The secret of American prosperity

This cartoon from 1948, encapsulates the reason why the American system is so prosperous. Most importantly, it tells us to beware of a smooth talker trying to sell a fantasy that is really a nightmare.

HT: Cafe Hayek

Can the news around here get any worse?

So many articles, so much news, so little time; here are the more interesting links from my weekend perusal:

1) According to this HuffPo report, the poverty rate has jumped along with the number of families in shelters. Hmm, it looks like Obamanomics is working to perfection. Soon we will all be much poorer and Democrats will come to the rescue with even more government social engineering and fiscal interventions. Happy days.


2) Randall Hoven over at American Thinker soberly summarizes the extent of debt and future fiscal liability that our country faces.

3) For some weird reason Obama gear is not selling as much as it used to. How strange.

4) Obama has installed another Keynesian hack, Austan Goolsbee, to pull levers and plan great big plans to “fix” our economy--at our expense, of course. God help us. Goolsbee has already started to create a narrative of low expectations by announcing that unemployment will stay high for a long time. Thanks a lot, dude. We have already figured that out by simply taking a gander at your economic policy to see that you are creating a train wreck. Goolsbee said this:

"This recession is the deepest in our lifetimes, the deepest since 1929…more than 8 million people lost their jobs. It's going to take a significant push on our part -- and time -- before that comes down…I don't anticipate it coming down right away."

Mr. Goolsbee, there is no doubt that this past recession was severe but we are no longer in a recession. The economy is in a slow lull caused by the anticipation of higher taxes, regulations, de-leveraging, and federal debt. It is obvious from the above quote that you will “push” for more government planning to solve a problem created by government. Please stop helping before it's too late.

Around The Horn...Newsworthy Links And Posts!

1) Good luck in trying to tax the rich to close the deficit.

2) Nearly half of U.S. homes escape taxes.

3) Mortgage rates jump higher as Fed stops buying mortgage-backed securities.

4) Another liberal crusade and another evil chemical that they need to save us from.

5) Milton Friedman on hope.

6) Is the Tea Party like the KKK?

They Hate Capitalism

Art Carden writes an excellent piece on why capitalism is so unpopular with intellectuals and elites:

According to the do-gooders whom Adam Smith called "men of system," the average person is like a piece on a chessboard, to be arranged at the whim of a supervirtuous planner. The planner, who ignores the fact that each of the pieces has (as Smith put it) its own "principles of motion," does his best to orchestrate a game according to his own rules. Dissenters are not tolerated.

Yet people are not chess pieces, to be moved around at will. They are living, breathing, acting, thinking, rational beings with rights and dignity. Respect for their humanity rules out interventions by do-gooders, no matter what their intentions. The result of denying people their fundamental freedoms can be terrible, as the horrors of humanity's 20th-century experiments with collectivism have shown.

Capitalism and Surgical Technology

20 Scary Old School Surgical Tools. Without incentives to innovate, surgery would truly be barbaric.

Michael Moore Is A Big Fat Liar

Michael Moore will subject the American public to more of his myth making Marxist propaganda when he releases his new documentary October 2, 2009. Yup, the guy who idolizes "free" Cuban health care and who does not understand a shred of economics is going to make a movie about capitalism. Hilarious.

HT: Carpe Diem

Ron Paul vs. Bernanke

Watch as Ron Paul poses some very incisive questions and comments to Ben Bernanke during a recent congressional hearing. Also notice how Bernanke, a very intelligent and learned man, simply does not understand that he is part of a government bureaucracy that is slowly dragging the American economy into the hands of big government power.

John Stossel slams Bailouts and Other Government Programs!

John Stossel blows holes in all of the banter and tripe regarding bailouts. Democrats and big government supporters that back the bailouts will not like this video series. This is part one of six videos. Click here for the rest of the videos.

Ask yourself this: would you trust Maxine Waters with your hard earned money?

A Small Lesson on Government Regulation and Beer

When the federal government stepped out of the way of DIY home brewers, the micro-brew industry quickly grew with all of its innovations and large array of tasty choices. Another example of how less government means more freedom and prosperity.

25 Most Promising "Green" Businesses

Ask yourself this question: would government have been prescient enough to pick these likely winners? Probably not. Tax dollars would have been dumped and wasted in some pet subsidy "green" project simply because some politician wanted to bring federal funds to his/her district. I say let the free-market work; let it pick the winning technologies of the future.

Obama and the Democrats use a crisis to implement their economic plan

Eat your heart out Naomi Klein. Here is an excerpt from Obama's speech today at George Mason University. George Mason must have been spinning in his grave:

It is true that we cannot depend on government alone to create jobs or long-term growth, but at this particular moment, only government can provide the short-term boost necessary to lift us from a recession this deep and severe. Only government can break the vicious cycles that are crippling our economy – where a lack of spending leads to lost jobs which leads to even less spending; where an inability to lend and borrow stops growth and leads to even less credit.

To finally spark the creation of a clean energy economy, we will double the production of alternative energy in the next three years. We will modernize more than 75% of federal buildings and improve the energy efficiency of two million American homes, saving consumers and taxpayers billions on our energy bills. In the process, we will put Americans to work in new jobs that pay well and can’t be outsourced – jobs building solar panels and wind turbines; constructing fuel-efficient cars and buildings; and developing the new energy technologies that will lead to even more jobs, more savings, and a cleaner, safer planet in the bargain.

To improve the quality of our health care while lowering its cost, we will make the immediate investments necessary to ensure that within five years, all of America’s medical records are computerized. This will cut waste, eliminate red tape, and reduce the need to repeat expensive medical tests. But it just won’t save billions of dollars and thousands of jobs – it will save lives by reducing the deadly but preventable medical errors that pervade our health care system.

Finally, this recovery and reinvestment plan will provide immediate relief to states, workers, and families who are bearing the brunt of this recession. To get people spending again, 95% of working families will receive a $1,000 tax cut – the first stage of a middle-class tax cut that I promised during the campaign and will include in our next budget. To help Americans who have lost their jobs and can’t find new ones, we’ll continue the bipartisan extensions of unemployment insurance and health care coverage to help them through this crisis. Government at every level will have to tighten its belt, but we’ll help struggling states avoid harmful budget cuts, as long as they take responsibility and use the money to maintain essential services like police, fire, education, and health care.

Comment: My first thought after listening to this speech was how much is it going to cost and how long is it going to take to pay for it? With the "Boomer" generation getting ready to retire in great numbers over the next several years or so, social security and Medicare are going to be put to the test. Adding the so-called "Recovery and Reinvestment plan" and the myraid of other government implemented plans Obama spoke of during this speech may end up just as similiar government plans did during the Great Depression.

Milton Friedman--Morality and Capitalism

HT: Liberty Pen

Thomas E. Woods on Predatory Pricing

Prof. Woods on Walmart, Herbert Dow and the theory of "predatory pricing."

HT: Liberty Pen

Walter E. Williams - Capital & Wages

HT: Liberty Pen

Government intervention in our economy will not work

Cato Institute's Dan Mitchell explains the fallacy of "priming the pump." Politicians just love to spend our money.

Thomas E. Woods, Jr on Rockefeller and Carnegie

The popular scapegoating of business never ends.

HT: Liberty Pen

Banking deregulation reduces racial wage gap

A recent study by a group of Brown University academics found that one of the benefits of a deregulated banking industry is a reduced (but not eliminate) wage gap between blacks and whites. The theory is that when laws preventing banks from incorporating in other states (than they were already operating in) were eliminated, this eventually led to increased competition and it also created better access for entrepreneurs to start up businesses that would employ more people. The more people employed the more likely hood that racial bias would be reduced. The states with the highest racial wage gap before deregulation seemed to have benefited the most after deregulation. Big government advocates that want to punish the banking industry for the recent financial crisis would do well to look over this study carefully before over-reacting with regulatory schemes.

Herbert Hoover and the New Deal

Thomas DiLorenzo, Phd. in Economics at Loyola, lectures on Herbert Hoover and the myth that free-market capitalism was the cause of the Great Depression.

HT: Liberty Pen

Market in everything

Ladies and gentlemen, the grocery cart washer!

Power of the Market - Freedom

HT: Liberty Pen