Thursday, June 28, 2012
Hitler’s Economics
For today’s generation, Hitler is the most hated man in history, and his regime the archetype of political evil. This view does not extend to his economic policies, however. Far from it. They are embraced by governments all around the world. The Glenview State Bank of Chicago, for example, recently praised Hitler’s economics in its monthly newsletter. In doing so, the bank discovered the hazards of praising Keynesian policies in the wrong context.
The issue of the newsletter (July 2003) is not online, but the content can be discerned via the letter of protest from the Anti-Defamation League. “Regardless of the economic arguments” the letter said, “Hitler’s economic policies cannot be divorced from his great policies of virulent anti-Semitism, racism and genocide.… Analyzing his actions through any other lens severely misses the point.”
The same could be said about all forms of central planning. It is wrong to attempt to examine the economic policies of any leviathan state apart from the political violence that characterizes all central planning, whether in Germany, the Soviet Union, or the United States. The controversy highlights the ways in which the connection between violence and central planning is still not understood, not even by the ADL. The tendency of economists to admire Hitler’s economic program is a case in point.
In the 1930s, Hitler was widely viewed as just another protectionist central planner who recognized the supposed failure of the free market and the need for nationally guided economic development. Proto-Keynesian socialist economist Joan Robinson wrote that “Hitler found a cure against unemployment before Keynes was finished explaining it.”
What were those economic policies? He suspended the gold standard, embarked on huge public-works programs like autobahns, protected industry from foreign competition, expanded credit, instituted jobs programs, bullied the private sector on prices and production decisions, vastly expanded the military, enforced capital controls, instituted family planning, penalized smoking, brought about national healthcare and unemployment insurance, imposed education standards, and eventually ran huge deficits. The Nazi interventionist program was essential to the regime’s rejection of the market economy and its embrace of socialism in one country.
Georgia To Allow Cross-State Health Insurance Sales
INSKEEP: Now, if some or all of the health care law should go away, Republicans have said they want to replace it. They have not said precisely how, though they have discussed a number of ideas for bringing down health care costs, and one of those ideas becomes law in Georgia next week. It allows health insurance companies to sell policies even if those policies do not comply with Georgia laws and come from out of state. Republican politicians have been promoting this idea for years.
REPRESENTATIVE JOHN BOEHNER: The American people ought to be able to buy health insurance across state lines.
REPRESENTATIVE JOE BARTON: So it’s obvious if you allow plans that are approved in one state to be offered across the state line, it’s going to promote competition and it should lower cost.
REPRESENTATIVE PHIL GINGREY: Number two, allowing people to buy health insurance across state lines.
MITT ROMNEY: And I want these individuals and businesses to be able to buy insurance across state lines to get the best deal they can get anywhere in the country.
Wednesday, June 27, 2012
Study: More Than Half a Trillion Dollars Spent on Welfare But Poverty Levels Unaffected
The federal government is not making much headway reducing poverty despite spending hundreds of billions of dollars, according to a study by the libertarian Cato Institute.
Despite an unprecedented increase in federal anti-poverty spending, the national poverty rate has not declined, the study finds.
“[S]ince President Obama took office [in January 2009], federal welfare spending has increased by 41 percent, more than $193 billion per year,” the study says.
Federal welfare spending in fiscal year 2011 totaled $668 billion, spread out over 126 programs, while the poverty rate that remains high at 15.1 percent, roughly where it was in 1965, when President Johnson declared a federal War on Poverty.
In 1966, the first year after Johnson declared war on poverty, the national poverty rate was 14.7 percent, according to Census Bureau figures. Over time, the poverty rate has fluctuated in a narrow range between 11 and 15 percent, only falling into the 11 percent range for a few years in the late 1970’s.
Ron Paul Supporter Attacked Trying To Retrieve Stolen Ballots From Oregon CD4 Convention
Oregon Congressional District 4, Saturday June 23, 2012, Roseburg, Oregon. The convention was shut down improperly by Oregon Republican leaders. The convention was not adjourned and previous motions adopted by the body stated the convention would complete all voting before adjourning for the night. But Republican leaders had their own agenda to complete the voting process of Alternate Delegates by dictatorship of the executive committee. People became furious of the news that the ballots had been stolen from the building, prompting a hunt for the ballots outside. When the ballots were found being loaded into a vehicle a Ron Paul supporter was attacked trying to return the ballots to the building for completion of the voting process.
Confrontation With TSA Agent Leaves Grandpa’s Ashes On Floor
A man’s attempt to bring the ashes of his grandfather home to Indianapolis ended with an angry scene in a Florida airport, with the ashes spilled on the terminal floor.
John Gross, a resident of Indianapolis’ south side, was leaving Florida with the remains of his grandfather — Mario Mark Marcaletti, a Sicilian immigrant who worked for the Penn Central Railroad in central Indiana — in a tightly sealed jar marked “Human Remains.”
Gross said he didn’t think he’d have a problem, until he ran into a TSA agent at the Orlando airport.
“They opened up my bag, and I told them, ‘Please, be careful. These are my grandpa’s ashes,’” Gross told RTV6’s Norman Cox. “She picked up the jar. She opened it up.
“I was told later on that she had no right to even open it, that they could have used other devices, like an X-ray machine. So she opened it up. She used her finger and was sifting through it. And then she accidentally spilled it.”
Gross says about a quarter to a third of the contents spilled on the floor, leaving him frantically trying to gather up as much as he could while anxious passengers waited behind him.
“She didn’t apologize. She started laughing. I was on my hands and knees picking up bone fragments. I couldn’t pick up all, everything that was lost. I mean, there was a long line behind me.”