Cartoon: Congress and Wall Street

Cartoon: Lobbyists and Corruption

Cartoon: Big Business-Big Government Collusion

Marc Faber on Inflation

No matter what central bankers and the cheerleading, mostly useless academics who surround them pronounce in their self-created aura of infinite academic “delicacy and refinement”, under the auspices of the Fed they will do precisely one thing: print, print, and print. Sadly, as Mignon McLaughlin observed, “The know-nothings are, unfortunately, seldom the do-nothings.”...

He suggested that, like the king in a fairytale, Mr. Obama should dress up at night like a pauper and go out and talk to business people. According to Marcus, King Obama would then realize how unpopular he is and how destructive his economic policies have been for small businesses. He also suggested that the academics at the Fed and in the administration should, for once in their lives, go out and work, instead of sitting in big glass office towers and having no clue about what is ailing the economy.

Marcus then emphasized that none of the small businessmen he talked to had any plans to hire staff, because they felt there was far too much uncertainty about what kinds of regulations and laws Congress and the administration would come up with next. All his business friends and customers had told him that Obamacare would be a complete disaster for them. (It imposes on small businesses enormous non-medical tax compliance. It will require them to mail IRS 1099 tax forms to every vendor from whom they make purchases of more than US$600 in a year, with duplicate forms going to the IRS. Obamacare will also fund 16,000 new IRS agents…) Asked what he would suggest as a solution, Marcus, who looks much younger than his age and is still very alert, responded that the US would be greatly helped if Congress went on a holiday for two years, as this would prevent the government from doing even more economic damage.

read the entire essay

BP Saga: Tony Hayward Before Congress

Poor Tony Hayward.

The man was devoured by zombies last week.

Now that we’ve figured out how history works, we’re begging to see the forces of history at work all around us – an eternal fight between the zombies and the producers. We’re surrounded by zombies. They are all around us. Tort lawyers. Bureaucrats. Politicians. Welfare slaves. Chiselers. Layabouts. Whiners.

On the way to work, on the Washington beltway, there are so many lobbyists, we have to put up the windows and lock the doors...

Mr. Hayward was confronted by a panel of zombies in Congress. They chained him to a rock so the members of the energy committee could take turns feeding on his internal organs...

But the zombies didn’t really care about getting to the bottom of things. They were going for the jugular. And the right arm. And the liver.

From the reports we’ve read, Mr. Hayward held up pretty well. He played his part. He did not wander from the script. He remained calm as he was dismembered. His voice did not quake or complain as his liver was removed...

What disturbed us was the crowd reaction. There was a time when Americans had a sense of fair play. At least, we’d like to think so. In a fight between a group of zombies and a real producer, their sympathies should be with the oil man. After all, when they drive into the filling station, it’s not the Congressional Record that they pump into their fuel tanks. And when they heat their homes, it’s not tort lawyers whom they look to for fuel. Gasoline is valuable. They know it. And they know that someone has to get it. In fact, so keen is their demand for octane, and so high is the price, that the producers are lured farther and farther away from dry land. No one would drill a mile below the water for oil unless a lot of people wanted it badly. Sooner or later, one of the rigs was bound to spring a big leak.

You’d think the public would have more sympathy for the people who risk their lives and their money bringing oil to market.

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Cartoon: Crony Capitalism

Cartoon: Financial Reform

Other People's Money: Goldman Sachs v Congress

Major Social Legislation

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Cartoon: No Free Lunch

Cartoon: Congress and Lobbyists

Cartoon: Government-Business Collusion

Peter Schiff Campaign Commercial

Cartoon: AIG Bonuses and Campaign Contributions

AIG, the Constitution, and Bonuses

The House has passed a measure imposing a special punitive tax of 90% on certain employee compensation in response to the AIG scandal. As others have noted, this raises serious constitutional issues. Article I, Section 9, Clause 3 says simply and directly: “No Bill of Attainder or ex post facto Law shall be passed.” The congressional bill being considered in response to the AIG bonuses seems to violate both those prohibitions at least in spirit...

Bills of attainder, ex post facto laws, and laws impairing the obligation of contracts, are contrary to the first principles of the social compact, and to every principle of sound legislation.
James Madison

Aside from the dangers to liberty from overzealous members of Congress, there are issues of priorities here. While Congress has been busy with this particular
inquisition, the Federal Reserve is moving ahead with a new plan to shower the economy with a massive $1.2 trillion cash infusion–an amount 7,200 times greater than the $165 million of AIG retention bonuses.

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My thoughts: The national debt just passed $11 trillion, Congress is considering another stimulus package, and the Fed just created $1.2 trillion. There are more important things for Congress to be angry about. Maybe if Congress took the month off, filled out NCAA tournament brackets and watched basketball things would improve. The bonuses were filling a contractual obligation. If Congress had wanted to attach strings to the bailout money, it should have been done before the bailout occurred.

Cartoon: Earmarks and Bonuses

Cartoon: AIG and Congress

Cartoon: Idiots in Washington

Libertarians and the Economy

America was founded on the principles of a free market. What “free-market” meant was that market activity was free from government control. That is, “free market” didn’t mean less government control or regulation of market activity, it meant free of government control or regulation...

Unlike Republicans and Democrats, we recognize that Roosevelt didn’t save free enterprise with his socialism and fascism. He destroyed it. Thus, unlike the Republicans and Democrats, we libertarians don’t find ourselves exclaiming during the current economic crisis, “Oh, my gosh, free enterprise has failed again.” Unlike them, we understand that it’s their socialism and fascism that have failed again and that the only real solution lies in restoring the principles of economic liberty on which our nation was founded, which would include at a minimum the repeal of all welfare-state and regulatory programs and departments and the abolition of the federal income tax and the IRS.

read the essay

My thoughts: Both parties rejected free markets long ago. A few politicians espouse free market rhethoric, but their voting records do not back up their speeches. Ron Paul is the exception to this. Congress is infected with Keynesianism. The Democrats are left-wing Keynesians who emphasize government spending as the solution. The Republicans are right wing Keynesians who emphasize tax cuts as the solution. Neither side is committed to rolling back the welfare-warfare-interventionist state. Neither side is critical of the size and scope of the government. At best they will attack "waste, fraud, and abuse."

See Robert Murphy's essay "Cut Taxes for the Right Reasons" for a critique of right wing Keynesianism and their belief in "stimulus".

Cartoon: Dogbert Calls the Hypocrites