Protectionists are to Economics What Astrologers are to Astrophysics

open quoteHere’s a letter to the editor of the website Economy in Crisis:

Setting up a straw man for the slaughter, Dustin Ensinger asserts that “Proponents of unfettered free trade have long claimed that lowering trade barriers will allow America to export more and more goods, eventually leading to trade surpluses and economic prosperity” (“Exports Won’t Solve America’s Many Trade Woes,” March 6).

Wrong.

Proponents of unfettered free trade have long claimed that lowering trade barriers will allow America to import more and more goods, eventually leading to greater economic prosperity. Period.

Proponents of unfettered free trade – at least those who understand economics – don’t give a damn about trade ‘deficits’ or ‘surpluses.’ They agree with Adam Smith that “Nothing, however, can be more absurd than this whole doctrine of the balance of trade.”*

Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreauxclose quote (Read more from cafehayek.com)

Israeli Defense Minister: Israel may ask US for additional $20 billion in military aid in response to Arab pro-democracy upheavals

open quoteIsrael will need to boost military spending and may seek an additional $20 billion in U.S. security assistance to help it manage potential threats stemming from popular upheavals in the Arab world, Defense Minister Ehud Barak said Monday.close quote (Read more from online.wsj.com)

Dick Morris’s notable exclusion

So, if you had to guess which much-discussed potential Republic presidential candidate was excluded from Dick Morris’s review of contenders, who would it be?

Here’s a clue from this Hannity interview:

Still confused?

Here Peter Schiff interview Dick Morris, who quits the interview, and mentions the unmentioned man — RON PAUL.

I think this interview reveals that Dick Morris, like most Republicans favored by big media, wants to replace Obama’s socialism with their own brand of socialism.

So it should be no surprise that Morris ignores true anti-socialist, Ron Paul. Ignoring Dr. Paul seems to be a common tactic:

Gallup Poll excludes Ron Paul

Rasmussen excludes Ron Paul

Washington Post’s debate commentary 2007 excluded Ron Paul

Glenn “Bandwagon” Beck’s poll excluded Ron Paul

BBC’s election guide excluded Ron Paul

And the list goes on, and on, and on.

Check out my two earlier posts for more:
Censoring Ron Paul (then and now)
Censoring Ron Paul – Why the rEVOLution will not be televised

Government coersion behind GMO food proliferation

open quoteBut in this case, Wikileaks cables leaked information regarding global food policy as it relates to U.S. officials — in the highest levels of government — that involves a conspiracy with Monsanto to force the global sale and use of genetically-modified foods.

In 2007, then-U.S. ambassador to France Craig Stapleton conspired to retaliate against European countries for their anti-biotech policies. U.S. diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks reveal the Bush administration formulated battle plans to extract revenge against Europe for refusing to use genetically modified seeds.

In the leaked cable, Stapleton writes: “Europe is moving backwards not forwards on this issue with France playing a leading role, along with Austria, Italy and even the [European] Commission…Moving to retaliation will make clear that the current path has real costs to EU interests and could help strengthen European pro-biotech voice.”

Ambassador Stapleton goes on to write: “Country team Paris recommends that we calibrate a target retaliation list that causes some pain across the EU since this is a collective responsibility, but that also focuses in part on the worst culprits. The list should be measured rather than vicious and must be sustainable over the long term, since we should not expect an early victory,” he wrote.close quote (Read more from crisisboom.com)

Look through the food freedom category to see my views on GMO issues. Unlike the socialists, I’m against a government ban on GMOs. My goal is to expose how they hugely benefit from government privilege despite widespread safety concerns.

From Mises.org: The Socialism of AgriPatents

USA! USA! #1!

Q: Which repressive country puts the most people in jail for violating government laws?

A. Iran
B. Saudi Arabia
C. Libya
D. Egypt
E. United States of America

World Rank, 2010 Country Prisoners per 100,000 Population
1 U.S.A. 743
37 Tunisia 297
52 Turkmenistan 224
53 Iran 223
61 Libya 200
61 Mexico 200
69 Colombia 180
70 Saudi Arabia 178
92 Bahrain 149
116 China 120

chart showing explosion in US prison population from war on drugs

(Read more from mjperry.blogspot.com)

Full list of national incarceration rates here.

Caught On Tape: Cops Talk About Stealing Man’S Property Over Bag Of Weed.

open quotePolice ended up leaving Simpson’s home that day in 2008 with “a 52” flat screen TV, a DVD player, two computers, a camera and a bunch of DVDs,” reporter Scott Lewis wrote.

Now, two of the officers involved — Lt. Luke Davis and Lt. Emmanuel Riopelle — are facing “dozens” of charges. Both have been accused in a long-running scheme [2] to steal from drug suspects and profit from sales of their property.

In spite of the incident, drug task forces across the nation continue to operate with secret budgets [3] and the backing of laws that permit wanton seizure of property if drugs are discovered. close quote (Read more from michiganmedicalmarijuana.org)

Oswald Wanted to Protect Kennedy, Claims Secret Lover

open quoteNovember 22nd, 1963 is a day Americans can never forget. That was the day when President Kennedy was assassinated by the (supposedly) lone gunman Lee Harvey Oswald. Shortly after, Oswald himself was killed on national television. Oswald’s name has been seared into the national consciousness as the ultimate traitor, but in the new memoir Me & Lee: How I Came to Know, Love and Lose Lee Harvey Oswald by his girlfriend Judyth Vary Baker, the hypothetical killer actually went to Dallas to try to prevent the assassination!

According to Baker, Oswald told her early in November that Kennedy would be killed at Dealey Plaza. He knew this because he had been invited to join the assassination team, as well as an abort team that would try to interfere with the shooting. He had infiltrated the former team with hopes of exposing the players, but once events were set in motion he knew the operatives would not hesitate to kill his entire family and anyone else he knew (including Judyth) if he didn’t play along.

Vary begged him not to take part, but he insisted that the group would just get another shooter to take his place. “If I stay,” he said, “at least that will be one less bullet aimed at Kennedy.”

After Oswald’s murder, his predictions began to take place, when a number of Vary’s cohorts in the undercover biological work she was engaged in mysteriously died or were killed. Afraid for her own life, she abandoned her promising science career and raised a family, keeping quiet about her involvement in the Kennedy situation for many years.

Now, living in an undisclosed European country for her own safety, she recalls her life as a girl who wanted to become a nun, but whose amazing aptitude for science ultimately brought her into a plot to kill Castro with a cancer-causing agent. This in turn led her into a world of virulent anti-Communists, Cuban exiles, mafia figures and the CIA. Me & Lee is a memoir that blows the lid off the Lee Harvey Oswald debate, and even names some of the men responsible for the Kennedy assassination. It is a must-read for anyone interested in American history, politics or even the fates of star-crossed lovers.close quote (Read more from lewrockwell.com)

The Specter of Municipal Default

open quoteJimmy John Liautaud, founder of the Jimmy John’s sub chain, just applied to move his residence from Illinois to Florida — and his company’s headquarters could soon follow. “All they do is stick it to us,” he says of the state legislature’s move to jack up the personal income tax from 3 percent to 5 percent — and the corporate income tax from 7.3 percent to 9.5 percent.

. . . .

However, California’s state treasurer, Bill Lockyer, says the idea of states going bankrupt is ludicrous.

“It’s a cynical proposal, intended to incite a panic in response to a phony crisis,” Mr. Lockyer said on a conference call with journalists. “Killer bees, space aliens, and now it’s the invasion of the bankrupt states.”

I’m a little surprised Lockyer is so cocky. After all, California was forced to issue IOUs in lieu of cash to pay taxpayers, vendors, and local governments back in 2009.

Mr. Lockyer’s big plan is for his state to refrain from issuing any general-obligation bonds until the second half of the year, cutting down borrowing costs. That doesn’t sound like any great trick, except California hasn’t done that since 1988. If that doesn’t work, well, “Then, the next option, if you run out of deferrals, is to issue IOUs,” Mr. Lockyer said. “It’s a possibility. It’s not one that anyone wants to do. It’s at the bottom of the list of choices. But it is on the list.”

Nicole Gelinas of the Manhattan Institute also thinks the idea of states going bankrupt is nonsense. Because states pile up debt indirectly, issuing bonds through tens of thousands of separate legal entities. She writes that New York “state” doesn’t owe all of that $78.4 billion in debt; it owes only $3.5 billion in “general-obligation” debt, so relax.

“Who owes the rest?” she writes,

The MTA, the Dormitory Authority, the Triborough Bridge & Tunnel Authority and so on. Legally, each is not a government but a “public-benefit corporation.” Each has its own board, its own rules, and its own contractual agreements with creditors, from bondholders to unions. Each of those agreements offers creditors different protections.

So New Yorkers, in this case, are supposed to sleep better at night secure in the knowledge that dozens of government entities owe this debt instead of just one? Meanwhile any one of these public-benefit corporations could default out of the blue, because more than likely nobody will get a heads-up if the Dormitory Authority runs out of dough to pay bond holders.close quote (Read more from mises.org)

Israeli Diplomat: “I can no longer represent Israel.”

open quoteBaruch
Veteran diplomat Ilan Baruch quits, says he can no longer represent government; Israel’s foreign policy is ‘wrong,’ he says, adds that blaming global anti-occupation views on anti-Semitism is ‘simplistic, artificial’

Foreign Ministry earthquake: A veteran diplomat says he has resigned from his post because he had a hard time defending the policies of Israel’s current government, Yedioth Ahronoth reported Wednesday.

Ilan Baruch says he quit because “Israel’s foreign policy is wrong,” pointing to the Palestinian issue.

Should this trend continue, he warned, Israel will turn into a pariah state and face growing de-legitimization. close quote (Read more from axisoflogic.com)

Texas Legislation Proposes Felony Charges for TSA Agents

open quoteRep. David Simpson (R-Longview) introduced a package of bills into the Texas House of Representatives on Tuesday that would challenge the TSA’s authority in a number of ways. The first bill, HB 1938, prohibits full body scanning equipment in any Texas airport and provides for criminal and civil penalties on any airport operator who installs the equipment. The second bill, HB 1937, criminalizes touching without consent and searches without probable cause.close quote (Read more from tenthamendmentcenter.com)

Hillary Clinton: “Our private media cannot fill that gap.”

open quoteHillary Clinton was defending her department budget in front of the U.S. Foreign Policy Priorities committee this morning on C-Span.

She says a major reason the State Department needs money is because “we are in an information war and we are losing that war.”

Clinton said private media is not good enough to handle the job: “Our private media cannot fill that gap. Our private media, particularly cultural programming often works at counter purposes to what we truly are as Americans. I remember having an Afghan general tell me that the only thing he thought about Americans is that all the men wrestled and the women walked around in bikinis because the only TV he ever saw was Baywatch and World Wide Wrestling.”

Meanwhile she says Al-Jazeera, CCTV and Russia Today are killing it: “Al Jazeera is winning. The Chinese have opened up a global English language and multi-language television network, the Russians have opened up an English language network. I’ve seen it in a couple of countries and it’s quite instructive.”

Clinton says she is leading an effort to spread U.S. propaganda through new media, with twitter feeds in Arabic and Farsi.

She warns that Republicans want to cut the State Department budget by half.close quote (Read more from businessinsider.com)

What Tunisia and Wisconsin do NOT have in common

Many socialists, including Wisconsin’s Noddlez revolutionary are rejoicing that the people’s revolutionary masses are now on the march from Tunisia to Wisconsin.

One easily overlooked difference is the fact that the North African uprising AGAINST the government, while the Wisconsin protests are FOR continued government spending.

From mises.org:

In Tunisia, “free” university education is guaranteed to anyone who passes the government’s exams at the end of high school. Largely as a result of this, the number of Tunisians who graduated college more than tripled in the last ten years. This may sound like a good thing, but it has produced a glut of graduates.

Fifty-Seven percent of young Tunisians entering the labor market are college educated. This is while only 30 percent of Americans earn a college degree by the time they are 27. Recent Tunisian college grads have an unemployment rate approximately three times higher than the national average of 15 percent. This is up ninefold from 1994.

. . . .

In fact, the Tunisian protests began after a recent graduate killed himself because government authorities confiscated his fruit stand when they discovered he did not have an “official” permit. The BBC reported that most of the early protesters were unemployed recent graduates.

From the Daily Bell:

originally published in The Times/N.I. Syndication:

“[Mohamed Bouazizi, the] young [street] trader had been in trouble with the authorities before….Under the dictatorship of President Ben Ali, permits were required for every form of business activity, often accompanied by a bribe. Bouazizi’s family would later claim that he had refused to pay the bribe demanded by the officials….According to other fruit and vegetable pedlars, vendors have a choice when faced with a municipal inspector: they can flee, and leave behind both borrow and merchandise; pay a fine equivalent to several days’ earnings, or fork out a bribe. Bouazizi, it seems, was not inclined to do any of these. When [a 45 year old female inspector] Hamdi began seizing his applies, he tried to grab them back, and she slapped him in the face….”

After this event all hell broke loose and escalated and ended, eventually, in the ouster of President Ben Ali’s government. So, by any reasonable account what brought about the Tunisian upheaval is the government’s intervention with freedom of trade, exactly the kind of conduct by government officials that a good many American jurists, political thinkers and politicians claim is constitutional and certainly not dictatorial.