David Stockman Explains The Keynesian State-Wreck Ahead

"'What has been growing is the wealth of the rich, the remit of the state, the girth of Wall Street, the debt burden of the people, the prosperity of the beltway and the sway of the three great branches of government - that is, the warfare state, the welfare state and the central bank... What is flailing is the vast expanse of the Main Street economy where the great majority have experienced stagnant living standards, rising job insecurity, failure to accumulate material savings, rapidly approach old age and the certainty of a Hobbesian future where, inexorably, taxes will rise and social benefits will be cut...' He calls this condition 'Sundown in America'." Continue reading

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Obama names campaign donor, Goldman exec as ambassador to Canada

"US President Barack Obama named a Goldman Sachs executive and large campaign contributor as ambassador to Canada on Thursday amid potential rifts between the allies over the Keystone pipeline. Bruce Heyman, managing director for private wealth management at the investment bank, lives in Obama’s base of Chicago and is a so-called 'bundler' who raised funds for the president’s campaigns. Like previous presidents, Obama has regularly named prominent fundraisers to diplomatic posts, seen as one of the top rewards doled out to campaign supporters." Continue reading

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Who Wants Marijuana To Remain Illegal?

"Police unions, private prison corporations, alcohol and beer companies, pharmaceutical companies, and prison guard unions are said to be in the top five in terms of lobbying and paying lawmakers to keep marijuana illegal. Hey, this is DEMOCRACY at work. This is the best system on earth, right? This is the system the U.S. government tells us it wants for Libya, Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, etc. If some foreign government through its politics forbids women from walking around without burkas on, that is a sign of its tyranny, U.S. officials tell us. But if the existing U.S. system forbids someone from using marijuana or some other drug, this is not infringing rights and it’s not oppressive." Continue reading

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How Cops Are Vetted For Aggression & Insensitivity, With Capt. Ray Lewis

"Abby Martin remarks on the second anniversary of Occupy Wall Street, highlighting a recent Reuters poll showing that only 15% of Americans are satisfied with the government's effort to prosecute Wall Street bankers, and speaks with former Philadelphia police captain Ray Lewis about why he chose to protest in-uniform at Occupy." Continue reading

Continue ReadingHow Cops Are Vetted For Aggression & Insensitivity, With Capt. Ray Lewis

ObamaCare Is Just a Stepping Stone to Nationalized Health Care

"Many people roll their eyes at 'those idiots in Washington!' as if these obvious outcomes are somehow a surprise. No, the people in Washington have trained economists on their staffs. They understand incentives, even though their rhetoric suggests that they don’t. Over the coming years, as the delivery of US healthcare suffers and citizens become justifiably outraged, they will be led to demand greater and greater government involvement to thwart the 'greedy' insurance companies and 'overpriced' hospitals. This is part of the plan, as some glib proponents of ObamaCare have let slip." Continue reading

Continue ReadingObamaCare Is Just a Stepping Stone to Nationalized Health Care

Abraham Lincoln and the Federal Reserve System: A Forgotten Connection

"There were two traditions in the United States in 1832: the Jeffersonian and the Hamiltonian. In the election of 1832, the two traditions clashed self-consciously. Until Lincoln's inauguration in 1861, the Jeffersonian tradition was dominant in the United States. After that, only Grover Cleveland was self-consciously Jeffersonian. This serves as background to the little-known story of the man whose ideas led to the Federal Reserve System, an immigrant named Paul Warburg. He was from a distinguished banking family in Germany. He married the daughter of the founder of Kuhn-Loeb, and he became a major figure in that investment bank, beginning in 1902." Continue reading

Continue ReadingAbraham Lincoln and the Federal Reserve System: A Forgotten Connection

The American Economy is Not a Free-Market Economy

"Those inclined to dismiss Lewis’s claim as exaggerated must confront the solid body of evidence he amasses. Everyone knows that governmentally-sponsored mortgages helped to fuel the housing bubble that burst in 2008 with disastrous consequences. As Lewis points out, though, the situation is much worse than most people imagined. 'By the end of 2007 government-sponsored mortgages accounted for 81% of all the mortgage loans made in the US and by 2010 this had risen to 100%.' Government dominance is of course bad for the economy, but it works to the benefit of a small group of the powerful. A great strength of the book is that Lewis names names: he tells us who the predators are." Continue reading

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IRS official caught in tea party scandal retires with $50,000/year pension

"Lois Lerner, the IRS official who presided over a partisan program that targeted conservative organizations because of their political beliefs, will retire on Monday with a full pension package, a source at the Department of Treasury told MailOnline. Lerner, 62, has been a federal government employee since at least 1981, making her eligible for the most robust retirement package the federal government offers career employees. In May Lerner herself launched the scandal that would eventually claim her job, by answering a planted question about how the IRS handled politically oriented groups that applied for tax-exempt status." Continue reading

Continue ReadingIRS official caught in tea party scandal retires with $50,000/year pension