Category Archives: Political Economy

Gross Domestic Income? Never Heard of It

There is a reason Keynesians, to whom consumption is everything, never speak of the “flip side of Gross Domestic Product (GDP)”: Gross Domestic Income. The wellsprings of wealth are savings, investment and production. Why would proponents of a political theory that champions a credit-fueled, consumption-based bondage to government wish to encourage the power shift—intellectual and political—that comes with that understanding?

“What Does Gross Domestic Income – GDI Mean?
The sum of all income earned while producing goods and services within a nation’s borders. Gross domestic income (GDI) is a lesser-known calculation stat used by the Federal Reserve to gauge economic activity based on income. It differs from gross domestic product (GDP), which gauges economic activity on expenditure.”

If you can get past the grating tones, the following clip is also instructive:

UPDATED: 'THE Ben Bernanke' For Babies

Debt, Fascism, Federal Reserve Bank, Inflation, Political Economy

“The printing money is the last refuge of failed economic empires and banana republics and the Fed doesn’t want to admit that this is their only idea. … The plumber is clearly smarter than The Ben Bernank. … The Fed thinks prices are going down [deflation] when in fact they are going up [inflation]. And they think that during a recession with The High Unemployment that it is better if the things people need to buy cost more money. …”

Out of the mouths of babes engaged in a Socratic debate about the Federal Reserve Bank and “The Bernank” comes this delightfully simple, but cerebral, YouTube explanation of the workings of the Fed.

But, change “The Fed has been wrong about every major economic development for the past 20 years” to almost 100 years. For that is the duration of the error that is the Fed. 1913 is when The Fed was founded.

Especially adorable is the “THE”: The Bernanke, The printing of The money, The Deflation, The Inflation, The Goldman Sachs (“they make their living ripping-off The American People”). The Quantitative Easing. The Change.

UPDATE: The creative genius behind the above is also author of the “iPhone4 vs HTC Evo” wonderful clip:

Insider Trading Laws = Information Socialism

Business, Criminal Injustice, Economy, Fascism, Law, Political Economy, Regulation, South-Africa, The State

The following is from my new column, “Insider Trading Laws = Information Socialism,” now on WND.COM:

“It’s easy to be thrown off scent when trying to divine the vague, ill-defined, unconstitutional laws under which the Securities and Exchange Commission hunts for corporate prey. Suffice it to say that the SEC operates with the understanding that competition in capital markets must proceed from a level playing field. All investors are entitled to the same information advantage irrespective of effort and abilities.

In a word, information socialism.

In their latest efforts to bring ruin to capital markets, SEC blood hounds have ensnared some of the country’s most powerful hedge-fund firms. Indictments are replete with SEC cloak-and-dagger.

There is a Don, ‘Don Chu,’ which is how the accused, Don Ching Trang Chu, is called. A co-conspirator is ‘CC-1.’ And a cooperating witness: ‘CW-1.’ The companies violated, allegedly, are Atheros Communications, Inc. (‘Atheros’), Broadcom Corporation (‘Broadcom’), and ‘Sierra Wireless’—aka ‘The Tech Company.’

… Then there is the ‘The Firm.’ … The ominous entity at the center of the investigation. ….”

The complete column is “Insider Trading Laws = Information Socialism,” now on WND.COM.

Some of you are waiting for, and have been asking about, the publication of Into The Cannibal’s Pot: Lessons For America From Post-Apartheid South Africa. The wait is worse for South Africans who are in the thick of the events my book documents and analyzes—Into The Cannibal’s Pot is a Burkian polemic, steeped in history, reality, fact, and the classical liberal political philosophy.

When I completed the book some months back, the number of Boers murdered was just over 3000. The death toll now stands at 3,756.

The manuscript is currently under consideration. If all fails, fear not (with your help), someone will see to it that the true story of the New South Africa (“Rambo Nation”), as detailed in Into The Cannibal’s Pot, is told. Not everyone inhabits the solipsistic universe in which most American “writers” (and publishers) are mired. Five magnificent men (as writers, thinkers, and human beings) have returned high Praise For The Cannibal. Thank you; you know who you are.

Have a happy Thanksgiving.

UPDATE II: Not So Pale-Lin

Aesthetics, China, Debt, Federal Reserve Bank, Inflation, Political Economy, Regulation, Sarah Palin

“He’s backwards,” said Sarah Palin about Barack Hussein Obama’s lack of economic smarts. She spoke on the occasion of Judge Andrew Napolitano’s Fox Business show, Freedom Watch, going daily. Palin has an unadorned way of looking at things. She spoke forcefully and fairly knowledgeably about monetary policy tonight.

Less welcome was what Palin adorned on the occasion. Palin, a natural beauty with a glowing skin, had squeezed herself into the sort of Little Black Dress Ann Coulter wears to every event. Worse still was the orange, bottled tan with which Palin’s arms, shoulders, and alarmingly large bosom had been sprayed. The difference between the pallor of Palin’s face and the bright orange of her decolletage was plain to see on the TV. Less so in the online clip. Oy vey.

Palin does not need to heed TV’s repulsive stylists; most of them have acquired their “talents” making-up Kim kardashian’s private parts for public viewing. Palin should tell the image consultants to back off. There is no need to repeat the make-over failures of the McCain campaign.

It’s good to see Mrs. Palin coming to grips with monetary policy. A mature, natural beauty like Palin has no need to adopt the trashy TV look.

UPDATED I: I don’t understand the question below. Was Palin fundamentally wrong about monetary policy tonight? Did she recommend bad policies? Why do you care where she got the ideas she was promoting vis-a-vis the Fed? If she’s reading Ron Paul’s End The Fed, or Tom Woods’ Meltdown—why do you care? Speaking to—and against—current monetary policy makes Palin and Bachmann better than almost any other pol around.

UPDATE II (Nov. 16): Let me correct the above statement: “Speaking to—and against—current monetary policy makes Palin and Bachmann better than almost any other AMERICAN, most of whom draw a blank at the causes of inflation and the devaluation of the country’s coin—except to hoot obscenities at the Chinese, as a primate would scream at a someone with a coveted banana.