Common Sense with Paul Jacob

Banking and the Business Cycle

Post author By Redactor
Post date July 27, 2016
No Comments on Banking and the Business Cycle

During recent years a number of pseudo-economists have indulged in much glibness about the passing of the ‘economy of scarcity’ and the arrival of the ‘economy of abundance.’ Sophistry of this sort has claimed the public ear far too long; it is high time that the speciousness of such fantastic views be clearly and definitely exposed. Attention needs to be focused on the hard elementary fact that man’s darkest curse has ever been his poverty, and that it yet is and promises to continue so for numberless generations. No economist worthy of the name, moreover, should need to be reminded that in the absence of “scarcity” there would be no system of ‘economy’ and no ‘science of economics.’

C.A. Phillips, T.F. McManus, and R.W. Nelson Banking and the Business Cycle: A Study of the Great Depression in the United States (Laissez Faire Books, 2014), originally published 1937.

Accountability national politics & policies

Bombed into Submission?

Russia, Syria, Air Base, bombing, John Kerry

Was the United States of America recently bombed into submission?

In the Battle of Britain, the Brits survived the German blitz. The North Vietnamese persevered through storms of our B-52s, for years. Bombing alone never seems to conquer an opponent.

But Russian air strikes against U.S. positions in Syria sent Secretary of State John Kerry scurrying to the negotiation table.

In June, but just reported last week, Russian planes bombed a “secret base of operations for elite American and British forces” in Syria. (No Brits were at the base at the time, only Americans.) Putin’s planes also attacked “a site linked to the Central Intelligence Agency.”

“U.S. military and intelligence officials” told the Wall Street Journal that the strikes were “part of a campaign by Moscow to pressure the Obama administration to agree to closer cooperation over the skies in Syria.”

It seems to have worked. Sec. Kerry quickly struck a deal with the Russian Federation – but “over Pentagon and CIA objections.”

Those critics complained that “the White House gave in to Russian bullying,” and also “doubt[ed] that Moscow would abide by the terms of the agreement,” according to the Journal.

“Officials close to Mr. Kerry said he shares the skepticism of military and intelligence officials about Russian intentions, which is why he inserted a clause during negotiations to allow the U.S. to suspend cooperation with the Russians if they started bombing U.S. allies again.”

What a deal! Kerry sure knows how to lead from behind.

Does anybody think our Middle East policy makes sense?

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

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Tags bombing, John Kerry, Putin, Russia, Syria

Today

Atahualpa

On July 26, 1533, Francisco Pizarro’s Spanish conquistadors strangled to death Atahualpa, the 13th and last emperor of the Incas, thereby ending 300 years of Inca civilization. The conquistadors were greedy and murderous, but the Inca civilization, arguably, was worse: totalitarian and radically inegalitarian. But they made great high-mountain roads. (Arguments about infrastructure promoted by Big Government continue to this very day.)

On this day in 1948, U.S. President Harry S. Truman signed Executive Order 9981 desegregating the U.S. military.

Thought

Louis Baudin

The Inca’s way of dealing with his whole empire seems not to have differed from his conduct in setting up his capital. His procedure there too was marked by the elaboration of a rational program, its execution by authoritarian decree, and finally the laying down of regulations designed to prevent any occasion of disturbance and to render the organization definite and permanent. Naturally, this system, so logical in its plan, was bound to encounter obstacles in adapting itself to realities.

Louis Baudin, A Socialist Empire: The Incas of Peru.

Accountability ideological culture insider corruption media and media people national politics & policies

Sorry Not Sorry

Debbie Wasserman Schultz, democrat, democratic party, Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders

Today, the Democratic National Convention begins in Philadelphia.

Yesterday, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee, announced her resignation amidst a growing controversy over the DNC’s favoritism toward Hillary Clinton over Bernie Sanders during this year’s presidential contest.

Months ago, Sen. Sanders called for Wasserman Schultz to step down, noting her closeness to the Clinton campaign and angered by what his campaign perceived as unfair treatment. To which, Wasserman Schultz had smugly responded, “Spoken like someone who has never been a member of the Democratic Party and has no understanding of what we do.”

It seems Sanders had a lot better understanding of what the DNC does than she thought.

Thanks to WikiLeaks, the American people have also gotten in the know. Last Friday, WikiLeaks released 20,000 emails from top DNC officials, reportedly snatched by Russian hackers. In the emails, one can read the DNC’s top financial officer suggesting a smear against Sanders over his religion. “AMEN,” responded the DNC’s CEO.

Yes, indeed, the Democratic Party establishment was rigging the process. “The release provides further evidence,” Michael Sainato wrote in The Observer, that “the DNC broke its own charter . . . by favoring Clinton as the Democratic presidential nominee, long before any votes were cast.”

Caught breaking the rules, Wasserman Schultz is out!

Sorta. She’s out after the convention, not before.

Furthermore, Debbie Wasserman Schultz is still “in.” Mrs. Clinton just offered her a position on the campaign, and said she was “grateful to Debbie for getting the Democratic Party to this year’s historic convention in Philadelphia.”

By hook and by crook.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

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Photo credit: Medill DC on Flickr (Creative Commons)

Tags Bernie Sanders, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Democratic National Committee, Democratic Party, Hillary Clinton

Today

A Fine Point of the War

On July 25, 1861, the U.S. Congress passed the Crittenden-Johnson Resolution, stating that the war with the seceded states of the Confederacy was being fought to preserve the Union, not to end slavery.

Thought

George W. Bush

Thank you for your email. This Internet of yours is a wonderful invention.

(George W. Bush to Al Gore during the 2000 presidential campaign.)

links

Townhall: Trump on the Stump

Post author By Redactor
Post date July 24, 2016
1 Comment on Townhall: Trump on the Stump

From his raised platform at the convention, Donald J. Trump made some things perfectly clear. Unfortunately, it was not what he plans on actually doing as president, even on security, which he pushed to a Lord of the Rings level of dark horror and dire importance. Big on promises, short on specifics. “Trust me.”

Click on over to the Townhall website for this weekend’s foray into long form Common Sense. Come back here for a little more reading:

Washington Post: Donald Trump’s convention speech was the most negative in over 40 years
Vox: Nixon’s RNC speech in 1968 was scary. Trump’s was scarier.
Politico: Full Transcript of Donald Trump’s Acceptance Speech
NPR: Transcript of Donald Trump’s Convention Speech (with comments)
Los Angeles Times: Transcript of Donald Trump’s Convention Speech (with comments)
Wall Street Journal: Donald Trump Announces for President (2015)

Thought

John Fund

Hillary Clinton does share Richard Nixon’s penchant for secrecy and dissembling, an obsession with enemies, and an inability to change course until even more damage is done. The country paid a terrible price electing to its highest office a person with Nixon’s character flaws. If Democrats don’t understand that their self-interest lies in looking at other candidates before their 2016 convention, they face a strong chance that over a long campaign the public will come to agree that Hillary has too many Nixonian qualities to be trusted with high office.

John Fund, National Review, “Do Hillary and Nixon Look Like Soulmates?” (August 21, 2015).