Gold in the Face of Facebook
By Addison Wiggin
There’s talk of a halo effect from the pending IPO of Facebook, which could file the paperwork as early as today.
Oy… Talk about “riding on a smile and a shoeshine,” to borrow from Death of a Salesman.
“You have 500 million people,” we wrote 13 months ago, the last time we deemed Facebook worthy of our attention, “playing Farmville and Mafia Wars and telling the world how wasted they got last night… but what makes them worth an average $100 in market value?
Zombiefied Drug Trade
By Bill Bonner
“It’s amazing. I’ve lived there all my life. But I’m a little different, I guess. My brothers are doctors and lawyers. I did them a favor by being the black sheep of the family. So they didn’t have to be.
“I live in a rich neighborhood. But I don’t work much. I can’t work at all now, since I had my motorcycle accident. And I guess people wonder how I could live in such a place. Well, the answer is simple. My father was an eye surgeon and he bought it in 1941 and gave it to his children when he died.
Waist Deep in the Big Muddy
Waist Deep in the Big Muddy
By: Peter Schiff
The Dollar's Lucky Streak
The Dollar's Lucky Streak
By: Peter Schiff
CBS Avoids Catholic Clash with Obama, Turns Instead to Church Being Stolen Blind
Keynes and the Current Crisis
by Dean Baker
Tim Congdon covers a lot of ground in his essay on Keynes, Krugman, and the liquidity trap. I will narrow my focus to the current crisis and the relevance of Keynes to the policies being pursued.
First, it is important to focus on an issue where there should really be no grounds for disagreement: the size of the stimulus and its expected impact. Contrary to what Congdon states in his piece, the stimulus was closer to $300 billion a year (@ 2 percent of GDP) in 2009 and 2010, not $800 billion a year. The total stimulus package came in at close to $800 billion. Nearly $100 billion involved a technical fix to the alternative minimum tax, which is done every year and has nothing to do with stimulus. Approximately $100 billion was slated to be spent after 2010 in longer term projects. This leaves $600 billion, or roughly $300 billion to be spent in both calendar years, 2009 and 2010.
Tim Congdon covers a lot of ground in his essay on Keynes, Krugman, and the liquidity trap. I will narrow my focus to the current crisis and the relevance of Keynes to the policies being pursued.
First, it is important to focus on an issue where there should really be no grounds for disagreement: the size of the stimulus and its expected impact. Contrary to what Congdon states in his piece, the stimulus was closer to $300 billion a year (@ 2 percent of GDP) in 2009 and 2010, not $800 billion a year. The total stimulus package came in at close to $800 billion. Nearly $100 billion involved a technical fix to the alternative minimum tax, which is done every year and has nothing to do with stimulus. Approximately $100 billion was slated to be spent after 2010 in longer term projects. This leaves $600 billion, or roughly $300 billion to be spent in both calendar years, 2009 and 2010.
Questioning the Drone Wars
The Washington Post reported
Tuesday that we are building more unmanned aerial vehicle bases around
the Horn of Africa and Yemen to strike al Qaeda militants.
For a critical take on drone strikes in both places, read what I wrote here in July. I discuss the danger of conflating all jihadist militants with those bent on attacking us. Here’s the bit on Somalia.
For a critical take on drone strikes in both places, read what I wrote here in July. I discuss the danger of conflating all jihadist militants with those bent on attacking us. Here’s the bit on Somalia.
Since our recent drone strike in Somalia on leaders of the al-Shabab insurgent group, the administration has claimed that Shabab’s leaders are plotting terrorism against American or western targets. The only evidence given for this assertion is vague claims of Shabab’s ties to Yemeni militants and its claim of responsibility for a 2010 terrorist bombing in Uganda. But that bombing came because Ugandan troops are in the African Union force fighting al-Shabab. While reprehensible, the attack does not show a desire to terrorize Americans.
At the risk of sounding quaint, Congress should make the administration substantiate its claims that Shabab is targeting Americans before we bomb them further. We have enough insurgents to fight these days outside Somalia.
The US Must Reassess Its Drone Policy. by Malou Innocent
An American missile killed Pakistan's most wanted
militant, Baitullah Mehsud, on August 5. The death of the radical
Taliban commander was a success for Pakistan and the United States.
However, the method used may well produce dangerous unintended
consequences in how it might undermine one of the United States' primary
interests. Chaos in Afghanistan could spill over and destabilize
neighboring Pakistan. That's why the efficacy of missile strikes must be
reassessed.
The targeting of tribal safe havens by CIA-operated drone strikes
strengthens the very jihadist forces that America seeks to defeat, by
alienating hearts and minds in a fragile, nuclear-armed, Muslim-majority
Pakistani state.Restoring Freedom, Peace, and Prosperity, Part 3
During the war, the Pentagon commissioned a study on the probable
effects of bombing Iraq’s water- and sewage-treatment plants. The report
indicated that if such plants were bombed, countless Iraqis would die
from infectious diseases arising from drinking polluted water.
Restoring Freedom, Peace, and Prosperity, Part 2
by
Jacob G. Hornberger
Today, many Americans have come to accept that Iran is an official enemy of the United States. Most people know about the animosity between the Iranian government and the U.S. government. Since many Americans often conflate the Iranian government and the Iranian citizenry, the entire country is usually viewed as an enemy.
Some might say, “But Jacob, the Iranian government is a cruel and brutal dictatorship, one that jails critics of the government, tortures them, and even executes them. Surely it doesn’t surprise you that the U.S. government opposes the Iranian dictatorship, especially given the ardent devotion to freedom and democracy that has long characterized the U.S. government.”
Today, many Americans have come to accept that Iran is an official enemy of the United States. Most people know about the animosity between the Iranian government and the U.S. government. Since many Americans often conflate the Iranian government and the Iranian citizenry, the entire country is usually viewed as an enemy.
Some might say, “But Jacob, the Iranian government is a cruel and brutal dictatorship, one that jails critics of the government, tortures them, and even executes them. Surely it doesn’t surprise you that the U.S. government opposes the Iranian dictatorship, especially given the ardent devotion to freedom and democracy that has long characterized the U.S. government.”
Restoring Freedom, Peace, and Prosperity, Part 1
by
Jacob G. Hornberger
Now that the celebrations over the killing of Osama bin Laden have died down, reality is setting in for the American people. It is slowly dawning on them that the killing won’t make any difference whatsoever and, in fact, might even make things worse for them. The occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan continue, as does U.S. foreign aid to Middle Eastern dictatorships and the Israeli regime. The war on terrorism continues, including the assassinations, indefinite detentions, kangaroo tribunals, kidnappings, renditions, secret prison camps, intrusive searches, and Guantanamo Bay. The infringements of fundamental rights and liberties also continue and almost certainly will expand, given the threat of terrorist retaliation for the killing of bin Laden.
What did bin Laden’s killing accomplish? It accomplished nothing good for the American people because government officials will continue to trample upon their fundamental rights and liberties in the name of gaining safety from the terrorists and in the name of national security. Americans will also continue to bear the burden of ever-increasing federal spending, taxes, debt, and inflation that come with an imperialist foreign policy and a perpetual war on terrorism.
Now that the celebrations over the killing of Osama bin Laden have died down, reality is setting in for the American people. It is slowly dawning on them that the killing won’t make any difference whatsoever and, in fact, might even make things worse for them. The occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan continue, as does U.S. foreign aid to Middle Eastern dictatorships and the Israeli regime. The war on terrorism continues, including the assassinations, indefinite detentions, kangaroo tribunals, kidnappings, renditions, secret prison camps, intrusive searches, and Guantanamo Bay. The infringements of fundamental rights and liberties also continue and almost certainly will expand, given the threat of terrorist retaliation for the killing of bin Laden.
What did bin Laden’s killing accomplish? It accomplished nothing good for the American people because government officials will continue to trample upon their fundamental rights and liberties in the name of gaining safety from the terrorists and in the name of national security. Americans will also continue to bear the burden of ever-increasing federal spending, taxes, debt, and inflation that come with an imperialist foreign policy and a perpetual war on terrorism.
Thank Goodness for WikiLeaks
by
Sheldon Richman
In October WikiLeaks released close to 400,000 U.S. classified military documents relating to the Iraq war. The American people, the theoretical masters of the government, were not supposed to see them. The government preferred that they not know. So just as when the website released 77,000 documents on the Afghan war in August, government officials and apologists for the empire’s war policies roundly condemned WikiLeaks. Apparently, the greatest breach of decorum is to let the American people know how their government conducts its wars. In November WikiLeaks began to release more than 250,000 secret diplomatic cables, creating even more heat for the organization.
In October WikiLeaks released close to 400,000 U.S. classified military documents relating to the Iraq war. The American people, the theoretical masters of the government, were not supposed to see them. The government preferred that they not know. So just as when the website released 77,000 documents on the Afghan war in August, government officials and apologists for the empire’s war policies roundly condemned WikiLeaks. Apparently, the greatest breach of decorum is to let the American people know how their government conducts its wars. In November WikiLeaks began to release more than 250,000 secret diplomatic cables, creating even more heat for the organization.
Libertarianism versus Statism
by
Jacob G. Hornberger,
All of us have been born and raised within a statist box, one in which the federal government’s primary roles are to take care of people, regulate their economic activities, and maintain an overseas military empire that intervenes in the affairs of other countries.
Both liberals and conservatives have come to accept this statist box as a permanent feature of American life. Even worse, they have convinced themselves that life in this statist box is actually freedom.
What makes libertarians different from liberals and conservatives is that, although we too have been born and raised within the statist box, we have broken free of it, in an intellectual and moral sense. Moreover, unlike liberals and conservatives, we recognize that statism isn’t freedom at all. It’s the opposite of freedom. Genuine freedom, libertarians contend, entails a dismantling of the statist box in which we all live.
All of us have been born and raised within a statist box, one in which the federal government’s primary roles are to take care of people, regulate their economic activities, and maintain an overseas military empire that intervenes in the affairs of other countries.
Both liberals and conservatives have come to accept this statist box as a permanent feature of American life. Even worse, they have convinced themselves that life in this statist box is actually freedom.
What makes libertarians different from liberals and conservatives is that, although we too have been born and raised within the statist box, we have broken free of it, in an intellectual and moral sense. Moreover, unlike liberals and conservatives, we recognize that statism isn’t freedom at all. It’s the opposite of freedom. Genuine freedom, libertarians contend, entails a dismantling of the statist box in which we all live.
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