Jul 11

U.S. Census Workers Violate Privacy, “Camp out” in Yards of Americans who Decline to Participate

Roger Roots, J.D., Ph.D.

Roger Roots, J.D., Ph.D.

by Dr. Roger I. Roots, founder, Lysander Spooner University

I remember years ago after I graduated from law school, I applied for a job with the U.S. Census Bureau. I attended an initiation meeting in Providence, Rhode Island. At that meeting I recall a Census official telling applicants that as Census agents we would be empowered to enter peoples’ homes without warrant, and trespass and conduct warrantless surveillance upon the American people until we gathered the data the government sought.

I declined to take the job.

Now I read that Census workers in the Dallas area are “camping out” in the yards of recalcitrant Americans, refusing demands to leave, and even stopping Americans from driving away from their homes. The story is here.

It is a myth that such powers are described in the U.S. Constitution. The Constitution says only that Congress may conduct a census of the population. That means a count. It doesn’t empower the government to gather any additional information. And it doesn’t empower the government to require Americans to help the government do its count.

Jul 11

U.S. Debt will Soon be more than 100 Percent of annual GDP, Official Warns

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The U.S. national debt is now so large that it constitutes 74 percent of America’s annual Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Not since World War II has this percentage been so high. And today’s debt is not so much the product of a worldwide war but of the constant deficit spending required to pay for American entitlements.

“Testifying in the U.S Senate yesterday, Congressional Budget Office Director Keith Hall warned that the publicly held debt of the U.S. government, when measured as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product,” is poised to become more than 100 percent of total U.S. annual private-plus-public output.

The story is here.
“By 2039, CBO projects, the debt will increase to 101 percent of GDP and by 2040 to 103 percent GDP.”

Of course, the unfunded future cost of entitlements is projected by some to be more than $200 trillion. And America’s Social Security and Medicare entitlements are not structured as pay-as-you-go financial programs; they are essentially Ponzi schemes requiring future generations to pay for them.

Jul 10

There have been no “austerity” measures in Greece or in any other European country.

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The word “austerity” has been in the news a lot lately. Austerity means cuts in government payroll or other spending. Trusters of government like to claim that “severe” (Paul Krugman) or “harsh” (the Guardian) austerity measures are being imposed on the people of Greece, or maybe in some other European country.

The truth is that there has been little or no austerity anywhere in Europe in the past decade. Austerity is like the word “deregulation”: it is invoked often but never actually occurs anywhere.

Interestingly, most media discussions of the supposedly severe or harsh austerity measures being imposed on Greece don’t mention many details.

The BBC website provides some information of the deal being considered by Greece: tax INCREASES (including a hike in Greece’s Value-Added Tax to “a full 1 percent of GDP,” a tax INCREASE on restaurants, and a corporate tax INCREASE.

Cuts? a slight cut in Greek military spending and a move to raise retirement eligibility to 67 (which might be considered something of a cut).

In all, Greece’s “austerity” offers appear to foreshadow an even more high-tax, more-socialistic Greece in the coming few years. This, of course, will mean more slow growth and poverty for the people of that once-great nation.

Jul 10

“Conservative” Writer: FBI “secretly” saved us from “ISIS” on the Fourth of July

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I don’t know whether to write this post about the FBI’s claims or about the knee-jerk column of Matt Vespa, a self-styled “conservative” writer and Republican Party loyalist.

In a column entitled, “FBI: We Stopped ISIS-linked Fourth of July Terror Plots” (found here), Vespa cites CNN for the proposition that “we now know that the FBI foiled some” terrorist plots that were “ISIS-linked.”

Of course, the FBI (and the NSA, etc.) are widely known to falsely brag, lie and exaggerate about how they “secretly” protect us from terrorism. (As many cynical observers are aware, a great deal of “terrorism” is itself undercover-agent-inspired or even “false-flag” in nature.)

Every in-depth analysis and investigation that has attempted to pin down the claims of government regarding its alleged protection of the homeland from terrorism has found that the government’s claims are outrageously exaggerated. Most of us know that if any government official had actually accomplished any such thing in “secret,” government politicians would immediately hold press conferences and trumpet the details to the heavens for hours if not days.

Like so many “conservatives” before him, Vespa reveals a discomforting state-worshipping streak. “I’m sure more details will follow with this development,” Vespa says. “For now, nice work, guys.”

Jul 09

ACLU’s Ira Glasser: attempts to overturn Citizens United with a constitutional amendment are “willfully, intellectually dishonest.”

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Ira Glasser, long one of the ACLU’s most important legal advisers and litigators, spoke at an event put on by the Center for Competitive Politics entitled “Citizens United v. FEC after Five Years – Should Liberals Support Citizens United?” The video is here.

Glasser excoriated those on “the left” for calling for a constitutional amendment to limit the First Amendment in response to the Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United decision. “The key question,” said Glasser, “when you’re contemplating speech restrictions . .. is ‘who’s going to get to decide?’” (Video at around 3:45.)

“It’s going to be whoever has political power.” Video at 4:00.

Glasser continued: “It is politically and strategically the stupidest thing I have ever seen any group of Americans, whatever their political ideology propose.” Video at around 8:40.

Glasser also attacked the New York Times coverage of Citizens United. “the Times coverage in their editorial pages, in their columns and in their news coverage, has been willfully, intellectually dishonest.” 17:50.

Jul 09

Britain proposes fiscal restraint

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Socialism is a curse that should be wished only on one’s enemies. Any society that embraces it will become sick and weak.

In the wake of the default of Greece and the loss of one-third value of the Chinese stock market, world financial advisers appear to be proposing some rare fiscal restraint.

In Britain, the majority party has–after years of reckless spending on welfare and government programs–proposed a budget that will slightly taper government spending over the next five years. The story is here.

Among the budget proposals is a proposal to limit the British inheritance tax to estates over $1.5m for married couples, to freeze working-age welfare benefits for four years, and to convert an expensive program that pays students to go to college from a grant program to a loan program.

Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, “cited the Greek situation as evidence of the need to balance the books.”

Jul 08

Rousseau: Only those who “seek command” can be reduced to obedience

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The great Enlightenment writer and thinker Rousseau once wrote in his DISCOURSE ON THE ORIGIN AND FOUNDATION OF INEQUALITY that “[I]t is very difficult to reduce to obedience one who does not seek command.”

In order to be free, in order not to be a slave, one must first renounce the desire to be a master.

True freedom is the condition of being “neither master nor slave.”

Ann Hartle, “Montaigne’s Radical Conservatism,” pages 19-28 in Modern Age: A Quarterly Review, Fall 2013, Vol. 55, No. 4.

Jul 08

Economies are being corrected around the world

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Ludwig Von Mises was one of the most far-thinking and insightful economic thinkers in history. Mises studied the economy of Russia when communism was riding high; and Mises concluded it was only a matter of time before its Soviet economy melted down.

Mises correctly calculated that below-natural-interest-rate lending by government central banks created unhealthy business cycles. Such below-natural rates incentivized debt rather than savings and capital accumulation, and prompted businesses (like governments) to overextend and make foolish investment choices.

Today the whole world operates according to versions of Keynsian central banking.

Greece–having indebted itself to the European central bank and spent foolishly on welfare and socialistic entitlements–is melting down and defaulting. The Chinese stock market is reporting it has lost one-third of its value in the past month or so.

U.S. federal policymakers have plunged America some $18.3 trillion in debt (while U.S. GDP is no more than about 17 trillion). At the beginning of the Obama administration the debt was $10.67 trillion.

This debt is hardly the fault of Obama alone. It wouldn’t exist without the agreement of Republicans in Congress.

Jul 07

Chinese Government-Owned Newspapers Telling Readers: “Don’t Panic!”

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Here’s a tip: When governments give investment advice, you should generally do the very opposite. Governments worldwide are gorged on massive debt and teetering from decades of Keynsian economics. There is not a currency on earth that is backed by anything but paper.

Now the government-owned newspapers of China are loudly telling readers not to panic, after a 3-week stock-market decline has wiped THREE TRILLION DOLLARS of value from the market. (This is an amount larger than the GDPs of all but a few countries.) The story is here.

PANIC!

Jul 07

Analyst: To become a “one percenter,” get into heavily-regulated industries!

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Analyst Sam Wilkin, who studies the habits of the super-rich, was interviewed for an interesting piece in THE TELEGRAPH. Read it here. Having studied the habits of billionaires and “one percenters” for years, Walkin offers a list of seven general principles for becoming super-wealthy.

The most interesting tip–6th among the 7 appearing near the end of the article–is this tidbit:

Spin complex laws into gold – set up in industries bound by such convoluted regulation – for example agricultural subsidies and banking regulation – that it is easy to bend the rules as nobody understands anyway.

Say that again? We are often lectured by government-trusters that regulation is needed to THWART the mega-rich and redistribute their wealth to the poor. Advocates of government are fond of claiming that DEREGULATION would harm the have-nots.

Now the truth is out. Regulation greatly aids the super-rich; and deregulation would actually help redistribute wealth more equally.

The rapid increase of fortunes of “the one percent” is largely attributable to the growth of government regulation.