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TGIF: The Economic Way of Thinking Can Save Lives | The Libertarian Institute

Posted by M. C. on January 20, 2023

Any good introduction to the economic way of thinking will introduce readers to concepts like opportunity cost, the unseen, sunk costs, the margin, and tradeoffs. Most people seem to intuit some of these in their own lives. But they fail to do so when it comes to society as a whole. They are encouraged by politicians and pundits to think that common sense in private life does not apply to the big picture.

https://libertarianinstitute.org/articles/tgif-thinking-save-lives/

by Sheldon Richman

sowell

The Cambridge economist Joan Robinson (1903-1983) wisely said, “The purpose of studying economics is not to acquire a set of readymade answers to economic questions, but to learn how to avoid being deceived by economists.”

Excellent point, though I would both broaden and narrow her category of suspects. I would include most politicians, bureaucrats, pundits, and social-science and humanities professors in the suspect group. And I would exclude the economists — spoiler alert: primarily those of the Austrian school, although others stand out — who paint a much more realistic picture of the world than the others do.

For the record, Robinson was sympathetic to John Maynard Keynes and, later in life, communist China’s Mao Zedong, and North Korea’s Kim Il Sung. Obviously, her study of economics did not teach her how to avoid being deceived by all who represented themselves as economists. (I heard once that Che Guevera became head of Cuba’s national bank in 1959 because when Fidel Castro asked his cadre, “Who here is a good economist?” Guevara, thinking he heard, “Who here is a good communist?” raised his hand. But that’s apparently apocryphal.)

At any rate, mankind would have been spared a good deal of misery had people learned at an early age to engage in the economic way of thinking. If I were to sum it up in a short phrase, I would say: in a world in which the law of identity, causality, and scarcity rule, you can’t do just one thing. Human action has consequences. This apparently is also the first law of ecology, but oddly, environmentalists (as opposed to humanists) seem ignorant of it.

The point is that all human action has rippling consequences across society and across time. The economist who called his textbook The Economic Way of Thinking, the late Paul Heyne, wrote, “All social phenomena emerge from the choices of individuals in response to expected benefits and costs to themselves.” (Happily, Peter J. Boettke and David L. Prychitko keep updating the book. It’s in its 10th edition.)

Heyne’s maxim applies to the choices of politicians and bureaucrats also. So before proposing or endorsing a government policy, one ought to wonder about the social phenomena that are likely to emerge from it. Economics is an indispensable tool in this respect.

Henry Hazlitt’s classic, Economics in One Less, is a great way to get started. Hazlitt wrote, “The art of economics consists in looking not merely at the immediate but at the longer effects of any act or policy; it consists in tracing the consequences of that policy not merely for one group but for all groups.” Hazlitt’s book elaborated an important message of his intellectual ancestor, Frédéric Bastiat, the 19th-century French laissez-faire liberal, in the classic essay “That Which Is Seen and That Which Is Unseen.”

Individuals who adopt this way of thinking are better equipped to judge the promises of politicians, etc. who support taxes, minimum-wage laws, rent control, general wage-and-price controls, and the rest of the program of political authority over contractual freedom and other peaceful conduct. Even well-intended regulations will have unintended bad secondary consequences. Good intentions are never enough.

See the rest here

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Our New Normal: Inflation, Poverty, Starvation, Economic Collapse, Fascism, Marxism, Communism, and Murder – LewRockwell

Posted by M. C. on September 18, 2021

In reality, it has but one objective, and that is to achieve total global governance and universal control over all.

https://www.lewrockwell.com/2021/09/gary-d-barnett/our-new-normal-inflation-poverty-starvation-economic-collapse-fascism-marxism-communism-and-murder/

By Gary D. Barnett

“So long as the people do not care to exercise their freedom, those who wish to tyrannize will do so; for tyrants are active and ardent, and will devote themselves in the name of any number of gods, religious and otherwise, to put shackles upon sleeping men.”

~ Voltaire

The gullibility of man it seems has no bounds, for if it did, how could so many be so blind? As I reflect on the past 18 months or so, it is quite alarming to understand the scope of this scam called a ‘pandemic,’ and how this entire country (and world) have embraced lies, deception, and tyranny of such magnitude. Mass murder at the hands of the state has already begun, but with the rollout of deadly and poisonous injections purposely mislabeled as ‘vaccines,’ the murder of large numbers that is democide, will be evident among this entire population for years to come. The perpetrators of this genocidal takeover of society are now coming after all children, and will attempt to poison as many as possible with their ‘vaccines’ over the course of this year and next.

Only a nation of pathetic cowardly fools would allow such an abdominal fate for their own defenseless offspring. This type of behavior indicates a total lack of intellect, and a mass ignorance of reality. It also indicates widespread indifference, which is the incarnate of a sick and immoral society.

So, it seems that the so-called “new normal” of totalitarian rule over a slave-like society, is not just the fault of those who wish to rule over us, but more so the people at large for allowing this to happen without proper resistance. Blaming the enemy is easy, but accepting blame of self is avoided at all cost, and this attitude is even worse than that of tyrants. It is expected that the evil among us who are the ruling class exist, but the evil of mass apathy can never be accepted or excused.

In the course of the past few months, this country’s citizens have fully acquiesced to the will of a totalitarian regime, and in the process, have laid bare their weaknesses due to an unfounded fear. Many believe there is safety in numbers, but that is only the mindset of herd animals, not humans. By voluntarily allowing for the death and destruction of part of the herd, the rest survive to live one more day, but when people accept this attitude, they also have to accept the death and destruction of their family, friends, and neighbors as normal for survival. If that is the case, it seems that the evolution of the human species is going backward, and that is exactly what collectivism is meant to accomplish.

With this comes the consequences of non-action, and under these circumstances, those consequences are always at the discretion of the tyrants. What has happened to date should be enough for anyone to see the folly of having confidence in any state or nation. What began with lockdowns and quarantines, led to business closings, job loss, extreme stress, supply line disruption, shortages, higher prices for goods and services, (inflation) and of course economic chaos. This in turn led to much more poverty, despair, and starvation, setting the stage for the next phase of this takeover. By this time, the people should have recognized the totalitarian nature of what was going on, but alas, they remained obedient and passive, and watched as their world was decimated.

In order to see the writing on the wall, one must seek out and accept the truth, regardless of the risk involved in doing so. To avoid the truth in favor of hiding from reality, hoping that someone else will ‘fix’ things, is exactly what all tyrannical rulers seek in the populations they are attempting to control. It is my expressed opinion, that the timing of this takeover coup was based fully on the fact that the master class knew that the general population was too afraid, too dependent, and too apathetic to fight back against this dictatorial authoritarianism that had been planned for decades. The timing of this was genius, because the masses acted in exactly the manner desired.

While no such thing as ‘Covid-19’ actually exists, and has never been identified, the real threat that is the real pandemic, had been held aside for just the right moment, and early this year the ‘vaccine’ pandemic was released. The ‘vaccine’ is the bio-weapon, and the so-called non-existent variants a of a non-existent virus, are the result of the deadly ‘vaccines.’ In other words, the ‘vaccine’ is the pandemic, and all those who have voluntarily taken the injections will be the victims of this staged pandemic. Once the deaths from these jabs reach unprecedented numbers, and they will, the rest of society who have not succumbed to the idiocy of taking such a dangerous concoction, will be blamed. In effect, all will have been targeted by the criminal state, whether they got the injection or not. The ‘vaccinated’ group will be sick and dying, while the unvaccinated group will be hunted by the state. This is why this society has already been divided by stealth in order to pit those vaccinated against those who are unvaccinated; a sinister plot meant to solidify control of both groups.

This is a communistic takeover attempt, that has all the elements of Fascism, Marxism, and Communism rolled into one. It is the most dangerous time in history for the inhabitants of this planet, as it is an attempt to achieve a globalized takeover of all in order to convert to one technocratically controlled system, where there are an ‘elite’ few’ at the top, their enforcers and corporate partners below, including government, with the rest being a slave class known as the proletariat.

While this ‘pandemic’ is thought to be about a mystery virus, it is not, as the virus narrative is just the tool being used to accomplish the real agenda, which has its roots based in the guise of ‘sustainable development’ marketed through the idiocy of man-made climate change. This has been fully outlined in the UN’s Agenda 21 and Agenda 30, and in the aptly named “Great Reset’ agenda described by Klaus Schwab and the World Economic Forum. In reality, it has but one objective, and that is to achieve total global governance and universal control over all. To be successful in this venture, many hundreds of millions, or more likely billions, will need to be murdered. The ‘vaccines’ are the tools of murder, so avoidance of these injections at all cost is imperative.

This is not a new threat, but it has been carefully manipulated to occur at this time in order to coincide with the people’s ignorance and indifference, their prepared division, their weakness and dependence on the state, and therefore their cowardice in the face of adversity. This ‘vaccine’ is the key to success for the evil and criminal rulers, so the fewer of us that take this witches brew, the more of us who will be able to fight back against this heinous attempt to destroy humanity. Our only hope is to remain non-compliant, to disobey every order, and to abolish the current governing system that has assumed dictatorial powers with the voluntary cooperation from the masses.

“The opposite of love is not hate, it’s indifference. The opposite of art is not ugliness, it’s indifference. The opposite of faith is not heresy, it’s indifference. And the opposite of life is not death, it’s indifference.”

~ Elie Wiesel

Source and reference links:

The silent weapon that is the mRNA ‘vaccine’

The non-existent ‘virus’ called ‘Covid-19’

Sustainability and super pandemics

Agenda 21

Agenda 2030: Global communism unleashed

‘Covid’ equals murder: the children are next

Covid-19 ‘Vaccine’: A slow-motion genocidal bioweapon

Gary D. Barnett [send him mail] is a retired investment professional that has been writing about freedom and liberty matters, politics, and history for two decades. He is against all war and aggression, and against the state. He recently finished a collaboration with former U.S. Congresswoman, Cynthia McKinney, and was a contributor to her new book, “When China Sneezes” From the Coronavirus Lockdown to the Global Political-Economic Crisis.” Currently, he lives in Montana with his wife and son. Visit his website.

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Manufactured Uncertainty – Doug Casey’s International Man

Posted by M. C. on November 10, 2020

As any magician knows, there’s no real magic. The trick is achieved through illusion. For a simple magic trick, a small distraction is needed. For a more elaborate trick to be pulled off, a larger distraction is necessary.

https://internationalman.com/articles/manufactured-uncertainty/

by Jeff Thomas

For many years, I’ve described a period that I envisaged to be in the future, in which much of what was considered “normal” would change dramatically.

The borders of some countries would change. The types of governments that ruled over them would change. In some cases, they would morph slowly into new entities; in others they would change suddenly.

Much of the wealth in the world would change hands. Enormous fortunes would be made by a few, whilst the life savings of countless others would be lost.

Large numbers of people would be on the move. Many would be refugees, hoping to escape poverty and/or oppressive governments. Others would be opportunists – those who look for the positives in periods of global upset.

Above all, this would be a period of change.

For most people, this would one day be looked back upon as previous generations looked back on the World Wars or the Great Depression – a time of devastation, in which many people lost all or most of what they had had.

But for some, especially those who foresaw the change, this period would one day be looked back upon as the time when their fortunes changed dramatically for the better.

Until recently, those who have predicted this dramatic change have been largely derided as “doom-and-gloomers” or “end-of-the-world crackpots.”

And it has been difficult to argue against this view, as regardless of how accurately we might have described what was headed our way, it was impossible to put a date on the onset of the crisis.

I became convinced of its eventuality in 1999, due to economic and political developments that would result in collapse at some point.

But the speed at which this would occur, and what governments and others would do to delay the eventuality, could not be known in advance. The best I could do was to repeatedly advise that significant events would increase in velocity and magnitude the closer we came to the collapse.

At that time, significant events were occurring once or twice a year. Since then, the frequency has increased until, today, significant events are occurring almost daily.

For those who have been following this line of thinking, the basic premise is that the governments of the world, often acting in concert with the major banks and industries, have sought to expand their wealth and power in such a way that, at some point, socio-economic collapse would inevitably occur.

And they’ve succeeded marvelously. For decades, they’ve dramatically increased their positions but have reached the point at which the bill for the big party must be paid, and they have no intention of paying it. It will be passed to the hoi polloi, who will soon realise that it will break many of them.

And they’ll be hopping mad.

So, how should this moment be handled? Historically, the most effective means by which those who have caused the problem can not only get away with it, but profit even more from the collapse, is to create a distraction to take focus away from themselves as the guilty parties.

As any magician knows, there’s no real magic. The trick is achieved through illusion. For a simple magic trick, a small distraction is needed. For a more elaborate trick to be pulled off, a larger distraction is necessary.

But for a worldwide socio-economic collapse to be pulled off, whilst the magicians remain in place to benefit from it, a major distraction is necessary.

In fact, if at all possible, multiple distractions should be employed.

Beginning in the early months of 2020, a virus has spread across the globe.

This virus is familiar to science: It’s a mutation of the coronavirus, which has been around for sixty years or more. It’s a common virus, carrying with it relatively predictable symptoms and a relatively predictable outcome for those who contract it.

Actual deaths are few and will occur mostly in those who are old and infirm or whose immune systems are already compromised.

But from the start, this virus was treated as a plague that would decimate the population. Almost immediately, the death figures were greatly exaggerated. The US government even went so far as to award thousands of dollars to hospitals for each death that they attributed to the virus.

Whole countries have been locked down, with millions of people losing their means of employment. In every case, essential freedoms have been removed from all citizens.

At the same time, the death of a minor criminal at the hands of police sparked off a riot in a seemingly unrelated event.

But, courtesy of the media, the riots quickly spread across the US in forty of the fifty states. Incredibly, many mayors and governors stated that the rioters were justified in their unlawful actions and ordered police to stand down, exacerbating the riots.

To make matters worse, it soon became apparent that many of the rioters were bussed into cities, paid to cause as much destruction as possible. The funding for such groups has since been traced to plutocrats who created the problem in the first place.

In some locations, entire hotels in upper-class neighbourhoods have been taken over by state governments to house homeless people, including the criminals, drug addicts and prostitutes.

These events have become so widespread that whole neighbourhoods are emptying out of residents.

The upset and confusion increases each day, and the average person is now afraid to turn on the news each evening.

We’re witnessing a sleight of hand of epic proportions.

We’ve entered the crisis period. From here on in, wealth will be extracted from the populace on a wholesale level. In addition, “inalienable rights” are already becoming a thing of the past.

The uncertainty that the average person is finding himself in is not an illusion, but nor is it an accident.

Those who imagine that the Powers That Be exist to help them in their troubles will be the ones who are most dramatically damaged by this manufactured uncertainty, for they will live in the false hope that the very people who created the problem will come to their aid and save them.

Nothing could be further from the truth. Yet, just as those who are abused often turn to their abuser for protection, we shall see a populace that seeks salvation through a government upon which they bestow more power than before, not less.

Editor’s Note: The truth is, we’re on the cusp of a economic crisis that could eclipse anything we’ve seen before. And most people won’t be prepared for what’s coming.

That’s exactly why bestselling author Doug Casey and his team just released a free report with all the details on how to survive an economic collapse. Click here to download the PDF now.

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Doug Casey on the End of Western Civilization…….

Posted by M. C. on November 6, 2020

We’re told to protect them, as if they were a valuable and endangered species. I say, “A pox upon stakeholders.” If they want a vote in what a company does, then they ought to become shareholders. Stakeholders are a class of being created out of nothing by Cultural Marxists for the purpose of shaking down shareholders.

https://internationalman.com/articles/doug-casey-on-the-end-of-western-civilization/

by Doug Casey

International Man: The decline of Western Civilization is on a lot of people’s minds.

Let’s talk about this trend.

Doug Casey: Western Civilization has its origins in ancient Greece. It’s unique among the world’s civilizations in putting the individual—as opposed to the collective—in a central position. It enshrined logic and rational thought—as opposed to mysticism and superstition—as the way to deal with the world. It’s because of this that we have science, technology, great literature and art, capitalism, personal freedom, the concept of progress, and much, much more. In fact, almost everything worth having in the material world is due to Western Civilization.

Ayn Rand once said “East minus West equals zero.” I think she went a bit too far, as a rhetorical device, but she was essentially right. When you look at what the world’s other civilizations have brought to the party, at least over the last 2,500 years, it’s trivial.

I lived in the Orient for years. There are many things I love about it—martial arts, yoga, and the cuisine among them. But all the progress they’ve made is due to adopting the fruits of the West.

International Man: There are so many things degrading Western Civilization. Where do we begin?

Doug Casey: It’s been said, correctly, that a civilization always collapses from within. World War 1, in 1914, signaled the start of the long collapse of Western Civilization. Of course, termites were already eating away at the foundations, with the writings of people like Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Karl Marx. It’s been on an accelerating downward path ever since, even though technology and science have been improving at a quantum pace. They are, however, like delayed action flywheels, operating on stored energy and accumulated capital. Without capital, intellectual freedom, and entrepreneurialism, science and technology will slow down. I’m optimistic we’ll make it to Kurzweil’s Singularity, but there are no guarantees.

Things also changed with the creation of the Federal Reserve in 1913. Before that, the US used gold coinage for money. “The dollar” was just a name for 1/20th of an ounce of gold. That is what the dollar was. Paper dollars were just receipts for gold on deposit in the Treasury. The income tax, enacted the same year, threw more sand in the gears of civilization. The world was much freer before the events of 1913 and 1914, which acted to put the State at the center of everything.

The Fed and the income tax are both disastrous and unnecessary things, enemies of the common man in every way. Unfortunately, people have come to believe they’re fixtures in the cosmic firmament. They’re the main reasons—there are many other reasons, though, unfortunately—why the average American’s standard of living has been dropping since the early 1970s. In fact, were it not for these things, and the immense amount of capital destroyed during the numerous wars of the last 100 years, I expect we’d have already colonized the moon and Mars. Among many other things…

But I want to re-emphasize that the science, the technology, and all the wonderful toys we have are not the essence of Western Civilization. They’re consequences of individualism, capitalism, rational thought, and personal freedom. It’s critical not to confuse cause and effect.

International Man: You mentioned that the average American’s standard of living has dropped since the early 1970s. This is directly related to the US government abandoning the dollar’s last link to gold in 1971. Since then, the Federal Reserve has been able to debase the US dollar without limit.

I think the dollar’s transformation into a purely fiat currency has eroded the rule of law and morality in the US. It’s similar to what happened in the Roman Empire after it started debasing its currency.

What do you think, Doug?

Doug Casey: All the world’s governments and central banks share a common philosophy, which drives these policies. They believe that you create economic activity by stimulating demand, and you stimulate demand by printing money. And, of course, it’s true, in a way. Roughly the same way a counterfeiter can stimulate a local economy.

Unfortunately, they ignore that, and completely ignore that the way a person or a society becomes wealthy is by producing more than they consume and saving the difference. That difference, savings, is how you create capital. Without capital you’re reduced to subsistence, scratching at the earth with a stick. These people think that by inflating—which is to say destroying—the currency, they can create prosperity. But what they’re really doing, is destroying capital: When you destroy the value of the currency, that discourages people from saving it. And when people don’t save, they can’t build capital, and the vicious cycle goes on.

This is destructive for civilization itself, in both the long term and the short term. The more paper money, the more credit, they create, the more society focuses on finance, as opposed to production. It’s why there are many times more people studying finance than science. The focus is increasingly on speculation, not production. Financial engineering, not mechanical, electrical, or chemical engineering. And lots of laws and regulations to keep the unstable structure from collapsing.

What keeps a truly civil society together isn’t laws, regulations, and police. It’s peer pressure, social opprobrium, moral approbation, and your reputation. These are the four elements that keep things together. Western Civilization is built on voluntarism. But, as the State grows, that’s being replaced by coercion in every aspect of society. There are regulations on the most obscure areas of life. As Harvey Silverglate pointed out in his book, the average American commits three felonies a day. Whether he’s caught and prosecuted is a subject of luck and the arbitrary will of some functionary. That’s antithetical to the core values of Western Civilization.

International Man: Speaking of ancient civilizations like Rome, interest rates are about the lowest they’ve been in 5,000 years of recorded history. Trillions of dollars’ worth of government bonds trade at negative yields.

Of course, this couldn’t happen in a free market. It’s only possible because of central bank manipulation.

How will artificially low interest rates affect the collapse of Western Civilization?

Doug Casey: It’s really, really serious. I previously thought it was metaphysically impossible to have negative interest rates but, in the Bizarro World central banks have created, it’s happened.

Negative interest rates discourage saving. Once again, saving is what builds capital. Without capital you wind up as an empty shell—Rome in 450 A.D., or Detroit today—lots of wonderful but empty buildings and no economic activity. Worse, it forces people to desperately put their money in all manner of idiotic speculations in an effort to stay ahead of inflation. They wind up chasing the bubbles the funny money creates.

Let me re-emphasize something: in order for science and technology to advance you need capital. Where does capital come from? It comes from people producing more than they consume and saving the difference. Debt, on the other hand, means you’re living above your means. You’re either consuming the capital others have saved, or you’re mortgaging your future.

Zero and negative interest rate policies, and the creation of money out of nowhere, are actually destructive of civilization itself. It makes the average guy feel that he’s not in control of his own destiny. He starts believing that the State, or luck, or Allah will provide for him. That attitude is typical of people from backward parts of the world—not Western Civilization.

International Man: What does it say about the economy and society that people work so hard to interpret what officials from the Federal Reserve and other central banks say?

Doug Casey: It’s a shameful waste of time. They remind me of primitives seeking the counsel of witch doctors. One hundred years ago, the richest people in the country—the Rockefellers, the Carnegies, and such—made their money creating industries that actually made stuff. Now, the richest people in the country just shuffle money around. They get rich because they’re close to the government and the hydrant of currency materialized by the Federal Reserve. I’d say it’s a sign that society in the US has become quite degraded.

The world revolves much less around actual production, but around guessing the direction of financial markets. Negative interest rates are creating bubbles, and will eventually result in an economic collapse.

International Man: Negative interest rates are essentially a tax on savings. A lot of people would rather pull their money out of the bank and stuff it under a mattress than suffer that sting.

The economic central planners know this. It’s why they’re using negative interest rates to ramp up the War on Cash—the push to eliminate paper currency and create a cashless society.

The banking system is very fragile. Banks don’t hold much paper cash. It’s mostly digital bytes on a computer. If people start withdrawing paper money en masse, it won’t take much to bring the whole system down.

Their solution is to make accessing cash harder, and in some cases, illegal. That’s why the economic witch doctors at Harvard are pounding the table to get rid of the $100 bill.

Take France, for example. It’s now illegal to make cash transactions over €1,000 without documenting them properly.

Negative interest rates have turbocharged the War on Cash. If the central planners win this war, it would be the final deathblow to financial privacy.

How does this all relate to the collapse of Western Civilization?

Doug Casey: I believe the next step in their idiotic plan is to abolish cash. Decades ago they got rid of gold coinage, which used to circulate day to day in people’s pockets. Then they got rid of silver coinage. Now, they’re planning to get rid of cash altogether. So you won’t even have euros or dollars or pounds in your wallet anymore, or if you do, it will only be very small denominations. Everything else is going to have to be done through electronic payment processing.

This is a huge disaster for the average person: absolutely everything that you buy or sell, other than perhaps a candy bar or a hamburger, is going to have to go through the banking system. Thus, the government will be able to monitor every transaction and payment. Financial privacy, even what’s left of it today, will literally cease to exist.

Privacy is one of the big differences between a civilized society and a primitive society. In a primitive society, in your little dirt hut village, anybody can look through your window or pull back the flap on your tent. You have no privacy. Everybody can hear everything; see anything. This was one of the marvelous things about Western Civilization—privacy was valued, and respected. But that concept, like so many others, is on its way out…

International Man: You’ve mentioned before that language and words provide important clues to the collapse of Western Civilization. How so?

Doug Casey: Many of the words you hear, especially on television and other media, are confused, conflated, or completely misused. Many recent changes in the way words are used are corrupting the language. As George Orwell liked to point out, to control language is to control thought. The corruption of language is adding to the corruption of civilization itself. This is not a trivial factor in the degradation of Western Civilization.

Words—their exact meanings, and how they’re used—are critically important. If you don’t mean what you say and say what you mean, then it’s impossible to communicate accurately. Forget about transmitting philosophical concepts.

Take for example shareholders and stakeholders. We all know that a shareholder actually owns a share in a company, but have you noticed that over the last generation shareholders have become less important than stakeholders? Even though stakeholders are just hangers-on, employees, or people who are looking to get in on a shakedown. But everybody slavishly acknowledges, “Yes, we’ve got to look out for the stakeholders.”

Where did that concept come from? It’s a recent creation, but Boobus americanus seems to think it was carved in stone at the country’s founding.

We’re told to protect them, as if they were a valuable and endangered species. I say, “A pox upon stakeholders.” If they want a vote in what a company does, then they ought to become shareholders. Stakeholders are a class of being created out of nothing by Cultural Marxists for the purpose of shaking down shareholders.

Editor’s Note: The economic, political, and social volatility in the days and weeks ahead promises to be extreme. The impact on your savings, retirement funds, and personal freedoms could be unlike anything we’ve ever seen.

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The Wheat-field Principle – Doug Casey’s International Man

Posted by M. C. on August 27, 2020

The answer is human nature. Once a people have decided to cease to act responsibly, once they’ve decided to pass the decision-making to the government, they slide into a childlike existence in which they cease to bother to look any further into the future than their next governmental handout.

Once a people have become this shortsighted, they’re easily manipulated into forgetting the pain of past errors and are suckers for renewed empty promises.

History shows that countries discard socialism only if it has brought the economy to the bottom and kept it there long enough for a fundamental change in thinking amongst an electorate. If not, the same wheat field that voted conservative in one election will blow the other way four years later – and that will be true in most any country.

https://internationalman.com/articles/the-wheat-field-principle/

by Jeff Thomas

In 1946, Juan Perón was elected president of a prosperous country: Argentina.

He promised great social benefits to the common man, under justicialismo (social justice). This “justice” was never actually defined; it was more implied: If you’re a common man, the Perón government will favour you over the “rich.”

This he demonstrated through forced wage increases and other benefits. Railroads and utilities were nationalised (stolen from their owners by the government). In addition, extensive, but often unnecessary, public works projects were undertaken.

Work ethic and personal achievement took a back seat to being well-connected. Increasingly, success was the result of bribes to government leaders and officials.

The overall result of these actions was that the economy sank and the very businesses that were bled to provide the largesse given to the common man were no longer able to pay the ever-increasing cost of entitlements.

This led, not to an obvious reversal of the socially and economically destructive policies, but to an increased reliance on the military and a growing police state. Constitutional liberties were removed and any opposition was punished.

Although the “man of the people” campaign promises from Mister Perón had been welcomed in 1946, by 1955, it became apparent that they had led to inflation, increased poverty, corruption and political oppression.

Amid broad public discontent, Mister Perón was ousted from office. The subsequent government advised the electorate that, for the economy to recover, they must accept a loss of entitlements. Such was the payback to recover from the mistakes of socialism.

Perón went into exile, but amazingly, he was returned to office by the electorate in 1973 (and died in office the following year).

Since that time, Argentina has gone through cycles that have each begun with a new “saviour” candidate promising greater largesse from the government, winning the election, then instituting a revised Peronist model. In every case, it would end in inflation, increased poverty, corruption and political oppression two or three terms later.

Following the inevitable economic decline, a more conservative administration would be voted in. There would be a brief period of correction – fiscally sound governmental polices. Under such administrations, entitlements would be diminished and Argentina would begin to return to a sound economic footing.

But these periods of responsible governance would rarely last more than one term. Before the transition to full prosperity could be completed, the next election would result in a return to the Peronist model.

If the above description sounds repetitive, it is. The cycles have repeated for 73 years, with the odd interruption of military rule.

The result has been that Argentina, a once-highly productive country, has become a banana republic and has remained that way. There are significant periods of socialism, interrupted with brief corrections – attempts to refloat the economy – only to dive once more, headlong, into socialism.

And yet the Argentine people are, for the most part, educated and industrious. Why on earth does this conundrum continue after so many blatant failures?

The answer is human nature. Once a people have decided to cease to act responsibly, once they’ve decided to pass the decision-making to the government, they slide into a childlike existence in which they cease to bother to look any further into the future than their next governmental handout. Read the rest of this entry »

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The Twilight Zone – A Long Overdue Economic Crisis

Posted by M. C. on August 11, 2020

https://internationalman.com/articles/the-twilight-zone/

by Jeff Thomas

“Imagine if you will, a situation in which the economy of a nation is overdue to experience an economic collapse of epic proportions, but remains endlessly at the brink. Every day, a collapse is more likely, yet the economic house of cards remains in a state of suspended animation. Some people become increasingly edgy, while others become more complacent. Only a few choose to actually prepare for what’s coming.

“An impossible situation? Yes. But we’d be well-advised to recognise that it couldn’t only occur… in the Twilight Zone.”

For those old enough to remember The Twilight Zone, the quirky “what if” American television programme, this episode introduction by host Rod Serling would seem to fit right into the show’s format.

The programme ran from 1959 to 1964, presenting somewhat unreal twists on the normal world we live in. Each episode would examine how people would deal with the episode’s situation and generally end with a moral lesson from Mister Serling as to the nature of mankind.

Strangely, the above episode, as unlikely as it might have seemed a mere decade ago, is playing out in real life.

Stocks are climbing in price, whilst dividends are in decline or, for some of the fastest-growing companies, non-existent. Bonds are a worse bet, yet a bond bubble of epic proportion exists. The world’s governments are dumping US debt, yet the Fed is buying billions of dollars of debt each month.

Indeed, debt is now growing at least twice as fast as the economy that must pay for it.

Quantitative Easing was invented to bail out banks in 2008, but continues to this day, long after the problem was claimed to have ended.

Benefits from Welfare and Social Security programmes are at an all-time high, yet they’re underfunded to the point of certain collapse in the near future, independent of the other impending economic calamities.

Meanwhile, multiple unnecessary wars are being waged at a staggering cost to a nation that’s already insolvent, yet additional countries are being threatened with possible warfare if they don’t “behave.”

We’re in the extraordinary situation of being in the longest boom period in history, yet there’s no real boom, only the illusion of one.

At such a time, it would be predictable that those who have become worried would flood toward precious metals, as they have done for thousands of years, whenever the economic situation became untenable. Yet only a tiny portion of the world’s population are doing so.

Never in history have the major economies of the world been in an economic bubble that includes virtually everything. And yet, incredibly, this situation has existed for over a decade. Technically, we’ve been in a depression since 2007 and yet the bubble that should have burst back then simply keeps growing.

So, does this mean that the age of crashes is over, that the bubble can expand forever without bursting?

Well, no. The bubble will most certainly burst, and the more inflates, the worse the eventual debacle will be.

We’re therefore in a state of suspended animation, waiting for the shoe to drop.

Some of the best economic minds began to warn about the coming crash as its causes began to take shape decades ago. And almost to a man, they predicted that it would have taken place already, at least five years ago.

But how might they have estimated a possible date for such an event? Economic crashes are notoriously difficult to pin down as to timing.

Well, all of them (and here I must include myself) made the assumption that conditions would have become so economically unsupportable by now that surely a collapse would have been a virtual certainty.

And in this we were conceptually correct. Where we were mistaken was that all logic supported the assumption that, once conditions had reached that point, money would begin to exit the system, ensuring a crash.

Historically, this is always what happens. When a crash is near, the smart money makes an exit. Yet, this time around, whenever money has left the system, it has been replaced by dramatically increased debt, obscuring the fact that the smart money has begun its exit.

Therefore, we’ve continued to appear as though we remain in a boom – the longest boom in history. Unfortunately, the vast majority of people are unable to recognize the plethora of signs that are indicating that the economy has been hollowed out.

In addition, stats like inflation and unemployment have been fudged ever since the Clinton administration, to mislead the population into believing that they’ve not risen to depression levels.

The icing on the cake has been that the media – 80% of which are owned by the same six Deep State corporations – deliver a daily message that the economy is on the rise and the public should “buy, buy, buy!”

Not surprisingly, those who provided an early warning to the coming economic crisis are regularly told, “You’ve been crying, ‘Wolf!’ for years. The crash hasn’t happened. You were wrong.”

And this criticism is not unearned. There’s no question that the timing has been prolonged beyond all expectations. However, the fundamentals remain the same and, today, are far more pronounced than they were in 2007.

Back then, we expected a small crash, which did occur, followed by the “eye of the hurricane,” a quiet period of three to five years when a false recovery would take place.

That “eye” proved to be artificially expanded by the Deep State’s diverse players, to the ultimate detriment of virtually all people.

The second, major crash – predicted prior to 2007 to occur several years after the 2007 minor crash – is not only still looming; it’s more certain than ever before. The fundamentals remain the same and will reach their logical conclusion.

To be sure, this has led those economists who have been tracking the pending economic debacle for decades, to have the sensation of suspended animation for several years.

Not surprising then, that the present state of affairs seems like an episode of The Twilight Zone, with the unfortunate twist that this is not a television show; it’s an artificially delayed reality.

Editor’s Note: We’re on the cusp of a economic crisis that could eclipse anything we’ve seen before. And most people won’t be prepared for what’s coming.

That’s exactly why bestselling author Doug Casey and his team just released a free report with all the details on how to survive an economic collapse. Click here to download the PDF now.

 

Be seeing you

 

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The Big Skedaddle – Doug Casey’s International Man

Posted by M. C. on July 28, 2020

One hundred years later, however, the empire phase of the US has played out as empires always have historically.

The US is invading overseas countries at a cost that’s beyond its ability to pay for the maintenance of those conquered territories. Like Rome of old, the continued conquest has created an unpayable level of debt that even dramatically increasing taxation cannot cover.

And like Rome, ever-increasing entitlements are being offered in order to appease the increasingly taxed populace.

https://internationalman.com/articles/the-big-skedaddle/

by Jeff Thomas

In the early twentieth century, there was an exodus out of Europe.

George, my paternal grandfather, looked around England, where the family had been since the eleventh century, and decided that a national fdecline had begun.

Although England was still very much an empire, it had fallen into the decline that ancient Rome had experienced before it. Where it had once expanded its possessions and profited from them, it was now spending millions of pounds maintaining them. The less profitable colonies were becoming a liability and the more profitable ones were breaking away.

In addition, the British class structure was beginning to break down. The ruling class were becoming lazy and unproductive and, increasingly, were bleeding the lower classes in order to continually expand their own idle privilege.

Worse, Britain had fallen into a seemingly never-ending series of wars. Wars have always impoverished countries, creating the necessity of increased taxation. And in the early twentieth century, all of Europe was spoiling for a war that was to become the “Great War.”

Historically, these conditions always have led to decline in a nation or empire, leaving the new generation of adults with a worse future than their antecedents had had.

Greater Opportunity Elsewhere

And so, after careful consideration, George came to the conclusion that, as a young, educated gentleman of twenty-four, he would take his new wife off to the “New World.”

His purpose was to leave the decaying empire to pursue greater opportunity elsewhere.

Meanwhile, my maternal grandfather, Michael, had also joined the Big Skedaddle. His family were from the UK, although he was then living in Russia.

But Russia was also displaying the telltale signs of the fall of Rome.

Under the czar (the Russian translation of the Roman title “caesar”), the ruling class were becoming lazy and unproductive and, increasingly, were bleeding the lower classes in order to continually expand their own idle privilege.

Worse, Russia had pursued wars with the Turks, the Chinese and the Japanese. It had all become too much for the average Russian peasant to tolerate, and in 1917, revolution had broken out.

Although the majority of Russians had great hope for positive change after the revolution, it soon became obvious that the new communist government was far more repressive than the czar had been. Along with the pre-existing poverty came an unprecedented loss of basic freedoms.

Greater Freedom Elsewhere

And so, after careful consideration, Michael came to the conclusion that he should take himself off to the “New World.”

His purpose was to leave the decaying empire to pursue greater freedom elsewhere.

Both of the men above were part of a major exodus from Europe – the Big Skedaddle – people travelling on steam ships, understanding that they were unlikely ever to return. One sought opportunity; the other sought freedom. Each found what he was seeking in the “New World.”

And at this point in the two tales, we perceive a happy ending. They each found a home in a former British colony where there was greater opportunity and freedom.

But, in fact, it’s not an ending at all. In all such tales, life is ongoing. Further generations are born, and in time, the same countries that had been so attractive eventually deteriorate, and always for the very same reasons.

The rise of empires is inevitable. Always, there will be one country whose people are more productive than another’s and that country will prosper and expand. But at some point, its leaders may see the opportunity to turn it into an empire, to expand not only the prosperity, but their own power.

And inevitably, continued conquest and its costs, coupled with increased taxation and oppression of the home population, followed eventually by unpayable debt, send each empire into decline.

Case in point: In the early twentieth century, the US was the prime destination for those exiting the declining empires of Europe. It was rich in resources, was undeveloped, had minimal governmental regulation and, importantly, had virtually no welfare state. All citizens understood that their prosperity was directly linked to their own work ethic.

It began as a nation of productive people. And in 1900, it was at a peak of prosperity that attracted millions to its shores and had just begun its gambit into empire.

One hundred years later, however, the empire phase of the US has played out as empires always have historically.

The US is invading overseas countries at a cost that’s beyond its ability to pay for the maintenance of those conquered territories. Like Rome of old, the continued conquest has created an unpayable level of debt that even dramatically increasing taxation cannot cover.

And like Rome, ever-increasing entitlements are being offered in order to appease the increasingly taxed populace.

Of course, as in all empires, the decline takes time to unfold. Although an exodus has begun, those exiting have, for the most part, done so quietly. And this fact has been further obscured by the attention given to the flood of immigrants into the US.

Unfortunately, the immigrants are not like the immigrants of a century ago. Around 1900, we saw those like George seeking the opportunity to create prosperity for themselves. And we saw those like Michael, seeking freedom and self-determination.

But the present flood of US immigrants are parasitical, seeking government handouts, whilst those exiting the US are primarily those who have been productive and now have something to lose by remaining.

The next wave out of the US – those who create the real exodus – will be the Georges and Michaels, those who have created wealth and seek the freedom to retain it.

This present, smaller wave is the more important one, as they’re quietly leaving, taking their wealth with them. To American eyes, they’re invisible, but to those of us outside the US, they’re becoming more visible every day, as we see their arrivals increasing in number.

The outside world welcomes them, as they’re investing in the recipient countries, creating opportunity.

The Big Skedaddle from the US Empire is therefore only in its initial stage. The very visible stage, similar to the image above, is yet to come, but very much on the horizon.

Editor’s Note: The truth is, we’re on the cusp of a economic crisis that could eclipse anything we’ve seen before. And most people won’t be prepared for what’s coming. That’s exactly why bestselling author Doug Casey and his team just released a free report with all the details on how to survive an economic collapse. Click here to download the PDF now.

Be seeing you

 

 

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The Economic “Reopening” Is A Fake Out

Posted by M. C. on May 25, 2020

Do not be fooled by the reopening. It is not real because it is not meant to last. It is a steam valve to calm public outrage and to condition us to periodic tyranny. The elites believe that we will eventually acclimate to lockdowns as long as we have a reopening to look forward to a couple months down the road. They believe that our tendency to rebel will be suppressed by false hopes that the next reopening will be a permanent reopening.

http://www.alt-market.com/index.php/articles/4229-the-economic-reopening-is-a-fake-out

Brandon Smith

How does one define an economic “reopening”? I think most people would say that a reopening means that everything goes back to the way it was before the crisis; or at least as close as possible.  Most people would also say that a reopening is something that will last.  Simply declaring “America has reopened” while keeping many restrictions in place in certain parts of the country is a bit of a farce.  And, reopening with the intention of implementing lockdowns again in a matter of weeks without explaining the situation to the public is a scam of the highest order.

For example, states like New York, California, Illinois and New Jersey have extended their lockdowns; with LA’s extension remaining ambiguous after they initially declared restrictions for another 3 months. New York’s lockdown is extended to the end of May (so far). This is the case in many US states and cities, while rural areas are mostly open. This is being called a “partial reopening”, but is there a purpose behind the uneven approach?

As I predicted in my article ‘Pandemic And Economic Collapse: The Next 60 Days’, the restrictions will continue in major US population centers while rural areas have mostly opened with much fanfare. The end result of this will be a flood of city dwellers into rural towns looking for relief from more strict lockdown conditions. In about a month, we should expect new viral clusters in places where there was limited transmission. I suggest that before the 4th of July holiday, state governments and the Federal government will be talking about new lockdowns, using the predictable infection spike as an excuse.

This is happening in Northeast China right now – another resurgence has occurred and 100 million people are now subject to quarantine restrictions. China’s reopening is barely two weeks old, and concerns of infection “flare ups” were widespread when the announcement was made. Now the mainstream media seems to be confused; is China open, or locked down? Of course, we may never know how bad the problem is and was in China as their numbers have been shown to be utterly rigged and suppressed from the beginning, but the point is that the phrase “reopening” is meaningless there, just as it will be meaningless here in the US.

This is part of the plan. The farce of reopenings does indeed have a purpose. I discuss this in great detail in my article ‘Waves Of Mutilation: Medical Tyranny And The Cashless Society’ published in April. The globalists are clearly the only beneficiaries of this event; with a world-wide surveillance state now openly on the table along with an accelerated shift into digital currency systems, the globalists are either taking advantage of this crisis to push their agenda, or they ENGINEERED the virus and caused the crisis to push their agenda.

In white papers published by globalists at the Imperial College of London as well as MIT, the plan is openly admitted. They suggest using “waves” of economic openings and then lockdowns to control the spread of the virus. Read the rest of this entry »

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The Costs Are Mounting in this Government-Imposed Economic Collapse | Mises Wire

Posted by M. C. on March 24, 2020

In such circumstances, they demand “solutions” that only can make things worse, and there is no better way to make the masses vulnerable to disease than to impoverish them.

…that the default position is to assume the worst-case scenario and act accordingly.

The official’s decision was entirely logical given the incentives he faced. If anyone in Monterey were to die of COVID-19, he and other officials would be blamed. However, if the economy were to tank as a result of governmental actions, he would not be blamed. For that matter, officials and the media would blame capitalism, an explanation that almost certainly would sell with most of the population.

Politicians are rationally risk averse, and when they shift the costs of their decisions upon the people they ostensibly wish to protect, they are not acting out of character, either of themselves or of the political system. That they wreck the livelihoods of millions of people in the process is of no concern to them and their adoring media. Instead, blame the capitalists.

https://mises.org/wire/costs-are-mounting-government-imposed-economic-collapse?utm_source=Mises+Institute+Subscriptions&utm_campaign=934aaa93c0-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_9_21_2018_9_59_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_8b52b2e1c0-934aaa93c0-228343965

Many of us have experienced the empty grocery shelves, the mad run on toilet paper (Calling Mr. Bidet?), and the ubiquitous face of Anthony Fauci of the National Institutes for Health on television broadcasts. Federal and local authorities are stretching their constitutional limits well beyond anything our ancestors would have recognized in their attempts to keep people away from each other and prevent social contact. (I am currently in Sacramento, California, which just has enacted a de facto version of local martial law.)

Almost everyone affected by this cascade of government orders—which pretty much means all of us—has an opinion ranging from that this is not a serious health threat (compared even to the common flu) to the possible need for martial law (from California governor Gavin Newsome). Military terms such as “shelter in place” now are part of ordinary language as governments at every level issue orders, with governors competing to see how they can be perceived as being “in charge” as they bark out increasingly draconian commands, threatening deadly force if necessary.

The New York Times, perhaps not surprisingly, has declared that “The sky is falling” and calls for near-total government takeover of everything. Likewise, Rod Dreher of the American Conservative demands that government arrest and imprison so-called price gougers. (The irony is that much of what Dreher writes in his TAC column condemns the political atmosphere that former totalitarian communist governments of Eastern Europe and the USSR created. He now is calling for the imposition of “economic crimes” that were absolutely central to governance in those societies.) Sojourners blames Ronald Reagan and Billy Graham for the current crisis, claiming they didn’t love government enough.

What we are seeing is how many people want governments to respond to a situation characterized by uncertainty. In such circumstances, they demand “solutions” that only can make things worse, and there is no better way to make the masses vulnerable to disease than to impoverish them. Furthermore, theNew York Times and the American Conservative‘s one-two punch demanding total subjectivity to the whims of government makes it very difficult for there to be even a smidgen of rational discussion as to what is taking place no matter what one’s ideological stance might be.

There are some things we do know. We know that this is not 1918, contra Fauci, and that COVID-19 is not the Spanish flu, which ravaged the globe for more than a year, killing more than a half million people in the USA alone. In 1918, the world was at war, and even without war, life expectancy in the United States was about fifty-three years (compared to near eighty today). Epidemics from measles, polio, whooping cough, yellow fever, cholera, and even malaria were a way of life for Americans, not to mention those in other parts of the globe that were poorer.

World War I brought malnourishment to Europe and belligerents elsewhere; medical care was vastly inferior to what exists today; military authorities regularly crowded people together on troopships; and political authorities held bond rallies in which the vast crowds help quickly spread disease. Hospitals used the ward system, which meant that sick people were warehoused together, many of them just waiting to die.

According to reports from that era, the Spanish flu claimed its victims quickly, sometimes within hours. Its mortality rate was about 2.5 percent (compared with about 0.1 percent or less with the common flu), and despite Fauci’s false assertion that the mortality rate of COVID-19 is “ten times” that of the regular flu, even those extreme numbers don’t come close to matching 1918.

Yet, that has not stopped politicians from making wild claims, including Elizabeth Warren’s declaration that up to 2.2 million Americans will die from this newest threat and that the worldwide death toll could be more than 10 million. Not surprisingly, Warren calls for a huge and immediate expansion of the welfare state—and for the government to print lots and lots of money—and near-dictatorial economic controls.

As noted earlier, all of this is a response to the uncertainty of just how much this virus will spread and what its actual effect will be on the health of Americans. What we do know (at least at this point), however, does not exactly raise our confidence in American politicians and the media, especially the elite media.

If the New York Times claims that “the sky is falling,” one would like to see some proof. We do know that up to this point—several weeks into this health situation—about 220 people have died (at this writing, although that number likely will rise today). Furthermore, as the link demonstrates, the vast majority of recorded COVID-19 cases in the USA are classified as “mild.” Were the threat from this virus like what was seen in 1918–19, the dead among us would be much greater.

Indeed, we are hearing so many conflicting views. The New York Times proclaims itself to be the “newspaper of record,” yet most of us doubt that the paper will give us anything but the most extreme versions or outright disinformation, and only those versions that will call for the imposition of unlimited government power and for Americans to surrender the few liberties they have left. The NYT, after all, is a “progressive” newspaper, and for more than a century, progressives have been declaring that ours should primarily be a government led by “experts,” not elected officials, as this recent NYT editorial column declares.

Unintended Consequences or Intended Results?

I recently spoke to the economist David Henderson, who lives in Monterey, California, where residents were ordered by local authorities to “shelter in place” even before Governor Newsome locked down the entire state. He told me that one of the local government officials who voted for virtual home confinement justified his actions by stating what we already know about politicians who are making decisions about things with uncertain outcomes: that the default position is to assume the worst-case scenario and act accordingly.

The official’s decision was entirely logical given the incentives he faced. If anyone in Monterey were to die of COVID-19, he and other officials would be blamed. However, if the economy were to tank as a result of governmental actions, he would not be blamed. For that matter, officials and the media would blame capitalism, an explanation that almost certainly would sell with most of the population.

When there is uncertainty, government officials generally will make the safest decision. And who can blame them? I am reminded of the “Baptists and Bootleggers” article that economist Bruce Yandle wrote for Regulation nearly forty years ago. As a young academic economist just coming to work for the Federal Trade Commission, Yandle was full of great ideas on “fixing” damage done by some regulations that seemed to defy common sense. He writes:

Not only does government rarely accomplish its stated goals at lowest cost, but often its regulators seem dedicated to choosing the highest-cost approach they can find. Because of all this, I and others in academia became convinced years ago that a massive program in economic education was needed to save the world from regulation. If we economists could just teach the regulators a little supply and demand, countless billions of dollars would be saved.

Using a term from the Bible, Yandle stated: “The field was white unto the harvest, and I was ready to educate the regulators.” However, he notes, it turned out that the FTC economists understood plenty of things and that the problem was not the ignorance of officials, but rather the structures of costs and incentives. Writes Yandle:

That marked the beginning of a new approach to my research on regulation. First, instead of assuming that regulators really intended to minimize costs but somehow proceeded to make crazy mistakes, I began to assume that they were not trying to minimize costs at all—at least not the costs I had been concerned with. They were trying to minimize their costs, just as most sensible people do.

There are a number of pictures that come to mind in the current situation. One is the picture that people such as Donald Trump and Anthony Fauci would like us to see, which is of experts in charge who are monitoring changes on the ground as they occur and giving orders to fix problems. However, there is another picture out there, one that will not be as well publicized: a herd of politicians careening from one crisis to another, giving conflicting orders and creating chaos and economic ruin.

Reality is much different. It is not that officials are trying to protect Americans from COVID-19 but unintentionally creating an economic train wreck as a consequence of their actions, which is what Heather MacDonald seems to be saying:

the damage to people’s livelihoods through the resulting economic contraction is real and widespread. Its health consequences will be more severe than those of the coronavirus, as Steve Malanga shows in City Journal. The people who can least afford to lose jobs will be the hardest hit by the assault on tourism. Small entrepreneurs, whether in manufacturing or the service sector, will struggle to stay afloat. Such unjustified, unpredicted economic havoc undermines government legitimacy.

No, if they are seen to prevent any deaths from this novel virus (or at least attempting to prevent deaths), then whatever the economic damage that results from imposing a virtual quarantine on working Americans and shutting down their livelihoods will be ignored, since many in the media and elsewhere already have blamed capitalism for the current meltdown. Don’t forget that prominent Democrats already are calling for charging Trump with negligent homicide because, in their opinion, he didn’t act quickly enough against COVID-19. Contrary to popular opinion, a successful economy does not grant government legitimacy; if that were true, then Franklin D. Roosevelt would be as universally derided as Adolph Hitler, given that his New Deal prolonged the Great Depression.

Note that politicians facing uncertain circumstances are going to act very differently than entrepreneurs, who also must act within the bounds of uncertainty. Politicians decide on the basis on what is best for themselves, something the ancients once called self-interest. Entrepreneurs, on the other hand, even when operating in the realm of self-interest, must make decisions they believe will satisfy the needs of their consumers. The entrepreneur does not profit unless consumer choice says so; the politician prospers by ordering resources to be directed in a way that will best enhance the politician’s own public image and gain the most favorable media coverage.

The final irony is that in today’s media-driven world, the entrepreneur is vilified as a greedy capitalist parasite while the politician and government apparatchik are hailed as the savior. More than a decade ago, former Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke engaged in irresponsible monetary behavior that helped trigger a massive financial meltdown and a subsequent recession. Because he turned on the printing presses full blast afterwards, trying to paper over the damage that he had had a major hand in creating, Time magazine put his picture on the cover and called him the man who “saved the world.” It is as though Time were praising an arsonist who burned down his family home—with all his family inside—but who then held the fire hose to help pump water into the building.

MacDonald concludes her article with the following statement:

One might have thought New York governor Andrew Cuomo a voice of reason when, a few days ago, he tried to tamp down the hysteria in a press conference, saying: “This is not Ebola, this is not SARS, this is not some science fiction movie come to life. The hysteria here is way out of line with the actuality and the facts.” And yet since then he called a state of emergency in New York, and he and Mayor Bill de Blasio have all but shut down the New York City economy. They, like most all U.S. politicians nowadays, have shown an overwhelming impulse to be irrationally risk averse.

She is wrong. Politicians are rationally risk averse, and when they shift the costs of their decisions upon the people they ostensibly wish to protect, they are not acting out of character, either of themselves or of the political system. That they wreck the livelihoods of millions of people in the process is of no concern to them and their adoring media. Instead, blame the capitalists.

 

 

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Was the Coronavirus Created as Cover for the Imminent Economic Collapse? – LewRockwell

Posted by M. C. on March 12, 2020

I doubt the US government could pull this off in a controlled manner.

I believe it would try. I believe it would screw the whole thing up.

There is little comment I have seen regarding a weapons lab accidental release. That I can believe.

https://www.lewrockwell.com/2020/03/gary-d-barnett/was-the-coronavirus-created-as-cover-for-the-imminent-economic-collapse/

By

A USA Today headline this morning indicated that the Dow was diving as virus concerns counter hope for fiscal steps.

U.S. stocks teetered on the edge of a bear market Wednesday as worries persisted over economies reeling from the coronavirus outbreak.”

“Concerns have grown that a prolonged outbreak may bring on a recession.”

“Goldman Sachs forecast that the longest ever bull market “will soon end” after 11 years.”

“Both the real economy and the financial economy are exhibiting acute signs of stress, analysts at Goldman Sachs said”.

Panic has certainly settled in, and that was no accident. One thing for sure in my mind is that this crisis was created, and not accidental. Regardless of the severity of this so-called virus, in the end, as has happened on multiple occasions before with MERS, SARS, West Nile, swine Flu and others, it is likely that all the wild predictions will once again prove to be overstated or downright false. But the serious economic fallout will remain. The propaganda is being pushed at every level possible, from governments worldwide, to government “health” organizations, to all mainstream media, and from all those that stand to gain from this, including the pharmaceutical companies.

Many have been talking about the markets and economic risks apparent in this country and around the world for a long time. I began sounding alarms before 2008, and since that time have attempted to make aware the fact that from an economic standpoint, the markets and the economy have become much worse, and more suspect ever since. After all the manipulation, the Quantitative Easing (QE), and the continued debt growth, it seemed apparent that a massive economic failure was likely in the future. Is that damning future about to come to fruition? Do the controlling powers that have created this likely economic disaster understand this, and seek to place blame on this new coronavirus outbreak as the cause of all financial ills to come? Was this new coronavirus (COVID-19) purposely created and released so that central bankers, investment bankers, corporate heads, and government puppets could use it as cover for an imminent economic collapse that has become impossible to contain? This in my opinion is a distinct possibility. Political convenience at this level is rarely accidental.

With any financial collapse in the wake of a pandemic, real or not, control over world populations is much easier to implement. Once martial law or medical martial law is in place due to panic, all of society is crippled in the sense that individual liberty and power is lost, economic freedom is restricted, and societal controls such as quarantine become reality. All monetary policy rules will be non-existent, as scrutiny for these tyrannical measures will be lacking during times of extreme strife. In other words, total control of entire populations becomes possible, and without some sort of mass uprising, there is little that any individual can do in situations like these. As James Corbett so rightly said, this panic will cause the cures to be much worse than the disease. But was that the plan all along?

This virus has become a Trojan horse for total population control, but what is the primary objective of those creating this panic? What end game is sought and why? What other factors are guiding these policies, and who stands to benefit? Was this so-called pandemic meant to be a false flag event in order to cover-up a much larger problem? Answers to these questions are not perfectly clear at this point, but given the severity of the panic and mind control of the public, these questions should be asked.

One thing that is certain in my mind is that this virus is purposely being blown out of proportion. Because of this, extreme population control measures have been put into place around the world There is a reason for this maniacal hysteria, and if it has been manufactured as an agenda, as I believe to be the case, that agenda would have to be sinister. It would also indicate that something very dangerous is lurking just behind the curtain, and exposure is not desired. This should not be ignored.

As I write this, world markets are in turmoil, economies are struggling, travel and movement are being more and more restricted, quarantine is rampant, and has reached the U.S. Globalists are gaining strength, and with all this, the stupidity of humans is now exposed for all to see.

Anyone succumbing to the headlines, and especially the predictions, is likely to go insane. There are projections that up to 70% or more will get this dreaded virus, and many millions will die. Quarantine is becoming universal, and getting worse by the moment, and this virus as it is called, will spread wildly around the world with no possibility that any can escape the risk. As of today even with this much hype, there has been outside of China, only 1,417 deaths reported worldwide due to COVID-19. All this while according to U.S. News, the CDC reported as of February 21, that 26 million Americans have fallen ill with flu-like sickness just this flu season so far, 250,000 have been hospitalized, and at least 14,000 have died. Given this comparison, is it not obvious that government deception is more than evident?

Fear is dictating the behavior of the masses, and this looks to be a planned outcome. Entire populations are allowing themselves to be manipulated. People are accepting quarantine, medical martial law, and all other forms of medical dictates. Many are being harmed by the horrible economic ramifications of this madness, and families are being torn apart.

It is time to fight back, and to find the real cause of this manufactured panic. This panic is desired by those at the top, so what is the real agenda here? Why is this happening, and what is being hidden from view? I believe there is a connection between this faltering economy and this most likely false pandemic. That connection seems clear, and the timing is very suspicious. There is massive deceit and lies are ever present, but the worst is yet to come. As the Federal Reserve pumps $175 billion more today into the banking system, can any not connect the dots? Is the end of our financial system now in sight?

Today the WHO just declared the coronavirus a global pandemic, and all hell is about to break loose. In this environment, natural freedom will become a faded memory.

Be seeing you

 

 

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