Big Lie

TSA opens museum to inspire its mission

"In 2010, armed with a master's degree in history and experience working at several museums, Smith was hired for the newly created position of TSA historian. Since then he's been filming oral histories of current and past TSA employees, creating exhibits and organizing a growing cache of objects related to the agency's history. In 2011, to mark the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 tragedy, the TSA gave the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History several artifacts relating to TSA history. Among those items are images, oral histories, internal planning documents, a uniform and other objects relating to the first airport to get TSA screeners." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingTSA opens museum to inspire its mission

GDP Was Strong in Q3; Why Did That Happen?

"Weaponized Keynesianism happened. Government defense expenditures surged by 13 percent between July and August. The Pentagon spent significantly more on weapons, training, operations, and maintenance. (Ammunition purchases, for instance, doubled.) Had these expenditures not occurred last quarter, the U.S. economy would have grown at a mere 1.36 percent, instead of 2.0 percent." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingGDP Was Strong in Q3; Why Did That Happen?

Western Media’s Pravda-Like Lies on Syria Bombing

"Considering the insurgents' tactics have been consistently to explode bombs in major city centers — just last Sunday rebels blew up Catholics trying to attend Mass in the Old Quarter in Damascus — one might assume that major mainstream news outlets like CNN might be capable of actually reporting what happened without applying propaganda spin to reflect the policy of the US government. One would be wrong." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingWestern Media’s Pravda-Like Lies on Syria Bombing

Security experts say new electronic voting machines can be hacked

"The 2010 discovery of the Stuxnet cyberweapon, which used a thumb drive to attack Iran's nuclear facilities and spread among its computers, illustrated how one type of attack could work. Most at risk are paperless e-voting machines, which don’t print out any record of votes, meaning the electronically stored results could be altered without anyone knowing they had been changed. In a tight election, the result could be the difference between winning and losing. A Monitor analysis shows that four swing states – Pennsylvania, Virginia, Colorado, and Florida – rely to varying degrees on paperless machines." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingSecurity experts say new electronic voting machines can be hacked

Uneasiness in the Netherlands about national gold reserve

"Almost 300 'concerned Netherlands citizens' have joined the German initiative for insight about the gold reserves. In a petition the citizens committee demands 'full openness on the quantity and storage location of the Netherlands' physical gold, and on the extent and nature of the gold claims.' In Germany a lot of uneasiness has risen about the quantity, value, and quality of the gold reserves, which have not been audited in many years at various storage locations. Under pressure from the German federal audit office, part of the gold stock will be repatriated from the United States to Frankfurt." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingUneasiness in the Netherlands about national gold reserve

Inflation at the Currency Level

"M2 money supply includes more than just currency. It also includes demand deposits, travelers checks, savings accounts, time deposits of under $100,000, and balances in retail money market mutual funds. But this doesn't mean cash isn't keeping up with the Fed's money printing. Below is a chart showing the growth of currency in circulation, since 1990." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingInflation at the Currency Level

Amid Austerity, Greek Doctors Offer Help to Poor

"Until recently, Greece had a typical European health system, with employers and individuals contributing to a fund that with government assistance financed universal care. Things changed in July 2011, when Greece signed a supplemental loan agreement with international lenders to ward off financial collapse. Now Greeks must pay all costs out of pocket after their benefits expire. The changes are forcing increasing numbers of people to seek help outside the traditional health care system. Elena, for example, was referred to Dr. Syrigos by doctors in an underground movement that has sprung up here to care for the uninsured." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingAmid Austerity, Greek Doctors Offer Help to Poor

Yes, Virginia, Social Security Really Is Going Bankrupt.

"At the heart of every defensive of Social Security's actuarial solvency is a series of lies. It is difficult to know who started the lie, but if you follow the lies, you always get back to the truth, and the truth is admitted by the Trustees of the Social Security trust fund. This is the best-case scenario. There is a worse-case scenario: the inevitable one." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingYes, Virginia, Social Security Really Is Going Bankrupt.

An assault on living standards set to run and run

"Sir Mervyn King, Governor of the Bank of England, warned this week that the next generation may have to live under the shadow of today's economic correction 'for a long time to come'. The Governor is still as reluctant as ever to concede the central bank's own culpability in the crisis. In his own speech, Sir Mervyn makes a clear distinction between what he calls 'good' money printing of the type the Bank of England is already practising through quantitative easing, and 'bad' money printing of the 'helicopter' variety." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingAn assault on living standards set to run and run

The Odyssey of Sound Economics

"As they say, it is always darkest before the dawn. And Lew Rockwell, on a shoestring budget, founded the Ludwig von Mises Institute for Austrian Economics (LvMI's official name). What is more, he did so in the face of furious opposition from the same billionaires who had chosen to downplay Mises, financed the diffuse GMU program, and forced Rothbard out of Cato. Sound economics finally had an institutional home. What is more, truth, if made accessible, can spread like a prairie fire. Ron Paul has inspired thousands with his message of liberty. These thousands are a huge potential seedbed for future growth in the causal-realist Austrian School." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingThe Odyssey of Sound Economics