Showing posts with label Lew Rockwell. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Lew Rockwell. Show all posts
Saturday, December 24, 2011
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
Saturday, April 9, 2011
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
Thursday, December 23, 2010
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Sunday, December 20, 2009
Thursday, January 1, 2009
New Year's Substitutions
by Gary North
Well, it’s that time of the year again. All over America, smart people are sending out last-minute charity donation checks to get their income tax deductions for 2003, making sure they get stamped, dated receipts from the Postal Service (this costs an extra 37 cents).
Other smart people are making last-minute sales decisions on investments that did well, offsetting the capital gains tax by selling investments that did poorly.
But most people aren’t this smart. They are spending their time looking forward to New Year’s Eve parties and the bowl games (husbands, anyway) on New Year’s Day. College football teams that nobody outside of the home town paid any attention to three months ago will fight it out for mythical second through tenth place, which will entitle them to be forgotten by January 2nd. One team will wind up number one. The public will remember which one until at least Super Bowl XXXVIII, just as they remember the winners of Super Bowls past: Packers, NFC (I), Packers, NFC (II), Jets, AFC (III: Joe Namath > Earl Morrall/Johnny Unitas) . . . ?
This op/ed piece was originally published on Dec. 31, 2003 on LewRockwell.com where it can be read in full.
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Fighting back against junk mail
Did you know the average person gets only 1.5 personal letters each week, compared to 10.8 pieces of junk mail? Each person will receive almost 560 pieces of junk mail this year.
That’s 4.5 million tons of junk mail produced each year!
44 percent of all junk mail is thrown in the trash, unopened and unread. Approximately 40 percent of the solid mass that makes up our landfills is paper and paperboard waste.
Believe or not there are ways to fight this nuisance.
In addition to contacting the Direct Mail Association to opt-out of all unsolicited offers, the folks at the Office of Strategic Influence suggest attaching the postage-paid envelope that comes in the unsolicited letter to a box containing a brick. Since the company has to pay $.25 for each ounce, an eight pound package will set them back $25.
As a take off on this idea, Steven Kinsella on LewRockwell.com suggested a way to stick it to fundraising letters for political candidates, especially the McBama camp. With the right amount of diligence and patience, one can make 2009 a year hassle-free from junk mail.
Sunday, August 17, 2008
Why the "bad" economic news is good
by Llewellyn H. Rockwell
Sometimes the bad news is the good news. So it is with the report that retail sales are down by 0.1 percent in July, the sharpest drop in many months.
Why good news? It means that consumers are starting to cut back. They could be going into less debt. They might be saving more. They are being more careful about long-term plans pending short-term trends.
These are all preconditions for recovery. It’s only bad news if one adopts the crude theory that economies are sustained by consumer spending. The truth is nearly the opposite. Consumer spending is the final payoff for the less visible foundation of growth, which is real saving and investment – that is, making the choice for the future over the present. What declines in retail spending indicate is a coming to terms with reality.
For more on this commentary, go to LewRockwell.com
Monday, July 28, 2008
Burton S. Blumert on buying gold and silver
The latest installment in "The Lew Rockwell Show" in now available, and, like the prior four, couldn't have come at a better time. Podcast number five is an interview with Burton S. Blumert, president of The Center for Libertarian Studies and publisher of LewRockwell.com, on the subject of buying gold and silver.
As the federal government is bailing out both the housing and banking industries pushing the American economy closer to recession, Blumert compressess his 50 years of experience in the precious metals industry into this 16-minute interview.
Sunday, July 27, 2008
Lew Rockwell podcasts
Anyone wanting a no-holds-barred analysis of why America is in the current political/economic morass needs to listen to this, and the three accompanying podcasts hosted by Llewellyn H. Rockwell, editor of LewRockwell.com and president of the Ludwig von Mises Institute.
Saturday, July 12, 2008
History about to repeat itself in bailout of mortgage industry
by Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr.
Ludwig von Mises had a theory about interventionism. It doesn't accomplish its stated ends. Instead it distorts the market. That distortion cries out for a fix. The fix can consist in pulling back and freeing the market or taking further steps toward intervention. The State nearly always chooses the latter course, unless forced to do otherwise. The result is more distortion, leading eventually, by small steps, toward ever more nationalization and its attendant stagnation and bankruptcy.
When you think about the current Fannie Mae-Freddie Mac crisis, you must remember Mises's theory of intervention. Reporters will not, but you must, provided you want to understand what is going on. President Bush is considering a fateful step in a 60-year-old problem: the nationalization of these mortgage companies. He wants to guarantee the $5 trillion (that's trillion with a "t") in debt owned by these companies. Another option would be to put these monstrosities under "conservatorship," which means that you and I will pay for their losses directly.
Either way, it turns out that there is no magic way to put every American citizen, regardless of financial means or credit history, in a 3,000 square foot home. Someone, somewhere, sometime has to pay. No matter what rescue plan they are able to cobble together, that someone is you.
For more on this op/ed piece, go to LewRockwell.com
Sunday, June 1, 2008
Why recessions are important
by Llewellyn H. Rockwell Jr.
We all want to live well and no one wants their living standard to decline. That makes sense, right? It's just the way we are made.
What does not make any sense is the strange article of faith that has descended over Washington, DC, that says that no prices must ever be permitted to decline due to recessionary pressures. All resources in the national treasury, every conceivable monetary manipulation, all efforts of every regulatory body must be marshaled toward the great national goal of re-pumping the economy, which must never ever be permitted to fall even a tiny bit
Welcome to the War on Recession, which is being pursued with the same vehemence and folly as the War on Terror, and will likely prove just as spectacularly destructive of its own aims as well as liberty itself. Maybe we need songs, banners, and little ribbon pins and car magnets too.
For more on this commentary, go to LewRockwell.com
Sunday, May 25, 2008
The state is always the enemy
by Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr.
The web loves nothing more than a good brawl, so people often write me to ask me to respond to a critic of LewRockwell.com or the Mises Institute. There's certainly no shortage of them, and they come from the left, the right, and everything in between.
My first thought on the request is that the archive speaks for itself, and a response would amount to little more than reprinting. And yet the criticisms in themselves are interesting because often they come from people who liked one thing we said and then felt betrayed by another thing we said, so we get praise for the first thing and attacked for the second thing.
For more on this op/ed, go to LewRockwell.com
Thursday, March 6, 2008
Finding something better to do in November
To many, the mere idea is anathema, and is just short of calling for the cancellation of Christmas. However, given that the latter has become just as commercialized as the former, this might not be such a bad idea. Cancel the Presidential election!
by Llewellyn H. Rockwell Jr.
Nothing could be better for the country than cancelling the 2008 election. Leave the office of the presidency empty.
I can see only one possible justification for having a president of the United States: to preside over the dismantling of the federal government. If you think this is a radical idea, think again. This is, in part, what people have long voted for, even if they never actually get it. I can hardly remember a time when a president has been elected who didn't promise to get the government off our backs.
In one way, this agenda makes no sense, of course. You don't hire a CEO to drive a company into bankruptcy. You don't appoint a pastor to shrink a congregation. Why should we expect a president to dismantle the thing that gives him power and fame, and his allies huge wealth?
Well, realistically, you can't. But it's the best hope we have within the framework of conventional politics.
For more on this opinion piece, go to LewRockwell.com.
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