Daily Archives: 13 October 2010

Tom Woods on the Delusion of Good Government

@ 11:00 – methods of military procurement.

@ 16:30 – list of Blue Ribbon commissions and other attempts at reforming military procurement.

@ 19:20 – The welfare industry supports over 700,000 social workers, 420 schools of social work, thousands of special interest groups, and 43,000,000 beneficiaries.

@ 20:45 – he turns his analysis to the Drug War.

@ 26:00 – Unical convinces California to pass regulations requiring use of its product.

@ 28:20 – 35:00 How the government killed traveling salesmen to protect wholesaler interests. Laws against retailers selling below the manufacturer’s recommended retail price & Life Magazine’s anti-discount house propaganda.

@ 28:20 – he dismisses myths about the Industrial Revolution.

@ 46:10 – From 1950-68 poverty in the U.S. drop 1% a year with very modest anti-poverty laws. Since the 1968 introduction of massive anti-poverty legislation, it stagnated. And remained stagnated despite a quadrupling of the welfare budget.

Three Horrifying Facts About the US Debt “Situation”

open quote#1: The US Fed is now the second largest owner of US Treasuries.

That’s right, this week we overtook Japan, leaving China as the only country with greater ownership of US Debt. And we’re printing money to buy it.

. . . .

#2: “There are only about $550 billion of Treasuries outstanding with a remaining maturity of greater than 10 years.”

This horrifying fact comes courtesy of Morgan Stanley analyst David Greenlaw. And it confirms what I’ve been saying since the end of 2009, that the US has entered a debt spiral: a time in which fewer and fewer investors are willing to lend to us for any long period of time… at the exact same time that we must roll over trillions in old debt and issue an additional $100-150 billion in NEW debt per month in order to finance our massive deficit.

And only $550 billion of the debt we’ve got to roll over has a maturity greater than 10 years!?!?

So we’re talking about TRILLIONS of old debt coming due in the next decade.

. . . .

#3: The US will Default on its Debt

… either that or experience hyperinflation. There is simply no other option. We can NEVER pay off our debts. To do so would require every US family to pay $31,000 a year for 75 years. close quote