Counterfeiter In Chief in the Crosshairs

Debt, Economy, Federal Reserve Bank, Inflation, Neoconservatism

More and more in mainstreams are finding fault with the US’s counterfeiter-in-chief, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke. Jeffrey Bell’s point is mild and purely utilitarian:

To maintain interest rates at zero, the Fed prints endless amounts of dollars, driving down the dollar’s value. In the short run, this props up the bond and stock markets, enabling big banks and big business to thrive. But the absence of interest rates is suppressing the lines of credit that enable small business to expand by a factor of two thirds, according to Stanford economist Ronald McKinnon. And in the U.S., small business is responsible for most new jobs.
So unless this printing of dollars is halted, we’re doomed to continued high unemployment. Gov. Perry should be commended for starting a debate that’s long overdue.

But at least he’s not fussing childishly about the Perry Fed statement, which, according to neoconservative Andrew Sullivan, “disqualifies Perry from the race.” The author of the Daily Dish is furious that “the integrity of a civil servant” has been impugned:

If this guy prints more money between now and the election, I dunno what y’all would do to him in Iowa but we would treat him pretty ugly down in Texas. Printing more money to play politics at this particular time in American history is almost treasonous in my opinion.

Euro-Bondage

Debt, Economy, EU, Europe, Federal Reserve Bank, Inflation

If European Keynesians—the “fattened aristocracy of economic experts”—have their way, northern Europeans will soon be working for Southern Europeans (the more productive Europeans are already subsidizing and bailing out their profligate neighbors). Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy will have to resist “the idea of collective liability, often referred to as ‘eurobonds,’ [which] has been floated various times since last year.” “A full fiscal union, underpinned by eurobonds,” is tantamount to full-throttle debt monetization, in conjunction with a policy of inflating the currency in-unison.

Merkel’s Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble is working against the better instincts of his Boss (Merkel) and supports an integration of Europe’s “national economic policies,” so that they can “act as a single borrower.”

Conservative politicians in Germany and other northern European countries have previously dismissed the proposal as a violation of the European ideal, in which countries cooperate but remain responsible for their own fiscal affairs.

In the prescient “Adieu to the Evil EU,” you an read a better description of what the EU (generally supported by American neoconservatives) aimed to achieve. And has pretty much accomplished.

The EU “endeavors to herd Europeans by stealth into a supranational European State and… block off all the exits. This it intends to achieve by rigid central planning and harmonization of laws across the continent. In the absence of political and economic competition, the bureaucrats of Brussels will be free to rule and regulate; tax and inflate the money supply at will. This is what the rejectionists, including the cheese eating surrender monkeys, have defeated…for now.”

As I wrote in 2005, “An overarching tier of tyrants—the EU—to European governments will benefit Europeans as a second hangman enhances the health of a condemned man.”

UPDATED: Republikeynesians Pretend They’re Not Sidelining Paul

Barack Obama, Debt, Democrats, Economy, Elections, Federal Reserve Bank, Foreign Policy, Israel, Republicans, Ron Paul

Megyn Kelly interviewed Ron Paul about the snubbing he has received from the “mainstream media.” “RepubliKeynesians” have been front-and-center in a concerted attempt to ignore Ron Paul’s showing in the 2011 Iowa Straw Poll. One could say that Paul jostled with Mrs. Bachmann for first place, given the 152 votes that separated the two.

Paul sounded strong in the Kelly clip, which has not come online yet. (And he reiterated these Israel-related points, which was gratifying, of course.)

Here is the often dazzlingly brilliant Jon Stewart “savaging the media for treating Paul like he’s the ‘thirteenth floor in a hotel.'” (Via the NYT)

UPDATE (Aug. 17): Jon Stewart is often brilliant, but he is no classical liberal. He’s an economic ignoramus. Classical liberalism is first and foremost about the freedom to make a living. Stewart knows squat about such freedoms.

UPDATE III: Rick Perry: Bush Only Prettier (Or Palin Without the Bra)

Bush, Elections, Republicans

William N. Grigg puts Rick Perry in perspective: “Why doesn’t everybody admit that the figure known as ‘Rick Perry‘ is simply Josh Brolin’s version of George W. Bush?”

Another way I’d describe Perry: Palin without the bra.

I imagine that Perry and Sarah Palin get on well.

UPDATE I: In reply to an unruly fight talking place on my Facebook Wall between neoconservatives and libertarians:

“First of all, Michael Farris, you failed to transcribe my facebook Wall post accurately; it’s ‘Palin without a bra.’ You misquote me, even though my post is above yours, more or less. No wonder you were too slack to look over my Articles and Blog Archives for my GOP ticket proposal. I’ve spilled plenty pixels over the past two years making practical proposals that comport with my principles, but are not way out in libertarian wonderland. Finally, all of you: keep a civil tongue in your head. I’m going to remove rude posts”

UPDATE II: SB: But all you are talking about is style, not substance. What about Perry’s policies? Have you examined the political similarities between Bush and Perry? (Btw, we libertarains cheered Bush when he started out. That was b/c he too waxed fat about the evils of big government and promised a humble foreign policy.) What you say here makes one thing plain: Give him the gift of the gab and a better face than the Ewok Bush, and a Republican estalishmentarian masquerading as a conservative will win you over. Never mind his political proclivities.

UPDATE III (Aug. 16): Mrs. Greenspan to the Rescue! Posted by Christopher Manion, at LRC.COM:

So let me get this straight. NBC news opens with the taxpayer-funded ObamaBust tour. Obama blows off a Tea Party guy who doesn’t like Joe Biden calling him a terrorist, and then unctuously schools Rick Perry for calling Bernanke a potential traitor (but they never mention why. Forbidden word: Inflation).
Apparently, Perry has purloined Ron Paul’s view of the Fed. Good for him. But not for Mrs. Alan Greenspan (a.k.a. NBC’s Andrea Mitchell), who parades an Obama spokesman and establishment Hot Tubber Karl Rove as the voices of reason — how dare anyone endanger the Fed’s “independence,” Mrs. Greenspan wails. (I am not making this up.)

MORE.