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uncle sam shakes down the taxpayer
The Life and Times of Irwin Schiff
October 20, 2015
Irwin Schiff made his reputation trying to debunk and remove the US income tax system. He considered it illegal and immoral and went to jail three times for his beliefs. We knew him several decades ago. He promised us several "scoops" when he came to New York a ...
Cannabis Could Win Big in Today's Canadian Election
October 19, 2015
Elections, even hotly contested ones, can have major consequences and the upcoming Canadian federal election is no exception. It may end up with a victory for Liberal Party leader Justin Trudeau, and also for cannabis legalization. Medicinal cannabis is now leg ...
smoking gun barrel
Smoking Gun Memo Changes Context of Middle East
October 19, 2015
So it is all coming out now ... the deliberate, cold-blooded planning to create a war with Iraq no matter the consequences. The evidence is contained in communications from then US Secretary of State Colin Powell to President George W Bush. Just released – ap ...
Things Fall Apart Around Janet Yellen
October 16, 2015
Of course the mainstream media – as represented above by Reuters – is going to emphasize the normalcy of the process. There should be no doubt that the Federal Reserve has weathered worse crises and as soon as the numbers prove out one way or another, Fed o ...
Illinois Runs Out of Money as Gold Rises
October 16, 2015
In our other article today, we pointed out that the US Federal Reserve wasn't just wrestling with rate hikes but was facing a bigger challenge because people were gradually losing faith in the monetary system that the Fed represents. Within this context, Illino ...
Why British MPs May Support Legal Cannabis
October 15, 2015
The proverbial tide may be turning in Britain when it comes to legalization of cannabis. A government study has come to the conclusion that legalizing cannabis would be a tax windfall and also save £200m a year in various enforcement costs. The pressure is app ...
Simon Black Says You Need a Second Passport Now
October 15, 2015
Sovereign Man's Simon Black has been writing and distributing "case studies" focused on freedom issues and providing solutions for those who want to take action on a variety of topics. This analysis will focus on the benefits of a second passport. Black's case ...
Peter Schiff Says to Arbitrage the Fed
October 14, 2015
This is a longish article, but it has one basic point – a significant one worth repeating. The point is that the market has already "priced in" a rate hike. And it is Peter Schiff's belief that the market is wrong, and that investors can take advantage of tha ...
Is Gary North an Economic and Internet Optimist?
October 14, 2015
Our favorite economic curmudgeon – Gary North – is back with an insightful debunking of Matt Drudge's fears regarding the Internet and the recently agreed-upon TPP trade treaty, which contains a number of bad elements including a loony strengthening of copy ...
Technocratic Favoritism Versus Commodity Prices
October 13, 2015
Jim Rogers is usually bullish on commodities but this article asks if Rogers was wrong. We've been lucky enough to interview Rogers numerous times and we understand his bullishness. But read Rogers closely and you will see that his analysis includes factors oth ...
Ron Paul on the Cognitive Dissonance of the Political Class
October 13, 2015
This is a very good point that Ron Paul is making. The horrible tragedy in Afghanistan – where US pilots bombed a hospital and killed some 22 patients and doctors – was not even the subject of a formal apology when it happened. Contrast this reaction to the ...
The Incredible, Diminishing, Endlessly Discussed Rate Hike
October 12, 2015
Fischer, Janet Yellen and the rest of the Federal Reserve gang ought to print placards that say, "rate hike coming," as that way they wouldn't have to repeat themselves so much. However, here's a thought: There may be a method to the "madness" of constant delay ...
The Real Estate Bubble That Ate the World
October 12, 2015
When we think of real estate bubbles, we often think of Manhattan and London, because that's where the most egregious bubbles often emerge. We are informed by the media, as well, that these areas are most "in demand." And this perspective is fueled by reporting ...
Slave Labor in America
October 09, 2015
Abraham Lincoln, while no friend of liberty in other respects, at least ended slavery in the American South. That was a century and a half ago. Now another form of slave labor has become common. We don't see it or think about it because it hides behind prison w ...
Stealing Elections the High-Tech Way
October 08, 2015
After the many high-profile hacking incidents the last two years, it should be clear to all that virtually no automated system is intrusion-proof. Nothing can stop a highly motivated pirate who wants inside your system. What motivates the pirates? To date it ha ...
Survey Says: Americans Trust No One
October 07, 2015
The Gallup Organization goes to great lengths to tell us what we already know. Their latest national polling, for instance, says "Americans' Trust in Media Remains at Historical Low." The greater surprise is the other side of the coin. Some 40% of Americans thi ...
A Tale of Two Killings
October 06, 2015
If the local sheriff had his way, none of us would know that Chris Harper Mercer was the one who killed nine people and then himself at an Oregon community college. The sheriff thinks putting the name in print or saying it aloud somehow glorifies Mercer's actio ...
Secret Service Can't Keep Secrets
October 05, 2015
The U.S. Secret Service looks more like a rogue agency every day. Between agents partying with prostitutes, others drunkenly driving through White House gates and yet others leaving the mansion's front door unlocked, it's fair to wonder when they will "accident ...
Generals Manipulate Media, Media Complies
October 02, 2015
When top generals talk about protecting military secrets, the average citizen will think some important subject must be at stake: troop movements, weapons capabilities, intelligence sources and the like. The public presumes its generals are men and women of int ...
Orwellian UN Picks a Surprising Human Rights Judge
October 01, 2015
To the so-called neoconservative advocates of "realistic" foreign policy, Israel can do no wrong and Iran can do no right. What do they think about Saudi Arabia? Mostly they pretend it doesn't exist. This saves them from having to explain how Saudi Arabia is a ...
District Attorneys Gone Prison-Happy
September 30, 2015
U.S. prisons are stuffed to the rafters, often with non-violent offenders. By all kinds of measures, we incarcerate far more people than most of the world. Why? The standard assumption blames aggressive drug law enforcement and mandatory sentencing laws. New re ...
Pentagon-Protected Pedophiles
September 29, 2015
That evil acts occur when nations go to war is no surprise. Soldiers arrive already expecting it, their leaders having described the enemy as vermin worthy of death. What some American troops found in Afghanistan is different. It was not an evil they brought wi ...
The Age of Conditional Ownership
September 28, 2015
"After all, it's their car," says the author of today's excerpt. This is incorrect. No one "owns" his or her car, if ownership means the right to do what you want with the object you own. What we really have is a sort of long-term conditional lease. The so-call ...
The Pope without a Country
September 25, 2015
We do not know what Pope Francis and President Obama discussed during their 45-minute private Oval Office meeting this week. It would be nice if he heard Obama's confession, but they would likely have needed more time. Their conversation, whatever it was, will ...
Innovation is No Excuse!
September 24, 2015
Bitcoin promoters who long for recognition got their wish last week. It is not an official currency, nor is it likely to become one. The cryptocurrency is an official commodity, though. Whether this is good news remains to be seen. The designation resulted from ...
Breaking News: Governments Lie!
September 23, 2015
The story we excerpt today is almost two years old. The topic, U.S. drone strikes in Pakistan, is interesting but what it reveals about governmental deception is even more so. Bob Woodward of the Washington Post obtained top-secret documents detailing CIA drone ...
Corporate Democracy Doesn't Work, Either
September 22, 2015
We all know that the various forms of democratic governance don't work nearly as well as advertised. Representatives usually turn corrupt in short order, no matter how the people select them. They devolve into oligarchy under a democratic façade. The same is t ...
Texas Police Are Alarmingly Sensitive
September 21, 2015
Last week's much-publicized and completely unnecessary arrest of young Ahmed Mohamed brought to light an alarmingly (pun intended) broad Texas law against so-called "hoax bombs." The statute is an open invitation for police to detain anyone for anything. In Tex ...
Apple to DOJ: Sorry, No Can Do
September 18, 2015
Relations between the U.S. technology industry and federal law enforcement look less cordial every day. This summer saw FBI Director James Comey begging them to believe he is not a maniac for demanding back-door access to private customer data. Now Microsoft is ...
Why Not More 9/11 Attacks?
September 17, 2015
Each year on Dec. 7, ceremonies occur to mark the 1941 surprise Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Each year the memorials get less attention as those who actually saw the event pass away. Will Sept. 11 also lose its hold on our collective memories someday? Proba ...
NYPD Sings the Blues
September 16, 2015
Yet again, the public is seeing video of a police-citizen encounter gone wrong. Retired tennis star James Blake, whom everyone agrees was guilty of absolutely nothing, was nevertheless tackled and handcuffed by an NYPD officer with a history of using excessive ...
Guilty of Thought Crimes
September 15, 2015
Any American, regardless of age and ancestry, who flies to Turkey in hopes of joining the Islamic State has made a terrible choice. He or she is taking a road that leads nowhere good. On the other hand, anyone who has parented teenagers learns to expect bad cho ...
Crony Capitalism to Blame Not Free Markets
September 14, 2015
The writer for Germany-based Spiegel rightly notes the increasing wealth concentration in the United States in recent decades. The rich are indeed getting richer, while many in the bottom 99% struggle to make ends meet. He veers off course, however, by blaming ...
Brownshirts Rising?
September 11, 2015
Political mavens tell us polls are mostly meaningless this long before an election. I certainly hope so. As Jeffrey Tucker says in today's excerpt, the current data point to a seriously problematic outcome next November. Nascent authoritarianism has long simmer ...
Democracy Minus Voters
September 10, 2015
The phrase "to carefully gerrymander" is more than just a split infinitive. It is apparently a legally permissible activity in Missouri. The Business Loop 70 Community Improvement District tried its best to make sure no annoying voters could stop its new taxes, ...
Chris Christie Thinks Inside the Box
September 09, 2015
The presidential race is already entering silly season. Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker wants to build a wall spanning the U.S.–Canada border. Do we have a problem with Canadians sneaking into the United States to take our coffee and donuts? No, of course not. Ca ...
ISIS Goes on Gold Standard?
September 08, 2015
Islamic State militants may be crazed killers, but at least some of them are taking an interest in the evil that underlies modern banking. They claim the group will soon issue gold coins as its medium of exchange. In compliance with sharia, the new dinars will ...
Rubio's Selective Religious Freedom
September 07, 2015
Civil disobedience in defense of individual rights can be noble and effective, but its success usually depends of the view of the evaluator. People defend disobedience when they agree with its goal. Senator Rubio defends the Kentucky county clerk who says that ...
Homeland Security Busts the Rentboys
September 04, 2015
Government officials including FBI Director James Comey and NSA Director Admiral Mike Rogers frequently demand greater investigative powers. They justify it by highlighting – some would say hyping – terrorist threats from ISIL and other radical groups. To s ...
Will Your Car Obey You or the Police?
September 03, 2015
Our view of civil rights has to evolve as technology changes our lives. More often than not, the changes are for the worse. Fifty years ago, could the police enter your home without a warrant and review your family photos for criminal evidence? No, and they sti ...
How Shoddy Science Creates Big Government
September 02, 2015
Many non-scientists hold a romanticized view of scientific research. We think it is very black and white, with scientists rigorously searching for measurable evidence, and happily conceding when experiments prove a hypothesis wrong. In fact, scientists are as h ...
Prepare To Be Droned, America
September 01, 2015
The technology that lets unmanned U.S. drones blow up alleged "enemy combatants" in the Middle East is coming home. U.S. police departments, which already embraced drones for surveillance purposes, now want to deploy weapons on them. North Dakota's legislature ...
What is Your Computer Hiding From You?
August 31, 2015
A good question arose in the comments to our Thursday story about U.S. border agents searching and seizing laptop computers. Can't people simply store their data on the cloud to keep it safely from government hands? Let's think this through. Say you have a few ...
US Political System Faces the Trump Test
August 28, 2015
George Will, who often has no problem embracing Big Brother, found enough small-government vocabulary to write an entertaining takedown of Donald Trump's immigration plan. The article exemplifies the exasperation mainstream GOP powers must feel at Trump's ascen ...
Bordering on Insanity
August 27, 2015
There are logical arguments for nation-states to defend their borders against illicit persons and goods. Those arguments are not nearly as compelling as some people think, but they exist. They apply mainly for people and goods entering a country – not those l ...
Entangling Alliances and Women's Suffrage
August 26, 2015
Having the right to vote is significant only to the extent it means you can vote for some meaningful office or issue. Saudi Arabian women can now vote in municipal elections. This is progress for a kingdom in which men, particularly men of the royal family, hol ...
The Pentagon Door Revolves Again
August 25, 2015
Americans like to think the nation takes good care of their veterans. Its actual record for doing so is spotty at best, as recent VA hospital scandals demonstrate. Nevertheless, one category of veterans always lands on its feet after it hangs up the uniform. Re ...
Approaching Asteroid Threatens Banks
August 24, 2015
In a world where economic dinosaurs quickly go extinct, traditional banking is one of the prime survivors. Abundant capital and friendly capital have let it adapt to every challenge. When banks lost commercial lending business to asset backed securitization in ...
Ohio's Mystery Marijuana Fans
August 21, 2015
On the surface, Ohio looks like a strong candidate to join the list of states allowing legal recreational marijuana. Look deeper and you will find a more complicated story. "ResponsibleOhio" is a noble-sounding name for a group of investors who seek a state-enf ...
Local Government Larceny
August 20, 2015
Charles Blow, the New York Times columnist we quote today, is no libertarian. Nonetheless, he points to an important issue libertarians should consider. The reasoning goes like this: If we must have government at all, power should reside mostly in local governm ...
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