Keith Preston interviews Dr. Sean Gabb. Topics include:
Libertarianism and its defining ethos as the right to be left alone;
The question of whether libertarian ideology is culturally specific to Anglo-Saxon civilization or universally applicable across cultural boundaries;
The State as a uniquely oppressice institution;
Dr. Gabb's book, "Cultural Revolution, Culture War," and the nature of the revolution that has transpired in the Western world in recent decades;
The origins of the ideology of political correctness;
The end game of PC as absolute power for the ruling elite;
How a lack of cultural cohesion prevents effective resistance to the all-powerful state;
Strategies for overturning the contemporary ruling class.
Dr. Sean Gabb is the director of the Libertarian Alliance, a British free market and civil liberties think-tank. Sean Gabb joined the Libertarian Alliance in 1979. He graduated in History from the University of York in 1982. In 1998 he gained a PhD in Political and Intellectual History form the University of Middlesex. He became the Director of the Libertarian Alliance in 2006.
How to become an Austrian Investor, with Andy Duncan.
In this age of financial repression, in which governments are increasingly tempted to use regulation to force people to buy government bonds delivering lower rates of return than the rate of inflation, and printing money to buy these bonds via central banks to keep these interest rates low, thereby diminishing your future wealth to benefit the government, it may make sense for people to take control of their own savings investments, to provide for themselves in a potentially difficult financial future.
But I wondered how I could do this and incorporate the principles of Austrian Economics ( which we at RFMWR like to call Reality Economics)?
It can be intimidating to get started. So I thought I would ask Dominic Frisby, of Frisby's 'Bulls and Bears', and a regular broadcaster for GoldMoney foundation, plus a writer for MoneyWeek magazine, to explain how I could become an Austrian-style private investor.
Dominic helped me understand how I could become my own central bank via the purchase of precious metals, how I could set myself up as a home-based equities investor, and how I could research my stock targets, particularly in the hard assets sector, via books, the Internet, and various newsletters.
We cover much else along the way, in this 21-minute podcast.
Michael McKay Comment: This excellent Commentary by Andy Duncan references an article, unreported in the USA, about Richard O'Dwyer, age 23, a British National and Student who faces up to a decade in a U.S. prison for actions which are not even a crime in his home country, the U.K.
You can read an article and vieew a video on this story from the U.K. here. Please Read this article and Andy's excellent commentary. Please share widely.
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Commentary by Andy Duncan:I did imply recently that the best way to keep yourself safe from the U.S. government was to keep at least an ocean between yourself and it.
But as you may have read recently, a man in England, Richard O'Dwyer, is to be dragged by British government satraps to the imperial court in Washington to have judgement retributed onto him by the Emperor's court minions.
Now I'm no believer in copyright, but I do follow all the state's pronouncements on copyright, because they're the ones with the guns.
But this excellent entrepreneur did nothing that even the British government quislings found illegal. What he was doing with his website was perfectly legal in the UK, and he has not been charged by the British police or any British court.
But lo, unbeknownst to him, he had broken an American law.
How dare he do such a thing. How dare he not follow the minutiae of the American legal system. Did he think that living in another country and operating in another country, where his activities were perfectly legal, would protect him? What a fool. The The Emperor's rule is all-transcending, all-knowing and omnipotent.
Strike Him Down!
Obviously, this is all disgusting and David Cameron and the entire British government out to be ashamed of themselves, if not dragged out into Whitehall and stockaded for the public's pleasure (I'll fund the turnips).
That they should not be celebrating this man's entrepreneurship and protecting him against the monster known as Soviet America Empire, is an absolute disgrace.
That these 'extradition' laws were only supposed to be used for 'terrorism' is something the BBC has of course failed to pick up, as they fail to pick up so much. That these 'terrorist' extradition laws are not rescended immediately, and this poor gentlemen released from the hell that is about to engulf him, tells us all we need to know about David Cameron's 'backbone'.
The consevative faction in Parliament ought to be ashamed of itself. Sack Cameron, immediately, you clowns, if you want to preserve anything like a sense of honour and free this innocent victim of copyright terror, who has done absolutely nothing wrong, even under the terms or your horrible British government's own laws.
Sovereign government? You really must be joking, quislings.
Tom Woods steps in for Der SchiffMeister, on the Peter Schiff Radio Show, and interviews Bob Higgs, the splendid author of Crisis and Leviathan.
They walk through various malodorous poppy fields of Krugman-blended distortion, replanting them with seeds of truth instead.
They concentrate particularly on the history of U.S. government economic interventions during the Great Depression and World War II and how the lessons learned from that historical débâcle can be applied today, where a government tried to solve a credit boom correction by extending the necessary bust for over a decade by breaking the natural free market price system:
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In our latest edition of Radio Free Market World Report, I talk to Roman Skaskiw about the global secession movement and particularly how this applies to the United States and the European Union. We examine why the world's wealthiest countries, on a per capita basis, tend to be the smallest states, and why the major exception to this general rule, the United States, managed to avoid the trend.
We discuss whether the United States itself should be saved from secession, why European countries tend to be both socialist and independent, and whether the world will move towards a global government or a global constellation of micro-states.
Along the way we mention the Ukraine, Ron Paul, Texas, Belgium, Scotland, Ireland, and Iowa, and many other points in-between.
Roman is a former officer in the US Army who served two full tours in Iraq and Afghanistan who runs his own libertarian website which you can find below:
Andy Duncan, our Radio Free Market World Report broadcaster from London, England, conducts a very timely and * Urgently Important* interview with Mr. de Roeck, an internationally recognized Economic, Financial and Legal Consultant based in Brussels, Belgium.
Just how close is the Euro and the European Union to the brink of collapse?
What will be the short-run effects of the latest EU summit, and its long-run effects?
Are we seeing, before our eyes, the creation of the Fourth German Reich, under a Greater Deutschmark, or
Is this political and financial mess simply the result of endless government interventions which will later beget further government interventions and more centralization, as Ludwig von Mises long predicted?
What else about what is happening in Europe is vastly under-reported and under-appreciated - especially in America?
Andy and Vincent also turn their razor-like intellects on the following vital topics:
* The banking technocratic takeovers of Italy and Greece,
* The collapse of the Belgian bank, Dexia and it's little understood and significant connection to the Public Sector, and
* The re-emergence of the Belgian government, after it ceased to exist for eighteen months.
In this Scintillating Interview Andy and Vincent talk about the political train wreck known as the European Union and its poster child, the EURO fiat currency.
Whether you live in Europe, North America, or indeed anywhere, you will want to listen to this brief and powerful podcast so you can know how you can preserve your liberty - and your wealth - in spite of these unfolding events. (21 minutes)
Comment from Andy Duncan regarding the above:
"This is my own photo of the hilarious thirty- foot blue plastic statue of the EURO symbol, mentioned in the interview, taken when I strolled through the Willy Brandt plaza, in downtown Frankfurt one morning.
I hope to be there again on the day this ridiculous emblem of socialism is pulled down by good German folk, like one of those statues of Saddam Hussein."
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We used to mock the Japanese for creating a plethora of Zombie Banks at the start of their two lost decades, but it appears that the American and European governments wish to walk down the same path of morbidity into the exact same fiduciary land of the living dead.
Rick Rule talks to Eric King about this situation, its significance, and how he thinks it will play out with the superior American technology of counterfeiting now ‘coming to the rescue’ of the ECB.
Obviously, Eric King brings his guest around to the gold and silver mining industry, but Mr Rule actually gives us some good advice on how to avoid being caught up the market frenzy that will take place, once gold really starts to take off, which you’ll know about when your taxi driver starts trying to take his fares in your gold jewellery:
Continuing the Austrian Internet Vigilante theme, Nigel Farage then details the total loss of democracy in Italy and the similar situation in Greece, as the global kleptocratic elite execute their dictatorial business in these two countries in the full public view, with a virtual complete lack of comment by the government-licensed mainstream media on these former dictatorial homes of Mussolini and the Greek Colonels.
As Mr Farage states, it is amazing that the new Italian prime minister, Three-card Monti, is unelected. But to borrow the hyperbole schtick from the leader of the UK Independence party, it is absolutely flabbergasting that Mr Monti’s entire new cabinet of ministers is also completely unelected.
It would appear that the global kleptocratic elite agree with Professor Hoppe, in thinking that democracy truly is a god that has failed.
For completeness, and to add some dessert to your King World News Saturday feast, next up on the menu is Gerald Celente. This is an interesting interview, but if you heard Mr Celente’s earlier talk this week with Lew Rockwell, much of the same ground is re-covered:
To finish off the cheese course, we head to the KWN weekly metals wrap, but this is perhaps more for the truly hardcore gold bugs out there. I loved it!
This is mainly because they discuss Murray Rothbard and Ludwig von Mises, as well as the usual precious metals news:
Here’s the article mentioned in the interview above. Here’s the link to Mr Schiff’s goldscams.com web site.
[Yes, we do have to paper over Mr Schiff's use of the term 'intrinsic value' when he talks about physical possession of gold, as for each human being alive there is only subjective value, which can change on a second-by-second basis.
(Hint: How much is your 1kg bar of gold worth on your lap on the plane, while you travel in comfortable business class from Riyadh to Paris. In the desert, after the plane crash, how much is it worth when the other big muscular man from economy has ten gallons of water? How much was gold worth to King Midas, when everything else he touched turned to gold, including food and wine? Etc.)
However, as Connecticut's finest is the SchiffMeister, we'll let him off. Plus, given a hard choice today between a thousand pounds worth of bottled spring water, a thousand pounds worth of UK government bonds, or a thousand pounds worth of gold, I'd bite your arm off for the gold every time. Just don't ask me to take it to Riyadh.]
[We also have to 'paper over' my use of the term 'paper over' earlier, when speaking about Mr Schiff. But to avoid iterating that down into an infinite recursive loop, I'll stop there.]
He predicts that we will either head into global hyperinflation (if governments put their printing presses into permanent infinity mode) or hyperdeflation (if governments can bring themselves to hit the off switch at some point).
Sprott is starting to come down on the side of deflation, rather than inflation, but in either case he thinks (and explains why) gold and silver prices will start to rise exponentially.
Eric King interviews Eric Sprott about such matters, for the ‘listeners globally’:
Personally, I think Mr Sprott is giving democratic governments too much benefit of the doubt. I think they’ll simply be unable to resist the printing press button, and will be unable to turn the damn things off.
You can wire up a mouse’s brain such that if it presses a small button, it can stimulate its own neural pleasure centres in the septal nuclei (think ‘The Orgasmitron Machine’ in the Woody Allen movie, Sleeper). Such a mouse will starve to death, even if offered food within a few inches of the button, if going for the food means it has to stop pressing the button.
As mice are much more intelligent than typical government ministers in a democracy, and as printing presses brings governments intoxicating temporary pleasures (as evidenced in a recent Newsnight phrase of some BBC idiot, ‘The Bank of England will support British business with more injections of currency’), then I’m sticking to the hyperinflationary story.
However, as Mr Sprott is a billionaire, and as I am not yet a billionaire, I must listen to his argument. In either case, whether we go into hyperdeflation or hyperinflation, gold and silver save the day, so whether I am right or Mr Sprott is right is merely an interesting academic exercise.
Whatever the case, when it comes to gold and silver, Mr Sprott’s advice is to get some.
Obviously, if you think the Keynesian economists know what they’re doing, know what is causing these problems, and know what the solutions are, and if you think that the democratically-elected government politicians that they advise can be trusted to be honest, wise, and correct, then you can safely ignore him.
UPDATE: On the German bond failure, take a look at this, by Robert Wenzel, about why it failed. Curiouser and curiouser…
“While the math seems to be clear, the desire to believe in the infallibility and omnipotence of the state, which in our secular age has become the new deity, is powerful and may keep those government bonds bid for a while longer. Who knows? But when the ice breaks, this is surely one of the major trading opportunities in this unspeakable financial mess, maybe the short of the century. In this context, the events of last week were meaningful. Reality has finally caught up with German Bunds. The poor price action in Bund futures is indication that German government debt is losing its safe haven status. Fiscal concerns are now engulfing ‘the core’ of Europe. Again, investors desperately hold on to their belief that ‘safe havens’ exist somewhere out there, so they are stupidly piling into Gilts and Treasuries. Soon these will make an excellent short as well.”
You might also want to read these two articles for an interesting ‘conspiratorial’ background to the excellent piece above:
I have been an activist for several years, most recently spending my time at Occupy Los Angeles at LA City Hall. Once more, I ran into the same wall that still divides leftists/socialists/anarcho-communists from libertarians and free market anarchists; that contemporary leftist ideology conflates fascism with capitalism. I will define those terms in the next paragraph. I first must say though, that this situation is particularly saddening to me as I grew up in a house in which the individuals I can comfortably say self-identified as Democrats. I myself voted for Barack Obama because I (wrongly) believed he would end the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and bring the troops home. That being said, I find much to like about the left can and often times relate much better to those individuals. However, my experience over the last few years has brought me to writing this article, since I feel so strongly that this is the last remaining obstacle in leftists’ way to becoming full-fledged libertarian minarchists or anarchocapitalists.
First and foremost, let me give the pure economic definitions for fascism and capitalism. I cannot stress enough how important this section of the article is to an understanding of our current political and socioeconomic situation. Economic fascism, meaning fascism minus the anti-Semitism and militarism, is synonymous with corporatism. Economic fascism is a system in which there are nominal private property rights, but the coercive apparatus of the government or State violates those property rights whenever it sees fit. This is similar to but not the same as socialism, in which government owns the means of production outright. The proper definition of capitalism, also properly synonymous with the term “the unhampered market” and “the voluntary society” as Rothbard describes it on page 74 of Man, Economy, and State with Power & Market, is “a society based purely on voluntary action, entirely unhampered by violence or threats of violence.”
We now have our three definitions. • Socialism: Government owns the means of production, i.e. there is no private property.
• Fascism: Government is the de facto owner of the means of production, since private property does not really exist due to the face that the State may abridge rights of private property whenever it sees fit, and does through its legalized monopoly over aggressive violence.
• Capitalism, i.e. the unhampered market, or anarchocapitalism: Property rights are absolute, no individual or group of individuals has the legal right to perform aggressive violence. It is clear that of the economic systems described above, the one that most certainly does not describe that of the United States is anarchocapitalism; I will now use “anarchocapitalism” in place of “capitalism”, since the philosophy of individual freedom and private property taken to its ultimate logical conclusion is anarchocapitalism. This is no meaningless quibble over semantics. Murray Rothbard once said, “Capitalism is the fullest expression of anarchism, and anarchism is the fullest expression of capitalism.”
What I mean to say is that it is vital that leftists realize that “corporate capitalism” or “corporatism”, “corporate monopoly”, etc., all have nothing to do with and are polar opposites of anarchocapitalism.
Why is that so? A system in which zombie banks are bailed out, the defense contractors make billions off war, and the middle and lower classes are stomped down even further into the dirt- this is capitalism, correct? Here is the crux of the leftists’ misconception of what capitalism really means.
Take the first example of zombie banks and bailouts. In an anarchocapitalist system, a bank would be free to store and lend out whatever type of money its customers wanted to deposit. If the bank lent out money on losing projects, that bank would lose profit, and if it continued on that path, it would go bankrupt. Depositors would be harmed to the extent that the bank could not recover its losses. A bank would also be permitted to print up as much money as it wanted, provided its customers were informed of and agreed to this activity. But would any sane person keep their money at a bank that engaged in this practice? Of course not.
Let us compare and contrast this type of system with the one that is currently in place in the United States. In the US, the government has a legal tender law in place that prohibits individuals from rejecting Federal Reserve Notes in exchange for goods and services. Already we have deviated mightily from the anarchocapitalist system and taken the road to fascism.
Why is this so important to understand? Let us say I had a bank with its own currency, a Steinbaum. The Steinbaum would compete with other currencies and become more or less valuable depending on how people subjectively value it in relation to other currencies. Imagine that a friend’s business went bankrupt and I decided to “bail him out” by printing up 1,000,000,000,000 Steinbaums. Do you think my depositors, knowing I was going to make that decision, would keep their Steinbaums at my bank? Of course not. They would sell their Steinbaums as fast as they could for other currencies, commodities, anything of value. My bank would be insolvent and I would be out of business. Furthermore, it is very doubtful I would be trusted as a banker ever again; in this way the unhampered market “regulates” fraud and mischief.
This is where the legal tender law becomes the crucial issue. Instead of my bank going out of business, the government passes a law that says my Steinbaum has legal tender status, and that if you do not accept them you will be subject to a fine or imprisonment. In this way, my bank, properly bankrupt, can go on its money printing ways since the citizens of my region will be forced to accept them. If an individual does not accept them, the government will enforce its legal tender law through aggressive violence- in order to save the economy, of course. This is the system we have today.
Which economic system does the above most closely resemble? Well it cannot be anarchocapitalism, since anarchocapitalism does not allow for the use of legalized aggressive violence. It has elements of socialism, as they both involve legalized aggressive violence, but the Steinbaum bank is nominally under private ownership. Therefore, this system is not socialist. The correct choice is fascism. Mussolini defined fascism as, “Fascism should more appropriately be called Corporatism because it is a merger of state and corporate power.”
Take another example, that of war. Is the Iraq conflict for example, a perfect example of free-market capitalism at its worst? Let us see. The government confiscates money from the American people through violence and calls it taxation. Violation of property rights #1. The government confiscates money from the American people through inflation of the money supply. Violation #2. Government unilaterally decides it will inflict massive violence and occupation on a group of human beings living in Iraq. Violation #3. You see where this is going- this system is nothing like capitalism, except for the fact that individuals think they have ultimate ownership of their person and property. This is mistaken, however. The omnipotent State may do whatever it wants to the subjects within its territory. This is the essence of fascism.
Herein lies the answer to the confusion. The economic system of the United States is not anarchocapitalism- it is fascism! Fascism leads to unreasonable wealth inequality, wars of aggression, economic instability, and declining living standards. Also, it’s just not a happy system to live under; no longer is the individual the master of his own destiny (as long as he does not infringe upon the property of others) – his life is completely subordinate to the State. Take it from the man who knew a thing or two about fascism, Il Duce himself: “All within the state, nothing outside the state, nothing against the state.”
If leftists and libertarians/anarchocapitalists are ever to unite behind a platform of anti-war, humanism, and personal freedom (which is inseparable from economic freedom), leftists must break free of this misconception and consider the facts that I have laid forth in this short paper. They must break free of the conventional wisdom that capitalism leads to wealth inequality, war, profits before people, etc. This statement is true of fascism, not the unhampered market.
Once the general public, leftists among them, shatter this myth in their own mind, we will be one step closer to a humane, just, prosperous, and peaceful society. An anarchocapitalist society will not be Utopia; but it is the most compassionate and moral system human beings can ever hope to have.
In a recent article in the American Spectator Samuel Gregg writes about Sweden and America. His main point and conclusion is that even if Sweden is not perfect it is moving towards a free market and that America is moving towards Socialism. He also points out several "free market reforms" in Sweden during the last decade.
I am sorry to say that Mr. Gregg is simply wrong. I am not surprised that Mr. Gregg has drawn this conclusion because the misconceptions about Sweden are well spread over the world and we meet it everywhere.
Recently I spoke at the Mises supporters summit in Vienna about the Swedish Mises Institute and common misconceptions about Sweden on exactly this theme. But Swedish Mises Institute’s and my conclusions are in some aspects very different from Mr. Greggs.
First of all I must give Mr. Gregg some credit that his analysis of the historical facts and background is correct. I would also like to give Mr. Gregg some more credit for describing Americas way towards Socialism, and if you continue on this path I am afraid that Sweden will stand there and welcome you to the “paradise” of Socialism.
Yes it is true that the income tax has been decreased somewhat but it is the a form of a deduction, and if you ask me it will only be temporarily. To receive a net salary of $3,448/month on your account $2,550/month already has been paid in taxes (In this income bracket you only pay tax on the municipal level, above $4,560/month you pay an additional 20% and over $6,466/month an additional 25% tax to the state.).
Oh wait there is more, if you choose to consume your hard earned money you pay another 25% sales tax on consumer goods. So of the originally $5,998 that the employer has to pay for you to receive a net salary of $3,448 only $2,758 remains after consumption with a sales tax of 25%. This is of course if you didn’t spend your money on some goods where there are special taxes like alcohol, tobacco etc (the gas tax is around 60%).
Total cost to employer
$5, 998
Social security tax (paid by the employer 31,45%)
- $1,434
Your gross salary
= $4,564
Municipal taxes (29,58%)
- $1, 345
Deduction
+ $229
Your net salary
= $3,448
Total amount of taxes
$2,550
The total tax burden has decreased by 3% from 48,9% 2005 to 45,9% 2010. To call this a liberalization is a slap in the face of the people who are slaves under a socialistic regime. To watch them brag about how they reformed Sweden is a mockery of true freedom. We don’t want their candy, we want real freedom.
The next misconception is that Sweden accelerated privatizations of once-state owned businesses. It also permitted private providers to enter the healthcare market, thereby introducing competition into what had been one of the world’s most socialized medical systems. This would be great if it is true but it is simply not the truth at all. The so called Swedish privatizations mostly consist of hiring companies to perform socialized healthcare. So what we have instead is a single-payer and a voucher system. Predictably, the arising problems are blamed on the free market and capitalism. And the solution? The solution is always a call for more state.
The biggest misconception in Mr. Gregg’s article is this:
State education and electricity monopolies were ended by the introduction of private competition.
All education in Sweden is state education. Yes there are private companies but again they have to operate under heavy regulations and rules [and follow the state curriculum]. And again it is a single payer system where they care nothing about the real clients because the payer is again the state. In 2010 Sweden also forbid homeschooling, Hitler Germany also did this 1938. As far as I know Sweden is the only democratic country in the world that has forbidden homeschooling. The ultimate effect of this is that the social services take your children from you if you choose to homeschool. Please read more about it here, here and here. Ask Domenic and his parents how they felt when their child was taken from them by brute force when they tried to escape Sweden and the ban against homeschooling.
What Mr. Gregg also doesn’t mention or what he might not be aware of is the massive amounts of new laws that has been legislated related to surveillance and other laws affecting personal freedom. The state gets even more oppressive every year, it is important to see through the deception when they wave some candy in front of you to make you forget.
We can’t let Socialism get a safe-heaven not even in Sweden and certainly not under a new disguise were it is called liberalization. Oppression is oppression and Socialism is Socialism so let us start by calling things for what they really are. The new “right-wing” government is as socialist to the core as the old, ”left-wing”, one.
In a recent freedom index about economic freedom in the world Sweden was ranked as number 39 (America is back at 10th place and Hong Kong is still holding on to the first place). It is true that our ranking has improved since the seventies and the eighties but our ranking is actually worse than eight years ago. This means that we have gone in the opposite direction with our recent government. Of course you should always be cautious when reading data like this but you would think that these liberalizations would improve our ranking if they were so great. And by the way Mongolia, Montenegro, and Zambia are ahead of us in this index.
From my point of view you can take everything I own, I won’t like it but I will survive. But what is even worse is when you further restrict my freedom, tighten the grip of our children’s mind with socialism and state education and invade my personal integrity even more. So spare me the candy in the so called “reforms”, I want real freedom not your deception so you can travel around the world and brag about your “liberalizations”.
If you care about freedom, please stop spreading these lies and misconceptions. In Sweden we still have the same old enemy and that is Socialism. We need to crush socialism and statism, end the state parasite and cleanse it out of our society before it devours ourselves and our children.
Many of my literary friends describe themselves as fervent leftists. Some even believe all great art is (and must inevitably be) produced by people who are similar to them politically. This absurd idea has bothered me since my several-year-old discovery and devotion to libertarianism. I now see literature in a different light. My new website, romansbookreport.com, and corresponding youtube channel is my argument to my former self who accepted without critical thinking the bias of my professors and friends. I begin with Joseph Conrad's satirical novel "The Secret Agent" which is overtly anti-Marxist and anti-Communism, exposing the hypocrisy and contradiction of those philosophies with all the subtlety and precision of Ludwig von Mises, who engaged these subjects directly.
I will critique literature which supports ideas of individual liberty, and literature which opposes such ideas. I will also review non-fiction books which have been critical to my devotion to liberty and property rights in the tradition of Ludwig von Mises, Murray Rothbard, and Hans-Hermann Hoppe.
As a veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan reflecting on my time in service, I'm not sure why the United States continues to fight the War on Terror.
The horrible terrorist acts on 9/11 were not because of religion as many continue to claim, but the fact that violent occupations lead to violent responses. In 1998 and 2002, Osama bin Laden declared that the U.S. policy of supporting corrupt regimes in the Middle East and killing scores of civilians in Iraq through sanctions was the reason he would attack America.
Americans would not tolerate foreigners creating pain and suffering on our people, so why should we expect others to tolerate American foreign policy that has caused so many problems abroad? Robert Pape, a professor of political science at the University of Chicago,showed that 95 percent of all suicide bombings are not motivated by religion or ethnicity, but to repel a foreign occupation.
American foreign intervention has historically led to numerous negative unintended consequences around the world. In 1953, the CIA overthrew a democratically elected government in Iran and installed a pro-U.S. dictator for the benefit of Western oil countries. By 1979, the people of Iran had enough and overthrew the shah, but another government was installed that repressed the people even more. Christopher Coyne, a professor of economics at George Mason University, found an overwhelming majority of countries in which the United States intervened in the past century haven't even become as "free" as Iran is now.
Iran isn't the only failure of note. The prime minister of "free" Iraq routinely arrests political opponents. Afghanistan, where drug lords (supported by the U.S. government) run the country, is more unsafe than ever, the government itself is incompetent and lacking legitimacy among the people, and the U.S.-backed government has been a major point of contention between longtime nuclear-weapon-armed rivals India and Pakistan. The drone-bombing campaign in Pakistan indiscriminately kills civilians. The U.S. government worked closely with the Muammar Qaddafi regime to rendition terror suspects in Libya among other types of aid, before working with the rebels (many of whom fought and killed Americans in Iraq).
These interventions have been far too costly in blood and treasure; 3,000 Americans died on 9/11, and another 5,500 have died "fighting for freedom" overseas. Thousands of Americans suffer from mental trauma or have become amputees because of these wars without end. More than 100,000 Iraqis and tens of thousands of Afghans have died. There is no way to know how much these wars will cost in the long run, but economist Joseph Stiglitz thinks it will be far beyond $3 trillion.
Ultimately, we have become less free because of the War on Terror. The Patriot Act has allowed the US government to spy on citizens. Americans sacrifice privacy at the airport, despite the Transportation Security Administration is mostly incapable of securing airports or detecting threats. The FBI created a massive network of agents provocateur to justify draconian antiterrorist laws. Veterans are murdered during no-knock SWAT raids absent any evidence of wrongdoing. Food cooperatives are being raided by government agents for the Very Serious Crime of selling raw milk.
The motivations for the War on Terror are nebulous at best. Many say this War on Terror is a war for oil and other natural resources. Others claim the War on Terror is simply to perpetuate the defense industry. Some contend it "spreads democracy" and keeps America safe. Whatever the purpose, the War on Terror has clearly been negative for millions here and abroad, and now is simply time to end it. The freedom Americans believe is being defended by troops overseas is being destroyed at home by their own government.
Drew Hjelm is a senior studying economics and management-information systems at the University of Iowa.
Michael McKay is the Founder and Host of RadioFreeMarket.com and author ofSecrets About Money that Put You at Risk. Mr. McKay has closely watched the Federal Reserve's monetary machinations providing TRILLIONS of dollars to Wall Street Aristocracy and Foreign Banks and discusses what it means as an indicator of economic fragility.
Posted By Drew Hjelm Guest Host at Radio Free Marketon his blog Ad Libertad.
I had the chance to meet Governor Rick Perry at his campaign stop in Iowa City yesterday. It was at the famed Hamburg Inn #2, where many candidates come for meet and greets before elections. The room was packed. The place has seating for about 75 people, and it was a full house. Standing room only. There was media everywhere; one of Wolf Blitzer’s field correspondents had her Situation Room camera right in front of my table.
Around 3:30, Perry arrived and shook hands all the way around the restaurant. While I was waiting for him to come around, met Mrs. Anita Perry and the family. Mrs. Perry asked me what “Mises” was all about on my wristband and proceded to talk about whatever nonprofit was on hers.
About five minutes later, Governor Perry came around and I talked with him briefly about his record. Here’s part of the exchange:
What I asked Governor Perry was “Considering state debt has nearly tripled and spending has increased by two thirds since you were governor, and also that ACORN considered your help their ‘proudest moment,’ what were the differences between him and the current liberal president?” As you can see, he immediately tried to excuse away the numbers.
I found the debt numbers at Politifact from Bill White, who quotes the Texas Bond Review Board. I asked Perry about the raw numbers, which show that in 2000 Texas state debt was $13.7B, and by 2009 that number had grown to over $34B (Mitchell Schnurman found more recent numbers for 2010: $37B.). Bill White at Politifact adjusted for inflation and found the debt merely doubled under Perry.
Perry’s record on spending can be found at Texas Budget Source. In 2000 when Perry took over, Texas spending was $49.7B and the latest numbers the site has available show that spending was $82.1B, a 67% increase. Adjusting for inflation and population growth, the growth in the size of the Texas government during his time as governor is a paltry 36%.
Finally, I found that Perry had good friends in ACORN, a community organization that Republicans love to hate. In 2006, Perry signed into law a bill which benefited low-income homeowners. ACORN called this their “proudest moment.” When Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson opposed funding ACORN in 2007, he attacked her.
This brings me full circle back to my question, what are the differences between him and the current liberal president? The Republicans love to attack President Obama for being a tax and spend liberal, being friends with all sorts of liberal organizations, and so on. Governor Perry’s record shows that he isn’t much different than President Obama, and he didn’t want to comment on this. His campaign website spouts platitudes about a record of cutting spending, which don’t jive with the numbers.
But that’s not all.
Governor Perry was once a Democrat. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but during Al Gore’s 1988 presidential bid, Perry was Al Gore’s Texas state chairman. For him to be so admired as a solid fiscal conservative means that people are completely oblivious to his record.
One other thing to mention is that Perry has a bit of a problem with handing out special favors to corporate interests. Many people are aware of Rick Perry’s executive order mandating that all 11 and 12 year old schoolgirls be given the controversial Gardasil vaccine, but many are unaware that Merck (the corporation manufacturing the drug) gave Perry money during his reelection campaign or that Perry’s former chief of staff went to work as a lobbyist for Merck before Perry issued his order.
I like the idea of private roads, but Perry has made sure to give the idea a bad name. In 2002, Perry promised to build a network of private toll roads called the “Trans-Texas Corridor.” However, he wasn’t too interested in maintaining property rights for Texans, and in a post-Kelo world, we ought to be concerned with this. In 2007, Perry vetoed a bill which would have given protection to property owners in eminent domain disputes.
Governor Perry has also been responsible for handing out huge sums of money to other political donors. Perry created a large taxpayer slush fund in 2005 with which to hand out money to promising political donors. Not only does this sort of corruption sound horrible, but it was destined to never work.
The shaking of hands with Governor Perry went just as expected. He has a record of excessive spending and working with lobbyists against the people of Texas. When confronted with his own record, Rick Perry runs. He’s no different than either George Bush or Barack Obama. In fact, before he arrived our table was discussing how Rick Perry looks just like Josh Brolin in that movie about George W Bush. His record and positions will not be questioned, and he will continue to have the adulation of the huddled masses, and he’ll wave his way into the White House:
Welcome to the first ever 'Radio Free Market World Report'.
In this new series, I will be speaking to various champions of liberty around the world about the development and prospect for liberty in their various countries, particularly from an Austrian viewpoint in the tradition of Murray Rothbard.
I will also interview the authors of recent books about their work, to help promote their ideas.
Tonight, in this first report, I speak to Paul Vahur, an entrepreneur from Estonia, a Baltic Republic which 20 years ago used to be part of the Soviet Empire.
The Estonians freed themselves from the USSR in 1991, along with Latvia and Lithuania.
I thought it would be interesting to examine how liberty has transformed this country in the last two decades, after this glorious day of freedom, and what the situation looks like now, as they enter their seventh year within the fold of the European Union, which they entered in 2004.
Mr Vahur founded the Mises.ee website, and also helps run the Estonian Mises circle.
We discuss the 'Singing Revolution' of 1991, and the current political situation within Estonia, and examine how far the ideas of liberty have entered the spirit of this small independent country.
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Radio Free Market is proud to present and recommend the Excellent Mind and ACID PEN of Mr Andy Duncan, self described British Rothbardian Heretic Providing Random Misesian Blipverts, Podcasts and Commentary whose blog is here.
Here is a Podcast-interview conducted by Andy with Mr Richard Blake, the author of theAelric book series, whose voice you may recognize as being remarkably similar to Mr Sean Gabb, Director of the Libertarian Alliance in London, England who you will find in our Radio Free Market Archives here.
In this interview they compare and contrast the inflation and monetary debasement of the Roman Empire, and its split into the debased-money western half, which ended in 476AD, and the hard-money eastern half, which ended in 1453AD - almost a thousand years later.
As the founders of the American republic were very much educated in the classical tradition, and used these lessons to help inform themselves on why gold and silver should be the only valid monies of the American republic, you will be interested in detailed points brought out in this 25 minute podcast. Interestingly, Andy and Mr Blake use the modern European Union as a parallel to the ancient Roman empire, rather than the empire on the western side of the Atlantic.
This interview with Mr Blake and the essay by Professor Peden provide an excellent education on these lessons from history which will help everyone to understand what is happening in our world today. Highly Recommended.
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Andy Duncan is an independent educational consultant within the global finance industry, who specialises in the teaching of specialised quantitative derivatives skills within the world of Investment Banking.
As well as teaching derivatives skills, Andy also lectures and coaches individuals on how to pass various high-level regulatory financial exams, including programmes such as the CFA (Chartered Financial Analyst) and the CQF (Certificate of Quantitative Finance).
Andy works regularly within the City of London, with occasional trips to New York, Dubai, Kuwait, Sydney, and Singapore.
With a deep love and knowledge of Austrian Economics, Andy also writes regular detailed book reviews for the Ludwig von Mises Institute, based in Auburn Alabama. As such he frequently meets and speaks with many of the leading experts within Austrian Economics, and other related fields, including Professor Guido Hülsmann, Professor David Howden, Professor Philipp Bagus, Professor Kevin Dowd, Professor Gerard Casey, and Professor Hans-Hermann Hoppe.
As well as interviewing such academic figures for 'Radio Free Market World Report', to discuss developments within their work, Andy will also be aiming to speak to the most interesting figures in the global Austrian economics movement, outside of North America, particularly those who are the leaders in their own countries in the fight to retain property, peace, freedom, and prosperity, and the fight to defend the individual from the predations of the state, in an increasingly statist world decivilised by all forms of socialism.
Keith Preston interviews Dr. Sean Gabb. Topics include:
In this age of financial repression, in which governments are increasingly tempted to use regulation to force people to buy government bonds delivering lower rates of return than the rate of inflation, and printing money to buy these bonds via central banks to keep these interest rates low, thereby diminishing your future wealth to benefit the government, it may make sense for people to take control of their own savings investments, to provide for themselves in a potentially difficult financial future.
Michael McKay Comment: This excellent Commentary by Andy Duncan references an article, unreported in the USA, about Richard O'Dwyer, age 23, a British National and Student who faces up to a decade in a U.S. prison for actions which are not even a crime in his home country, the U.K.
Commentary by Andy Duncan:
Tom Woods steps in for Der SchiffMeister, on the 
In our latest edition of Radio Free Market World Report, I talk to Roman Skaskiw about the global secession movement and particularly how this applies to the United States and the European Union. We examine why the world's wealthiest countries, on a per capita basis, tend to be the smallest states, and why the major exception to this general rule, the United States, managed to avoid the trend.
I have been an activist for several years, most recently spending my time at Occupy Los Angeles at LA City Hall. Once more, I ran into the same wall that still divides leftists/socialists/anarcho-communists from libertarians and free market anarchists; that contemporary leftist ideology conflates fascism with capitalism. I will define those terms in the next paragraph. I first must say though, that this situation is particularly saddening to me as I grew up in a house in which the individuals I can comfortably say self-identified as Democrats. I myself voted for Barack Obama because I (wrongly) believed he would end the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and bring the troops home. That being said, I find much to like about the left can and often times relate much better to those individuals. However, my experience over the last few years has brought me to writing this article, since I feel so strongly that this is the last remaining obstacle in leftists’ way to becoming full-fledged libertarian minarchists or anarchocapitalists.
In a recent article in the American Spectator Samuel Gregg writes about Sweden and America. His main point and conclusion is that even if Sweden is not perfect it is moving towards a free market and that America is moving towards Socialism. He also points out several "free market reforms" in Sweden during the last decade.
Many of my literary friends describe themselves as fervent leftists. Some even believe all great art is (and must inevitably be) produced by people who are similar to them politically. This absurd idea has bothered me since my several-year-old discovery and devotion to libertarianism. I now see literature in a different light. My new website, 
As a veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan reflecting on my time in service, I'm not sure why the United States continues to fight the War on Terror.
Michael McKay is the Founder and Host of 
Andy Duncan is an independent educational consultant within the global finance industry, who specialises in the teaching of specialised quantitative derivatives skills within the world of Investment Banking.
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