Category Archives: Political Economy

Defined By Debt

Barack Obama, Debt, Economy, Political Economy

By Sept. 30, the end of the fiscal year, reports the Washington Times, the debt will have increased by $2 trillion, to reach $15.476 trillion, thereby constituting 102.6 percent of GDP (admittedly an iffy measure of economic Brownian Motion/expenditure). The Panglossian among us will counter that we’ve been there before and recovered (World War II). However, arguably, the economic fundamentals today are worse than they were during the Great Depression, since this country has never before been so deeply in hock as it currently is. Debt-—micro and macro; public and private—is now one of America’s defining characteristic. By Vox Day’s account, “U.S. households, corporations and various levels of government” owe fifty three trillion dollars! (“The Return of the Great Depression.”)

More: “Federal deficit on track for a record this fiscal year
Government debt to exceed U.S. economy”

Oh, Barack Obama said something really stupid yesterday (for a change): If the federal government shuts down — it would have an “adverse effect” on the economic recovery.

Au contraire, Mr. President. It might be worth while paying this guy not to come to work.

The CBOafs And Tax Cuts

Debt, Economy, Political Economy, Private Property, Reason, Taxation, The State

The prediction of the CBOafs (The Congressional Budget Oafs) with respect to the “cost” of tax cuts is only as good as their premise, which is faulty. That premise is that property stolen by the state from its rightful owners (taxpayers) will be used to pay down the debt and the deficit incurred by the same band of brigands.

And CBOafs will fly. (Apologies, by the way, to bandits for comparing them to government officials. As one libertarian wag once pointed out, highway robbers are fairer and more benevolent than government, because they rob you once, usually, and then leave you be.)

As the Congressional Budget Office warned today, “Last month’s bipartisan tax cut legislation will drive the government’s deficit to a record $1.5 trillion this year.” (http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/01/26/federal-deficit-hit-trillion-budget-office-projects/)

In logic, a conclusion can be correct and untrue at once. The debt will go up—not because of tax cuts, but despite of them.

No matter how much these highway robbers take from the creators of wealth, the debts they incur will only go up. The lesson? Money is always safest with those who make it.

From Your Pocket To Union Pensions

Economy, Government, Political Economy, Politics, Private Property, States' Rights, The State

The compliant voter keeps electing local officials who’ll use their police powers to pick from the pockets of wealth creators so as to give to a more powerful constituency: members of the public sector unions. WSJ:

“Cities across the nation are raising property taxes, largely citing rising pension and health-care costs for their employees and retirees.
In Pennsylvania, the township of Upper Moreland is bumping up property taxes for residents by 13.6% in 2011. Next door the city of Philadelphia this year increased the tax 9.9%. In New York, Saratoga Springs will collect 4.4% more in property taxes in 2011; Troy will increase taxes by 1.9%.
… Some cities have also pushed unions to reopen contracts in an attempt to pare benefits or raise workers’ contributions for pensions and health care. They have faced stiff resistance from some unions that argue it’s unfair to penalize workers for a financial crisis that isn’t their fault. Others have agreed to some cutbacks.”

“WE ARE DOOMED.”

UPDATED: Derb Is Right: ‘We Are Doomed’ (More Gloom)

Barack Obama, Bush, Conservatism, Debt, Democrats, Fascism, Homeland Security, Liberty, Paleoconservatism, Political Economy, Republicans, The State

The following excerpt is from “Derb Is Right: ‘We Are Doomed,” my new WND.COM column:

“Last week, this column explained the divide between Americans and their ‘Overlords Who Art in D.C.’ I asked that you quit invoking words too weak to describe that divide. ‘Disconnect,’ ‘disrespect’: These are soft designations; they don’t begin to bridge the moat that separates you from your sovereigns.

Proper metaphors for the relationship between The Great Unwashed and the government that literally has them by the genitals is that of ruled and ruler, Rome and its provinces, Imperial China and its peasants.

If you’re a tax payer — at least 50 percent of Americans are tax consumers — you are the Beltway’s bitch.

So stop beseeching sinecured statists for ‘hope’ and ‘change.’ They will never know what it’s like to slum it in your neighborhoods. They’ll never experience the effects of inflation and rising prices as you will; they’ve voted themselves salaries twice as high as yours and pensions in perpetuity. You’re paying.

Think of yourself as a servant, your nose pressed against your master’s mansion windows. That’s how I felt as I drove through the suburbs of Northern Virginia, in October of this year. I saw what Peggy Noonan lushly described in her Wall Street Journal column, excerpted by John Derbyshire in his full and fair assessment of the tottering American experiment, We Are Doomed: Reclaiming Conservative Pessimism …

The complete column is “Derb Is Right: ‘We Are Doomed,” now on WND.COM.

Avail yourself of my libertarian manifesto, Broad Sides: One Woman’s Clash With A Corrupt Society, on Kindle.

Merry Xmas to all,
ILANA

UPDATE (Dec. 25): “IT’S GETTING BETTER ALL THE TIME” (as the Beatles lyrics go). The Powers that Be thought “Claire Hirschkind, 56, who says she is a rape victim” (and also happens to have “the equivalent of a pacemaker”), needed a reminder of her ordeal.

Hirschkind said because of the device in her body, she was led to a female TSA employee and three Austin police officers. She says she was told she was going to be patted down.
“I turned to the police officer and said, ‘I have given no due cause to give up my constitutional rights. You can wand me,'” and they said, ‘No, you have to do this,'” she said.
Hirschkind agreed to the pat down, but on one condition.
“I told them, ‘No, I’m not going to have my breasts felt,’ and she said, ‘Yes, you are,'” said Hirschkind.
When Hirschkind refused, she says that “the police actually pushed me to the floor, (and) handcuffed me. I was crying by then. They drug me 25 yards across the floor in front of the whole security.”
An ABIA spokesman says it is TSA policy that anyone activating a security alarm has two options. One is to opt out and not fly, and the other option is to subject themselves to an enhanced pat down. Hirschkind refused both and was arrested.

Hey, what do you know: A noisy, irate, flying public has changed the behavior of their sovereigns not a whit. Who would have thunk? (See “Derb Is Right: ‘We Are Doomed.”)

And what do memebers of the sheep herd say about a middle aged, ill American lady being mauled by rabid TSA dogs?

“I understand her side of it, and their side as well, but it is for our protection so I have no problems with it,” said Gwen Washington, who lives in Killeen.

It matters not a bit that “less than three percent of travelers get a pat-down.” This practice is a matter of policy, not happenstance. Theoretically, everyone could be molested, very many are. No freedom loving individual should be consoled by the repulsive, “rare-occurrence” excuse.