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Opinion from a Libertarian ViewPoint

Playing with Official Inflation Statistics: An Example from Germany | Mises Institute

Posted by M. C. on September 22, 2023

During the inflationary phase of last year, prices in subindex 4 rose the most of all. The inflation rate here was 13.9%, more than 5 percentage points above the official average inflation. That the Federal Statistical Offices have now decided to lower the weight of this subindex has one practical effect: the officially measured inflation will be lower. But it measures past reality.

https://mises.org/power-market/playing-official-inflation-statistics-example-germany

Karl-Friedrich Israel

The Harmonized Index of Consumer Prices (HICP) consists of 12 subindices, which are weighted according to their shares in total household expenditures. If, for example, food and non-alcoholic beverages (subindex 1) account for 15% of expenditures, they should also be given a weight of 15% in the overall index. In this way, each expenditure category would be given the importance it has for an average household. This is the claim of official statistics. But here, too, as so often, aspiration and reality diverge.

In Germany, the traditionally largest subindex covers housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels (subindex 4). It has always accounted for more than 21% of the overall index since the mid-1990s. Between 2020 and 2022, the weight had increased to slightly more than 25%. The official statistics thus assumed that German households spend on average around a quarter of their total expenditure on goods of this category. This is too little in the eyes of some critics. Many households spend significantly more on goods of this type. In larger urban areas, households often spend more than a third of their income on rent alone.

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Striking Autoworkers Will Only Harm Their Own Livelihoods | Mises Wire

Posted by M. C. on September 21, 2023

Labor unions often appeal to worker solidarity, but in truth, they epitomize the exact opposite. Because as Murray Rothbard has shown, they can only raise wages for some workers by lowering the wages or eliminating the jobs of other workers. At the Big Three automakers, this can be seen in the heavy use of temporary and part-time workers, who are placed on a lower pay tier—the elimination of which is ironically a core demand of the UAW strike. But this situation is just what’s visible. All those who are blocked entirely from the jobs that would be available to them if not for the union remain unseen.

https://mises.org/wire/striking-autoworkers-will-only-harm-their-own-livelihoods

Connor O’Keeffe

On Friday, September 15, 12,700 members of the United Auto Workers union (UAW) walked off the job at plants owned by the “Big Three” automakers—Ford, General Motors, and Stellantis (which owns Chrysler, Jeep, and Ram). The walkout marked the beginning of a series of long-expected targeted strikes aiming to give the UAW leverage as it renegotiates contracts with the three companies.

The strike is grounded in frustrations over worker compensation. Union members and their supporters point to high profits and CEO pay at the Big Three and compare them to stagnant wages and rising costs of living among autoworkers. They feel like they’re being ripped off.

And they’re right. Like the rest of the working class, autoworkers are being ripped off. Decades of interventionism have built an economic system that harms workers while helping the corporate and political classes. The first reason for this is monetary policy. Ever since President Richard Nixon abolished the gold standard in the early 1970s, a handful of bureaucrats at the Federal Reserve have been charged with determining the value of our currency. And those bureaucrats have decided that the dollar should lose value every year. They aim for a decline of 2 percent annually, but the rate has been higher in recent years.

Dollar devaluation is a political choice. And it hurts workers. In an unhampered market, money becomes more valuable as societies grow wealthier. Goods become better and more affordable. And money saved grows in value.

Under our current inflationist fiat regime, the opposite happens. Savings shrink in value by design. The result is spelled out by Saifedean Ammous in his book The Fiat Standard:

The culture of conspicuous mass consumption that pervades our planet today cannot be understood except through the distorted incentives fiat creates around consumption. With the money constantly losing its value, deferring consumption and saving will likely have a negative expected value. Finding the right investments is difficult, requires active management and supervision, and entails risk. The path of least resistance, the path permeating the entire culture of fiat society, is to consume all your income, living paycheck to paycheck.

We can see, then, how monetary policy leads to mass consumption, low savings, and hyperfinancialization—all at the same time. In fact, one of the most notable examples of the financialization of the economy since the 1970s has been the growth of the Big Three automakers’ financial arms—GM Financial, Ford Credit, and Stellantis Financial Services.

In fact, as Ryan McMaken highlights: “By the early 2000s, a majority of GM’s profits were coming from its financial operations and not from automobile production.”

In other words, the automakers have profited from the very same government policies that devalue their workers’ paychecks and savings.

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Insuring You’ll Stop Driving . . .

Posted by M. C. on September 21, 2023

Forcing people to buy insurance they can’t afford as a condition of being allowed to own (or use) something is a very effective way of discouraging people from owning or using things.

Like cars, for instance.

It ought to be crystal clear by now that there are people in positions of power who do not want most people – by which they mean us – to own (or drive) cars.

The recent catching fire of cargo ships transporting EVs that were just sitting (in the hold) has naturally alarmed the insurance mafia – and the mafia isn’t going to pay for it when it can make us pay for it.  

Insuring You’ll Stop Driving . . .

By eric

Forcing people to buy insurance they can’t afford as a condition of being allowed to own (or use) something is a very effective way of discouraging people from owning or using things.

Like cars, for instance.

It ought to be crystal clear by now that there are people in positions of power who do not want most people – by which they mean us – to own (or drive) cars. But they are clever people and understand that outlawing cars outright and all at once is too obviously blunt and – more to the point – it would probably result in immediate push-back. Far better – from their point-of-view – to permit us to own cars, provided we abide by certain conditions.

Such as being obliged to “cover” them.

No surprise (assuming you’ve been paying attention) – it is all-of-a-sudden costing a lot more to “cover” a car. About 20 percent more, on average – just this year so far. Many people are being hit up to tune of 30 percent or more.

It is interesting to note that these increases in the cost of “coverage” are being imposed on people who have not been convicted of “speeding” (the vehicular equivalent of not “masking”) or because they filed a claim and so cost the insurance mafia money.

The mafia says it is only making these “adjustments” to take account of higher repair costs and because of costs pertaining to natural disasters. Well, the latter is an obnoxious transfer of costs onto those who did not incur them and the former is just bullshit, because if you’ve not wrecked or filed a claim, then you’ve not cost the mafia anything.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/q5pESPQpXxE?embeds_referring_euri=https

But the mafia can still make you pay.

Remember: Insurance is a “service” you cannot refuse. Even – in some states – if you don’t actually drive the car on public roads. If the vehicle can be seen without tags on private property, it can be seized on account of not being registered and tagged. The law in these states says that any vehicle stored on the owner’s property must be registered – and in order to legally get/maintain registration (and tags) the vehicle must be insured.

That’s a Bingo! as fictional SS Colonel Hands Landa from Inglorius Basterds put it.

It’s also proof that forcing people to buy insurance is not about making sure other people aren’t left holding the bag for damages incurred by the “uninsured.”

It is about making people pay.

Anyhow, when you have to pay, then you can be made to pay more. You can be made to pay whatever they say.

People are finding out just how much that is.

In particular, people who bought into “electrification” via the purchase of an electric vehicle. Many of them thinking they’d “save money” by not having to spend it on gas, which the same people pushing trying to push all of us into EVs have also been making more expensive, in order to drive as many of us as they can out of vehicles that burn it and into electric vehicles that burn money, instead.

That’s certainly more efficient.

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The Hard-Asset Inflation / Paper-Asset Deflation Theory

Posted by M. C. on September 21, 2023

https://www.zerohedge.com/economics/hard-asset-inflation-paper-asset-deflation-theory

Tyler Durden's Photo

by Tyler Durden

Thursday, Sep 21, 2023 – 06:30 AM

Authored by Bruce Wilds via Advancing Time,

All fiat currencies are no more than floating abstractions of value. Society has put its faith in fiat currency issued by governments. These government-issued currencies are not backed by a physical commodity, such as gold or silver, but rather by the promises from the government that issued it. A difficult question investors today face is determining which assets will appreciate most thus rising in value and which form to hold their wealth.

The value of fiat money is derived from supply and demand and the stability of the government that issues it. Over the years many promises have been made that simply cannot or will not be honored. History and many real-life examples exist that indicate that promises are easier to make than keep.

It is very possible in the near future we may see a strong bifurcation of the financial system. The Hard Asset Inflation / Paper Asset Deflation Theory laid out below is based on the idea that as wealthy individuals begin to realize the fragility of the current financial system they will shift their investment preferences to items of substance. 

This repositioning of wealth in assets could occur rather rapidly during a period of inflation. If such a revamping of how the wealthy invest takes place it could drastically add to any inflationary trends. In short, some investments would fall like a stone while others soar. Imagine real estate doubling in value while pensions are cut and stocks falter. This dovetails with my theory the Fed should be ecstatic so many people have been willing to invest in intangible assets because it has helped to minimize inflation.

Paid For Hard Assets In Your Possession Are Best

While real estate is normally valued by the amount of income it can generate, this could change.

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Who really owns the United States?

Posted by M. C. on September 21, 2023

There is also more than just a little bit of hypocrisy involved in this left wing land recognition movement. If the native peoples really own it in total, all others should either depart (back to Europe? Back to Africa? Back to Asia?) and/or start paying rent to the rightful owners. Has anything of this sort, on a serious basis, been placed on the table by any of these advocates? If so, not by too many of them; this would hardly be popular.

https://substack.com/inbox/post/137167294

Walter Block

Nowadays, it is common, when introducing an event, to say something along the lines of: “We are grateful to the XYZ Indian Tribe for allowing us to hold this gathering on what is really their land.” Universities, bastions of the left, have been particularly intent upon engaging in this practice. For example, Northwestern University offered this “expression of gratitude and appreciation to those whose territory you reside on, and a way of honoring the Indigenous people who have been living and working on the land from time immemorial.” Here is another instance: “Princeton (University) seeks to build relationships with Native American and Indigenous communities and nations through academic pursuits, partnerships, historical recognitions, community service and enrollment efforts.  These communities and nations include the Lenni-Lenape people, who consider the land on which the University stands part of their ancient homeland.”

Do the American Indians really own the entire country based upon homesteading, mixing their labor with the land? Not at all. There are now some 350 million people in the country, and there are still vast areas of it that have never so much as been touched by human feet, let alone homesteaded as farms, factories or residences.

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Rebooted Clinton Global Initiative Licks Chops Over Ukraine ‘Humanitarian’ Aid

Posted by M. C. on September 21, 2023

“Today, the Clinton Global Initiative announced their very own program to rebuild Ukraine. The US is sending the World Bank $25 billion. Then, the World Bank is sending money to the Clintons. And then the Clintons are sending it to Ukraine.”

Why US money? Why filter it through Hillary and Bubba? How much are the CGI and Zelensky service charges? cccccbggfldrtnjnuuURKIDEKCUICUKTIVRRDBBRPUHV

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/rebooted-clinton-global-initiative-licks-chops-over-ukraine-humanitarian-aid

Tyler Durden's Photo

by Tyler Durden

The now-revived Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) has found a new grift – Ukraine.

But first – a short review. The Clintons, through their foundation, fleeced Haiti to the tune of Billions following the 2010 earthquake which killed an estimated 220,000 people.

  • Hillary Clinton’s State Department pressured Haiti to suppress their minimum wage in sweatshops in order to benefit US clothing manufacturers   
  • Clinton Foundation donors were were handed government contracts to clean up in the aftermath of the earthquake.
  • Bill Clinton intervened in the jail sentence of Laura Silsby, a convicted child trafficker who attempted to smuggle 33 children out of Haiti.
  • A former Haitian government official set to expose the Clinton Foundation’s misdeeds in Haiti shot himself in the head a week before he was able to testify.
  • The Clinton Foundation even grifted Haiti’s lime industry.
  • Haiti’s former Senate president said Hillary Clinton ‘tried to bribe me!‘

CGI was shuttered in 2017 after Hillary Clinton lost the 2016 election and donations mysteriously dried up. It was rebooted in 2022.

And now, Ukraine.

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A Nation of Snitches: DHS Is Grooming Americans to Report on Each Other

Posted by M. C. on September 20, 2023

If you believe in and exercise your rights under the Constitution (namely, your right to speak freely, worship freely, associate with like-minded individuals who share your political views, criticize the government, own a weapon, demand a warrant before being questioned or searched, or any other activity viewed as potentially anti-government, racist, bigoted, anarchic or sovereign), you have just been promoted to the top of the government’s terrorism watch list.

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

By John & Nisha Whitehead

“There were relatively few secret police, and most were just processing the information coming in. I had found a shocking fact. It wasn’t the secret police who were doing this wide-scale surveillance and hiding on every street corner. It was the ordinary German people who were informing on their neighbors.”—Professor Robert Gellately, author of Backing Hitler

Are you among the 41% of Americans who regularly attend church or some other religious service?

Do you believe the economy is about to collapse and the government will soon declare martial law?

Do you display an unusual number of political and/or ideological bumper stickers on your car?

Are you among the 44% of Americans who live in a household with a gun? If so, are you concerned that the government may be plotting to confiscate your firearms?

If you answered yes to any of the above questions, you may be an anti-government extremist (a.k.a. domestic terrorist) in the eyes of the government and flagged for heightened surveillance and preemptive intervention.

Let that sink in a moment.

If you believe in and exercise your rights under the Constitution (namely, your right to speak freely, worship freely, associate with like-minded individuals who share your political views, criticize the government, own a weapon, demand a warrant before being questioned or searched, or any other activity viewed as potentially anti-government, racist, bigoted, anarchic or sovereign), you have just been promoted to the top of the government’s terrorism watch list.

I assure you I’m not making this stuff up.

So what is the government doing about these so-called American “extremists”?

The government is grooming the American people to spy on each other as part of its Center for Prevention Programs and Partnerships, or CP3 program.

According to journalist Leo Hohmann, the government is handing out $20 million in grants to police, mental health networks, universities, churches and school districts to enlist their help in identifying Americans who might be political dissidents or potential “extremists.”

As Hohmann explains, “Whether it’s COVID and vaccines, the war in Ukraine, immigration, the Second Amendment, LGBTQ ideology and child-gender confusion, the integrity of our elections, or the issue of protecting life in the womb, you are no longer allowed to hold dissenting opinions and voice them publicly in America. If you do, your own government will take note and consider you a potential ‘violent extremist’ and terrorist.”

Cue the dawning of the Snitch State.

This new era of snitch surveillance is the lovechild of the government’s post-9/11 “See Something, Say Something” programs combined with the self-righteousness of a politically correct, hyper-vigilant, technologically-wired age.

For more than two decades, the Department of Homeland Security has plastered its “See Something, Say Something” campaign on the walls of metro stations, on billboards, on coffee cup sleeves, at the Super Bowl, even on television monitors in the Statue of Liberty. Colleges, universities and even football teams and sporting arenas have lined up for grants to participate in the program.

The government has even designated September 25 as National “If You See Something, Say Something” Awareness Day.

If you see something suspicious, says the DHS, say something about it to the police, call it in to a government hotline, or report it using a convenient app on your smart phone.

This DHS slogan is nothing more than the government’s way of indoctrinating “we the people” into the mindset that we’re an extension of the government and, as such, have a patriotic duty to be suspicious of, spy on, and turn in our fellow citizens.

This is what is commonly referred to as community policing.

Yet while community policing and federal programs such as “See Something, Say Something” are sold to the public as patriotic attempts to be on guard against those who would harm us, they are little more than totalitarian tactics dressed up and repackaged for a more modern audience as well-intentioned appeals to law and order and security.

The police state could not ask for a better citizenry than one that carries out its own policing.

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Biden Demands UN Send Troops Into Haiti to Restore Order

Posted by M. C. on September 20, 2023

However, UN Peacekeepers have a disgraceful track record filled with human rights abuses. In 2010, a cholera outbreak that killed around 10,000 Haitians was traced to sewage released by peacekeepers.

https://libertarianinstitute.org/news/biden-demands-un-send-troops-into-haiti-to-restore-order/

by Kyle Anzalone | Sep 19, 2023

230919093250 02 joe biden unga 091923

Addressing the UN on Tuesday, President Joe Biden called on the Security Council (UNSC) to authorize sending a military force into Haiti to restore order. The White House has wanted the UN to take action in the Caribbean nation for a year but has struggled to find a country willing to lead the UN mission in Haiti. 

Speaking at the General Assembly in New York, Biden called on the UNSC to pass a resolution allowing Kenya to send troops to Haiti. “On Haiti, the Caribbean communities facilitated a dialogue among Haitian society. I thank President Ruto of Kenya – I thank him for his willingness to serve as a lead nation of a UN-backed security support mission,” he said. “I call on the Security Council to authorize this mission now. The people of Haiti cannot wait much longer.”

Initially, the White House hoped to enlist Canada to lead the mission, but Ottowa refused to bend to Washington’s pressure. Biden believes the UNSC needs to restore order in Haiti because gangs have taken control over parts of the country. 

Port-au-Prince’s descent into violence and gang control accelerated after the assassination of President Jovenal Moise in July 2021. No one has been brought to justice for the murder, but the current president, Ariel Henry, has been implicated as a potential member of the plot against Mosie. 

Henry rose to power with Washington’s backing and has been a leading voice calling for an outside force to aid Port-au-Prince in reestablishing control. However, UN Peacekeepers have a disgraceful track record filled with human rights abuses. In 2010, a cholera outbreak that killed around 10,000 Haitians was traced to sewage released by peacekeepers.

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Rising Ammunition Prices Could Interfere With Western Plans To Arm Ukraine

Posted by M. C. on September 20, 2023

SHOCK HEADLINE!!!: Former Pentagon officials have warned that arms makers are exploiting the war in Ukraine to price gouge the Department of Defense. Shay Assad, who worked as a Pentagon contract negotiator for 40 years, told 60 Minutes that such firms overcharge the DoD for everything from “radar and missiles … helicopters … planes … submarines… down to the nuts and bolts.”

Deja Vu all over again

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/rising-ammunition-prices-could-interfere-western-plans-arm-ukraine

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Department of Defense Run By Incompetent Boobs

Posted by M. C. on September 20, 2023

Today our esteemed military is asking for assistance from citizens who might have spotted an F-35 crash landing followed by its explosion into a fireball… which is somehow nontrackable by the entire Military. Because somehow, the esteemed agents of defense who can train Ukrainian pilots in the US can’t find an $80 million lost jet.

The scuttle is that the jet lost its tracking capability ( the mishap). Tracking and surveillance equipment are powered by rare earth minerals. Did Lockheed skip corners? Lockheed Martin’s F-35 stealth fighter uses 920 pounds of rare earths per plane in its electronic warfare systems, targeting radars, and electric motors.

Department of Defense Run By Incompetent Boobs

by Helena

African states are splintering. There are two factions; the ones accepting US/France colonization and those who declare their sovereignty.   In the quest for Chips and Minerals, the US reliance on China is seen as purgatory.   Having been culled from other nations, the US is now looking for Namibia to be their regime.   Given both the President and Prime Minister are US trained groupies, Namibia’s government will likely give the US whatever it wants.

With a GDP over $12 billion, Namibia has a poverty rate over 50%.   But the US sees the country as a potential for colonizing their resources. In particular: diamonds, oil, copper, uranium, and rare earth metals necessary for building defense systems. Currently, Namibia’s export partners include;   South Africa, China, Belgium, Botswana, and Germany. The US is about to levy a heavy hand.

The countries with the greatest reserves in rare earth minerals are: China, Vietnam, Brazil and Russia.

As the US Military transfers weapons to Taiwan, General Milley has warned the US State Department that creating WWIII in Taiwan will not end well.   Why?   Our stock of military weapons is on empty. Perhaps we should curtail arming other countries like Afghanistan, Algeria, Argentina, Austria, Australia, Brunei, Barkino Faso, Bulgaria, Brazil and Barundi – and that’s just the A’s and B’s….

The US needs a friendly ally in Taiwan. They are the major supplier of chips to the US – and until that changes, the US will continue to court Taiwan.   That shift is scheduled to occur in 2025 when the newly constructed largest in the world Intel chip plant in Ohio is operational. At that point the Taiwan courtship is over, and the need has been resolved.  As is protocol, the US is likely to hand Taiwan to China and be done with it. Unfortunately, the Biden Administration has already made the declaration so there is no walking back the intent.

China provided necessary components for the US Military Industrial Complex. China decoupling was a mistake. The US Cabalists fatal error was not having ‘alternatives’ in place before demonizing the bad boy China.   Now the fence is wobbly and no one seems to communicate leaving grandiose holes in the US trade partnerships.   Including those rare earth metals/minerals necessary to restock weapon inventories! Hence – rape the African nation Namibia is the alternative presented by Center For Strategic Studies.

Recently Zelenskyy declared that he had personally seen the stocked US warehouses filled with weapons that should all be transferred to Ukraine for safe keeping.   Not sure why our military thought it wise to show Zelenskyy the US stockpile – but then Zelenskyy has risen to heights of godly proportions in the bobble heads of the US Military and Congress.

Soon the IRS will have more ammo than the US military!

Between 2018 and 2022, before the war, 29 countries were arming Ukraine.   The US, Poland, UK and Germany were the largest suppliers. This would give every indication that the war was being staged 4 years before it occurred.

Zelenskyy made his debut into the world as a gay porn dancer and yet the liberals who adore him demand that the US President be of the moral and ethical values of a saint. An odd excursion into OZ.

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