“I really do inhabit a system in which words are capable of shaking the entire structure of government, where words can prove mightier than ten military divisions.”
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If you are like me, you are not a monetary economist. I’m familiar with the main positions, I guess, and — if I dug information buried deep in memory — might be able to sound coherent on monetary policy when asked. And if given enough time to collect my thoughts. But you wouldn’t come to me to gain specific advice on specific issues relating to the Federal Reserve and money management at the rarefied level of the central bank.
Perhaps, like me, you’ve accepted or rejected positions based on analogous realms where you know much more.
And sometimes it all depends on The CreepOut-o-Meter.
My CreepOut-o-Meter just hit red.
Britain’s Business Secretary Vince Cable was recently quoted as saying, “If a monetary deal’s going to work, the central bank has to have unlimited powers to intervene to support economies, and indeed banks, to prevent collapse.”
Did he really say, “unlimited powers”?
That’s a long way from Milton Friedman’s reserved talk about a “monetary rule.” One of the biggest of Britain’s bigwigs isn’t talking about tinkering or refining. He’s pushing for an unlimited bailiwick to bail out Europe’s banks, credit, and the euro itself.
So you can see why I tend to promote old-fashioned money, money that wasn’t intimately controlled and bolstered-by-bailouts. Money like gold. Or silver. Or a set of commodities.
With that kind of money, it’s governments that are bound, limited.
It fits better with my idea of a free society.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
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Geoffrey Brennan and Loren Lomasky
Although government for the people by a beneficent elite is a conceptual possibility, it is a highly improbable one. Elites cannot be relied on to pursue individuals’ interests with anything like the consistency and intensity that individuals themselves regularly do: Benevolent despots are considerably more likely to remain despotic than benevolent. (Democracy and Decision: The Pure Theory of Electoral Preference, p. 167)
On Nov. 16, 1938, philosopher Robert Nozick was born. Nozick is best known for his book Anarchy, State, and Utopia, which won the National Book Award in 1975. In that book he argued that a minimal state was just, that the case for a bigger, more intrusive government (like that of the present day) is untenable, and that the minimal state, while seemingly puny by its limitations, is nevertheless morally praiseworthy and conducive to a good society. Nozick taught at Harvard, and wrote several other major works on other philosophical topics before his death in 2002.
One hates to beat a dead horse. Or a living one. But by coming back to media bias in the coverage of the Republican presidential campaign I’m not so much whipping a recalcitrant equine as stabling a kicking, braying ass.
The most recent debate was hosted by CBS and the National Journal, and took place in South Carolina. The demonstrated bias? Ron Paul got only 90 seconds of coverage.
Yup: ninety seconds out of the hour. CBS summarized Rep. Paul’s short contribution by calling him a “serious longshot,” judging the congressman’s minute-and-a-half as “an unqualified success.”
Yes, CBS’s post-debate coverage was mostly spin — over its own criteria. Of Rick Santorum, the network calmly stated that the also-ran “didn’t get as many questions as the more popular candidates in the polls, but when he did get a chance to talk, his remarks sounded thoughtful and measured.”
Yeah. CBS was in control of the questions and time allotments, but its prose coverage neatly states it as reportage, covering up its own very active role.
A more honest account? “Barring a bomb in the Green Room taking out most if not all of the other candidates, Rick Santorum doesn’t have a chance at the nomination. Thankfully, it’s up to us to divvy up coverage. Tough luck, Rick.”
And: “Despite your amazing ten-percent-plus support, Dr. Paul, we don’t want you saying too much. If we allowed it, you might get more popular.”
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
On Nov. 15, 1777, the Continental Congress, meeting in York, Pennsylvania, approved the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union. It wasn’t until March 1, 1781, that the last of the 13 new states, Maryland, ratified the agreement.
“Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.”
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Walesa Released
On Nov. 14, 1982, Lech Walesa, leader of Poland’s outlawed Solidarity movement, was released by authorities after being imprisoned for 11 months. Returning to his home in Gdansk, a large crowd of jubilant supporters lifted Walesa onto their shoulders.
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Samuel Adams
“If ever a time should come, when vain and aspiring men shall possess the highest seats in government, our country will stand in need of its experienced patriots to prevent its ruin.”
“There’s no such thing as too much power.”
That’s the word from Democrat Herb Wesson, former Speaker of the California Assembly. Wesson was defending the Speaker’s awesome control over the purse strings.
In a story headlined, “The power of one: Perez controls Assembly with money,” the Sacramento Bee reports: “Assembly Speaker John A. Pérez single-handedly doles out millions in public funds each year to his 80 members: No vote, no committee, no debate.”
The article was vague on details, because the Speaker refused open records requests from the Bee and the Los Angeles Times. In August, the newspapers filed suit to see the legislative records.
Assemblyman Anthony Portantino charges that Speaker Pérez cut his staff as retribution for voting against this year’s state budget — although the state constitution makes it a crime to coerce a member’s vote. Assemblyman Tony Mendoza admitted that his office budget was slashed by $80,000 when the Speaker demoted him from the Rules Committee, but he wouldn’t discuss it with reporters.
Were a special interest group to similarly bribe legislators, Californians would be up in arms. But a politician? We’ll see how this plays out.
“It’s a very difficult house to run,” argues Mr. Wesson, “and you have to have the leverage that the speaker has.” Steve Maviglio, former spokesperson for two Assembly Speakers, echoes that sentiment, claiming that without a healthy bribery power, the legislative chamber would descend into “absolute chaos.”
Extreme. But some “chaos” must be better than the current all-too-orderly system of corruption.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.