Less Regulation Less Deaths from Natural Disaster

https://www.lewrockwell.com/2017/09/walter-e-block/govt-wont-protect-protect-us-storms/

Government cannot save us from storms.  The free market can do the best job of enabling the best and strongest buildings built in the best geographic locations for the cheapest prices and will be ensured the best to ensure everyone in society can get through this natural disaster with the least pain and suffering possible.  Walter Block says it here, "It cannot be denied that this great city of Texas is one of the least governed of all major cities. Indeed, for many years it had virtually no zoning regulations at all, and even nowadays they are fewer and more far between and significantly less onerous than in many other cities, Texas included. To this statement I have two comments. First, the deaths from Katrina in New Orleans and surrounding territories was in the neighborhood of 1,900. So far, as of this writing, those from Houston are at 38. Don’t get me wrong. Every one of those 38 lives was precious. Many, most of them, could have been saved if Houston had less central planning, and more free enterprise. But when you compare 1,900 and 38, we are talking about the difference between developed and undeveloped economies. Second, people like this who trash Houston’s (relative) support of free enterprise should read the monumental works of Bernie Siegan, our point man on free enterprise in Houston:

Siegan, Bernard H. 1970. “Non-Zoning in Houston,” Journal of Law and Economics, Vol. XIII, No. 1, April;

Siegan, Bernard. 1972. Land Use Without Zoning, Lexington MA: Heath.

On RICO and watermelon environmentalists:

Parker, 2015; Kasper, 2015; Moran, 2015; Bastasch, 2015; Barillas, 2015; Driessen, 2017

Parker, Bruce. 2015. “Vermont climate scientist wants RICO prosecutions of climate change opponents.” September 24;

Kasper, Matthew. 2015. “Roy Spencer, Climate Skeptic, wants RICO Investigation of Environmentalists.” November 9

Moran, Rick. 2015. “Some scientists want to prosecute global warming skeptics under the RICO Act.” September 20

Bastasch, Michael. 2015. “Scientists Ask Obama To Prosecute Global Warming Skeptics.” September 17

Barillas, Martin. 2015. “Environmentalists seek shut-down of Catholic climate debate.” June 3;

Driessen, Paul. 2017. “The Ignorance, Intolerance, and Violence of the ‘Climate Crusaders.’”May 2;

On Katrina:

Anderson, 2005; Block, 2005A, 2005B, 2005C, 2006A, 2006B; Block and Rockwell, 2007; Chamlee-Wright and Rothschild, 2007; Cowen, 2006; Culpepper and Block, 2008; Lora, 2006; Murphy, 2005; Rockwell and Block, 2010; Thornton, 1999; Vuk, 2006A, 2006B

Anderson, William. 2005. “Katrina and the Never-Ending Scandal of State Management,” September, 13;

Block, Walter E. 2005A. “Then Katrina Came.” September 3,

Block, Walter E. 2005B. “The Answer to Katrina.” September 11.

Block, Walter E. 2005C. “Government and the Katrina Crisis.” The Free Market. Vol. 26, No. 10, October;

Block, Walter E. 2006A. “Katrina: Private Enterprise, the Dead Hand of the Past, and Weather Socialism; An Analysis in Economic Geography.” Ethics, Place and Environment: A Journal of Philosophy & Geography; Vol. 9, No. 2, June, pp. 231-241; reprinted in ‘Post-Katrina: Risk Assessment, Economic Analysis and Social Implications’– edited by Harry Richardson, Peter Gordon and James Moore. Edward Elgar Publishing;

Block, Walter E. 2006B. Interview: November 1, 2006. New Orleans, LA. Access Television, channel 76. W.C. Johnson Show Our Story. “Katrina and the aftermath.”

Block, Walter and Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr. 2007. “Katrina and the Future of New Orleans,” Telos, Vol. 139, Summer, pp. 170-185

Chamlee-Wright, Emily and Daniel Rothschild. 2007. “Disastrous Uncertainty:

How Government Disaster Policy Undermines Community Rebound,” Mercatus Center

Cowen, Tyler. 2006. “An Economist Visits New Orleans: Bienvenido, Nuevo Orleans” April 19;

Culpepper, Dreda and Walter E. Block. 2008. “Price Gouging in the Katrina Aftermath.” International Journal of Social Economics; Vol. 35, No. 7, pp. 512-520;

Lora, Manuel. 2006. “What Happened to Katrina Aid? “ March 3;

Murphy, Robert P. 2005. “How the Market Might Have Handled Katrina” November 17.

Rockwell, Jr., Llewellyn H. and Walter E. Block. 2010. “The Economics and Ethics of Hurricane Katrina,” American Journal of Economics and Sociology.  Vol. 69, No. 4, October, pp. 1294-1320

Thornton, Mark. 1999. “The Government’s Great Flood.” September, Volume 17, Number 9;

Vuk, Vedran. 2006A. “Journalism and Underwater Basket Weaving” June 21.

Vuk, Vedran. 2006B. “Socialist Man in the Big Easy.” September 25."

"No Farzer Credit Expansion"

https://mises.org/blog/program-stabilize-economy%E2%80%94-four-words

Words spoken by the German speaking Ludwig Von Mises.  If you are worried about the economy, I have two pieces of news, one very good and one very bad.

Bad - We will suffer in getting back to normal.  The bust is the consequences of the irrational growth we have seen from money printing.  It is precisely a good thing but it will be painful for many.

Good - We know why the economy is not stable and can make it stable and just.  Abolish the federal reserve and the economy will prosper.



BTW it wouldn't hurt if we abolished all wars and stopped taxing people at all.  If we did just those things we would see this country prosper like has never been seen in history.

Thugs and Criminals

https://mises.org/blog/economists-are-new-astrologers

This paragraph explains why I believe the Austrian School Economics is fundamentally superior to Chicago School Economic in terms of pure economic theory:

“It appears that Levinovitz hasn’t quite grasped the full consequences of the argument he has espoused; namely that because economics models are mostly useless and cannot predict the future with any sort of certainty, then centrally directing an economy would be effectively like flying blind. The failure of economic models to pan out is simply more proof of the pretense of knowledge. And it’s not more knowledge that we need, it’s more humility. The humility to know that ‘wise’ bureaucrats are not the best at directing a market — market participants themselves are.”

Note I am not advocating against studying the world through the lens of Chicago School Economics.  Instead, I am adamant that we shouldn’t try to drive the economy with this information.

Free Markets > Public Policy

https://www.lewrockwell.com/2017/08/bionic-mosquito/where-is-the-outrage/

This is why Antifa is just as bad as neo-Nazis.

“No, little Jack Harris, you just need to stop associating with criminals and thugs.”

https://www.lewrockwell.com/2017/08/no_author/us-wars-killed-4-million-muslims/

Western Wars Have killed 4 million Muslims since 1990. I can’t possibly understand why Muslims sometimes try to kill Americans.

Maybe we should stop being thugs and criminals …

Which Group Is Worse? Both

I refuse to accept that common people don’t see the media bias. 

CLEAR EXAMPLE:

Charlottesville headlines read something similar to this: “White Nationalists Get Violent,” or “One Death Caused By Alt-right Protest,” or “Nazi Fascist Protest Ends in Violence.” 

Contrast Charlottesville headlines with headlines from the latest events in Berkeley, generally proclaiming: “Antifa Protests at Alt-Right Rally,” or “Conservative Rally Becomes Violent.”

We can argue about which group is at fault or “who started it” as if we are children, but you cannot deny that Charlottesville headlines definitively assign blame to the alt-right while Berkeley headlines remain ambiguous as to fault. 

Let’s be clear:

1                     1 American ideals embody nothing for which the neo-Nazis stand for. 

2                     2 American ideals embody nothing for which Antifa stands for.

3                     3 Both neo-Nazis and Antifa are hate groups.

4                     4 Both neo-Nazis and Antifa utilize completely fascist “efforts” to “eradicate” fascism. 

1. Free Markets 2. Get out of Afghanistan

http://bleedingheartlibertarians.com/

Mises Institute > Cato Institute > Niskanen Center.  No questions asked.  Mises is the only of the three that is truly committed to an unwavering intellectual consistency.  Cato has some beltway insiders. Niskanen is full blown classical liberal.  Not much libertarian about them.

https://fee.org/articles/afghanistan-and-the-sunk-cost-fallacy/

Brittany Hunter with an insightful view of the sunk cost fallacies efforts to keep us at war in Afghanistan.

“It is this belief that we are already in too deep, so we might as well double-down and keep going … 

Trump’s plan for Afghanistan is no different.  It almost sounds as if Trump has put little to no effort into studying the issue of American foreign policy. The mission he spells out is the same mission we have been engaged in for years, and it just doesn’t work.  

If we get out of Afghanistan now and don’t ever look back, America will still have to deal with the 2,386 deaths and the 20,049 wounded military personnel resulting from our presence in the country. These numbers are dismal and depressing, but they can always get worse. 

Staying in this war will only double, if not triple or quadruple these numbers. There is nothing to be gained and everything to be lost. Yet, just like that ridiculously expensive dress I purchased and forced myself to continue wearing, Trump is effectively multiplying the negative repercussions of war.”

The Constitution Is Fallible but Worked in Some Moderate Sense for 225 Years. The Last 17 are Absolutely Disgusting in Regard to The Greatest Libertarian Document Ever Created

https://www.lewrockwell.com/2017/08/no_author/taliban-tried-surrender/

The Taliban surrendered.  We did not accept.  We were stupid.  And now Trump is doubling down on the same war.  Can you say, “INSANITY?”

https://www.fff.org/explore-freedom/article/legal-origin-state-secrets-doctrine/

“A free society cannot last where even the possibility of justice is foreclosed, where a citizen is prevented from looking to the legal system for redress. The state secrets privilege makes a mockery of genuine judicial scrutiny and makes American less safe, not more.”

I think our founding fathers had it right with the separation of powers.

https://fee.org/articles/money-is-the-real-social-contract/

“Perfect currencies do not exist. As the brainchild of fallible humans, monies are bound to constantly face primal temptations. Failing to find such an illusory ideal, the freedom to choose currencies is the best guarantee of having sound money in a free society.”

Individual freedom > state control ALWAYS!

Get Out of Afghanistan

https://theintercept.com/2017/08/22/donald-trump-new-afghanistan-plan-promises-more-killing-and-little-else/

As simple as it seems, Trump does not understand this basic premise: If you kill people, their families and friends tend to not like you.  So much for fighting terrorism.  Get out of Afghanistan.

“But in Afghanistan, Trump’s plan for more killing — and little else —ignores a crucial point: The frenzied pace of killing under the Bush administration was what led to a nearly defeated Taliban’s resurgence, bogging the U.S. down in an endless war. Trump is either forgetting the mistakes of recent U.S. history in Afghanistan or, worse, he simply doesn’t care.”

http://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/politics/2017/08/22/nkys-gop-rep-thomas-massie-rips-trump-afghan-policy-tweetstorm/588901001/

Read Thomas Massie’s tweets on Afghanistan.  We don’t have the money to fight these wars.  This is precisely why so many people in America are struggling. We pay to build other nations (I know this is counter to what Trump claims this war is for) and keep our own poor on welfare. Get out of Afghanistan.

http://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/trump-looked-at-eclipse-without-glasses-6-times-1029427267592

This is the dumb world we live in.  A headline counting the number of times President Trump looked at the sun during the eclipse.  MSNBC is every bit as bad as CNN.  On a scale from 1-100, with 100 being the highest quality news that is helpful, nonpartisan and informative, I put both under 10 and Fox at a 10 even. 

https://fee.org/articles/amazon-destroys-jobs-really/

“For a president to openly condemn a company for outperforming the competition is antithetical to the free market that Trump pretends to support.”

Shame on Trump.

“Unfortunately for Trump, he has chosen to attack a mighty monument of consumerism. Amazon’s services are just too good and too plentiful to fall victim to Trump’s attacks. In fact, Amazon Prime’s 80 million subscribers outnumber the 57.6 million people who voted in the 2016 election. Sorry President Trump, consumers have already voted with their dollars and they choose Amazon.”

Watch out Trump.

https://mises.org/blog/ron-paul-reacts-trumps-afghanistan-speech

Read this twitter stream  I’m certainly with Ron Paul on this one.

“Terrorism is one thing, but what about massive collateral damage?  Killing civilians creates more terrorism.  Round and round we go.”

https://www.lewrockwell.com/2017/08/no_author/natural-disasters-really-natural/

An interesting theory that most “natural” disasters really are the fault of governments.

“There’s nothing “natural” about corruption and mismanagement. That’s what’s really responsible for most disasters, and that’s what really caused the flooding in New Orleans in 2005, and in 2017.”