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Progressive Cities and Black Education – LewRockwell

Posted by M. C. on March 27, 2020

“The Secret Shame” report didn’t say why the black/white achievement gap was smaller in conservative cities compared to their progressive counterparts. But permit me to make a suggestion.

https://www.lewrockwell.com/2020/03/walter-e-williams/progressive-cities-and-black-education/

By

A recent report by Chris Stewart has shed new light on some of the educational problems faced by black youth. The report is titled “The Secret Shame: How America’s Most Progressive Cities Betray Their Commitment to Educational Opportunity for All.” Stewart is a self-described liberal and CEO of Brightbeam, a nonprofit network of education activists who want to hold progressive political leaders accountable.

The report asks, “So how do we explain outstandingly poor educational results for minority children in San Francisco — which also happens to be one of the wealthiest cities in the country?” “The Secret Shame” reports that progressive cities, on average, have black/white achievement gaps in math and reading that are 15 and 13 percentage points higher than in conservative cities. For example, in San Francisco, 70% of white students are proficient in math; for black students it’s 12% — a 58-point gap. In Washington, D.C., 83% of white students scored proficient in reading compared to 23% of black students — a 60-point gap.

Yet, three of the 12 conservative cities researchers looked at — Virginia Beach, Anaheim and Fort Worth — have effectively closed or even erased the gap in at least one of the academic categories studied, achieving a gap of zero or one. “The politically conservative Oklahoma City has even turned the tables on our typical thinking about race-based gaps,” says Stewart. Black students in Oklahoma City even have higher high school graduation rates than white students. 

Had the “Secret Shame” study analyzed other cities, it would have found that educational outcomes for most black youngsters is a national disgrace. As of 2016, in Philadelphia, only 19% of eighth-graders scored proficient in math, and 16% were proficient in reading. In Detroit, only 4% of its eighth-graders scored proficient in math, and 7% were proficient in reading. In 2016, in 13 of Baltimore’s 39 high schools, not a single student scored proficient on the state’s math exam. In six other high schools, only 1% tested proficient in math. Only 15% of Baltimore students passed the state’s English test.

National Assessment of Education Progress tests (also called the Nation’s Report Card) give further testament to the tragedy. In Philadelphia, 47% of its students scored below basic in math and 42% scored below basic in reading. In Baltimore, it was, respectively, 59% and 49%. In Detroit, 73% scored below basic in math and 56% in reading. Below basic means that a student is unable to demonstrate even partial mastery of knowledge and skills fundamental for proficient work at his or her grade level.

Then there’s gross fraud practiced by the education establishment. High school graduation rates for black students range from a high of 84% in Texas to a low of 57% in Nevada and Oregon. However, according to ACT data, the percentage of black students judged to be college-ready in English, math, reading and science ranges from 17% in Massachusetts to only 3% in Mississippi. One concrete example of this fraud is the fact that Baltimore’s Frederick Douglass High School has a graduation rate of 70% while not a single student tested proficient in mathematics and only 3% did so in reading.

“The Secret Shame” report didn’t say why the black/white achievement gap was smaller in conservative cities compared to their progressive counterparts. But permit me to make a suggestion. An Education Week article reported that in the 2015-16 school year, “5.8% of the nation’s 3.8 million teachers were physically attacked by a student.” The Justice Department’s Bureau of Justice Statistics and the Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics show that in the 2011-12 academic year, there were a record 209,800 primary- and secondary-school teachers who reported being physically attacked by a student. A National Center for Education Statistics study found that 18% of the nation’s schools accounted for 75% of the reported incidents of violence, and 6.6% accounted for half of all reported incidents. These are schools with predominantly black student populations. My guess is that part of the reasons black academic achievement is greater in conservative cities is that schools are less tolerant of crime whereas schools in progressive cities make excuses.

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A Death Sentence, For Your Own Protection – LewRockwell

Posted by M. C. on March 27, 2020

Social science has established few correlations stronger than those linking high unemployment rates with higher rates of suicide, homicide, overdoses, alcoholism, and mental illness.

“Health officials” have always sought to monopolize testing within government (and government-certified hospital) ranks. And these impulses have caused the deaths of untold thousands.

In Italy, the government is using Coronavirus as an excuse to build ever-more expansive facial-recognition and social media databases and surveillance systems.  The Italian government now scours over Facebook, Instagram and Twitter posts in search of curfew or quarantine violators.

https://www.lewrockwell.com/2020/03/roger-roots/a-death-sentence-for-your-own-protection/

By

Governments worldwide are censoring information about Coronavirus, obstructing testing, slowing cures, falsely imprisoning millions, destroying trillions of dollars of wealth, and killing untold thousands with dictatorial measures.

As these words are written, governors throughout America have issued orders (without resort to any statutes or legislation) shuttering thousands of businesses and terminating tens of millions of workers.  Some 70 million Americans are now imprisoned in their residences, needing government permission even to walk to a park.  The U.S. Justice Department is calling openly calling for indefinite detentions and a suspension of habeas corpus.

The United States is under the strictest level of martial law in history.  All borders are sealed.  Tanks and armored personnel carriers now roll through the streets of New York City, San Diego and other cities.

All of this is in response to COVID-19, the “Coronavirus,” a disease whose mortality statistics are almost certainly far below three percent for all who contract it.

The sheer folly and carnage of government overreaction to this threat will go down as unparalleled in American history.  Social science has established few correlations stronger than those linking high unemployment rates with higher rates of suicide , homicide, overdoses, alcoholism, and mental illness.  Studies have found that every 1 percent increase in unemployment likely increases violent crime by 14.3 per 100,000 residents, increases property crime by 1.8 percent and increases opioid death rates by 3.6 percent.  A 2015 study found that the unemployment associated with the economic crises of 2008 likely contributed to some 5,000 excess suicides in the following years.

Yet now, in 2020, the world’s governments are mandating astronomical unemployment and social isolation—in the name of preventing deaths.  These government responses to COVID-19 will almost certainly kill far more people than the dreaded disease itself. 

Perhaps saddest of all is that the U.S. government response has been something of a copy of draconian responses by the world’s most tyrannical dictators.

The COVID-19 outbreak is said to have started in the Wuhan Province of China, although this is contested in some circles.  The Chinese government’s reaction to Coronavirus was both Orwellian and totally ineffective.  Thousands died unnecessarily.

According to The Guardian, “China’s response to the outbreak included a month-long government cover-up in Wuhan . . .  that led to the rapid spread of the coronavirus.”  Chinese police punished and imprisoned doctors for “spreading rumours” about the virus.  The government denied for months that the virus was spread by human to human contact.  Officials suppressed reports of potential cases and turned people with symptoms away from hospitals.

When the Chinese government could no longer contain the “rumours,” it ordered the entire province of Wuhan locked down, in the middle of the night with an eight-hour gap before the order went into effect.  Thousands fled.

The government then ordered 50 million people quarantined.  It was the largest prison camp in history—a record that lasted only a month and a half before it was surpassed by regions of the United States.

When panic over the virus first hit American shores in January, officials at the FDA and CDC stymied private and academic development of diagnostic tests while pushing defective government tests.  The U.S. government stopped Seattle’s Dr. Helen Chu from testing for coronavirus because Chu’s lab “was not certified as a clinical laboratory under regulations established by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.”

Hundreds of Americans will likely die as a direct result of the CDC and FDA decrees in Seattle. It was not until March 17 that the FDA first gave emergency approval to any private company to distribute nongovernment COVID-19 tests to hospitals.  (The agency still prohibits distribution to private individuals.)

“Health officials” have always sought to monopolize testing within government (and government-certified hospital) ranks.  And these impulses have caused the deaths of untold thousands.  (AIDS and HIV ravaged the U.S. for three decades before the U.S. government finally permitted—in 2012—a private, at-home HIV test.  Prior to that, the stigma of that disease undoubtedly kept hundreds of thousands from getting tested at government-controlled clinics.  Thousands undoubtedly died as a result.)

The U.S. government has also banned production of nonapproved protective masks until manufacturers submit detailed applications to the CDC’s National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH).  (Meanwhile government inspectors are grounded from travel to inspect the manufacturing facilities.)

The U.S. government (and state governments within the U.S.) followed the Chinese model of COVID-19 response to the letter.  Just as in China, American officials (1) enforced regulations which stalled and obstructed all efforts by private, local or academic medical experts to test or report on the virus, and then (2) overreacted to public concerns by implementing Orwellian measures to illustrate the government’s supposed control.

Today, Americans are being told they may not gather in groups larger than ten.  Many large families are, in fact, in violation of such decrees.  Chicago’s mayor has ordered citations and arrests for those who go outside for exercise.  On March 26, L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti announced that “nonessential” businesses which defy shutdown orders would have their water and utilities shut off.  (The designation of whether a business is essential or nonessential is known to change in seconds during press conferences or phone conversations.)

As I write these words, virtually every school, university, library, food court, gym and civic center has been closed by government decree (not laws, codes, or statutes, mind you).  And while politicians spoke in velvet tones about health and fresh air, they have shuttered every available national park and almost every campground.

As always, those within government, and prominent pro-government celebrities, are getting preferential treatment for testing and treatment.  And while governments are locking down millions of inhabitants, demanding government permission documents for all travel, and banning gatherings of more than a few people, these bans do not apply to government itself.  Cops and National Guard units now march through the streets by the score.

In Italy, the government is using Coronavirus as an excuse to build ever-more expansive facial-recognition and social media databases and surveillance systems.  The Italian government now scours over Facebook, Instagram and Twitter posts in search of curfew or quarantine violators.

Stay tuned!

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Diseases Are Bad. Government-Forced Shutdowns Are Often Worse. | Mises Wire

Posted by M. C. on March 26, 2020

With the current focus, the authorities ignore the side effects of their measures. State agencies are obsessed with smoothing the curve and thereby ignore the fact that pursuing this goal almost exclusively will bring more collateral damage than the possible cost of the epidemic itself.

Viruses mutate constantly. Without specific tests, the modifications go undetected. If they were all discovered, one could panic almost every day.

https://mises.org/wire/diseases-are-bad-government-forced-shutdowns-are-often-worse?utm_source=Mises+Institute+Subscriptions&utm_campaign=a6bc05b227-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_9_21_2018_9_59_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_8b52b2e1c0-a6bc05b227-228343965

However high the death rate of the COVID-19 coronavirus becomes, the governmental response to the threat will be even more dangerous. If the current blockade of economic life continues, more people will die from the countermeasures than from the virus itself. In a short time, the basic supply of everyday goods will be at risk. By interrupting the global transport and supply chains, important medicines will be missing and food supplies will be insufficient. This is how a containment strategy works: operation successful, patient dead.

Government’s Main Strategy: Destroy Commerce

The main concern for those responsible for healthcare is not the absolute number of deaths, but “flattening the curve,” i.e., stretching out the frequency of cases of infection.

The model may be correct, all else remaining equal, but it ignores the extent of the damage that the control measures entail. We already have a foretaste of that. In addition to drastic restrictions on international air traffic and the partial closure of borders, there are a whole series of measures that intervene deeply in the everyday lives of citizens and are aimed at isolating everyone as much as possible.

With the current focus, the authorities ignore the side effects of their measures. State agencies are obsessed with smoothing the curve and thereby ignore the fact that pursuing this goal almost exclusively will bring more collateral damage than the possible cost of the epidemic itself.

If government agencies continue to act as they are doing, people soon will be confronted with the problem that they can no longer buy necessary things—first, because the shelves will be empty, and second, because they will have no more income later, when the shelves are slowly restocked again. Companies have closed and salaries will not show up in bank accounts. Rent due dates for homes and businesses will not be met. It is not the coronavirus that will bring the economy to a standstill, but the way in which politics is responding to the epidemic.

Another strategy (partially practiced by South Korea and in Taiwan) is to minimally intervene in the daily life of the majority of the population.

If policymakers understood the very real threats to human life and wellness associated with economic destruction, they would adopt policies designed to ensure businesses remain open. The focus would be on ensuring that the most at-risk individuals and populations are able to voluntarily isolate themselves.

On the other hand, in Europe and much of the rest of the world, a state of emergency and a series of general lockdowns were proclaimed. Even if the current nightmare should end and the curfews and travel bans no longer exist, it would take a long time for the economy to recover—not from the virus, but from the response to it. In the United States and in many European countries, the state has taken control in the belief that with the severe restrictions on private and public life the epidemic can be gotten under control. The attitude prevails that there is no alternative to practically shutting down the economy and imposing restrictions on the everyday life of the people. Instead of bearing the immense costs that come with the current policy, capacity could be expanded in anticipation of taking care of the sick, moribund, and dead.

Although the burden of proof must be on those who wish to close businesses and bring the economy to a halt, the advocates for destroying the global economy have not made their case. In fact, up to now, in Europe, including Italy, the number of deaths remains well below what we expect from the flu. The mortality rate remains unknown because of the biases and difficulties in estimating total cases and collecting data—one can deal with it using short-term emergency measures. The statistics on the number of virus carriers are incorrect, since the error rates of test devices for new disease phenomena are usually high and in the case of COVID-19 tests are probably even higher, since demand and use has increased so quickly in a short time. The fact that a data set has been published by the authorities does not mean that the numbers reflect the facts. Even standard tests have error rates and usually several tests are necessary to arrive at a reliable judgment.

Not only is the death rate problematic because the actual number of cases is completely unknown, but the official death toll attributed to COVID-19 is also questionable. There is no reliable way to tell from the virus’s presence in a corpse that the person died because of it. People’s lives end due to countless factors, and old people die of  all kinds of ailments. Italy reports that 99 percent of COVID-19 victims had other illnesses at the time of death. If COVID-19 is found in a corpse, it does not prove that the virus was the cause of death. It may be just one of countless possible causes.

Viruses mutate constantly. Without specific tests, the modifications go undetected. If they were all discovered, one could panic almost every day. One can be sure that sooner or later another virus will appear after the coronavirus epidemic is over. Imagine if politics reacted the way it has done in the face of the coronavirus every time. The absurdity of the current antivirus policy becomes obvious.

The Longer the Forced Shutdown Goes On, the Greater the Resulting Poverty Will Be

The authorities want to make people believe that the many restrictions that are already in place are short-term measures. But what if the containment strategy taken much longer than foreseen? The consequences for the economy are already catastrophic. Every day and every week the damage increases more and more. Even when the policies achieve the containment of the viral disease, the economic damage will persist for a much longer time.

The real threat is less COVID-19 than it is the wave of bankruptcy and unemployment that will soon spill across economies like a tsunami. If the governments honor their aid commitments and make compensation payments to those affected, such high sums will be required that price inflation may result and exacerbate the effect of the economic recession. We will see widespread impoverishment—and, as usually comes with impoverishment, a decline in general health and a rise in morbidity.

Against the Political Scaremongering

Yes, there is reason to panic, but it’s not the virus, it’s the coronavirus policy. Organized panic serves as an excellent test for the state of how far it can go in terrorizing citizens and taking away their freedom without encountering resistance. Like sheep, people follow the orders of their leaders. The media is preparing the lambs to go silently and without a scream into the slaughterhouse.

Beyond the economic damage that has been already been caused by the political reaction to the epidemic, an even greater tragedy lurks: the loss of fundamental human rights and of our individual freedom. Given the modern methods of surveillance, a new kind of totalitarianism would surpass all the horrors that are known from past dictatorial regimes.

 

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Dyson to make 15,000 ventilators – CNN

Posted by M. C. on March 26, 2020

This can’t be done from scratch in 10 days, especially when government has industry hobbled. A bit of exaggeration but still…

A nasty billionaire business doing what government can’t.

Bad, bad, billionaires building innovative quality products the consumer wants, rescuing NASA with rockets that can supply the ISS without having to go to Russia, potentially revolutionizing travel with low orbit commercial vehicles and cruises around the moon, providing products with quick delivery and employing over half a million worldwide.

Bad, bad billionaires.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/26/tech/dyson-ventilators-coronavirus/index.html?fbclid=IwAR3HSasvTwJSlr0Xol73CSsRSd5r7qJ6gZFSGzhyTDrBss5aVAumeN1yuy8

London (CNN Business)Dyson has received an order from the UK government for 10,000 ventilators to support efforts by the country’s National Health Service to treat coronavirus patients.

James Dyson, the company’s billionaire founder, confirmed the order in a letter to employees shared with CNN on Wednesday.
“A ventilator supports a patient who is no longer able to maintain their own airways, but sadly there is currently a significant shortage, both in the UK and other countries around the world,” Dyson wrote.
Dyson said the company had designed and built an entirely new ventilator, called the “CoVent,” since he received a call 10 days ago from UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
“This new device can be manufactured quickly, efficiently and at volume,” Dyson added, saying that the new ventilator has been designed to “address the specific needs” of coronavirus patients.
A spokesperson for the company, which is best known for its vacuum cleaners and hand dryers, said the ventilators would be ready by early April. Dyson, who has wealth worth $10 billion according to Bloomberg, wrote in his letter that he would also donate 5,000 units to the international effort to tackle the pandemic.
“The core challenge was how to design and deliver a new, sophisticated medical product in volume and in an extremely short space of time,” he added. “The race is now on to get it into production.”
James Dyson unveils a new product in Germany.

James Dyson unveils a new product in Germany.
Healthcare workers in many parts of the world are having trouble enough critical supplies, such as masks, gloves and ventilators, to deal with the influx of patients suffering from the highly contagious virus.
A second UK firm, Gtech, is also working to produce ventilators and has submitted two examples to the government for assessment. The company specializes in cordless vacuum cleaners and garden power tools.
In the United States, Ford (F) has announced that it’s working with 3M and GE Healthcare to produce medical equipment including ventilators and protective gear. GM (GM) and Tesla (TSLA) have also pledged to make ventilators.
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SpaceX stuns with two simultaneous rocket landings, Musk's ...

Synchronized recovery

 

 

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Here’s how to report noncompliance with Michigan’s stay at home order | wzzm13.com

Posted by M. C. on March 26, 2020

Our Michigan comrades reporting their neighbors before they report them.

https://www.wzzm13.com/mobile/article/news/health/coronavirus/heres-how-to-report-noncompliance-with-michigans-stay-at-home-order/69-b4609768-ee69-4d76-9bdf-32e0b0f39333?fbclid=IwAR0rmPRV7PpU7wfZCvRIJOK4K-Afh8NW2iS-5xkTOrQw-KrKAJy7XENObQ8?fbclid=IwAR0rmPRV7PpU7wfZCvRIJOK4K-Afh8NW2iS-5xkTOrQw-KrKAJy7XENObQ8

Author: 13 ON YOUR SIDE Staff

Emergency lines and the Attorney General’s Consumer Protection hotline were flooded with calls reporting noncompliance with the governor’s stay at home order on Tuesday.

The order, which calls for the suspension of all nonessential activity, went into effect at 12:01 a.m. Tuesday and by the evening it was unclear who should be fielding the calls clogging state and local agencies’ phone lines….

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Pavel Morozov.jpg

Pavlik Morozov
Be a COVID-19 Young Pioneer

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With Bailouts, Governments Are the Big Winners | Mises Wire

Posted by M. C. on March 26, 2020

…but above all with loan guarantees provided by the state-owned bank KfW. This means that the state makes the taxpayer responsible for squaring the bill for any loan default in an emergency; the taxpayer must once again serve as a credit default insurer.

Whether the unsecured paper money system survives the current crisis depends significantly on whether (i) the state’s credit guarantees succeed in warding off a wave of bankruptcies and (ii) investors regain confidence in the system and credit markets return to normal. There should be no doubt, however, that a life-threatening situation has arisen for the unbacked monetary system. The probability of things going wrong this time is not zero.

Every crisis caused by the unbacked paper money system expands the power of states over economic and social life, and unfortunately, once the state has expanded its power, its expansion will not be reversed.

https://mises.org/wire/bailouts-governments-are-big-winners?utm_source=Mises+Institute+Subscriptions&utm_campaign=991626415a-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_9_21_2018_9_59_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_8b52b2e1c0-991626415a-228343965

The growing concerns about the consequences of the COVID-19 coronavirus have led to a global demand and supply shock: the demand for goods and services has collapsed, and because international production and value chains are now also disrupted, output slows down, and its former level can no longer be maintained.

The demand and supply shock brings the division of labor in the individual countries and thus internationally to a standstill. The damage is colossal and threatening. The fine division of labor is the engine that drives the economic prosperity of the world’s population. It cannot be switched off with impunity. If the shutdown continues, supply shortages of vital goods will be inevitable for people around the world.

Above all, however, the unbacked paper money system, which has been established worldwide, has been severely shaken by the slump in production and incomes, and this could ultimately have fatal consequences for the global economy; price action in financial markets has already given us a taste of this (as the figure below shows). Whether in the USA, Europe, Asia, or Latin America, unbacked paper money systems are found everywhere.

poll1

Unbacked Paper Money Systems

In an unbacked paper money system, the central bank, in close cooperation with the commercial banks, expands the money supply by extending loans. It amounts to an increase in the money supply out of thin air (ex nihilo): new money is put into circulation that is not covered by “real savings.” Economists are only too well aware that such an unfunded monetary system inevitably causes crises.

The unbacked paper money system cannot stand one thing: a drop in income, a drop in the price of goods. This is because then the overindebtedness of companies, households, and, above all, states comes to light—the whole paper money swindle is exposed. And that is the reason why the states are now intervening more heavily than ever (“all in”) with their central banks in the economic and societal system.

Interest rates have been cut as far as possible to provide relief to borrowers and keep the debt pyramid from collapsing. Financially ailing states and banks have access to unlimited cash injections from the central bank if necessary. However, unlike in the financial and economic crisis of 2008/2009, the private sector is now also on fire: companies and private households are threatened by bankruptcy.

Most companies are indebted; they have to pay interest and principal on an ongoing basis. If sales collapse, firms no longer earn anything and run into financial difficulties. If companies become insolvent, jobs will be lost, and the storm will ultimately reach private households, the consumers, who will then also have no money to service their debts.

This is when banks step on the “credit brake”: they are no longer willing or able to prop up shaky borrowers, let alone lend them new money. However, if the inflow of new loans to the national economy dries up, basically all debtors will end up in a tight spot. They cannot repay their loans, and they can also no longer get new loans that could replace their liabilities coming due.

Loan defaults are increasing. The credit supply is shrinking—and exacerbating the bankruptcy problem. Banks are experiencing credit defaults that deplete their equity, and they, too, are experiencing difficulties. In other words: The “credit boom” that drove economies and fueled the debt incentive is bursting. The boom is turning into a bust.

Banking “Bailout”

In Germany, for instance, there has already been a reaction to “master” the crisis, with an expansion of short-time work benefits and tax deferrals, but above all with loan guarantees provided by the state-owned bank KfW. This means that the state makes the taxpayer responsible for squaring the bill for any loan default in an emergency; the taxpayer must once again serve as a credit default insurer.

If the placebo pill works, trust returns, stumbling debtors get new bank loans, and loan defaults remain low, the taxpayer gets off lightly. But if the maneuver fails and loan defaults occur, a lot of money will be needed. The state will have to incur new debt, which will then presumably be bought up by the European Central Bank (ECB). This creates new central bank money.

And the new money is paid out to the banks directly: on their balance sheets, credit claims are exchanged for balances with the central bank. It’s pretty clear: it will be those banks in particular that will be protected by the state guarantees. The banks get this insurance virtually free of charge, on top of the collateral that borrowers have already given them, and which banks can use. So it will be the taxpayer who will have to shoulder the bill.

Guaranteeing Credit

Things will be less pleasant for borrowers. Struggling companies can be saved from insolvency if and when they get new loans thanks to state guarantees. But their debt is increasing: either the interest and principal payments are temporarily suspended and capitalized—that is, they are added to the outstanding loan amount to be serviced subsequently—or the new loans are used to pay the debt service of the old loans.

At this point, it should be borne in mind that many companies will most likely suffer a permanent loss of sales due to the crisis: even if the demand for goods should normalize again at some point, the lost sales will not be recuperated. As a result, firms’ debt-to-earning power ratio will deteriorate and their cost of capital will increase (other things being equal).

In December 2019, German banks had credit claims of more than €4,000 billion in their balance sheets. If the banks receive a loan guarantee from the state, which, let’s say, secures 80 percent of the loan claims, the guarantees of €553 billion announced by the KFW would result in bank loans of a good €690 billion, i.e., collateral for almost 17 percent of the outstanding bank loans.

In the euro area as a whole, outstanding bank loans amounted to a massive €18,591 billion at the end of last year. If euro governments were to follow the German credit guarantee example, they would have to accept considerable contingent liabilities for their households. This, in turn, will presumably drastically lower their credit rating on the financial markets—especially since all countries are already overstretched financially.

Helicopter Money

It would not be surprising if sooner or later people called for the issuance of helicopter money. The US administration seems to be moving in this direction already: on March 17, US Treasury secretary Steve Mnuchin announced that the US wants to send checks to its citizens by mail, something to the amount of $1,000 per person. You may argue that formally this is a tax refund. But as all the US dollars will be created out of thin air, the procedure comes relatively close to a form of helicopter US dollar issuance.

From a technical point of view, it is indeed quite easy to issue helicopter money: every account holder receives a “monetary gift” from the central bank and can use it to go shopping or service his/her outstanding debts. However, the issuance of helicopter money is difficult to control politically: it wouldn’t take long, and the central bank would be drowning in requests for monetary gifts.

Be that as it may, the issuance of helicopter money is very alluring, especially in a situation in which the debt pyramid threatens to collapse as recession-depression looms on the horizon and people strongly believe that inflation of goods prices is a blessing and the “least evil” policy. Under these conditions, helicopter money will likely be distributed at some point to stimulate consumption and ease debtors’ financial strain.

Almighty State

Whether the unsecured paper money system survives the current crisis depends significantly on whether (i) the state’s credit guarantees succeed in warding off a wave of bankruptcies and (ii) investors regain confidence in the system and credit markets return to normal. There should be no doubt, however, that a life-threatening situation has arisen for the unbacked monetary system. The probability of things going wrong this time is not zero.

But a breakdown is not yet inevitable. The states and their central banks can still pull “new rabbits out of the hat.” For example, faltering banks could be recapitalized by countries injecting new money that they receive from the ECB as equity capital; or states could finance themselves and consumers as well as firms with the issuance of helicopter money. One thing is pretty certain: without government intervention, without their market manipulations, the unbacked money system could no longer be maintained.

And that should make citizens extremely concerned indeed. Crises regularly lead to an increase in government power. The causes of crises are habitually mis- and reinterpreted: the free market has failed, it will be said, and now only the state can help—even though the state and its central bank are the main culprits causing financial and economic crises.

They are the ones who started and encouraged the debt economy with their unbacked paper money system, a system that sooner or later must collapse. This time, the trigger of the crisis is the concern about the consequences of the coronavirus. How aggressively the states intervene in the global market and societal system also plays an important role; that is, the extent to which states seize the opportunity to expand their power.

Serfdom

The more apparent it becomes that the unbacked monetary system does not work—that it causes crises—the higher is the tendency for people to turn a blind eye to this very truth. The more uninhibitedly collectivist-socialist measures are reinterpreted as “rescue policies” on the part of politicians and mainstream economists, the more such interventions are welcomed by the general public and approved.

Every crisis caused by the unbacked paper money system expands the power of states over economic and social life, and unfortunately, once the state has expanded its power, its expansion will not be reversed. As a result, the economy will become increasingly entangled with state socialist policies over time as the state and its central bank fight the crisis whose seeds they planted.

If people do not want to turn away from the unbacked paper money system, it is predictable that sooner or later everything will be subordinated to one goal: to strengthen the state—to provide it with ever more powers and with unlimited financial resources. And this means that the free markets (or what little is left of them), and thus also civil and entrepreneurial freedoms, will be stifled more and more.

Given current events, it is therefore far from exaggerated to say that without a “bailout” of the system, a global depression is inevitable. But with a bailout comes serfdom.

Be seeing you

 

 

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Watch “Andrew Saul – High Dose Vitamin C Therapy for Major Diseases” on YouTube

Posted by M. C. on March 26, 2020

 

Be seeing you

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Russia and China Assist European Nations – LewRockwell

Posted by M. C. on March 26, 2020

US/NATO bombs Serbia, EU ignores it, Russia and China save it.

https://www.lewrockwell.com/2020/03/yvonne-lorenzo/russia-and-china-assist-european-nations/

By

Lew Rockwell recently in his powerful “War on China?” wrote that “People are understandably upset about the coronavirus epidemic, but if we’re not careful, an even greater danger lies ahead. Sinister forces in American political life are using the crisis to incite war with China and to stir up bad feelings towards the Chinese people. The Chinese people are in fact heroic. They are our friends, not our enemies. But the forces of evil want you to think otherwise.”

I don’t know if Washington would consider or China would be interested in providing medical protective gear and respirators to America, given recent statements by President Trump and Secretary of State Pompeo. But even if the Chinese government is “authoritarian,” certainly, as I and others have written recently, America too has an authoritarian bent as well.

As is documented both on China’s CGTN channel on YouTube, and on RT, both nations are helping, especially in the case of Serbia whose request for EU aid was refused. Today, as I write these words, is the anniversary of the NATO bombing campaign on Serbia. From the article:

“Twenty-one years ago, NATO, without obtaining permission to intervene from the United Nations, launched armed aggression against Serbia, thus crudely violating the UN Declaration, the Helsinki Accords, a number of other international conventions and its own act on the creation of NATO of 1949,” the statement runs. “It has been and will remain a crime against peace and humanity. The act of aggression, committed in alliance with the terrorist Kosovo Liberation Army, left an estimated 3,500-4,000 people dead and 12,500 others injured and caused tremendous economic damage. The use of depleted uranium rounds and other prohibited weapons was a long-term hazard to the people and the environment. NATO turned itself into an aggressive, interventionist alliance with an outspokenly expansionist policy targeting the East first and foremost.”

Therefore, I am not surprised that the EU refused Serbia’s request for assistance and China has been a major help, as these videos from CGTN show. This video posted on March 16th.

Serbia’s state of emergency: ‘China is the only country that can help’

This video also posted:

Serbian landmarks lit up red to salute China

“A number of landmarks in the Serbian capital were lit up in red on March 21 and 22 as a tribute to China. The local government used this gesture to thank the Chinese government for providing medical assistance and to pay tribute to the Chinese medical expert group.”

And this video was posted as well:

“Serbian president kisses Chinese national flag as support team arrives.”

“Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic greeted Chinese medics who arrived in Serbia on Saturday. He kissed the Chinese national flag in a show of gratitude for China’s timely support against the COVID-19 outbreak. Read the rest of this entry »

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“Travel Papers” and the Pandemic Patriot Act 2.0 – The Organic Prepper

Posted by M. C. on March 26, 2020

What the heck are “pre-arrest” procedures, anyway? Is that the part where government investigators go and set someone up to commit a crime like all those “bombing plots” the FBI keeps saving us from?

https://www.theorganicprepper.com/travel-papers-and-the-pandemic-patriot-act-2-0/

by Daisy Luther

Did you ever think we’d reach the point in the United States where you had to have papers to freely travel from one place to another? It appears we’re at the point.

The MTA issued “travel papers” to their workers

On March 17th, a few days before New York issued a shelter in place order, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority issued “travel papers” to their employees to prepare for a potential coronavirus curfew. The NY Daily News reports:

If non-emergency travel is restricted, workers can show law enforcement officials the letter if they’re stopped on the way to work.

“This letter along with current New York CIty Transit identification identifies this individual as an essential employee who is required to travel during the curfew imposed due to the Coronavirus emergency,” states the letter, which is signed by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s Police Department’s acting chief Joseph McGrann. “Please give this individual due consideration during this crisis.”

MTA spokeswoman Abbey Collins said the letter was distributed on Monday to a “limited number of NYCT bus employees living in New Jersey” because the state’s Gov. Murphy suggested imposing a statewide curfew between 8 p.m. and 5 a.m. (source)

Clearly, the wheels have been in motion for several days. And it’s not just the MTA.

Your papers, please.

For everyone who thought the article about the Lockdown of America was a “hysterical overstatement” and that they could still do whatever they wanted because it wasn’t really being enforced, what are you thinking now that “travel papers” are being handed out? To me, this sounds like the lockdowns I wrote of yesterday were just the first incremental step toward a society that nobody hopes to see.

Yesterday, readers sent me photos of “travel papers” provided to them by employers so they could get to and from work. These are employees who work in industries like healthcare, pharmacies, and foodservice, as well as those who work in the production, transport, and sales of essential supplies.

One reader wrote, “We were told to show these if we got stopped on the way to or from work and that if the authorities gave us any trouble, to not argue and just go back home.”

Here are some of the papers that people sent. Identifying information has been redacted.

 

Papers that people sent were from Pennsylvania, New York, Arizona, Michigan, North Carolina, Kansas, New Jersey, West Virginia, Virginia, Oregon, Florida, Louisiana, and Ohio. Industries mentioned in the papers were trucking, grocery stores, medical clinics, hospitals, nursing homes, city transit workers, railroads, food production plants, pharmacies, gas stations, stores like Target and Walmart, and automotive repair facilities.

Most people were given their papers on Friday or Saturday and told they’d need them to get to and from work starting the week ahead.

I wonder who’s going to be checking your “travel papers.”  Will it be the local PD? The National Guard? The military? Maybe it’ll be all those TSA agents who are currently out of work but already accustomed to molesting innocent travelers.

What does this mean for those told they’d be able to go to the store?

We’ve been repeatedly told during task force press conferences that nobody needs to worry about buying extra supplies because the stores will remain open. We were chastised about stocking up and “hoarding” supplies. But if you need travel papers just to get to work, how will a person get to the store when they need to pick up some groceries? Will these papers only be required during certain hours?

It’s easy to prove you just went to the store when you have a bag of groceries in hand, but how do you prove you are going to the store? Will they just begin distributing the food to us as opposed to allowing people to shop for their own food?

A little clarity and less subterfuge would go a lot further toward preventing concern that we’re about to go full Wuhan here in America.

If I didn’t have supplies already, I would head to the store today and get enough for a couple of extra weeks at the very least. Here are some ideas for finding supplies amidst the picked-over inventory that remains.

So, what happens if you get caught without your papers? I’m glad you asked.

It seems like the DoJ is itching to suspend the Constitution.

At this point, the “Department of Justice” sounds like one of those other phrases the government uses to mean the complete opposite. Like the “Patriot Act” which is as far from patriotic as it gets.

And speaking of the Patriot Act, the government is now introducing what I’d like to dub the Pandemic Patriot Act 2.0.

The DoJ has secretly asked Congress to draft legislation allowing them to indefinitely detain people without due process during the coronavirus pandemic. Because who doesn’t want to add a little spice to our economic crisis with the added threat of indefinite detention?

Documents reviewed by POLITICO detail the department’s requests to lawmakers on a host of topics, including the statute of limitations, asylum and the way court hearings are conducted. POLITICO also reviewed and previously reported on documents seeking the authority to extend deadlines on merger reviews and prosecutions…

…In one of the documents, the department proposed that Congress grant the attorney general power to ask the chief judge of any district court to pause court proceedings “whenever the district court is fully or partially closed by virtue of any natural disaster, civil disobedience, or other emergency situation.”

The proposal would also grant those top judges broad authority to pause court proceedings during emergencies. It would apply to “any statutes or rules of procedure otherwise affecting pre-arrest, post-arrest, pre-trial, trial, and post-trial procedures in criminal and juvenile proceedings and all civil process and proceedings,” according to draft legislative language the department shared with Congress. In making the case for the change, the DOJ document wrote that individual judges can currently pause proceedings during emergencies, but that their proposal would make sure all judges in any particular district could handle emergencies “in a consistent manner.” (source)

What the heck are “pre-arrest” procedures, anyway? Is that the part where government investigators go and set someone up to commit a crime like all those “bombing plots” the FBI keeps saving us from?

I wouldn’t be surprised to see another 300-page legislation like the original Patriot Act that was rolled out just weeks after 911, giving us the TSA, indefinite detention, and all sorts of other dystopian nonsense.

Never let a serious crisis go to waste.

In the infamous words of Rahm Emmanuel, the former mayor of Chicago, “You never let a serious crisis go to waste. And what I mean by that it’s an opportunity to do things you think you could not do before.”

It looks like the government is taking those words to heart with travel papers and new draconian laws.

Since I wrote the article about America locking down yesterday, more states have joined in. Now New York, California, Illinois, Connecticut, and New Jersey are all under restriction.

Is your state coming soon? Are these lockdowns being rolled out incrementally, starting out gently (sure you can walk your dog!) and then moving on to the point where you can’t leave your house without “travel papers?”

So far, 2020 has brought us an out-of-control deadly pandemic, an economic collapse, statewide lockdowns, and now travel papers and a potential new law to eradicate the Fifth Amendment.

I hesitate to ask what’s next.

 

 

 

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The Rutherford Institute :: Suspending the Constitution: Police State Uses Crises to Expand Its Lockdown Powers | By John W. Whitehead |

Posted by M. C. on March 26, 2020

The America metamorphosing before our eyes is almost unrecognizable from the country I grew up in, and that’s not just tragic—it’s downright terrifying.

This is how freedom dies.

We erect our own prison walls, and as our rights dwindle away, we forge our own chains of servitude to the police state.

https://www.rutherford.org/publications_resources/john_whiteheads_commentary/suspending_the_constitution_police_state_uses_crises_to_expand_its_lockdown_powers

By John W. Whitehead

“That was when they suspended the Constitution. They said it would be temporary. There wasn’t even any rioting in the streets. People stayed home at night, watching television, looking for some direction. There wasn’t even an enemy you could put your finger on.”― Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid’s Tale

You can always count on the government to take advantage of a crisis, legitimate or manufactured.

This coronavirus pandemic is no exception.

Not only are the federal and state governments unraveling the constitutional fabric of the nation with lockdown mandates that are sending the economy into a tailspin and wreaking havoc with our liberties, but they are also rendering the citizenry fully dependent on the government for financial handouts, medical intervention, protection and sustenance.

Unless we find some way to rein in the government’s power grabs, the fall-out will be epic.

Everything I have warned about for years—government overreach, invasive surveillance, martial law, abuse of powers, militarized police, weaponized technology used to track and control the citizenry, and so on—has coalesced into this present moment.

The government’s shameless exploitation of past national emergencies for its own nefarious purposes pales in comparison to what is presently unfolding.

It’s downright Machiavellian.

Deploying the same strategy it used with 9/11 to acquire greater powers under the USA Patriot Act, the police state—a.k.a. the shadow government, a.k.a. the Deep State—has been anticipating this moment for years, quietly assembling a wish list of lockdown powers that could be trotted out and approved at a moment’s notice.

It should surprise no one, then, that the Trump Administration has asked Congress to allow it to suspend parts of the Constitution whenever it deems it necessary during this coronavirus pandemic and “other” emergencies.

It’s that “other” emergencies part that should particularly give you pause, if not spur you to immediate action (by action, I mean a loud and vocal, apolitical, nonpartisan outcry and sustained, apolitical, nonpartisan resistance).

In fact, the Department of Justice (DOJ) has been quietly trotting out and testing a long laundry list of terrifying powers that override the Constitution.

We’re talking about lockdown powers (at both the federal and state level): the ability to suspend the Constitution, indefinitely detain American citizens, bypass the courts, quarantine whole communities or segments of the population, override the First Amendment by outlawing religious gatherings and assemblies of more than a few people, shut down entire industries and manipulate the economy, muzzle dissidents, “stop and seize any plane, train or automobile to stymie the spread of contagious disease,” reshape financial markets, create a digital currency (and thus further restrict the use of cash), determine who should live or die…

You’re getting the picture now, right?

These are powers the police state would desperately like to make permanent.

Specifically, the DOJ wants to be able to indefinitely detain American citizens without trial. The DOJ also wants to be able to pause court proceedings and suspend the statute of limitations on criminal and civil cases.

Both signify a clear violation of every right espoused in the Constitution, including habeas corpus.

Habeas corpus, a fundamental tenet of English common law that guards against arbitrary and lawless state action, does not appear anywhere in the Bill of Rights. Its importance was such that it was enshrined in the Constitution itself. And it is of such magnitude that all other rights, including those in the Bill of Rights, are dependent upon it. Without habeas corpus, the significance of all other rights crumbles.

The right of habeas corpus was important to the Framers of the Constitution because they knew from personal experience what it was like to be labeled enemy combatants, imprisoned indefinitely and not given the opportunity to appear before a neutral judge. Believing that such arbitrary imprisonment is “in all ages, the favorite and most formidable instrument of tyranny,” the Founders were all the more determined to protect Americans from such government abuses.

Translated as “you should have the body,” habeas corpus is a legal action, or writ, by which those imprisoned unlawfully can seek relief from their imprisonment. Derived from English common law, habeas corpus first appeared in the Magna Carta of 1215 and is the oldest human right in the history of English-speaking civilization. The doctrine of habeas corpus stems from the requirement that a government must either charge a person or let him go free.

While serving as President, Thomas Jefferson addressed the essential necessity of habeas corpus. In his first inaugural address on March 4, 1801, Jefferson said, “I know, indeed, that some honest men fear that a republican government cannot be strong; that this government is not strong enough.” But, said Jefferson, our nation was “the world’s best hope” and, because of our strong commitment to democracy, “the strongest government on earth.” Jefferson said that the sum of this basic belief was found in the “freedom of person under the protection of the habeas corpus; and trial by juries impartially selected. These principles form the bright constellation which has gone before us, and guided our steps through an age of revolution and reformation.”

Throughout the twentieth century, the importance of the right of habeas corpus has repeatedly been confirmed by the U.S. Supreme Court. Yet 200-plus years after America’s founders risked their lives to secure their freedoms, we find ourselves right back where we started, with a government determined to strip us of every vestige of our freedoms.

The DOJ’s latest request to Congress is merely a signal that the police state is ready to step out of the shadows, with the current national emergency being a convenient cover for their dastardly deeds.

Bear in mind, however, that these powers the Trump Administration, acting on orders from the police state, are officially asking Congress to recognize and authorize barely scratch the surface of the far-reaching powers the government has already unilaterally claimed for itself.

Unofficially, the police state has been riding roughshod over the rule of law for years now without any pretense of being reined in or restricted in its power grabs by Congress, the courts or the citizenry.

As David C. Unger, observes in The Emergency State: America’s Pursuit of Absolute Security at All Costs:

“For seven decades we have been yielding our most basic liberties to a secretive, unaccountable emergency state – a vast but increasingly misdirected complex of national security institutions, reflexes, and beliefs that so define our present world that we forget that there was ever a different America. … Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness have given way to permanent crisis management: to policing the planet and fighting preventative wars of ideological containment, usually on terrain chosen by, and favorable to, our enemies. Limited government and constitutional accountability have been shouldered aside by the kind of imperial presidency our constitutional system was explicitly designed to prevent.”

This rise of an “emergency state” that justifies all manner of government tyranny in the so-called name of national security is all happening according to schedule. Read the rest of this entry »

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