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Opinion from a Libertarian ViewPoint

Posts Tagged ‘Stimulus Package’

Americans Excitedly Anticipate Getting Paid With Their Own Money

Posted by M. C. on December 22, 2020

Americans from all walks of life said they couldn’t wait to receive a check with a small percentage of the money the government had already taken from them.

A small percentage of the population said they thought it would be way more efficient for the economy if the government just didn’t take the money in the first place. These people were shouted down as “libertarian conspiracy theorist wackos” and told to move to Somalia.

https://babylonbee.com/news/americans-excitedly-anticipate-getting-paid-with-their-own-money?fbclid=IwAR04Mzx4yYFbf7_CXnvSTfJwsf94eR80jJxswHIGjlUnHypdof4tMM_Jl9g

U.S.—Americans have reported they’re very optimistic about the stimulus package passed by Congress last week. In particular, people all around the country are excited to get paid with a little bit of the money that they paid the federal government already.

Americans from all walks of life said they couldn’t wait to receive a check with a small percentage of the money the government had already taken from them.

“I can’t wait to get that $1,200.00 check of my own money,” said one man in Texas, rubbing his hands together. “Surely this will get the economy back on track.”

From the rich to the poor, American citizens spent many hours dreaming of all the things they will spend their newfound riches on. “With $1200, I could save enough to pay my taxes on time this year,” said one woman in Los Angeles. “Thanks so much, Congress. You’re the real heroes here.”

A small percentage of the population said they thought it would be way more efficient for the economy if the government just didn’t take the money in the first place. These people were shouted down as “libertarian conspiracy theorist wackos” and told to move to Somalia.

Sadly, by the time all the administration costs, government pet projects, and handouts were factored in, the stimulus each American was to receive became a negative amount, forcing Congress to raise taxes to pay for a new stimulus bill.

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Doug Casey: “This is Going to be One for the Record Books”

Posted by M. C. on October 15, 2020

This is the part no one gets and you will never hear about on the nightly news.

Rather than let the market adjust itself, government typically starts the process all over again with a new and larger “stimulus package.” The more often this happens, the more ingrained become the distortions in the way people consume and invest, and the nastier the eventual depression.

https://internationalman.com/articles/doug-casey-this-is-going-to-be-one-for-the-record-books/

by Doug Casey

Just because society experiences turmoil doesn’t mean your personal life has to. And a depression doesn’t have to be depressing. Most of the real wealth in the world will still exist—it will just change ownership.

What is a depression?

We’re now at the tail end of a very long, but in many ways a very weak and artificial, economic expansion. At the same time we’ve had one of the strongest securities bull markets in history. Both are the result of trillions of new dollars created over the last decade. Right now very few people are willing to consider the possibility of tough times—let alone The Greater Depression.

But, perverse though it may seem, this is the very best time to think about it. The U.S. economy is a house of cards, built on quicksand, with a tsunami on the way. I urge everyone to read up on the topic. For now, I’ll only briefly touch on the nature of depressions. There are at least three good definitions of the term:

  1. A period of time when most people’s standard of living drops significantly.
  2. A period of time when distortions and misallocations of capital are liquidated.
  3. A period of time when the business cycle climaxes.

Using the first definition, any natural disaster can cause a depression. So can living above your means for long enough. But the worst kind of depression has not just economic effects, but economic causes. That’s where definitions 2 and 3 come in.

What can cause distortions in the way the market operates, causing people to do things they’d otherwise consider unreasonable or uneconomic? Only government action, i.e., coercion. This takes the form of regulation, taxes, and currency inflation.

Always under noble pretexts, government is constantly directly and indirectly inducing people to buy and sell things they otherwise wouldn’t, to do things they’d prefer not to, and to invest in things that make no sense.

These misallocations of capital subtly reduce a society’s general standard of living, but the serious trouble happens when such misallocations build up to an unsustainable degree and reality forces them into liquidation. The result is bankrupted companies, defaulted debt, and unemployed workers.

The business cycle is caused mainly by currency inflation, which is accomplished today by the monetization of government debt through the banking system; essentially, when the government runs a deficit, the Federal Reserve buys its debt, and credits the government’s account at a commercial bank with dollars. Using the printing press to create new money is largely passé in today’s electronic world.

Either way, inflation sends false signals to businessmen (especially those who get the money early on, as it filters through the economy), making them overestimate demand for their products. That causes them to hire more workers and make capital investments—often with borrowed money. This is called “stimulating the economy.”

Inflating the currency can actually drive down interest rates for a while, because the price of money (interest) is lowered by the increased supply of money. This causes people to save less and borrow more, just as Americans have been doing for years. A lot of that newly created money goes into the stock market, driving it higher.

It all looks pretty good, until retail prices start rising as a delayed consequence of the increased money supply, and interest rates skyrocket to reflect the depreciation of the currency.

That’s when businesses start failing. Stocks fall. Bond prices collapse. Large numbers of workers lose employment.

Rather than let the market adjust itself, government typically starts the process all over again with a new and larger “stimulus package.” The more often this happens, the more ingrained become the distortions in the way people consume and invest, and the nastier the eventual depression.

This is why I predict the Greater Depression will be … well … greater. This is going to be one for the record books. Much different, much longer lasting, and much worse than the unpleasantness of 1929-1946.

Editor’s Note: Right now, the US is the most polarized it has been since the Civil War.

If you’re wondering what comes next, then you’re not alone.

The political, economic, and social implications of the 2020 vote will impact all of us.

EXCLUSIVE VIDEO: The Day After—How to Prepare for What’s Coming After the 2020 Election

That’s exactly why bestselling author Doug Casey and his team just released this urgent new video about how to prepare for what comes next. Click here to watch it now.

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The $2 Trillion Stimulus Package Is Funding Your Own Surveillance | The Libertarian Institute

Posted by M. C. on April 4, 2020

“public health data surveillance and analytics infrastructure modernization.”

…it’s reasonable to assume that the allocation has something to do with collecting geolocation data from smartphones – ostensibly to track the spread of coronavirus, and to make sure all of us good boys and girls are practicing social distancing. Indeed, this is happening in numerous other jurisdictions, including Israel, Australia, and at least four European countries.

https://libertarianinstitute.org/articles/the-2-trillion-stimulus-package-is-funding-your-own-surveillance/

by

From corporate bailouts to endowments for art, the $2 trillion stimulus package signed into law last Friday has been roundly criticized as a smash-and-grab robbery perpetrated by the country’s elite.

And rightly so.

However, there is another provision in the 1,000-plus page legislation that should concern Americans just as much as any of its negative fiscal or economic implications: funding for what seems to be a massive surveillance program.

Tucked away in a section labeled “emergency appropriations for coronavirus health response and agency operations” is a $500 million allocation to the CDC for “public health data surveillance and analytics infrastructure modernization.” There are few details, other than a line saying that the CDC will report to the House and Senate appropriations committees on the development of a “public health surveillance and data collection system for coronavirus” within 30 days of the law’s enactment.

This reporter asked for more details from a press officer at the CDC National Center for Health Statistics, but has not received a response.

Based on the numerous reports, it’s reasonable to assume that the allocation has something to do with collecting geolocation data from smartphones – ostensibly to track the spread of coronavirus, and to make sure all of us good boys and girls are practicing social distancing. Indeed, this is happening in numerous other jurisdictions, including Israel, Australia, and at least four European countries.

Another clue that the system will entail geolocation tracking is the exorbitant price tag, which leads one to believe that the program will be highly technical. At $500 million, the surveillance system is five times what the NSA spent over a three-year period on its failed bulk data collection scheme.

If these assumptions are correct – and to be sure, this is only speculation – we could be looking at the beginning of a government tracking system the likes of which we’ve never seen.

Either way, it’s hard to fathom how an agency that has failed so miserably in its response to the global pandemic would be rewarded with a $500 million influx – though even Andrew Yang has come to the realization that public bureaucracies are rewarded for failure.

Yes, it’s true that covid-19 tracking in the US is a mess, largely due to a lack of uniform reporting standards amongst the states. Not all states report the number of negative covid-19 test results, which has prevented researchers from estimating contraction rates. And not all report the number of coronavirus carriers that have had to be hospitalized, which would be helpful to know how dangerous this pandemic is.

But this could be addressed by the CDC mandating uniform reporting requirements among the states – low-hanging fruit that should hardly cost anything, let alone the GDP of a small Caribbean island.

And when it comes to tracking geolocation data, there’s no reason why that can’t be left to the private sector. The startup Tectonix Geo, for example, has already wowed Twitter with its demonstration about how a single Fort Lauderdale beach party can lead to the virus spreading around the country.

Many people said they were creeped out by Tectonix Geo’s demonstration, even though the company claims to be complying with privacy laws like Europe’s GDPR and the California Consumer Privacy Act.

If the thought of a private company tracking smartphones is hair-raising, then whatever the CDC plans on doing with that $500 million should be downright terrifying.

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