Aug 03

Puerto Rico outvoted government-cutting governor and enthroned an advocate of expansive government; Now Puerto Rico is Defaulting.

exorcist

Today, August 3, 2015, Puerto Rico failed to make a $58 million dollar payment on its debt. See here. The defaulting commonwealth is some $70 BILLION in debt.

But just a few years ago, Puerto Rico was on a path to economic growth and dynamism. Puerto Rican voters elected Luiz Fortuno as their governor in 2008. According to the Wall Street Journal, Fortuno “slashed 38,000 government jobs, helping shrink the government by 20%. Then he cut income-tax rates by half and corporate-tax rates by nearly a third.”

The economy improved rapidly, and Puerto Rico came close to retiring its debt. According to the WSJ in 2012:

In many respects, the governor’s plan appears to be working in Puerto Rico. He lowered the deficit to $660 million from $3.3 billion, avoiding a fiscal meltdown. He reduced government employment on the island where one in three people worked in the public sector. New corporate-tax rates are leading to a minor boom for investment in some sectors like pharmaceutical manufacturing and export services. All told, three decades of economic stagnation on the island could be ending, with Puerto Rico’s economy set to grow 2% this year—its first gain in years.

But the forces of government power rebelled against Fortuno. There were demonstrations outside his office. Fortuno lost the next election in 2012.

Fortuno’s successor, Governor Alejandro Garcia Padilla, increased spending and raised taxes. Entrepreneurs and hard workers stopped working so many hours, or fled. Now Puerto Rico can’t pay its $70 billion debt.

Aug 02

Federal Reserve Keeps Interest Rates at Near Zero for 2,417 Consecutive Days

poverty4

If you save anything in modern America, you are an utter fool. The Federal Reserve has kept its key interest rate at near zero (0) for 2,417 consecutive days in an attempt to keep the U.S. economy appearing to be afloat. See here.

Savers are being punished severely. If you keep any money in a bank (or elsewhere), it is steadily losing value.

Central banking allows governments worldwide to give the appearance that they are providing benefits and services above the burden of taxation. Just as a poor person can temporarily appear to be wealthy by going into debt and driving a new sports car, a government can go deeply into debt and print mountains of currency to prop up appearances of financial solvency or stability. Stupid welfare or entitlement programs can appear to be “a deal”–at least for a while.

Aug 02

Proposed Constitutional Amendments to “Overturn Citizens United” Would Actually Overturn Hundreds of Cases

Bernie Sanders

(Pictured above: Bernie Sanders, who is pushing to amend the Constitution to give much more power to the government to “regulate” (meaning fine, punish, or imprison for) (private) spending on ideological-oriented ads, pamphlets or broadcasts.)

More than a dozen proposals have been introduced in the two chambers of Congress to supposedly overturn the Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United v. F.E.C. ruling.

However, even the mildest of these proposals would overturn hundreds of constitutional cases.

In 2010, the Supreme Court struck down small parts of the “McCain-Feingold” Law, which MADE IT A FELONY to spend money on political-oriented ads in some circumstances. This phony “law” was unconstitutional from the beginning, because the First Amendment states plainly that “Congress shall make no law” abridging freedom of speech and press.

We at Lysander Spooner University are presently undertaking a research project to try to determine how many First Amendment cases would be overturned by such proposed constitutional amendments. At minimum, these proposals would gut a quarter-century of First Amendment law in the area of political speech, from
Buckley v. Valeo (1976) onward.

Jul 31

Government scrambles to protect its vast stupid regulatory schemes from the threat of Uber

government, law enforcement, criminals

To operate a taxi cab business is to navigate through one of the most over-regulated industries in the world.

But the actual act of cab-driving is relatively simple, and poor people of limited means should be able to participate and enter the market.

This disconnect is caused by decades of stupid overregulation of the taxi industry. Legislators, mayors and city councilmen everywhere have given rich crony cab companies a wonderful gift: they license and regulate taxi companies as “public utilities” and impose vast, stupid regulations on competitors: new cab companies must get “certificates of need” (often from boards of cab companies that do not like competition); fees and prices are set and imposed by government; routes must be government-approved, etc.

Such stupid regulation leaves customers with high-priced, unclean and unsafe (but government approved) taxi service. It is likely that hundreds of people have been killed or arrested for DUI because the U.S. taxi industry is so overpriced and overregulated.

Recently, people have realized they can create “an app for that.” Companies like Uber and Lyft have devised mechanisms allowing people to summon a friendly driver to their curbs using simple I-phone or other Smart devices. Drivers sign up to be available to give rides to passengers, frequently making a few bucks on the side.

Uber and Lyft drivers (and their cars) are often smarter, cleaner, neater and safer than traditional government-approved cabs.

But the good-old-boy cab companies (and their powermad politicians) are fighting back against this new feeling of freedom.

Here is a story about how the mayor of New York City is trying to stop the “threat” of free-market competition.

Jul 31

Freedom-Of-Information-Act Documents Show U.S. Military Exerting Influence on TV Programming

liber

Trusters of government frequently complain about private-sector money in politics. They say that private-sector voices (especially business and pro-free-market voices) should be barred from spending money on ads that could influence American politics.

However, the government is spending massively to influence politics, and to convince Americans that government is good and should be expanded and empowered.

Case in point: a recent set of requests under the Freedom Of Information Act shows that the U.S. military actively influences TV programming behind the scenes. See here.

The sheer scale of the Army and the Air Force’s involvement in TV shows, particularly reality TV shows, is the most remarkable thing about these files. “American Idol,” “The X-Factor,” “Masterchef,” “Cupcake Wars,” numerous Oprah Winfrey shows, “Ice Road Truckers,” “Battlefield Priests,” “America’s Got Talent,” “Hawaii Five-O,” lots of BBC, History Channel and National Geographic documentaries, “War Dogs,” “Big Kitchens” — the list is almost endless. Alongside these shows are blockbuster movies like Godzilla, Transformers, Aloha and Superman: Man of Steel.

Jul 30

U.S. Corporate Taxes are The Highest on Earth

poverty

Former director of the Congressional Budget Office Douglas Holtz-Eakin recently spoke before an audience in Washington, D.C.. The event was covered by the Washington Examiner. See here.

The U.S. has the world’s highest corporate tax rate: 39.1 percent at the top margin. This is almost 14 percentage points higher than a global average.

America’s high corporate tax rates are driving hundreds of corporations to headquarter overseas or partner with foreign corporations to give the appearance of foreign residence. Many other corporations, of course, are never launched at all due to high U.S. corporate tax rates.

Jul 30

Former NASA official: sea levels could rise 10 feet in 50 years!

med_aciii-tyranny-episode3-3

Every government spreads fear among its subjects to increase its power: Terror! Weapons of Mass Destruction! We’re all going to die! Just give government more power!

Now, former NASA lead climate scientist James Hansen is claiming sea levels could rise 10 feet in 50 years. See this climatedepot.com report.

Astoundingly, CBS, NBCNews.com, MSNBC and Slate have all hyped Hansen’s prediction and credentials. Watch the video compilation provided in the Climatedepot.com piece.

Of course, the claims of these alarmists (and their media partners) should be considered highly suspicious. See here, here and here.

Jul 29

The State of the Climate

building-outdoor-fireplace7

During the hot 1990s, many government scientists predicted Arctic Ice would be gone during the summers, by 2013. Al Gore’s famous film “An Inconvenient Truth,” claimed that Arctic sea ice would be gone in the summer as early as 2015.

But by the time 2013 came around, Arctic sea ice had grown by 533,000 square miles! That year was the quietest tornado season in six decades, and the calmest hurricane season in three decades.

American air quality is also better than ever, according to the EPA.

Jul 28

New study shows recent minimum-wage hikes have caused the loss of 700,000 jobs

poverty3

More than a hundred peer-reviewed economic studies have established that raising (or imposing) a minimum wage is correlated with increased unemployment.

The only studies purporting to show otherwise are those that occurred in unusual economic circumstances (such as in a “boom-town” situation where wages were naturally rising rapidly anyway).

The strong correlation between minimum-wage laws and unemployment is plain common sense: if there were NO correlation, IT WOULD BE IMMORAL NOT TO IMMEDIATELY DEMAND A $1,000-PER-HOUR (OR HIGHER) MINIMUM WAGE. Just think how many poor people could be lifted out of poverty if politicians wielded such power!

Now a new study has analyzed data from the recent rash of state governments that have raised their minimum wages; and the study compares those states to states whose governments did not raise minimum wages.

Results?

In 2013 High Minimum Wages Cost 747,700 Jobs: In 2013 a $1 increase in the minimum wage was associated with a 1.48 percent increase in the unemployment rate, which amounted to 747,700 jobs. States with minimum wages above the federal standard are lagging behind their counterparts by a full percentage point.

Read the study here.

Jul 28

“Almost Half” of Government “Temperature Data” is Now Fake

algore

According to climatologist Steven Goddard, “Almost half of all reported US temperature data is now fake. [The government] fill[s] in missing rural data with urban data to create the appearance of non-existent US warming.” See here.As the globe continues its long-term cooling trend, the climate-change-socialist movement appears to be simply faking the data.

Goddard states that the government’s fabrication and manipulation of temp data “corrupts the US temperature trend by almost two degrees.”