Democrats Aren't the Answer

http://chiefexecutive.net/2017-best-worst-states-business/

Hmmm, I wonder why Illinois, California and New York are the bottom three while Texas is number 1?

As someone that is strongly against generic republicans it is worth noting that the worst states for business and the worst states for population growth are all major democrat havens.  Democrats are quite literally socialists and socialism quite literally never works.  When will we stop experimenting with killing people by socialism?

Who is in Charge? You or the Government?

http://www.ronpaullibertyreport.com/archives/neocons-are-still-writing-the-script

“Neocons are patient.

They always keep their eyes on the prize.

Democrats....Republicans....’Outsiders’....

Neocons write the script.

Meanwhile, our lives, our safety, and (of course) our wallets are always at their beck and call.”

The neocons are the deep state.  They run the country.

https://mises.org/blog/3-ways-critics-get-praxeology-wrong

 “Criticism #3: “Why do you hate data so much?”

This is the basis for a third frequent criticism of Austrian economists. Detractors say that Austrians are afraid of data and stubbornly plug their ears and sing ‘lalala’ whenever they are confronted with supposedly inconvenient facts about the real world. But we’ve seen that there is no aversion to data, math, or statistics. These are just properly used in economic history or psychology and not in the testing of economic theory. The most that observation can do for theory is to guide the theoretician to construct relevant theory and perhaps to encourage the theoretician to take another look at a theory when all of the data “goes against it”, so to speak. Importantly, observations cannot falsify logically derived economic theory, but they can point an accusatory finger at a flawed step in the logic sometimes.”

So this is a new idea for me to grasp in economics.  I am more familiar with the Chicago school (I did go to UChicago, after all) but I agree with the Austrians that economics should be done through deductive reasoning.  I have nothing against the mathematical modeling and data mining but I don’t view that as axiomatic as the praxeological reasoning of the Austrian school.

https://www.fff.org/explore-freedom/article/conduct-background-checks/

The private market ALWAYS has a better incentive to keep you safe than the government.

Keep It Simple Stupid

http://thefederalist.com/2017/05/18/single-comic-strip-dilbert-just-nuked-global-warming-hysteria/

This comic is great.  We submit that climate change is occurring because we take biased and inaccurate measurements, which we then use in computer models we like while we ignore the ones we don’t like.  Then we apply the output to long-range economic models that have never accurately predicted any economic data.   

So, yes, climate science is definitely still up for debate.

http://www.ronpaullibertyreport.com/archives/medicare-medicaid-must-go-someday-but-how-they-go-is-still-up-in-the-air

America is twenty trillion dollars in debt.  Yes, $20 plus 13 zeroes.  We can band-aid our problem by cutting the EPA by 5% or negotiating the cost of fighter jet.  We can argue about these cuts in DC and on twitter ad nauseum, but the real hard truth here is that these cuts are mere drops in the bucket compared to our biggest budget line items – the military and the welfare state.

“Ideally, Americans would look squarely at the fact that the U.S. federal government has both an unsustainable welfare state at home AND an unsustainable military empire abroad. Both of these cannot continue ad infinitum.

Something is going to break someday and keeping these two monsters going will only hasten that day.”

The conclusion of this article is the unfortunate truth.

“So we'll either stop this by logically unwinding the military empire first, and giving people a chance to wean off of dependency and return to reality, or we'll wait until reality bites us harder than ever before.

History is replete with examples of people choosing the latter. It's like watching a dog chase its tail.

​But it doesn't have to be that way.”

I ask my millennial peers to claim what’s ours.  Demand our leaders to 1) focus on reducing America’s military role as the World’s Keeper; then 2) reform our social programs by enabling people to be self-reliant, and returning these programs to their roots of safety nets for only those who cannot do for themselves.

https://fee.org/articles/insider-trading-should-be-legal/

Legalizing insider trading is something we can only do in a stateless society. 

My jury is still out on the moral and economic consequences of legalizing insider trading, but I am more than willing to let some group experiment with this.

http://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/2017/05/how-to-get-complete-university.html

Father Guido Sarducci is on point!

More Stupidity from ESPN

http://www.businessinsider.com/dan-le-betard-espn-liberal-diversity-2017-5

The classic double down of the regressive left.  I hope this downs your show.  The more you claim we are racists and bigots the more we reject everything you say.  This is pathetic.

Challenging the Status Quo

http://www.beckershospitalreview.com/opioids/white-house-proposes-95-budget-reduction-for-drug-czar-office-7-things-to-know.html

I am firmly in the camp to end the war on drugs, so I see this as an excellent proposal.   It doesn’t quite go far enough in cutting 100% but I’ll take a 95% reduction in any and every government office.

https://www.vox.com/world/2017/5/9/15516278/north-korea-more-rational-than-you-think

 “Rational doesn’t mean easy to get along with.”

“None of this is to say that Kim’s actions are not morally abhorrent. But there’s a logic to them that can be discerned quite clearly by experts.”

Vox is easy to disagree with – they are a pretty strong left wing hack of a news source.  This article, however is correct.  We try to escape a solid discussion saying North Korea is run by a lunatic.  This may be true but his love for nuclear weapons make him the most rational dictator in the world today.  It is the only thing that has kept the US from attempting (too blatantly) trying to assassinate him.  He might be a nut but then again, he might not be.  Kind of hard to know if we won’t even talk with him.

http://www.independent.org/newsroom/article.asp?id=9070

A slice,

“The worst part of Venezuela’s tragedy is that it was so obviously predictable. Economists familiar with the work of Ludwig von Mises understood the necessary results of socialist policies. A sound money and freely floating prices provide a society with functioning markets that deliver the goods to the people. The market economy is true populism.”

Recent News Thoughts

http://ronpaulinstitute.org/archives/featured-articles/2017/may/07/president-trump-cancel-your-saudi-trip-play-more-golf/

“Many pundits complain that President Trump spends too much time golfing. I would rather he spend a lot more time golfing and less time trying to solve the rest of the world’s problems. We cannot afford to be the policeman or nursemaid to the rest of the world, particularly when we have such a lousy record of success.”

The more golf he plays, the fewer mistakes he makes.

http://blog.independent.org/2017/05/05/government-schools-sowing-the-seeds-of-our-destruction/

There is a reason that anyone who escapes the yoke of communism becomes strongly capitalistic and anti-government.

https://www.fff.org/explore-freedom/article/political-planning-versus-personal-planning-everyone/

Advocating against top down planning does not mean not planning at all. Similarly, a collective plan differs from personal planning by each individual.  Hayek touches on this nuance in his seminal work The Road to Serfdom.   Everyone can, and, in my opinion, should plan, but central planning by the state cannot be done to the individual’s satisfaction.  Governmental planning takes from one to give to another and is forced down our throats.  Hence the phrase, “taxation is stealing.” 

“The only successful government plans consistent with the liberty of individual planning and voluntary association in market and other social settings is the enforcement of those classical liberal principles and “rules of the road” that limit government to the recognition of and respect for each person’s right to his own life, liberty and honestly acquired property as means to pursue human happiness.

Anything beyond this replaces compulsory political Planning, with a capital “P,” with the proper and necessary planning of each free, peaceful and self-directing individual. There is really no compromise between the two.”

Who do you want choosing your plan for you?

https://www.brookings.edu/blog/unpacked/2017/05/08/why-tax-reform-will-be-difficult-for-trump/

This is perhaps the most ignorant analysis I have ever seen out of a prestigious institution.  Shame on you Brookings. 

A.      All income taxation is slavery.

B.      All taxation generally is immoral.

C.      The tax proposal doubles the standard deduction which disproportionately helps the poorest earners.

Our Foreign Intervention 'Solutions' Are the Problem

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/may/05/north-korea-accuses-cia-biochemical-plot-kill-kim-jong-un

Even if this accusation is entirely false, designed as propaganda, anyone who thinks the CIA doesn’t have a minimum of three plans to kill the North Korean dictator is living in a fool’s world. 

https://www.libertarianinstitute.org/economics/scandal-isnt-post-presidential-speaking-fees-political-pensions/

 “In the wake of Obama’s decision to accept a $400,000 fee for a Wall Street speaking engagement this September, the bill’s sponsors plan to reintroduce it. But neither the speaking fee nor the veto are what we should be noticing. The real scandal is how lucrative retirement has become for American politicians.”

Capitalism isn’t the problem – guaranteeing the pension of past presidents (and Congressmen/women is the bigger issue. 

https://www.fff.org/2017/05/05/separate-healthcare-state/

 “… No matter what healthcare reform plan Republicans end up enacting, America’s healthcare crisis will continue. It will be ongoing. It will last the rest of your life, so long as government continues to be involved in healthcare.

There is but one solution to America’s healthcare woes: the separation of healthcare and the state, which necessarily means the repeal, not the reform, of Medicare and Medicaid and all other governmental involvement in healthcare. The solution is a total free market in healthcare, one in which the state plays no role whatsoever.”

We didn’t always have healthcare issues. Of course, that was before the government was involved.

Learn Something New Today

https://ucrtoday.ucr.edu/45473 

“In the paper, Wu argues that if we reimagine cognitive aging as a developmental outcome, it opens the door for new tactics that could dramatically improve the cognitive health and quality of life for aging adults. In particular, if adults embrace the same “broad learning experiences” (characterized by six factors below) that promote children’s growth and development, they may see an increase in their cognitive health, and not the natural decline that we all expect.”

“Wu makes the case that we naturally tend to shift from ‘broad learning,’ to ‘specialized learning,’ when we begin our careers, and at that point, cognitive aging begins. As we settle into our work roles, we become more efficient in our day-to-day expectations and activities, and rarely stray from that. Though there are some benefits to it, such as having more efficient and accurate responses in appropriate situations, there are also downfalls, such as holding wrong assumptions or difficultly overriding these assumptions.”

You are not too old, nor simple-minded, to learn something new today.  I try to live my life based on this principle. In fact, IMO, if everyone would live by this principle, we could eradicate essentially every problem we have in society.  Too bad most people have shown very little desire to agree and change their mindset to follow this worldview.  Just think of what we could accomplish together if we all tried to understand something we don’t already know.

http://www.targetliberty.com/2017/05/venezuelan-anti-speech-military-unit.html

This video shows government tank runs back and forth over protestors Venezuela.

If you support socialism or anything other than complete free markets, this atrocious activity is what you are implicitly advocating.  As for myself, I will not stand to support this heinous and cruel system.  You liberal elites are out of control.  Take a look at the world around you.  Capitalism is a glorious thing. 

Be Careful What You Wish For

http://thefederalist.com/2017/05/03/people-are/

I don’t have any special spot in my heart for Jim DeMint but the odds they find a better replacement is essentially 0.  The Heritage Foundation will quickly turn into a populist institution.

http://thefederalist.com/2017/05/03/harvard-study-minimum-wage-hikes-cut-entry-level-jobs-harm-poor-minorities/

The geniuses at Harvard finally figured out how minimum wage increases harm those most in need.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-05-03/einhorn-says-tesla-investors-hypnotized-in-dot-com-like-bubble

Bubbles tend to happen when people get caught up in the social relevance of technologies.  It happened with the internet when people thought (correctly – but not the way they realized) that the internet would change a large part of how we live. Here we are again with Musk’s efforts to create electric cars integrated with solar power.  I am not saying he shouldn’t try to do it.  I am saying that the irrational exuberance of this technology combined with government propping the bubble up with subsidies to this technology will result in a big pop at some point.

https://www.manhattan-institute.org/html/does-america-need-more-urban-rail-transit-10246.html

If mass transit were truly needed as proven through a cost benefit analysis, I say let the private market decide, without State funding.

http://www.aei.org/publication/inconvenient-energy-fact-it-takes-79-solar-workers-to-produce-same-amount-of-electric-power-as-one-coal-worker/

It takes 79 solar workers to produce the same energy as one coal worker.

When You Don't Know What You Don't Know

http://www.fff.org/2017/05/02/popes-misguided-attack-libertarianism/

The Pope’s connection with common man has been remarkable and offers many a renewed sense of faith in God.  This is a good thing, The Pope opining and offering recommendations on economics and political philosophy is not a good thing, He doesn’t know much in those areas as evidenced by his activism for policies that have casually resulted in billions more deaths than would have occurred under complete capitalism.

From the Pope regarding Libertarianism:

“A common characteristic of this fallacious paradigm is that it minimizes the common good, that is the idea of ‘living well’ or ‘the good life’ in the communitarian framework, while at the same time exalting a ‘selfish ideal.’

Thus, the libertarian individual denies the value of the common good because on the one hand he supposes that the very idea of ‘common’ means the constriction of at least some individuals, and on the other hand that the notion of ‘good’ deprives freedom of its essence.”

Conversely, here are some quotes from the article that articulate the essence of libertarianism:              

“Libertarianism simply holds that people should be free to live their lives however they want, so long as their conduct is peaceful. That is, people are not free to murder, rape, steal, defraud, or otherwise violate the rights of others. But in all peaceful activities, people should be free to make their own choices, even if those choices are immoral, irresponsible, selfish, or sinful.”

It’s that last part that’s the rub. When people who don’t know much about libertarianism hear that part, they immediately jump to the conclusion that libertarians are, therefore, libertines — that the reason they favor freedom and free will is because they endorse immorality, irresponsibility, selfishness, and sinful conduct.”

And,

“Socialists, on the other hand, believe that people cannot be trusted with freedom and free will. That’s why they want the state to intervene and force people to do the ‘right’ thing. That’s what drug laws, for example, are all about. It’s also what Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, three core programs in the socialist agenda, are all about — forcing people through taxes, fines, and imprisonment to care for their parent, the elderly, and the poor. For socialists, ‘freedom’ entails the right to make whatever choices people want to make, so long as the choices are the ‘correct’ ones.

Thus, the fundamental issue that separates libertarianism from socialism is the nature of freedom. Libertarians hold that freedom entails the right to make irresponsible, immoral, selfish, and sinful choices without being punished by the state for doing so, so long as the choices involve peaceful action. Socialists, on the hand, hold that the state should force people to make the ‘right’ choices and should punish people with fines and jail who make the ‘wrong’ choices, even when such choices are entirely peaceful in nature.”

Who do you want making choices for you?  We likely agree that the goals of socialist programs are admirable.  But the libertarians believe those goals are best obtained through the private sector operating in a free market.

http://www.barstoolsports.com/boston/hillary-clinton-is-back-instantly-blames-her-loss-on-everything-and-everybody-but-herself/

The title of the post explains it all. Hillary Clinton is Back, Instantly Blames Her Loss on Everything And Everybody But Herself.

I’ve always contended she is a bad person.  And here we have further proof as she exhibits absolutely no assumption of any personal responsibility nor respect for those who dare to disagree with her.  I am absolutely perplexed that anyone likes her at all.

Quote of the Day from neuroscientist Moran Cerf:

“If the human brain were so simple that we could understand it, we would be so simple that we couldn’t.”

A bit of a catch-22.

Lower Taxes?

https://ari.aynrand.org/blog/2017/04/27/quote-of-the-day-education

“The only purpose of education is to teach a student how to live his life — by developing his mind and equipping him to deal with reality. The training he needs is theoretical, i.e., conceptual. He has to be taught to think, to understand, to integrate, to prove. He has to be taught the essentials of the knowledge discovered in the past — and he has to be equipped to acquire further knowledge by his own effort.” – Ayn Rand

This is not the agenda we push in schools today.

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/04/russian-warship-collides-cargo-vessel-black-sea-170427115517036.html

Russian warship sinks after collision with another vessel.  But we need to be afraid that Syria, Russia, North Korea and China are going to attack us at any moment?  Give me a break.

https://mises.org/blog/mises-open-borders

Mises is not a complete open border guy FYI.  He understands that if we had complete free market capitalism and freedom of (and from) association, then closing the border to maintain a language, culture, heritage would be fine.  I agree with Mises.

https://mises.org/blog/are-oil-prices-blame-venezuelan-crisis

“In short, the Venezuelan crisis is anything but a crisis caused by the fall in oil prices. Not all oil-exporting countries are undergoing crises, and those countries that do suffer from a crisis do so much less severely than Venezuela.

The Venezuelan crisis has its roots in 21st century socialism and in the economic dirigisme that the political doctrine preaches. The fall in oil prices is nothing more than the event that uncovered the corpse of what used to be Venezuela’s economy.”

My advice:  Dig deeper and understand the root cause of the issues.  Stop echoing the political echo chamber!

https://fee.org/articles/trump-s-tax-plan-is-brilliant-politics-and-even-better-economics/

This is a telling and important article.  So read it! But here are three important quotes:

All of this is wonderful, but the shining light of this plan is the dramatic reduction in taxes on corporate profits. The economics of this are based on a simple but profoundly true insight. Economic growth is the key to a good society. This is where good jobs come from. This is how technology improves. This is what gives everyone a brighter outlook on life. If you can imagine that your tomorrow will be more prosperous and flourishing than today, your life seems to be on track.

If this tax plan goes through, the entire class of entrepreneurs, investors, and merchants will receiving a loud signal: this country is safe for you to realize your dreams and make the dreams of others come true.

What I love most about this plan is its real-world economic foundation. It embraces a truth that so many want to avoid. If you want jobs, rising wages, and economic growth, you have to stop the war on capital. You have to go the other way. You need to celebrate capital and allow rewards to flow to those who are driving forward economic progress.

In short, here is my view of the proposed tax cuts. I am supportive of any and all tax cuts down to 0 dollars.  IF we have a government, it should be voluntarily funded.