EDITORIAL Showing 4101 - 2 of 2
What Rights Do We Have?
July 23, 2014
The concept of "rights" was developed, in part, from the concept of "right" – correct, true – as used in the tradition of natural law ethics (concerning how we ought to act or not act because we are human beings). In time, a natural rights theory was produc ...
The Manipulated Dialectical Destiny of the BRICS
July 22, 2014
This pernicious elite meme amply illustrates what we call directed history. In this case endless articles are appearing to explain why the dollar is in terminal decline as the BRICS (including South Africa) are ascending. We last wrote about this issue here: Do ...
Rand Paul: Presidential Victory and Then a Long Repentance?
July 22, 2014
Will Rand Paul be the next US president? We believe it's perfectly possible, and thus we've been following this meme. Now it seems Rand Paul – and the news media – are coining a new phrase, "conservatarian." We weren't familiar with the term, but we found n ...
Tax Inversion Freedom vs. Fiscal Berlin Wall
July 22, 2014
The Obama Administration has proposed its latest form of collectivist control over the American people. In a letter to Congress, U.S. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew has called for punishment and prohibition of any company that tries to move its headquarters overse ...
The Logical Conclusion of the Modern, Monetary Argument
July 21, 2014
This is an interesting article because it shows clearly that controlling the Fed's business practices is a kind of non-starter. Reining in Fed behavior won't make a real difference. The article revolves around a Republican proposal having to do, in part, with r ...
Drug Decriminalization: Lesson Learned
July 21, 2014
US fedgov is going to reduce sentences for drug offenders. With a push on to decriminalize and legalize drugs, why should people continue to stay in jail? We asked that question a while ago and now have our answer. People won't. A bigger question, of course, is ...
What the Media Won’t Report About Malaysian Airlines Flight MH17
July 21, 2014
Just days after the tragic crash of a Malaysian Airlines flight over eastern Ukraine, Western politicians and media joined together to gain the maximum propaganda value from the disaster. It had to be Russia; it had to be Putin, they said. President Obama held ...
Stephan Kinsella on Libertarian Legal Theory, Self-Ownership and Drug Laws
July 20, 2014
Was there any justifiable reason to incarcerate [drug users] in the first place? Stephan Kinsella: Well, finally, an easy one! Of course not. Drug laws are completely evil. I believe some day we will look back on this like we look back on the days of chattel sl ...
As Predicted, UN Calls for Decriminalization of All Drugs
July 19, 2014
The UN has now called for the decriminalization not just of marijuana but of other drugs as well, including so-called injectables. Our analyses are often correct, but in this case, we're a little surprised at how fast confirmation has arrived. The Economist inf ...
Illiterate Twofer: Rise of Robots Demands Universal Basic Income
July 18, 2014
Dominant social themes are almost always economically literate. But rarely do we discover linkages that allow the presentation of two at once. This article offers one untruth – that robots will put almost everyone out of work – and then compounds it with an ...
Answer to the 'Right to Be Remembered' Is Natural Law
July 18, 2014
There are two ways to confront this wrongheaded Reuters editorial. One way is by pointing out that aggregators like Google (and others) are protected by various legislative and court rulings that allow them to post the most salacious and destructive information ...
A Must Read This Summer for All Free-market Thinkers
July 18, 2014
Mark Tier's latest title, Trust Your Enemies: A Political Thriller, which I found to be an intensely compelling Libertarian ride, is his first foray into fiction, following upon his excellent nonfiction writing that I've enjoyed for years. Having known Mark for ...
Sanctions and Airliners
July 18, 2014
The unilateral US sanctions announced by Obama on July 16 blocking Russian weapons and energy companies access to US bank loans demonstrate Washington's impotence. The rest of the world, including America's two largest business organizations, turned their backs ...
Trillion Dollar Google: The Myth of Capitalist Enterprise
July 17, 2014
Nope. We are past believing in such fantasies as a trillion dollar company. These will not be companies but titanic mercantilist organizations. Of course, for smaller, nimbler companies, such vastness is a good thing. As stock markets climb and trillions slosh ...
Fallout of IRS Scandals May Be More Serious Than Seen
July 17, 2014
We've noticed this meme is gaining popularity "on the left." The idea is that tax-exempt social welfare organizations should not engage in politics, and that when the IRS began to examine these organizations, Republicans moved in with trumped up charges because ...
Voluntaryist Anthropology
July 17, 2014
Libertarians believe a better world is possible. Libertarian anarchists believe the best world is a stateless one; it consists of voluntary societies which would include institutions or customs to prevent and deal with occasional crime. The practical applicatio ...
Santelli Vs Liesman: A CNBC Shootout That Ultimately Misses the Point
July 16, 2014
This is one of the better articles we've read in the mainstream media recently because it efficiently covers two sides of the Western economic argument. Only at the end does it fail to come to logical conclusions. But what it does provide is both entertaining a ...
Mission Accomplished: Abe Remilitarizes Japan
July 16, 2014
Japan is going to create a standing army; supposedly truculent Premiere Shinzo Abe is leading the way. But there seems to be another side to Abe. Apparently, he can be politically astute and considerate when he wishes to be. At least that's what we read in The ...
Is There a Right to Be Wrong?
July 16, 2014
That freedom is the matrix required for the growth of moral values – indeed not merely one value among many but the source of all values – is almost self-evident. It is only where the individual has choice, and its inherent responsibility, that he has occas ...
Let's Tax the Poor and Call It Progressive
July 15, 2014
This article from Slate makes several arguments regarding higher taxes: Taxes are necessary and higher taxes are even more important for social comity. Why the "left" (if we can characterize Slate a leftist rather than corporatist) always seems to want to justi ...
CIA Scandal Shows Necessity of 'Living Free in an Unfree World'
July 15, 2014
We cover dominant social themes and often you find these in the mainstream media. But sometimes a meme is revealed by its absence. One such case is this article posted at the World Socialist Website, which provides us with an elite theme that has not really bee ...
Free Market Capitalism vs. Crony Capitalism
July 15, 2014
In the minds of many people around the world, including in the United States, the term "capitalism" carries the idea of unfairness, exploitation, undeserved privilege and power and immoral profit making. What is often difficult to get people to understand is th ...
Improving the Fed: So Many Windy Words …
July 14, 2014
Another article, among thousands every year, explaining how the Fed can be more effective if it would just do ... this. Or that … The rhetorical element always involves explaining what the Fed has done wrong, and continues to do wrong, and why the Fed can bec ...
Atlantic Mag Shock: US No Longer Under 'Rule of Law'
July 14, 2014
Here comes The Atlantic magazine – that bastion of international socialism – with a scathing article about the US's rising lawlessness. Of course, we have no idea why this article appeared in The Atlantic, a publication dedicated to advancing an ever-closer ...
What’s Missing in the Current Immigration ‘Crisis’ Debate
July 14, 2014
Over the past several weeks we have seen a significant increase in illegal immigration, as thousands of unaccompanied minors pour across what seems an invisible southern border into the United States. The mass immigration has, as to be expected, put an enormous ...
Roberto Escobar on Colombia's Cocaine History, Pablo Escobar and the Failed War on Drugs
July 13, 2014
Escobar: I think the world will change its policies, first with marijuana and then with cocaine. The important thing then will be to invest in education for the children so they know that it's harmful, same as alcohol. The problem is that right now there is ver ...
The Evolution of the Marijuana Marketplace
July 12, 2014
BusinessInsider tells us that "America's Drug Companies Are Bankrolling the Crusade Against Legal Weed." This article is actually a summary of a larger article in The Nation, and BusinessInsider presents it this way: "Last week, The Nation published an interest ...
Al Jazeera: Hike Taxes to Create Prosperity?
July 11, 2014
Al Jazeera wants to make sure that people are aware that tax cuts are not beneficial. Presumably additional taxes would be helpful, using this logic. These sorts of articles remind us of why US citizens in particular are economically illiterate. Of course, the ...
Legislative Dysfunction Is a Hopeful Sign
July 11, 2014
Thank goodness for a do-nothing US Congress. We've written about this before but it is worth repeating. Every law and regulation produced at a federal, state or local level in the US – or in the EU, anywhere really – is a price fix, a redistributive act, ta ...
Don't Be Fooled by Transcontinental Rivalries
July 10, 2014
The temptation always is to believe that Russia and China operate systems that are much different than the West's. But perhaps not. Two recent articles remind us that what seems separate includes significant elements of compatibility. The world's leaders run in ...
Don't Fall for the Energy Hype
July 10, 2014
Anthony Evans-Pritchard has made a bold statement in the pages of the UK Telegraph, the newspaper he writes for: He is predicting the eventual implosion of the oil and gas industry. Of course, green-energy types have been predicting the end of oil and gas for d ...
The Deteriorating Economic Outlook
July 10, 2014
The third and final estimate (until the annual GDP revisions) of first quarter 2014 real GDP growth released June 25 by the US Bureau of Economic Analysis was a 2.9% contraction in GDP growth, a 5.5 percentage point difference from the January forecast of 2.6% ...
As Tax Collectors Grow More Aggressive, Payers Are Caught in the Middle
July 09, 2014
Her Majesty's Revenue & Customs doesn't have enough power, or so the British Parliament is told. HMRC wants to be both judge and jury when it comes to recalcitrant taxpayers. It wants to the ability to "raid bank accounts" and to do so without a court warrant. ...
Why Popular Music Is Less Successful These Days
July 09, 2014
Another meme is souring. We've tracked the gradual decline of movies, television, modern art and meaningful fiction. Now we see the same thing when it comes to popular music. And we should note that popular music has had a strong run in Western culture ever sin ...
Fourth of July and the Public Interest
July 09, 2014
Throughout history political thinkers have been doing a lot of fretting about the public good (or public interest, common good, general welfare, etc.). Usually they came up with massive plans or enchanting visions. Plato's teacher, Socrates, was the great grand ...
Italy's Renzi, a Charismatic Technocrat and Internationalist
July 08, 2014
Oh, boy ... Renzi! Here is a modern technocrat and a darling of Reuters. Let's see what his esteemed qualities can tell us about the globalist agenda generally. This article, unlike most, seems to make it fairly clear. Renzi is held up as everything that is goo ...
Internet Reformation Stymies BBC Reduction of Climate-Change Denial
July 08, 2014
From the perspective of the power elite, there's a lot riding on the success of the climate change meme. But it's not really working out. The idea apparently was that a carbon crisis would allow governments to centralize regulation in the UN and to spread it ar ...
Misguided Beliefs in Political Leaders
July 08, 2014
This is an election year and as in all past election years we are inundated with promises and proposals from candidates, each hoping to attract our votes. For the most part what they are promising is "leadership" and political solutions to our personal, social ...
Is the Level of Economic Illiteracy Among the West's Top Thinkers Deliberate?
July 07, 2014
Amazing. Ms. Lagarde regards the stagnating economy worldwide and advises ... more government involvement. Reuters and other major media pick up her speech and report it without any further commentary. And thus we understand the following: The global economy is ...
Immigration Reform: Do They Fear a Reaction to What They Plan?
July 07, 2014
Dominant social themes having to do with civil unrest are piling up quickly now. This article above is a kind of elaboration on a theme, but no less troubling for that. Previously, we covered the "neo-French Revolution" meme, in which the power elite seems to b ...
Hobby Lobby Decision Creates Small Island of Freedom in Ocean of Statism
July 07, 2014
This week, supporters of religious freedom cheered the Supreme Court's ruling in the Hobby Lobby case. The Court was correct to protect business owners from being forced to violate their religious beliefs by paying for contraceptives. However, the decision was ...
Gerald Celente on Marijuana Legalization, OccupyPeace and the Solution to Government Gangsterism
July 06, 2014
When are Americans going to see through the charade? Right now they don't have the courage, dignity or self-respect to do so. They don't want to admit they've been conned by their con-manders in chief. They don't want to believe they bought the lies of hope and ...
French Revolution Meme Persists
July 05, 2014
In the past few months, we've examined articles and editorials that seem to align themselves with a neo-French Revolution meme, odd as that sounds. In fact, each article we've analyzed has presented an argument that income disparity is leading to increased viol ...
Shock: Markets to the Moon … As Yellen Prepares for the Biggest Stock Crash Ever
July 04, 2014
Central banks cannot do anything to avoid asset bubbles and subsequent crashes, according to the head of the world's most powerful central bank, Janet Yellen. We had to read this article twice to make sure we were "getting it." Yellen has decided that screwing ...
Internet Reformation Continuing to Undermine Confidence in Government?
July 04, 2014
We are not surprised by the declining confidence of citizens in the US government. What is there, after all, to be confident about? Congress is posturing and ineffective. The president continues to centralize and further regulate large chunks of the US economy, ...
July 4th Militarist Bunkum (an encore by request)
July 04, 2014
Did you know that 85 to 90 percent of war's casualties are non-combatant civilians? That is the conclusion reached by a nine-person research team in the June 2014 issue of the American Journal of Public Health. The deaths of soldiers who are fighting the war ar ...
Rejoinder: The Wisdom of Adam Smith for Our Own Times
July 04, 2014
Let us celebrate the 291st birthday of the great Scottish economist together and let us rehabilitate his Real Bills Doctrine! Richard Ebeling in the June 3rd issue of the Daily Bell under the same title contributed a much needed reminder of the relevance of Ada ...
Not Over for Obama
July 03, 2014
This is a negative article about a powerful man. President Obama has changed the way US citizens receive health care and now he is convulsing the nation's southern border by deliberately abrogating its security. Love him or hate him, if Obama succeeds in changi ...
The Power of the Powerless
July 03, 2014
In the sixth century BC, the Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu identified the world's biggest problem. Individuals viewed themselves as powerless. The burden of impotence made them resent others and fear life which, in turn, led them to seek power through controlling ...
V Bomb: Governance Is Not the Solution to Corporate Overreach
July 02, 2014
So here is yet another wrinkle, Class V shares. Are they, finally, a panacea? Probably not. Corporations get bigger and bigger, and the people running them accumulate more and more power and wealth. That would be fine if corporations were an outgrowth of the fr ...
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