Save the People; Kill the European Superstate

Barack Obama, Debt, EU, Europe, Federalism, Foreign Policy, The State

The following excerpt is from this week’s column, “Save the People; Kill the European Superstate”:

“An honest man,” wrote Ayn Rand in “Atlas Shrugged,” “is one who knows that he can’t consume more than he has produced.” Where does this leave the Greeks?

For the second time since 2010, Eurozone finance ministers threw Greece a “financial lifeline,” this time to the tune of $172 billion. The European banks have agreed to write-off more than 50 percent of the money owed by Greece, forgiving a $100 billion in debt.

Still, Athens, like Washington, is corrupt to the core. It continues to spend more than it takes in. Greek labor markets have yet to be liberalized. A high minimum wage impedes hiring. And, by BBC News’s accounting, “a habit of paying a ‘holiday bonus’ equal to one or two months’ extra pay” persists. One need not be a Delphic oracle to divine the next stage in Greece’s unraveling: a downgrading of the country’s credit rating to junk status.

“Austerity,” however, is a euphemism among politicians and their media pack animals for “long term retrenchment and reform” in the public sector. Implicit in their critique of “austerity” is that inflicting pain on the Greek state apparatus will inevitably destroy Greek society.

Au Contraire. State and society should never be conflated.

Try explaining to our president that the bigger the state, the smaller the civil society. …

Read the complete column, “Save the People; Kill the European Superstate.”

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Mitt Falls Off the ‘Conservative’ Wagon Again

Economy, Elections, Political Economy, Republicans, Ron Paul

Conspicuous by its absence from the Republican wrestling smack-down tonight was mention of Mitt Romney’s neo-Keynesian slip the other day.

Mitt Romney said Tuesday that cutting spending slows growth in the economy — a rhetorical slip more akin to an argument a Democrat might make than a Republican.
Speaking in Shelby Township, MI, the former Massachusetts governor took a question about the Simpson-Bowles fiscal commission empaneled by President Obama to address the nation’s deficit and debt issues. In his response, he said that addressing taxes and spending issues are essential.
“If you just cut, if all you’re thinking about doing is cutting spending, as you cut spending you’ll slow down the economy,” he said in part of his response. “So you have to, at the same time, create pro-growth tax policies.”

What next? An admonition about the government’s need to stimulate demand? (Read more about Romney’s economics here.)

Other than Ron Paul’s undignified venture into the wrestling ring (he called Rick Santorum fake in a new ad), was there anything worth discussing?

The Superman Behind ‘Endorse Liberty’ Super PAC

Elections, libertarianism, Media, Ron Paul

“The four Republican candidates raised $21 million combined. The super PACs supporting them raised $22 million.” [Via PBS]

Ron Paul has “raised over $2 million. His super PAC raised over $2 million.”… the guy who is backing him is interesting. His name is Thiel. “He was an early investor in Facebook. He was actually portrayed in the movie ‘Social Network’ as the angel investor in that movie.”

Thiel’s a 44-year-old guy, worth lots of money. And he’s given something close to three-quarters of all of the money that has gone in to Endorse Liberty. And he is a very devout libertarian, very much a hands-off, government-hands-off-business kind of a guy.

No wonder mainstream media mumble about the identity of Ron Paul’s mysterious, magnificent backer. Peter Thiel is the quintessential Randian hero. READ more about him here.

Thiel has, naturally, arrived at one of the central themes of “Into the Cannibal’s Pot.” To quote Theil: “I no longer believe that freedom and democracy are compatible. … While I don’t think any class of people should be disenfranchised, I have little hope that voting will make things better.”

It’s a shame he walked back the anti-franchise statement.

Romney & Santorum’s Synophobia

China, Debt, Elections, Propaganda, Republicans, Russia, Trade

“China was America’s second-largest trading partner behind only Canada,” reports The New Republic. “It accounted for 13.6 percent of all trade. In other words, billions upon billions of dollars are at stake,” if Romney acts on his bellicosity, as he promised to.

The Republican presidential hopeful sounds more like a card-carrying union member than a former CEO when he outlines his White House agenda for China, urging tariffs and downplaying the threat of a trade war. He extended his tough talk recently to the pages of The Wall Street Journal in a piece epitomizing the protectionist rhetoric he’s deployed for much of his presidential campaign.
“Unless China changes its ways, on day one of my presidency I will designate it a currency manipulator and take appropriate counteraction,” Romney wrote. “A trade war with China is the last thing I want, but I cannot tolerate our current trade surrender.”

Here’s another pesky details TNR omits conveniently: China is also our largest creditor.

Just to keep purchasing greenbacks, China is inflating its own money supply. Moreover, inflation in China and the attendant price hikes — brought about because of the debased dollar — could threaten the stability of a country that has “moved more people out of poverty in the shortest amount of time in the history of the planet.”

We owe them!

Sen. Rick Santorum is even crazier when it comes to our Chinese enablers:

“You know, Mitt,” said Santorum during The Washington Post/Bloomberg Republican presidential debate, “I don’t want to go to a trade war. I want to beat China. I want to go to war with China and make America the most attractive place in the world to do business.”

Newt is almost as nutty on this front as his two rivals, adding Russia to America’s enemy equation, and threatening cyberwar against Moscow and Beijing. Maybe cyber-warfare is Gingrich’s idea of a preemptive strike.