Monthly Archives: August 2010

The Crises of Capitalism (???) — my critique

It always troubles me to see professionally produced, economically illiterate videos condemning capitalism. Here’s one:

David Harvey asks if it is time to look beyond capitalism towards a new social order that would allow us to live within a system that really could be responsible, just, and humane?

@ 3:20 — The fifth of his list of “popular explanations of the crisis” is pretty much correct, though Glenn Beck and the World Bank are hardly apostles of deregulation. Why doesn’t he cite Ron Paul, Peter Schiff, Mises, etc? This guy would do well to study the Austrian School.

@ about 3:40, the narrator asks, “What kind of plausible story can I write [explaining our economic crash] which is none of the above?” I think, WTF? Uniqueness is not how we should judge economic theories. How about a meticulous logical examination? “Renowned academic,” my ass.

@ 4:20, the narrator relates a story about the Queen of England asking economists why they didn’t see it coming. “Story” is a good description for what David Harvey is telling. He ignores the many Austrian Economists who did see it coming, and now see things getting much, much worse before they get better. Maybe we should listen to them before we try David Harvey’s workers’ paradise.

@ 6:00, he speaks from Marx’s flawed class analysis. In a free market, the interested of capital are not opposed to those of labor. They are complimentary. In fact, capital competes with other capital for the best of labor, and labor competes with labor for the best jobs. If you consider each a monolithic class opposed to the other, you will be blind to much of the world. Significantly, Marx, in his writing, never defined his most crucial term: class.

@ 7:15 — Capitalism DOES solve its own crises, if you let people fail, and let people accept whatever they damn well please as money. Bailouts and forcing people to use fiat money have nothing to do with free markets or capitalism.

@ 8:50 — Financial innovation does not empower financiers. Government bailouts and government subsidies empower financiers. If firms were allowed to go bankrupt they would regulated themselves / be regulated by their investors.

@ 10:15 — “I don’t have the solutions.” Here, I completely agree with you, Mr. Harvey.

From their website: For over 250 years the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA) has been a cradle of enlightenment thinking and a force for social progress. Our approach is multi-disciplinary, politically independent and combines cutting edge research and policy development with practical action.

That’s not enlightenment suckling in their cradle. I think the previous century has seen enough of their sort of “progress.”

Obama Administration Considers Bypassing Congress on Immigration Reform

The Obama administration, anticipating that Congress might not pass comprehensive immigration reform this year, is considering ways it could act without congressional approval to achieve many of the objectives of the initiative, including giving permanent resident status, or green cards, to large numbers of people in the country illegally.

The ideas were outlined in an unusually frank draft memo [1] prepared for Alejandro N. Mayorkas, director of the federal agency that handles immigration benefits, U.S. Citizen and Immigration Services (USCIS). The memo lists ways the government could grant permanent resident status to tens of thousands of people and delay the deportation of others, potentially indefinitely. (Read more from propublica.org)

Great Moments in American Statesmanship

I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races, that I am not nor ever have been in favor of making voters or jurors of negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with white people; and I will say in addition to this that there is a physical difference between the white and black races which I believe will forever forbid the two races living together on terms of social and political equality. And inasmuch as they cannot so live, while they do remain together there must be the position of superior and inferior, and I as much as any other man am in favor of having the superior position assigned to the white race.
― U.S. Senate candidate Abraham Lincoln, 1858

We must act with vindictive earnestness against the Sioux, even to their extermination, men, women and children.
― General William Tecumseh Sherman, 1866

It may be necessary to kill half the Filipinos in order that the remaining half of the population may be advanced to a higher plane of life than their present semi-barbarous state affords.
― Major General William Shafter, 1899

I have said this before, but I shall say it again and again and again; your boys are not going to be sent into any foreign wars.
― President Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1940

The question was how we should maneuver them [the Japanese armed forces] into the position of firing the first shot without allowing too much danger to ourselves.
― Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson, 1941

We are not about to send American boys nine or ten thousand miles from home to do what Asian boys ought to be doing for themselves.
― President Lyndon B. Johnson, 1964

Money talks and bullshit walks.
― Congressman Michael Myers, 1979

Bitch set me up . . . . I shouldn’t have come up here . . . goddamn bitch.
― D.C. Mayor Marion Barry, 1990

I did not have sex with that woman, Ms. Lewinski.
― President Bill Clinton, 1998

There can be no doubt that Saddam Hussein has biological weapons and the capability to rapidly produce more, many more. And he has the ability to dispense these lethal poisons and diseases in ways that can cause massive death and destruction. … Our conservative estimate is that Iraq today has a stockpile of between 100 and 500 tons of chemical weapons agent. That is enough agent to fill 16,000 battlefield rockets. Even the low end of 100 tons of agent would enable Saddam Hussein to cause mass casualties across more than 100 square miles of territory, an area nearly five times the size of Manhattan. … Let me turn now to nuclear weapons. We have no indication that Saddam Hussein has ever abandoned his nuclear weapons program. On the contrary, we have more than a decade of proof that he remains determined to acquire nuclear weapons. … Iraq could use these small UAVs which have a wingspan of only a few meters to deliver biological agents to its neighbors or, if transported, to other countries, including the United States. … Iraq today harbors a deadly terrorist network headed by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi an associate and collaborator of Usama bin Laden and his al-Qaida lieutenants. … We are not surprised that Iraq is harboring Zarqawi and his subordinates. This understanding builds on decades-long experience with respect to ties between Iraq and al-Qaida. … Leaving Saddam Hussein in possession of weapons of mass destruction for a few more months or years is not an option, not in a post-September 11th world.
― Secretary of State Colin Powell, 2003

(Read more from independent.org)

Two Peter Schiff Videos — the best economic analysis today

* Dollar continues to decline.
* US continues to follow misguided Keynesian stimulus philosophy.
* GM (government motors) spends bailout money to buy sub-prime-like auto loan business.
* GM bailout was actually bailout of auto workers union.
* The most interesting part of this video begins at 6:00. He talks about how Goldline, a gold selling company, has abused customers by selling overprices antique coins. Peter predicts that this will be leveraged to attack all gold dealers. Remember, tyrants have always hated gold.

* 7th week in a row of declining value of the dollar.
* Propagandists say that the U.S. will not be like Japan. Peter argees only in a perverse way: the U.S. will suffer much, much more than Japan did in the 80’s.
* GDP is bullshit. It’s recent increase is completely attributable to debt and deficit spending.
* Politicians claiming credit for the abomination that was the auto bailout. They will need another bailout soon.
* The 2008 crisis was a UNITED STATES crisis. The world was exposed to it because they had loaned us so much money, but don’t believe the propaganda of the U.S. getting caught up in a world crisis.
* Expect people to begin fleeing the dollar, and U.S. assets. Expect gold to make another run, despite some talking heads claiming that it’s about to crash.
* No sign of a stricter Federal Reserve. As November elections approach, all incumbent politicians will fight for more easy money — which will be like drinking more booze to avoid a hangover.