and make them vassals of the federal government.
Daily Bell: What do you think of the Tea Party?
Steve Forbes: I think the Tea Party movement is a positive thing. It is leaderless, which is good. It's citizens, families and individuals coming together who are worried about what Washington is doing. This is people on their own, not supported by taxpayers' dollars, and it has Washington frightened. Washington does not like spontaneous movements; it likes to control things.
Daily Bell: What do you think of Sarah Palin?
Steve Forbes: She's a formidable national figure. I don't think she'd be elected if she runs for President, but as we saw the other day in Alaska, when she anoints a candidate, lays her hands on a candidate, that candidate becomes viable. And even when a candidate does not win, that candidate becomes a much more serious candidate once Palin provides her endorsement. I have never seen anything like it, where an endorsement by an individual has such an enormous impact.
Daily Bell: What do you think of Ron Paul? Is he realistic or is he like Robert Graves' "Claudius" – harkening back to a Republic that can never come again?
Steve Forbes: Today the punditry would say, Ron Paul is unrealistic, but the nice thing about America is that what is today's unrealism becomes tomorrow's conventional wisdom. I think there will be a very real examination during the next five years of our monetary policy – including hitching the dollar to gold, which some of us have been advocating for a long time. There is no substitute for a reliable compass.
Daily Bell: Ron Paul has emphasized a less aggressive foreign policy. What do you think of the Afghanistan war? Do you think America ought to leave?
Steve Forbes: No, America is not going to be able to leave Afghanistan any time soon. I think what we should be doing now that we're there is following the precepts of counter insurgency: work with the local people and maintain sufficient forces to be able to do that and hope for some semblance of stability. To leave now would set in motion a Cambodia-like blood bath.
Daily Bell: Is there going to be war with Iran?
Steve Forbes: I think Israel at some point – and I have learned not to give a timetable on these things – will make a strike on Iran's nuclear facilities.
Daily Bell: Does Israel have too much influence on the American political system and foreign affairs?
Steve Forbes: The answer is no. One of the proofs of this is that Israel tried to get a green-light to go after Iran from the Bush Administration two years ago. The Administration said "no," even though it was considered very friendly to Israel. Meanwhile, President Obama is more hostile toward Israel than any other U.S. administration in decades. So in terms of the big things, Israel might have influence but it's not omnipotent.
Daily Bell: More international questions: Will the euro survive? How about the EU? Will we see a two-tier EU?
Steve Forbes: I think the euro will survive, if only because the EU countries have invested so much political capital in it. One way or another they will make it survive. But what the bureaucrat should be focused on is creating a more perfect union, a more perfect free trade area in which barriers of goods and services are removed. That way there would be more economic opportunity and efficiency, freer flows of capital, more and more entrepreneurs would have the chance to rise up. The EU should be focusing on its onerous tax and regulatory barriers. It should adopt the Irish tax rate of 12%.
Daily Bell: Is China headed for world dominance or an inflationary depression or something in between?
Steve Forbes: I don't think we are going to see Chinese dominance in our lifetime. China has made enormous advances since the 1970s but it still is a long way from having an economy that is self-regenerating and that allows for genuine entrepreneurship and innovation. Government still has a very heavy hand. The US has been through numerous crises. We have always emerged from them when reforms have been made and people are liberated. The US also has a record of innovation that is second to none in the world.
Daily Bell: Do the Chinese expect the demise of the dollar as the world's reserve?
Steve Forbes: They feel that it might slowly happen, but they won't want that to happen because they own a lot of dollars in devalued assets and no one likes to lose money.
Daily Bell: Where is the US economy headed? Will there be a double-dip "recession?"
Steve Forbes: It won't be a double-dip recession, but we will lumber along. Large companies have fortified their balance sheet, but there's a deep reluctance to hire because people don't know what the rules of the game are. They are facing huge uncertainties from health care, huge uncertainties from this so called financial reform bill – who-knows-what policies Washington will espouse regarding energy. So if you can avoid hiring, most employers try to avoid it and use temporaries, institute extended hours and contract with workers as well as independent contractors. Washington has created massive amounts of uncertainty, which is deadly for vibrant job creation.
Daily Bell: We see this fiat money bear market lasting another five years at least. Agree? Disagree?
Steve Forbes: I think you will start to see life again in the markets if people sense that there's going to be some very positive change in November. If people like Rand Paul and Pat Toomey go to Washington then you will see the big push after the 2012 elections for a president who has at least some understanding of free markets.
Daily Bell: Should the Fed be audited? Should it be abolished?
Steve Forbes: Well the idea that there would even be a controversy over auditing an entity as powerful as the Fed just makes your eyes roll. They have less formal oversight than does the CIA. No one wants congress running the Fed, but Congress created the Federal Reserve and has no accountability; therefore there ought to be some system of accountability. This is absolutely lacking today. This is partly true because politicians find the subject boring, even though it's important. They find it scary and they are very uneasy around it.
Daily Bell: Will the IMF succeed in making the SDR the world's reserve currency?
Steve Forbes: No, because as much as they want to have conferences and wave wands you cannot dictate a global-reserve currency and have it become a reality. As you know, the SDRs were created back in the 1960s, and were called paper gold. They have been around for 40 years and are an artifact of central banking. But reserve currencies come out of the forces of the marketplace not communiques from bureaucrats.
Daily Bell: Have we seen the end of bailouts?
Steve Forbes: The Administration is continuing to push them. The next big push will be on bailing out union pension plans that have been run into the ground, not to mention state and municipal pension funds. I think an environment exists today, in which these bailouts can be defeated. But make no mistake, this President is going to make two big pushes regarding union and state and municipal pension plans.
Daily Bell: Where are gold and silver headed?
Steve Forbes: Ask Ben Bernanke (laughing). If he keeps printing money they will continue go up.
Daily Bell: Where are commodities generally headed?
Steve Forbes: If Bernanke keeps printing money, they will go up in nominal value.
Daily Bell: What are the most important seminal articles that you would encourage everyone to read? Where can they be found?
Steve Forbes: On Forbes.com and Forbes Magazine! Seriously, here you can read pieces written by such people as Amity Shlaes, who wrote the book "The Forgotten Man" on the Great Depression and how Roosevelt messed that up. And David Malpass, who is running for the Senate in New York and has written some important pieces on the misbegotten policies of the Federal Reserve. Bill Isaac is another good one and Brian Westbury has a very good take on misbegotten policies like mark-to-market accounting rules and the way regulators applied it.
Daily Bell: What inspires you to write and to run a successful world-class publishing company instead of just retiring and enjoying your life and wealth?
Steve Forbes: Well, you get more out of life when you are living it with a purpose. You can have more than one purpose, but having a goal and having a sense of what you are trying to do is what gives life meaning. So sitting back and enjoying wealth, well what would I do? Just watch FOX and get depressed? No, I want to do something.
Daily Bell: In closing, what would you like to say to our readers about the coming times?
Steve Forbes: Expect turbulence but also know that thanks to citizen agitation we are laying the groundwork for fundamental change in this country. In this case it is REAL change, going back to basic principles, going forward with basic principles instead of the statist, Third-World, soft-core socialism that we are getting from the current Administration and Congress.
Daily Bell: Thank you for taking time to speak with us out of your busy schedule.
Steve Forbes: Well, thank you.
Daily Bell: Thank you for your time and efforts to support freedom. Good luck!
There is much in this interview that more fervent libertarians might find intriguing though not entirely satisfying. Yet it is hard to be a revolutionary when one is scion to a great publishing empire. Give Steve Forbes credit: He's an important media figure and heads a series of significant media properties. Yet he answered all our questions and in many cases provided significant information. In many of his sentiments he sounds more like Ron Paul than Barack Obama, and that's certainly a good thing from any sort of libertarian standpoint.
Once past the libertarian-conservative divide, in fact, we see much of interest. We've predicted ever since the inception of the Bell (and longer than that, actually), that sooner or later a major revaluation of US money is coming. Steve Forbes himself has long focused on a return of a gold standard of some sort. Of course we don't prefer a classical gold standard defined and controlled by the state (and thus the power elite that stands behind it). We would prefer a private, market-driven gold and silver standard such as has emerged from financial and societal upheavals in the past. For most people such a flexible standard would be preferable. The wealthy of course have more to lose.
Steve Forbes makes a number of other points of note. He has run for US president and has inherited a major business media franchise. It might be said that his views represent the authentic perspective of a certain kind of American power broker. The three most important points he makes in this interview are 1. Arrival of a gold standard (as mentioned above); 2. Potential war with Iran; 3. America remaining in Afghanistan.
The bad news? It is frankly discouraging to hear such an important and prescient individual predict that the US and NATO will not leave Afghanistan. It is even more discouraging that he sees Israel, sooner or later, bombing Iran. This presages some sort of world war in our opinion and is no small prediction. We cannot imagine the ramifications – especially when it comes to Russia and China.
Iran has never dropped nuclear devices on anyone and the threats that Iranian leaders have made (especially about "wiping Israel off the map) have been mistranslated apparently. Not only that, but Iran's leaders must know that bombing Israel with nuclear weapons would spell the end of the regime if not of their lives. Pakistan, a fervently Muslim country, already has nuclear weapons but they have never been used (not even on India) for the same reason that Iran's nuclear weapons would likely not be used.
Such armaments are defensive in nature, so far as we can tell, when applied to modern warfare. They also, in this day and age, discourage others from using "tactical" nuclear weapons. Iran claims NOT to be making nuclear weapons and seems to be willing to negotiate on a variety of fronts, though as with Iraq the US seems more enthusiastic about sanctions and threats than ongoing discussions.
We may be wrong of course; but it seems to us that bombing Iran will bring about incredibly negative consequences. Bomb Iran and the price of energy may be measured in the thousands rather than the hundreds of dollars per barrel. And if Iran cannot retaliate mightn't others in the Muslim world? The erosion of civil liberties in the US and EU is already alarming. Marry these authoritarian tendencies to a war with a historic Middle Eastern power like Iran and we have to think the West will end up in a kind of fascist lockdown. Of course, some would argue that's just the point.
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Posted by Weeble on 08/30/10 12:36 AM
My mother is a Robert Service fan. I gave him lip service till now. This was a great poem and quite apt for the moment: "The Men That Don't Fit In." Thanks for the reminder Matiwane and DB!
Click to view link
Reply from The Daily Bell
Thanks for the link.
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Posted by RT Carpenter on 08/29/10 11:56 PM
Forbes is an intelligent, well-connected and well-informed national figure. Unfortunately, he is a Neocon or possibly even a Likud member. Israel would never consider attacking Iran without Ameica's support. Obama is far too timid to lead America at this difficult time, but is in no way "hostile" to Israel.
Netanyahu gets a private audience and public embrace from Obama whenever he wants it. Israel is sending its representative to Washington shortly for brokered meetings with Palestinians. We have played that sucker role since the time of Pres Carter. The best thing we could do for Israel is get out of the way, get out of these destructive wars. Israel is fully capable of working out its own peace with its neighbors.
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Posted by Eamon on 08/29/10 08:17 PM
Israel does not have too much influence...The Euro will survive...We should stay the course in Afghanistan...There will NOT be a double-dip...blah, blah, blah. IMO, we will see some truly stunning events during the remainder of 2010, and beyond. My personal belief is that, before this Purification is complete, the entire system will have completely, spectacularly unraveled -- and many, many people will have died. Godspeed to all :)
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Posted by Matiwane on 08/29/10 07:39 PM
Re your comments on Wilfred Owen you might also consider the works of Robert Service. There are very few poets whom in one poem can bring one to absolute tears and the next absolute hilarity. Do yourself a favour and read this man you will be enthralled!
Reply from The Daily Bell
Click to view link
Or see below ...
Robert William Service was born in Preston, Lancashire, England of Scottish parents. He spent his childhood in Scotland and attended the University of Glasgow. His vagabond career took him throughout the world, with a diversity of jobs from cook to clerk, from hobo to correspondent . He emigrated to Canada in 1894 and took a job with the Canadian Bank of Commerce and was stationed for eight years in Whitehorse, Yukon. It was while in the Yukon that he published his first book of poems that was to make him famous - Songs of a Sourdough.
He was a correspondent for the Toronto Star during the Balkan Wars of 1912-13 and an ambulance driver and correspondent in France during World War I. He settled in France after WW I and married a French girl, Germaine Bougeoin. He returned to Canada during WWII, living in Hollywood and Vancouver. He wrote two autobiographical works,
Ploughman of the Moon (1945) and Harper of Heaven (1948) and 6 novels, including The Trail of '98 (1912) about the Klondike Gold Rush, and more than 45 verse collections containing over 1,000 poems. Several of his novels and his poem "McGrew" were adapted to movies. He made a brief appearance with Marlene Dietrich in the 1942 film The Spoilers. After World War II he returned to France, where Robert, Germaine, and their daughter lived the remainder of his life, mainly in Brittany and on the French Riviera.
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Posted by Mark Eberle on 08/29/10 06:52 PM
Mark Eberle
The Patriot Conservative
Click to view link
The Patriot Conservative News cover the rally in DC from Seattle and we had a caller name Ginny Meerman on our Talk show broadcast Restore Honor Rally 8/28/10 Click to view link
Photos of Restore Honor event is on
Click to view link
call talk show line (425) 242-1224
work cell # (425) 221-2612
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Posted by JOHN ROSSI on 08/29/10 06:00 PM
"DAILY BELL AFTER THOUGHTS" EXCEPTIONAL COVERAGE OF THE SUBJECT. REPEAT: A TREMENDOUS SITE, THANK YOU.
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Posted by Mary Boud on 08/29/10 05:36 PM
DB: " To your comment, "It might be said that his (Forbe's) views represent the authentic perspective of a certain kind of American power broker"...
I would say, leave off the 'power broker' designation and you'd have it just right. He may be wealthy but he represents the authentic perspective of many ordinary American citizens who have finally realized the threat to their personal liberties, including freedom of speech, religion, private property, States' rights and our free-enterprise system that the Obama administration and 'progressive' movement of the past decades presents. We may have 'Life' but we face the loss of 'Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.'
Mr. Forbes has written a book entitled "How Capitalism Will Save Us." Although I'm sure it will take more than a return to true capitalism, he sees the dangers to our way of life.
His answers were clear and concise but so many commentators feel the need to mischaracterize him and his views. He stated well the ferment that has been underway in America and he feels himself allied with it. He participates in a business/ finance/ investment program -- 'Forbes on FOX' -- every Saturday morning and his comments are consistently commonsense conservativism.
It was an excellent interview and Mr. Forbes was forthright in providing his honest opinion on a wide range of topics, but the Daily Bell and most posters zeroed in on 'wars and rumors of wars.'
I found the interview refreshingly authentic and it is sad that the 'conversation' always seems to descend into the monomania of 'war.' I suppose I am the one who is out of step here since free-enterprise plus a mistrust and general opposition to war are apparently the purpose of this site. In any case, thank you DB for sharing this interview.
Reply from The Daily Bell
"I suppose I am the one who is out of step here since free-enterprise plus a mistrust and general opposition to war are apparently the purpose of this site. In any case, thank you DB for sharing this interview."
Yes, we are generally opposed to war. Read General Smedley Butler's War is a Racket. War is for the most part a control mechanism for the perpetuation of the state - and is therefore anti-free market. Who would not be opposed to war? War is killing people, too often women and children. Those who participate in war often end up opposed to it as well.
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"It was an excellent interview and Mr. Forbes was forthright in providing his honest opinion on a wide range of topics, but the Daily Bell and most posters zeroed in on 'wars and rumors of wars.' "
Thank you. We agree with this and believe our afterword respected Steve Forbes position and the views he shared with us. It was not our intention to be disrespectful to someone who participates in an interview with us and is willing to share our forum.
Short of deleting feedbacks, which we do not like to do, we have little influence over Bell feedbackers. They write what they wish to write and we only remove or edit the comment if they are in bad taste or personally assault the objects of their commentaries
We think that most of the feedbacks deal with the statements of Steve Forbes as regards the military industrial complex. The Bell is anti-war as well and the comments received on this issue dealt with this issue and are not simply generated out of some sort of frustration with Mr. Forbes, envy, etc.
We will review the comments once again, but don't think the comment were out of line. We have thanked Steve Forces for participating in the interview, and remain grateful for his time and for his seriousness in answering our questions honestly and openly.
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Posted by Rbblum on 08/29/10 04:32 PM
Reasonably good viewpoint by Michael Rozeff regarding what manner gold may be considered being implemented as a currency @
Click to view link
Reply from The Daily Bell
Thanks for the link.
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Posted by Mpresley on 08/29/10 04:13 PM
I appreciate this (and all your) interviews. Mr Forbes is mainstream neoconservative; as such he is pretty typical of where we've been and, it seems, where we're heading. And he is a pretty good politician at heart, knowing how to say nothing out of the ordinary, deftly evading some questions, but making you like him at the same time. He kind of reminds me of the second Bush.
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Posted by Zenbillionaire on 08/29/10 03:51 PM
Sorry. Should have been "to the two statement made, ..."
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Posted by Zenbillionaire on 08/29/10 03:46 PM
"The question was not "misphrased", as you suggest. You're obfuscating it to the point of inversion."
I only suggested that it might have been in order to draw attention that the two statements made, first that Israel did not exert excess influence on US policy, and second that the Israelis were almost certain to bomb Iran. The two ideas are in conflict only if you assume the US doesn't want Israel to bomb Iran (given US hegemony); either Israel is in fact influencing US policy, or they only reflect it. Israel have publicly threatened to attack Iran so a US that clearly exerts hegemony is either being influenced by Israel to the extent it allows such an attack by funding it an supplying necessary arms and support. or Israel is in fact executing US policy. Both statements can't be true otherwise.
Since Mr. Forbes says Israel doesn't exert undue influence on US policy, we may conclude that it is the wellspring of Israel's apparent aggression. He has told us as much in the interview, but he's done so in the negative. This may or not be true, however it is a logical interpretation of his statements.
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Posted by John Butler on 08/29/10 03:42 PM
Thanks Acudoc and Bell !
There's a GREAT trilogy of novels about Owen and Sassoon by Pat Barker: "The Eye in the Door"; "The Ghost Road"; "Regeneration".
Enjoy!
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Posted by Clayton on 08/29/10 03:29 PM
I would like to toot my horn on this one.
Two weekends ago, I was at the Money Show in San Francisco, where Steve Forbes was the keynote speaker. After his speech, he did a book signing for the attendees who were willing to pay the retail price of the copy. The atmosphere was fairly casual and offered an opportunity to talk with Mr. Forbes one on one.
During his speech, I was impressed by how changed certain elements of it were from the speech he had given the previous year. In particular, he introduced the term "Statism" into his vocabulary and used it to describe the great evil that inflicts us today.
He was also clear on the point of what he referred to as "Soft Core Socialism." His definition was very close to the concept developed by Von Mises. It is the private ownership (and hence liability) of the means of production combined with the governmental direction of the purposes to which these supposedly private means would used. It also implies the lion's share of the net gains of the enterprise going either directly (through taxation) or indirectly (though inflation and rent seeking regulation) to the government's coffers. We know this system as Corporatism, or Fascism.
This is radical talk indeed coming out of someone who is placed so close to the center of the PE's discussion groups, and made me think that a fear that things were getting out of hand was spreading amongst his peers.
From the Bell's point of view, the element in his speech that was most interesting was his ideas concerning the nature of money itself. He made the statement that money was value created by people in the real economy and that it was their creation of value that underpinned any legitimacy that money had.
Secondly, he said quite clearly, and this could well be a quote, that money should be what the people in the economy decided that it should be and not some concoction imposed upon the actors in the real economy by some government bureaucrats. This was a huge shift from the prior year, when he waffled on this point when I put it to him in front of the general audience of the Money Show. This reflects in my opinion the concern even the PE have concerning the issue of the Money-ness of Money.
To continue my story. Before I was willing to purchase his book, I needed to verify whether or not he had acknowledged von Mises or Murray Rothbard in it. Yes, he had!
So I made my purchase thinking that this would be a very good time to see if Mr. Forbes was familiar with the Daily Bell. So I wrote down the Bell's web address on a note card. As he was signing my copy of his book, I asked him if he was in fact aware of the Bell, and he said that he wasn't, upon which I gave him the note card and encouraged him to log on and tune into your work and point of view. He said he would. I guess he did.
My last comments to him were when I thanked him for including von Mises in his writing. He said to me, and this is a direct quote, "Von Mises is a Giant!" This was shocking to hear from a figure deep in the Establishment. When I told him that I had read almost everything that von Mises had written, he was very impressed.
So, if I was helpful in making this interview happen, it makes my day today. Countless small steps make a Journey. Minor as they might seem, we should be encouraged by this small shift in the emphasis and direction of dialogue taking place in these "Interesting Times."
Reply from The Daily Bell
We offered our thanks previously when you mentioned this and do so again.
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Posted by R.P. McCosker on 08/29/10 02:55 PM
I'm a little disappointed that The Daily Bell saw fit to waste its -- and its readers' -- time trying to take seriously this pathetic tool of the power elites. About all you need to know about Forbes is that he supported -- actively supported -- Rudy Giuliani for president in 2008. Or that he fired one of the best journalists around -- Peter Brimelow -- for presenting the facts that undermine the power elite's preference for unbridled Third World immigration to the West.
Reply from The Daily Bell
No one forces you to read it.
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Posted by John Butler on 08/29/10 02:42 PM
Zenbillionaire, Here's why Iran is differernt from Syria and Lebanon.
1) Iran can cut off / disrupt the oil flow in the Strait of Hormuz and
2) Iran has a HUGE army and it borders Iraq, which endangers OUR BOYS (not Israel's).
The question was not "misphrased", as you suggest. You're obfuscating it to the point of inversion. Nice try. It's about Israeli influence on the US, not the US acting thru an Israeli attack. It's Israeli influence on NATO (a US imperial entity). Follow the money to determine who steers the US emire: AIPAC is the largest, most powerful lobby group in the country. Then, look in high places here.
I can still recall Madeilline Albright being interviewed in the 1990's about the 1 million who starved to death in Iraq from the embargo. Half of whom were women and children. She said "it was worth the cost". Huh? Worth the cost to whom, exactly? To Israel, obviously. The American people did not sanction this genocide. As long as we keep Israel safe, any "cost" is acceptible--but only in the eyes of those in the aformentioned high places, and their "constituents".
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Posted by Acudoc on 08/29/10 02:29 PM
MetaCynic---you wrote
"How many times must we relearn the painful lesson that domestic civil liberties and free markets cannot coexist with an interventionist foreign policy, and especially with wars of aggression? Why should we assume that a crazed man who routinely beats his neighbors' wives and kids will not beat his own?"
Priceless! I will be stealing that quote, if you don't mind.
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Posted by Lila Rajiva on 08/29/10 02:27 PM
@MetaCynic
Anything is possible. I was thinking of the Polish plane sabotage. My personal opinion is the globalists struck there to eliminate a thorn in their side. Maybe they needed to ensure that the encirclement of the Middle East was not subject to the whims of some cranky reactionary. Just a guess....
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Posted by Acudoc on 08/29/10 02:25 PM
Interesting interview with an influential man who extols the importance of individual freedom and human action in the market place while having a very casual (IMO) view of the state and its proclivity to prosecute wars at every opportunity, which inevitably shrink individual freedoms.
I remember reading "All Quiet on the Western Front" many years ago. That novel, plus the following poem, are the only "research" on war--- short of actual participation in one and feeling suicidal thirty years later---that freedom-loving libertarians, who are not a part of the establishment like Mr. Forbes, need to do.
DULCE ET DECORUM EST
Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs
And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of tired, outstripped Five-Nines that dropped behind.
Gas! Gas! Quick, boys! ' An ecstasy of fumbling,
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time;
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling,
And flound'ring like a man in fire or lime . . .
Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light,
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.
In all my dreams, before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.
If in some smothering dreams you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin;
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie; Dulce et Decorum est
Pro patria mori.
8 October 1917 " March, 1918
This post is also directed at any Christian jihadists advancing Israel's war against Iran, as well as laptop bombardiers, everywhere.
Reply from The Daily Bell
1 DULCE ET DECORUM EST - the first words of a Latin saying (taken from an ode by Horace). The words were widely understood and often quoted at the start of the First World War. They mean "It is sweet and right." The full saying ends the poem: Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori - it is sweet and right to die for your country. In other words, it is a wonderful and great honour to fight and die for your country
Introduction to Wilfred Owen
Few would challenge the claim that Wilfred Owen is the greatest writer of war poetry in the English language. He wrote out of his intense personal experience as a soldier and wrote with unrivalled power of the physical, moral and psychological trauma of the First World War. All of his great war poems on which his reputation rests were written in a mere fifteen months.
From the age of nineteen Wilfred Owen wanted to become a poet and immersed himself in poetry, being especially impressed by Keats and Shelley.
He was working in France, close to the Pyrenees, as a private tutor when the First World War broke out. At this time he was remote from the war and felt completely disconnected from it too. Even when he visited the local hospital with a doctor friend and examined, at close quarters, the nature of the wounds of soldiers who were arriving from the Western Front, the war still appeared to him as someone else's story.
Eventually he began to feel guilty of his inactivity as he read copies of The Daily Mail which his mother sent him from England. He returned to England, and volunteered to fight on 21 October 1915. He trained in England for over a year and enjoyed the impression he made on people as he walked about in public wearing his soldier's uniform.
He was sent to France on the last day of 1916, and within days was enduring the horrors of the front line. ...
He escaped bullets until the last week of the war, but he saw a good deal of front-line action: he was blown up, concussed and suffered shell-shock. At Craiglockhart, the psychiatric hospital in Edinburgh, he met Siegfried Sassoon who inspired him to develop his war poetry.
He was sent back to the trenches in September, 1918 and in October won the Military Cross by seizing a German machine-gun and using it to kill a number of Germans.
On 4th November he was shot and killed near the village of Ors. The news of his death reached his parents home as the Armistice bells were ringing on 11 November.
Click to view link
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Posted by Lila Rajiva on 08/29/10 02:24 PM
@Capt. Principaute de Monaco
Your personal experiences confirm mine.
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Posted by MetaCynic on 08/29/10 02:19 PM
@ Lila:
As you speculated, perhaps the West has put precautions in place, to mitigate the blowback from an attack on Iran. However, since war always produces unintended consequences, it's not out of the question that Iran is also taking low cost precautions to strike back and perhaps even discourage an attack.
After seeing what befell its neighbor, Iraq, who was innocent of any involvement in 9/11, Iran has had seven years to infiltrate sleeper agents throughout America, Europe and Israel. These agents could be trained in the production and release of bio-weapons.
If such a plan exists it would certainly be implemented if Iran is attacked with tactical nuclear weapons. What would happen to the West's already fragile economies if a credible Iranian bio-weapons threat triggers panic stricken evacuations of its major cities? This Mother of all blowbacks would make the Great Depression look like a one day work stoppage by comparison.
One can imagine a military coup in America under such a scenario or even blocs of states seceding from the Union in order to save themselves by dramatically demonstrating their rejection of Washington's foreign policy.
Reply from The Daily Bell
Iran is Persia. And Persia is not Iraq - which is a made-up country.
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