Ayn Rand is Spinning in Her Grave

It boggles the mind that anyone who has read Ayn Rand would think that a federal bailout for spendthrift state governments is a good idea, much less dare to invoke her in arguing for such a bailout. Yet here we have the cognitive dissonance of Governor David Paterson’s testimony before Congress yesterday:

Paterson cited Rand, a libertarian icon, and her best-seller “The Fountainhead,” noting the novel proclaimed that “our country, the greatest country in the world, was founded on the basis of individuals, where people were encouraged to adventure, not to be complacent; to be daring, not dormant; to prosper, not to plunder.”

He went on to say that a failure to live by those principles, combined with a lack of transparency and governmental oversight, had “brought us to the point where our nation faces a downturn in its economy only rivaled by the Great Depression.”

A day earlier, the governor had outlined a dire and worsening financial forecast that included an unprecedented projected $47 billion budget deficit for the 2011-2012 fiscal year. Yesterday, he told committee members that while he was aware “that we have to put our own house in order,” federal assistance will still be necessary.

But… but… individuals… prosper, not plunder… federal assistance…

Am I the only one whose forehead is throbbing right now?

It gets better:

He called on Congress to consider a sharp hike in federal Medicaid payments to the states, along with increased unemployment-insurance benefits, infrastructure spending, and food-stamp benefits.

“We feel that food stamps are the best economy stimulus,” Paterson said.

He also said New York had “40 shovel-ready programs for improving highways and bridges,” but lacked funds to pay for them.

He’s like a modern Howard Roark. Except that he’s the complete opposite.

Government Tricks Small Business Into Risky Investments:Then Soaks Taxpayers

Some of you know that I doubt the claim that credit markets “seized up”.   I don’t even know what seized up means. It wasn’t defined in any of my economics texts and I haven’t heard anything other than a high pitched squeal when I have asked the press that used the term to define it.   I have no doubt that some people who used to get credit can’t get it now and I have no doubt that some people are paying higher interest rates.  That’s probably a good thing in an economy brought to it’s knees in part by a government engineered credit bubble.  But I see no “seizing up”. The credit data that I have seen shows steady increases in credit not decreases.   

 

Can someone point me to the evidence of “seizing up” or that there is any good reason to continue to flood the economy with printing press money.

 

I keep looking.

 

Here is an example of the propaganda that we are expected to accept.

 

An Oct. 29 CNNMoney.com article is headlined Entrepreneurs to Congress: Help our failing businesses.  The subtitle reads, A House committee hearing on the help small businesses need to survive the credit crunch offers many suggestions, but little indication of quick action.

 

Here is how they describe how the credit crunch has hurt a small business.

NEW YORK(CNNMoney.com) — Riemeier Lumber weathered every economic crisis since 1925, including the Great Depression, but it isn’t surviving the latest one. The Cincinnati building materials company will shut its doors November 6, laying off more than 100 employees.

Riemeier expanded its operations just before the bottom fell out of the housing market. As the company bled cash, its bank advised it to seek loans elsewhere, but owner Thomas Franke couldn’t find any willing lenders. On Tuesday, he traveled to Washington to share the story of his company’s collapse with the House Small Business Committee.

“For a business that has been in existence for over 70 years and survived the Great Depression to be closing its doors after all these years is very telling about the challenges facing entrepreneurs,” said Nydia Velázquez, D-N.Y., chair of the committee. “It’s time to provide small businesses with targeted assistance that will allow them to keep their doors open and help ensure a strong economy.”

I am a small businessman in a very cyclical business.  Whenever I see a business fail I am sure to be grateful for every next payroll I can make.  I certainly feel badly for everyone affected by Riemeier Lumber’s troubles.  I have a question though.  Why on earth did you choose to expand your operations in the middle of a bubble created by artificially low interest rates and unsustainable government mortgage policies?   People have been predicting the bursting of this bubble for years.  Didn’t you read the papers? Or could it have been that you took a calculated risk based on the best information you had at the time in hopes of making some money and in the process creating some jobs and helping some people get nicer places to live?

 

My point is that business decisions are a judgment call.  It’s something the Austrian Economists call “economic calculation” and reliable economic calculation requires a reliable pricing system.   If government artificially lowers interest rates – the price of money -and artificially pumps up demand for housing it amounts to a campaign of economic disinformation. The government tricked Riemeier Lumber into expanding.  Now the company is on its hands and knees begging for it’s life.  

 

It’s a game some salespeople (the more cynical of the breed) call “Make me sick, make me well”.  The customer has to feel the pain before they will buy the medicine.  Did the government do it because they are evil and wanted to deliberately hurt the company?  Probably not, they are probably just incompetent to run an economy.   Who is competent?   You and me and millions of other people making their own economic decisions in an enviroment where the government does not engage in economic disinformation.

 

So sorry folks, this is not an example of the failure of free markets or proof that credit markets have seized up.  It appears to be just the reassertion of a rational market correcting itself after the government did everything it could to distort it.  Unfortunately there are a lot of innocent bystanders.  I  think Alan Greenspan who artificially lowered interest rates  and every legislator who voted for  the CRA and for  GSEs should forfeit their salaries and pay damages to Riemeier Lumber.  That’s who caused the problem. Let them pay for it out of their fat pockets.

 

And I am still not convinced that credit markets have seized up.  They are just doing what they do best – correctly allocating resources.

Tonight’s Bailout Facts Town Hall is a “Don’t Miss” Opportunity

 Tonight’s Bailout Facts Town Hall is shaping up to be THE  NYC political event of this cycle. The Town Hall will be at the Ukrainian East Village Restaurant, 140 Second Avenue (near 9^th St.) NYC. at 7p.  You can get more details at www.libertarian.meetup.com/324.

 

 

Andrew Tulloch , Director of incumbent 14^th District Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney’s campaign has assured me that the Congresswoman will do everything possible to be there herself.  Failing that Mr. Tulloch will fill in for her.  Congresswoman Maloney is a long time champion of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and as recently as July voted to increase their mortgage limits by 50%.  Was that good for struggling families?  Or was it a mistake?  Why not come tonight and ask her?

 

 

2005 Mayoral candidate Dr. Anthony Gronowicz   will represent the Greens.  Dr. Gronowicz is a Professor at CUNY and authored, among other things, Race and Class Politics in New York City.  If you think maybe the bailout has something to do with class politics Dr. Gronowicz might be able to shed some light on that.

 

 

 Republican Congressional Candidate from the 14^th District Robert Heim (www.RobertHeimForUSCongress.com)  is a former prosecutor for the Securities and Exchange Commission.   Seems like he should know something about this.

 

 

And of course, in our corner we have two hard core champions of freedom.   Bill Buran (www.BillBuran.com) will represent the NYC Campaign for Liberty which is the Ron Paul campaign Next Gen. Bill is also a candidate for NYS Assembly (72^nd  R,C and I).   Last, but far from least, we have Libertarian Congressional Candidate Isaiah Matos ( www.IsaiahMatos4Congress.com) .  Of course these guys, and their “Austrian School” (www.mises.org) predecessors, have been predicting this crisis and explaining exactly what was going to happen.  Could it be they have a solution?

 

 

Where else can you hear such a diverse and authoritative range of opinions on the single most pressing issue of our time?  Certainly not on the McBama show.  Where else can you question the representatives of the status quo AND the potential solutions from two wildly different sides of the political spectrum?  We are going to break some new ground tonight .

 

 

Let me put it this way.  If you DON’T show up tonight – good luck with that 401k

We, the market

We, the people, are the market. Not OPEC, the Dow, Goldman Sachs, or much less the Federal Reserve. The market is you and I with our dollars in our hands. It’s third graders spending their allowance on a favorite soda, let alone hassling their parents to purchase the latest X-Box game. Anyone buying anything they need or want is more significant in determining value than any broker on the NYSE trading floor.

There’s no “invisible hand” driving the markets. They’re not an abstract theory. They’re  the real and inevitable confluence of our creating, buying, selling or trading  of goods and/or services within various industries or demographics which we all comprise at different times. It’s difficult for many to comprehend the chaotic nature of economic liberty, ie free markets, creates the most opportunities and abundance from scarcity.

Free markets are infinitely more efficient than controlled economies such as Cuba’s, where rationing is deemed ethical, but it’s results are disastrous. For example,  asthma inhalers . Sure, they’re 5 cents. Because you’re only allowed one per month, which you still need to pay for. If you need more, as most asthmatics do, the only option is buying them on the black market for practically one month’s wage. Or having family send it from abroad.  Just a minor detail Michael Moore failed to mention in Sicko.

Which is why it’s dumbfounding to now hear Alan Greenspan speak of the “flaw” in his free market ideology and how he must re-examine it. “I still don’t understand exactly how it happened” he’s stated. Fortunately, some economic experts do.

Even those who supported Greenspan admit his two greatest mistakes were lowering interest rates dangerously low, thus creating “easy money”, and his encouraging people to take Adjustable Rate Mortgages during the ensuing real estate boom. Ultimately, it was creative financing   coupled with derivative formulas and exotic securitization schemes concocted by investment firms and hedge funds which sold “securitized” mortgage packages from banks to financial institutions around the world, all based on credit and speculation, that are the true culprits behind this global financial crisis, not free markets.

It would behoove Greenspan to make a clear distinction between the abuse and exploitation of credit and the right for people to buy, sell, earn a profit, and ultimately own property within the “free market”. If anything, Greenspan’s biggest mistake now is providing fodder for the Michael Moores and the Naomi Kleins who will preach socialism is the answer and belittle the average Joe they purportedly represent, especially if he’s a plumber who dares question the proven failure that is the forcible redistribution of wealth which hardly benefits we, the people, in the long run.

Election Invalid Due To Naked Rigging in CT.

At what point does lawlessness on the part of the government invalidate their regime?  I’d say when a judge orders a candidate off the ballot due to so-called clerical errors that’s a pretty good start.

Here is what I just read form the LPNY:

BARR OFF BALLOT IN CT (from the press release): …The Libertarian Party of Connecticut properly submitted over 12,000
signatures to meet the 7,500-signature requirement of the state. The state miscounted the number of petitions submitted by the
Libertarian Party of Connecticut and improperly struck hundreds, if not
thousands of voter signatures denying Bob Barr access to the ballot. 
The administrative mistakes of the state bureaucracy were quickly
uncovered.

Judge Janet Hall, based her decision on the inability of the state
to quickly reprogram electronic voting machines and reprint
machine-readable ballots before the election. 
“We are outraged by the decision of Judge Hall.  To allow a
candidate for the highest national office to be unlawfully excluded
from an election because it would inconvenience state workers or
interfere with bureaucratic procedures goes beyond the pale,” stated
Russ Verney, campaign manager for Bob Barr.

First there should be a full investigation of whether these were really innocent (but stupid) errors. If not some people be land in jail. Regardless someone should lose their job.  The CT BOE should reimburse the CT LP for the cost of petitioning.

Second the machines have to be reprogrammed regardless of time or cost.

The tyrants that control your lives via their power to tax your life now realize that it doesn’t matter what you think.  They can do what they want.  You can’t get your candidates on the ballot.  You can’t get them into the debates.

You vote for term limits and they ignore you.  You tell them not to vote for bailouts and they ignore you.

What is it going to take?  Will Nov 4 , 2008 be the day that American freedom died?  If this isn’t a reason to vote for Barr in every other state what is?  If this isn’t a reason for every resident of Connecticut to walk into their legislators office and demand the voting machines be fixed, what is?

What was that somebody said about the course of human events?

Maloney Campaign Agrees To Bailout Town Hall Oct 29

Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney’s campaign has agreed to participate in the Bailout Town Hall next week.  It’s yet to be determined whether the Congresswoman herself will appear or whether she will be represented by a surrogate.

 

While I disagree with Congresswoman Maloney’s votes for the bailout I think she deserves some credit for agreeing to participate.  She could have ignored us but she didn’t.  I think she should be commended for that.

 

The event is scheduled for this Wednesday October 29 from 7 pm to 9 pm at the Ukrainian East Village Restaurant, 140 Seconds Ave, NYC.  You can get details here.

 

The Bailout is co-sponsored by a diverse group of political organizations and campaigns including: The Manhattan Libertarian Party, The NYC Green Party, The Queens Libertarian Party, the Campaign for Liberty (Ron Paul’s grass roots network). Both of Congresswoman Maloney’s opponents, Libertarian Isaiah Matos and Republican Robert Heim are co-sponsors and both will be speakers at the event.  Bill Buran who is a candidate for New York State Assembly will speak for the Campaign for Liberty.  

 

The Conservative and Independence Parties and the Nader campaign were also invited to participate in the event but either declined or did not respond.

 

This will be a truly unique opportunity to see Democrats and Republicans, Greens and Libertarians together presenting their views and answering voters’ questions on the single most important issue of the time.

 

The format is designed to emphasize getting facts to the voters.  In the first hour, speakers will make a short opening statement then take predetermined questions for the moderator.  The last hour will be exclusively dedicated to questions from the audience.

Mounted Police Trample Iraq War Vet Outside Presidential Debates

This is video of the Nassau County Police Department (New York, adjacent to NYC) pulling Nick Morgan, an Iraq War Veteran, off of the sidewalk and then trampling him with a horse outside of the presidential debate last week.

MTA police detain activist for refusing to show ID at anti-bailout demonstration

Originally posted at the blog of bile:

Last night, October 21st, 2008, the Greater NYC Campaign for Liberty, some members of the Manhattan Libertarian Party and other liberty activists demonstrated in Grand Central Station. A bit of theater. A breadline containing a decent amount of individuals with others as satellites handing out literature, discussing the bailout with passer bys and filming the event. I was in the latter group. Not 10 minutes into the demonstration officers started speaking with Russ, requesting our reasons for being their, what exactly we were doing and I’d imagine if we had a permit.

I was at one point, not caught on video, threatened by the officer seen walking away from Russ at approximately 48 seconds into the video. A very loud and angry, similar to: “Back up! Get away from me!” I was merely walking up to inquire to what the problem was and why Russ was being engaged. After talking with Russ briefly I went around to the other side to get a different angle and hand out more literature. I soon noticed another officer appear (about 1 minute in) and start approaching the breadline. You can see at about 1:04 the first officer points me out to the new cop.

At 1:45 I’m approached by the first officer and told to stop filming the officers. The officer in particular was 5 or more feet from me and I was attempting to pick up the dialog in the rather loud station. I was not at any point noticed by the officer as I was completely behind him so there was no possibility of my existence being an interference. There were others standing closer who were not filming who were not harassed. I was left alone only because he become distracted by another officer or his radio. As Russ was being handcuffed I believe it’s the original officer who threatens to lock me up too if I don’t “take a walk.” So I took a walk. Following closely Russ and the two officers who were bringing him to the holding cell. I unfortunately stopped recording while in the police office talking with the officer at the main desk though I got some of it.

It one point an officer threatens to bring out the K-9 unit to sniff all our bags. A short time one happens to just walk right by all of us and our belongings and does not react.

At 6:30 the officer who was talking with Andrew asked if he could help me. I inform him I’m a member of the group there implying my reason for being next to him… though I think obviously the problem was my filming. When you see the camera go from facing the floor to the side is when the officer grabbed my arm motioning to either take my camera or start to place cuffs on me. He too was distracted by what appeared to be a superior officer calling on the radio. I hand the camera off to Andrew in case he came back to detain me. Listen to the radio. “You were told what to do. THAT’S ENOUGH. OK?! Do what you got to do!”

I kept the camera going while trying to act as it wasn’t. We were told the office was not a waiting room even though there had been people in there waiting and instructed to leave. Shortly after Russ is released.

Once we left the station after a couple minutes we noticed most of the officers involved in the incident standing just inside the doorway staring and talking among themselves. I wasn’t quick enough, nor would it had gone over well, to record them watching us but I was able to get them walking away. A rather good ending to the video I think.

Take aways:

1. Don’t carry ‘official’ state identification when doing these things. That way when you tell them you don’t have ID to show them you’re telling the truth. In fact I now plan to not carry my state ID with me on a regular basis.
2. Don’t ever stop recording. These things don’t take long and it’s better to have too much footage and have to spend more time editing then missing some of the good parts.
3. I had my Free Talk Live press pass on me but forgot to wear it. However, it’s my ‘official’ one with all my information on it. I need to get another one printed with basic info which doesn’t give away my full identity.

We plan on doing this again in the next couple weeks. We’ll see how it goes.

Not that we very much care but if someone is familiar with the laws regarding the actions we took please post the relevant statutes in the comments. Thank you.

Decidedly Undecided

With only two weeks away from the election, there are still millions of Americans who feel they are without a candidate. And not because they’re undecided. They’re actually decided on the fact that neither Obama nor McCain represent anything they stand for.

Neither candidate is willing to openly support the right for gay marriage. Neither strongly support the second amendment right for individuals to bear arms in their own homes. Neither have clearly distinguished the crucial difference between actual environmental pollution from the global warming/climate change hype and its trillion dollar cap and trade boondoggle attempts. Neither have delineated a foreign policy that is any more competent than the Bush administration’s; McCain seems way too aggressive and is setting his sights on Iran, while Obama seems to say whatever it takes to appease the media. But most importantly, neither have any sound or practical plans to ameliorate the current financial crisis. McCain has expressed the need for some serious cuts in government spending, which is a great start, but most fiscally conservative voters are doubtful given the Republican party’s record of reneging on such promises.

And yet the millions of Americans who are painfully aware that neither candidate truly represents them, are equally aware that their vote for a third party that does, such as Libertarian candidate Bob Barr, will fall on deaf ears. And thanks to efforts by the Republican party to keep Bob Barr off the ballot in certain states, and having kept him from any of the presidential debates, millions of more Americans will have no idea they had much of a choice outside the two parties other than Ralph Nader.

The tragic irony is that the Libertarian party’s principles of true liberalism and limited government are not only the most pragmatic and cost effective solutions to our fiscal and foreign policy problems, but are the very principles this nation was founded on. George Washington was wise enough to warn about partisan politics back when it was between the Federalists and anti-Federalists. It’s curious how the anti-Federalists then became the Democratic-Republicans, which later split into the myopic duopoly our political system has unfortunately become. One in which both parties are almost indistinguishable from each other in their zeal to spend our tax dollars against our best interests by conveniently confusing the difference between inalienable rights and multi-billion dollar entitlement programs, and then mistake our disillusionment for indecisiveness.

Peace Task Force Electoral Forum

I attended the Peace Task Force Electoral Forum this afternoon at All Souls Unitarian Church on Lex. and 80th. The room had about 20 socialists, an Obama apologist and three libertarians (Isaiah, Dee and me).

Isaiah was terrific–contrasting the libertarian non-interventionist message with the wishy-washy position espoused by the Paul Weiss lawyer for Obama and the socialist, we’re all imperialists position of the Green Party spokeswoman.

One member of the Congregation came up to me afterwards to complain about the Demopublicans (his word!) and another asked Isaiah why the media ignores third parties and pretends that there are only two candidates running for President.

This is after last night when Rich Cooper, Joseph Dobrian and I attended the Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn Walkathon in Park Slope. Once again, it was an overwhelmingly socialist crowd where we were able to show support for a common cause. Did we win any converts at either fora? Probably not but if we can continue to demonstrate that the freedom philosophy has the best solutions for this country, then perhaps we can begin to make a difference.