Essays

The Endgame of State/Local Government Pensions

"During the past 30 years of financialized abundance, the benefits and pensions promised to public employees were increased substantially. Public unions are a powerful political force in many states, and in eras of rising tax revenues, it's an easy political decision to increase public employee benefits and pension payouts. The rising stock and bond markets generated huge profits for the public-employee pension funds, enabling them to grow without taxpayer contributions. The effortlessness and persistence of this growth encouraged the mindset that pensions would be paid for via the magic of ever-rising markets." Continue reading →

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Paul Rosenberg: 9 Plagues That Are Collapsing Capitalism

"Our marginally capitalist, partly-free market systems are approaching a massive collapse. Not because of what capitalism is, mind you, but because the powers that be have bastardized it. Capitalism can bear many distortions and abuses, but it is not indestructible. And, make no mistake, the ‘capitalist’ system we have today has been massively corrupted, so much so that it’s sagging under the load… and will continue to do so until the proverbial straw breaks its back." Continue reading →

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Burn your Obamacare card

"Without premium payments by millions of young adults under 40, Obamacare can’t work. Younger Americans make up the bulk of the uninsured today because health insurance simply costs too much relative to their needs. If they don’t obey the mandate, premiums will be higher than expected in the new government 'exchanges,' people will be driven away, and a vicious cycle will set in, ending in the scheme’s failure. This suggests an opportunity. If all of us, especially millennials, were to become health care draft resisters, we could hasten Obamacare’s inevitable collapse and pave the way for a patient-centered system." Continue reading →

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Judge Napolitano: President Obama Puts Politics Above the Rule of Law

"What's going on? What we have is a runaway government, dismissive of the Constitution it has sworn to uphold, contemptuous of the law it is required to enforce and driven by its own values of maximum control and minimum personal freedom. And we have a Congress supine enough to let this happen, as well as a judiciary so tangled in its own arcane procedures that immeasurable human freedom will be destroyed and Obama out of office before any meaningful judicial review can be had. Is this the rule of law? What shall we do about it?" Continue reading →

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Star-Spangled Confederates: How Southern Sympathizers Decided Our National Anthem

"Debate raged in the press and the streets. For supporters of the 'Banner,' the song was the perfect symbol of national feeling, and anyone who disagreed might not be patriotic. The Veterans of Foreign Wars organized an Americanization committee that promoted the song as a litmus test of loyalty. Critics of the 'Banner' found their patriotism questioned. Stetson was investigated, subpoenaed, and forced to testify in March 1924 about the source of her funds. No, she had not been funded by foreigners, she said. She had spent $16,000 of her own money on newspaper, and she would spend more. She took out anti-“Banner” ads in March 1924 and August 1925." Continue reading →

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The FBI: An American Cheka

"Nearly twenty years ago, then-FBI Director Louis Freeh – still basking in his agency’s residual glory from the Mt. Carmel Massacre of April 1993 – visited Moscow to sign a joint cooperation accord with the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB). After touring the Lubyanka Square headquarters of the Russian secret police, Freeh observed that 'Our nations have more in common than ever before.' At the time I thought it was shocking that Freeh would traduce his country by offering that comparison to the renamed KGB. Roughly two decades later I’ve come to understand that if the comparison is offensive, the Russians have the stronger claim to be the insulted party." Continue reading →

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How to Use Sex Like a Russian Spy

"If a Romeo wants to recruit women, Wolf told Melton once, 'you don't go to them, have them come to you. You become the center of the party, you buy the drinks, you tell the jokes. You're the life of the party. She will come to you. And then naturally that will make it easier.' The next step in East Germany's playbook was to escalate the relationship. The agent would propose marriage and later reveal to his wife that he was a spy -- but for a friendly country (like Canada!). The finishing touch was for the agent to explain that he would have to be recalled, ruining their precious relationship, unless the wife could cough up some information to satisfy the bosses back home." Continue reading →

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Your Personal Gold Standard

"There isn’t a central bank in the world that wants to go back to a gold standard. But that’s not the point. The point is whether they will have to. I always tell people who say we’re not on the gold standard that, in a way, we are. You can put yourself on a personal gold standard just by buying gold. In other words, if you think that the value of paper money will be in some jeopardy, or confidence in paper money may be lost, one way to protect yourself is by buying gold, and there’s nothing stopping you." Continue reading →

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Could the Government Force You to Tell Your Deepest Darkest Secrets?

"It can… at least when it wants to ensure you’re paying your taxes. And while the 5th Amendment still stands in principle, the Feds have found a loophole that can force you to incriminate yourself… so long as it’s written down. And because of this technicality, in 1984, the Supreme Court decided: 'The Fifth Amendment provides absolutely no protection for the contents of private papers of any kind.' And believe it or not, it gets worse. Any of your personal records held by a third party (like a bank) aren’t protected either. Prosecutors can issue very broad summonses forcing these 3rd parties to hand over ALL personal and financial records." Continue reading →

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The Fleeting Beauty of Bubbles and Bonds

"The political calculus is simple: the bottom half of households don't vote, don't contribute to political campaigns and don't have enough income to borrow huge sums of money to enrich the banks. They are thus non-entities in the fiscal-monetary project of maintaining the power structure of the Status Quo. All the Status Quo needs to do is borrow enough money to fund social programs that keep the masses passive and silent. Unfortunately for the Powers That Be, the cost of placating the rapidly increasing marginalized populace is rising much faster than tax revenues." Continue reading →

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