The Case for UK Import Substitution

Robert Skidelsky

Robert Skidelsky, Professor Emeritus of Political Economy at Warwick University and a fellow of the British Academy in history and economics, is a member of the British House of Lords. The author of a three-volume biography of John Maynard Keynes, he began his political career in the Labour party, b… read more

LONDON – The most dramatic economic effect of the United Kingdom’s Brexit vote has been the collapse of sterling. Since June, the pound has fallen by 16% against a basket of currencies. Mervyn King, the previous governor of the Bank of England, hailed the lower exchange rate as a “welcome change.” Indeed, with Britain’s current-account deficit running at over 7% of GDP – by far the largest since data started being collected in 1955 – depreciation could be regarded as a boon. But is it?

Economists would typically argue that the way to balance a country’s external accounts is through a fall in its currency, which would make imports more expensive and exports cheaper, causing the former to fall and the latter to rise. Higher import prices – a net loss for the country – would be offset by the higher employment and wages generated by the more competitive position of the country’s exports.

Richard Baldwin

Richard Baldwin, Professor of International Economics at the Graduate Institute, Geneva, is the author, most recently, of The Great Convergence: Information Technology and the New Globalisation.

LONDON – Donald Trump’s ignominious executive order barring entry into the United States for refugees and others from seven predominantly Muslim countries has dominated headlines in recent weeks. But the damage done to America’s image, and to the global economy, will only be further compounded by Trump’s early decisions on trade.

In speeches and tweets, Trump has aggressively lashed out against globalization. He has appointed the famously protectionist trade litigator Robert Lighthizer to be US Trade Representative. And the other two members of his trade triumvirate – Commerce Secretary-designate Wilbur Ross and White House trade adviser Peter Navarro – are no less protectionist than Lighthizer.

Kaushik Basu

Kaushik Basu, a former chief economist of the World Bank, is Professor of Economics at Cornell University.

NEW YORK – US President Donald Trump is about to make a policy mistake. It will hurt – particularly in the short run – countries across Sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America, and Asia, especially emerging economies like China and Sri Lanka (which run large trade surpluses vis-à-vis the United States) and India and the Philippines (major outsourcing destinations). But none will suffer more than the US itself.

The policy in question is a strange neoliberal protectionism – call it “neo-protectionism.” It is, on the one hand, an attempt to “save” domestic jobs by slapping tariffs on foreign goods, influencing exchange rates, restricting inflows of foreign workers, and creating disincentives for outsourcing. On the other hand, it involves neoliberal financial deregulation. This is not the way to help the US working class today.

Tony Karon

Tony Karon is an instructor in the New School’s Graduate Program in International Affairs. He was previously a Senior Editor at TIME magazine and Editorial Director of Al Jazeera America’s digital news operation.

NEW YORK – US President Donald Trump’s administration has shocked the mainstream press by bullying news outlets and unabashedly trafficking in “alternative facts” (also known as lies). But Trump’s challenge to the media status quo may not be an entirely bad thing: journalists now have an opportunity to root out the bad habits associated with cozying up to those in power.

Trump’s chief strategist, Stephen Bannon, drew gasps recently when he told the New York Times that the news media represent “the opposition party.” Bannon may have wanted to disorient his interlocutors, but he also inadvertently reminded them of the adversarial role they are meant to play. In a healthy democracy, the press helps citizens hold the government accountable, by vigorously interrogating official policies and behavior.

Javier Solana

Javier Solana was EU High Representative for Foreign and Security Policy, Secretary-General of NATO, and Foreign Minister of Spain. He is currently President of the ESADE Center for Global Economy and Geopolitics, Distinguished Fellow at the Brookings Institution, and a member of the World Economic Fo… read more

MUNICH – The world needs the European Union now more than ever. Despite recent crises and the hard blow dealt by the Brexit vote, the EU may well be the world’s best line of defense against today’s most serious threats: isolationism, protectionism, nationalism, and extremism in all forms, all of which are once again growing in Europe and beyond. The key to enabling the EU to meet this potential – to save itself and the world from catastrophe – is for member states urgently to adopt a “European Union first” mantra.

Unlike the “America first” credo embraced by US President Donald Trump, such a mantra would not be an exercise in damaging unilateralism. On the contrary, it would compel member states’ governments to look beyond narrow national interest, defend openness and multilateralism, and confront head-on the exclusionary political forces that have lately been gaining ground. It would drive member states to consolidate the EU, thereby enabling it to overcome the challenges it faces and help preserve the international order.

Audit of the Federal Reserve Reveals $16 Trillion in Secret Bailouts

unelected.org

The first ever GAO (Government Accountability Office) audit of the Federal Reserve was carried out in the past few months due to the Ron Paul, Alan Grayson Amendment to the Dodd-Frank bill, which passed last year. Jim DeMint, a Republican Senator, and Bernie Sanders, an independent Senator, led the charge for a Federal Reserve audit in the Senate, but watered down the original language of the house bill(HR1207), so that a complete audit would not be carried out.

Ben Bernanke (pictured to the right), Alan Greenspan, and various other bankers vehemently opposed the audit and lied to Congress about the effects an audit would have on markets. Nevertheless, the results of the first audit in the Federal Reserve's nearly 100 year history were posted on Senator Sander's webpage earlier this morning.

What was revealed in the audit was startling:

$16,000,000,000,000.00 had been secretly given out to US banks and corporations and foreign banks everywhere from France to Scotland. From the period between December 2007 and June 2010, the Federal Reserve had secretly bailed out many of the world's banks, corporations, and governments. The Federal Reserve likes to refer to these secret bailouts as an all-inclusive loan program, but virtually none of the money has been returned and it was loaned out at 0% interest. Why the Federal Reserve had never been public about this or even informed the United States Congress about the $16 trillion dollar bailout is obvious - the American public would have been outraged to find out that the Federal Reserve bailed out foreign banks while Americans were struggling to find jobs.

Auditing the Federal Reserve

The Sound Money Defense League strongly supports legislation to audit the shadowy Federal Reserve, an unaccountable private banking cartel that has been delegated the power to control America's money supply.
The U.S. House of Representatives approved the legislation in 2014 on a 333-92 vote, with all but one Republican and 106 Democrats in favor of it. However, former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Democrat, kept the bill from coming to a vote the Senate floor. In 2016, Rand Paul's (R-KY) Federal Reserve Transparency Act received great support. Ultimately, senate Democrats shot down the bill.
This year, Paul has reintroduced the Federal Reserve Transparency Act (S. 16) and Thomas Massie (R-KY) has introduced similar legislation in the house with H.R. 24. We are working hard to rally support for the passage of these important measures in 2017.

The Fed Enjoys Secrecy Despite Horrendous Mismanagement

A sightseeing tour through Washington D.C. may take you past an ornate building that houses the most powerful group of men and women in the Western world. It's not the White House and not the Capitol. It's the Marriner Eccles Building, where you'll find the Federal Reserve Bank of the United States.

This secretive group of bankers has absolute authority to create and control the money used by most of the world – the U.S. dollar, with no elected lawmakers or voting taxpayers controlling them.
The policies coming from the Eccles Building affect almost everything bought and sold around the world, from stocks, bonds, and commodities (oil, food, gold), down to the value of your home, your savings, and the paycheck you bring home. All public debt created by The Fed is heaped directly on your family's shoulders.

The Tragic Background Of Barack Obama aka; Barry Soetoro: Part 1

1,956: Ann appears to be around 14 years old, so this is maybe 1956. Left to right: Ann Dunham (1942-1995), Stanley Armour Dunham (1918-1992), and wife Madelyn Lee Payne (1922)

1956: Ann (Barry’s Mother) appears to be around 14 years old, so this is maybe 1956. Left to right: Ann Dunham (1942-1995), Stanley Armour Dunham (1918-1992), and wife Madelyn Lee Payne (1922 Peru-2008 Hawaii)

A boy named Stanley is traumatized and abandoned.1926: Eight year old Stanley Dunham discovers his mother’s body after she has committed suicide. Stanley’s father then abandons the traumatized boy, leaving Stanley in the care of his maternal grandparents in El Dorado, Kansas.

New Zealand’s Food And Environment Is GMO Free: Petition For Continued Moratorium On GMOs!

Stanley is psychologically devastated by suicide and abandonment!
Stanley Dunham becomes a troubled teen.
The emotionally damaged boy grows into a rebellious teenager. Stanley punches his High School principal and becomes a drifter, hopping rail cars to Chicago, then California, then back again. At age 20, he marries Madelyn Payne on the night of her Senior Prom.
The hurt little boy grows into an angry and unstable young man. (Sound familiar Barry?)
Just before leaving to fight in World War II in 1942, Stanley impregnates Madelyn. A girl is born on November 29, 1942. Because Stanley wanted a son, he names the girl after himself – Stanley Dunham! (Middle name of Ann)
Psycho Stanley fathers a girl – names her Stanley!!!
What kind of a psycho names his daughter Stanley?
Stanley Ann Dunham endures childhood trauma.

Soros

George Soros
Revealing the evil deceptive ploys and tactics of George Soros, progressive liberals, Marxists, Communists, Socialists, et. al. all to create a One World Government of unrepresentative control, in the same manner Radical Islam wants to create a caliphate.

Be sure to see the George Soros accomplices and their supporting tactics:
1. The Progressive Liberal Agenda
2. The Progressive Politically Correct Dictionary of clever terms of contradiction used to dupe the unsuspecting “We the sheeple” into relinquishing the freedom and “Rights” of “We the People.”
3. GEORGE SOROS-FUNDED COMMUNIST ORGANIZATIONS
Report: Soros spent millions to ‘undermine’ judiciary Campaign sought ‘commissions’ that avoided public input on candidates for judgeships By Bob Unruh © 2010 WorldNetDaily – Radical progressive billionaire George Soros has spent some $45 million in recent years on efforts to take away power from voters to select judges, a new report released today by the American Justice Partnership reveals. The report by attorney Colleen Pero was introduced at an event held by the Heritage Foundation. It identified $45 million spent by Soros, who funds a large range of left-wing action groups, to “remake the judiciary and fundamentally change the way judges are selected in the United States.” “This movement to end citizen participation in state judicial elections has been moving swiftly and silently, below the radar of the citizens who would be impacted by Mr. Soros’ millions,” said Pero in a statement about her report, “and it was time to bring this effort to the public’s attention.”
Billionaire Soros Donates $100 Million to Anti-Family, Anti-Faith GroupBillionaire liberal activist George Soros announced today that he plans to donate $100 million to Human Rights Watch (HRW) — a “non-partisan, watch dog” organization that purports to alert the United Nations on human rights abuses.
Liberals Form Tea Party Tracking Website, Plan 10/2 Rally at National Mall, UPDATE: George Soros Fingerprints Soros and the foundation left have launched a website designed to go after the growing Tea Party movement. Teapartytracker.org will post video interviews and blog entries gathered by folks on the false left who never grow weary of demonstrating their outrage over the very idea of a grassroots political effort overthrowing establishment Democrats and Republicans in the district of corporate criminals. Teapartytracker.org will be sponsored by the NAACP, Think Progress, New Left Media and Media Matters for America. Think Progress is a George Soros operation connected to John Podesta’s Center for American Progress. Podesta is Clinton’s former chief of staff. Media Matters for America is the brainchild of a MoveOn consultant and Podesta’s Center for American Progress. Soros is a major supporter of MoveOn.

Soroswood: The Intersection of Politics and Hollywood Propaganda, Part 1 & Soroswood: The Intersection of Politics and Hollywood Propaganda, Part 2 – An important expose of George Soros, in two parts. In case you didn’t know, Chelsea Clinton‘s wedding was held at the estate of Soros’ daughter. This series shows how Soros took over Hollywood in the early 90s and undermined the conservative Democrats in a series of moves that included helping to get the McCain-Feingold bill passed to limit campaign funds (e.g., free speech).

President Trump To End McCain’s F-35 Flying Bath Tub: An NWO Tax Funded Scheme To Drain U.S. Military

by Volubrjotr

President-elect Donald Trump dropped a bombshell on the defense industry: He asked Boeing to price out an alternative to Lockheed Martin’s F-35 fighter jets, a hugely valuable contract that Trump has criticized as too expensive. Lockheed’s share price plunged almost 2 percent in after-hours trading.
It was the culmination of weeks of interference by the president-elect in the arcane, bureaucratic function of federal procurement. In early December, it was Boeing on the receiving end of Trump’s wrath, when he tweeted that the costs of the new Air Force One planes are “out of control” and told reporters, “Boeing is doing a little bit of a number.”
A few days later, he criticized the cost of the F-35 contract. And earlier this week, he convened top military officials and the CEOs of Boeing and Lockheed at his Mar-a-Lago estate to discuss how to bring costs down. Trump told reporters afterward, “We’re just beginning, it’s a dance.”

Hold McCain Accountable: Voted To End 95,000 Jobs ~ Voted To End F-22 Fighter Jet ~ Voted For A National Security Failure ~ The F-35 Dysfunctional Jet!

More than any other president, Trump appears to want to take a direct role in federal contracting, a technical, complex part of the government that is run by tens of thousands of career civil servants. It is normally a stodgy, rule-bound job, governed by the Federal Acquisition Regulation book, which has more than 50 parts and is nearly 2,000 pages long. Mastering the rules and norms takes years, if not decades, and rarely receives much, if any, attention from the upper echelons of government.

I Killed The Bank ~ President Andrew Jackson: U.S. Vice President Aaron Burr Shoots Rothschild Czar ~ Alexander Hamilton!

President Andrew Jackson Inauguration 1829

“Gentlemen! I too have been a close observer of the doings of the Bank of the United States. I have had men watching you for a long time, and am convinced that you have used the funds of the bank to speculate in the breadstuffs of the country.

The Shooting Of A Rothschild Czar. First Traitor Of The United States Is The Piece Of Shit Alexander Hamilton. Vice President Aaron Burr Shoots Rothschild’s Bank Agent Alexander Hamilton.

When you won, you divided the profits amongst you, and when you lost, you charged it to the bank. You tell me that if I take the deposits from the bank and annul its charter I shall ruin ten thousand families. That may be true, gentlemen, but that is your sin!

Should I let you go on, you will ruin fifty thousand families, and that would be my sin! You are a den of vipers and thieves. I have determined to rout you out, and by the Eternal, (bringing his fist down on the table) I will rout you out.”
From the original minutes of the Philadelphia bankers sent to meet with President Jackson February 1834,
from Andrew Jackson and the Bank of the United States (1928) by Stan V. Henkels

Jesse’s Cafe’
President Jackson ended Rothschild’s 2nd. privately owned central bank on July 10, 1832. It was later innocuously & illegally resurrected in 1913. This time however, under a new innocuous sounding name “The Federal Reserve”, which is still with us today.

From 1836 when the lights were turned off on Rothschild’s central bank to 1913 the United States operated without a central bank and it has been the most prosperous time of the country.
What followed after 1913 would be the greatest injustice against the American people ever to be committed.

Lincoln's Private War: The Trail of Blood

Lincoln's Birthday gives us an appropriate opportunity to examine some deep American traditions which may also give us some unusual insights into the "principalities and powers" of Ephesians Chapter 6. Abraham Lincoln worked valiantly to prevent the Rothschild's attempts to involve themselves in financing the Civil War. Interestingly, it was the Czar of Russia who provided the needed assistance against the British and French, who were among the driving forces behind the secession of the South and her subsequent financing. Russia intervened by providing naval forces for the Union blockade of the South in European waters, and by letting both countries know that if they attempted to join the Confederacy with military forces, they would also have to go to war with Russia. The Rothschild interests did succeed, through their agent Treasury Secretary Salmon P. Chase, to force a bill (the National Banking Act) through Congress creating a federally chartered central bank that had the power to issue U.S. Bank Notes. Afterward, Lincoln warned the American people: "The money power preys upon the nation in time of peace and conspires against it in times of adversity. It is more despotic than monarchy, more insolent than autocracy, more selfish than bureaucracy. I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me, and causes me to tremble for the safety of our country. Corporations have been enthroned, an era of corruption will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people, until the wealth is aggregated in a few hands, and the republic is destroyed. "<http://www.servelec.net/lincoln.htm#4>4 Lincoln continued to fight against the central bank, and some now believe that it was his anticipated success in influencing Congress to limit the life of the Bank of the United States to just the war years that was the motivating factor behind his assassination. The Lone Assassin Myth is Born

The Case Against Fed Reform

This week the 115^th Congress was sworn in, and there are some indications that Fed reform may be on the agenda. The combination of populist anger fueled by Ron Paul’s Presidential campaigns and the 2008 financial crisis coupled with the repeated failings of the Federal Reserve to meet their projections has created a rare window for monetary policy to be both politically advantageous, as well as so obviously needed that even politicians can see it.
The question now is what sort of reform is on the table.

Congressional Reforms

Last Congressional session saw proposals from both the House and the Senate.
From the House we have the FORM Act, which would require the Fed to adopt a monetary policy rule and explain to Congress whenever they deviate from that rule. The FORM Act also calls for an annual GAO audit of the Federal Reserve, doubles the number of times the Fed Chairman testifies before Congress, and makes some other tweaks to the makeup and protocol of the Federal Reserve Board. Since the FORM Act passed the House in 2015, there is a good chance we will see it resurrected in 2017.

The Fed Who Cried "Growth"

Jonathan Newman

The FOMC has consistently overestimated future Fed Funds Rate (FFR) hikes. For a body that prides itself on super-scientific research methods and has teams of economists (self-described) and statisticians, it’s interesting that they can’t even predict their own behavior.
The graph is comical.

These errors can be either unintentional or intentional.

Why President Trump Will Fumigate the Fed

Tommy Behnke

Starting in January, President-elect Donald Trump will have a unique opportunity to pack the Federal Reserve with hard money officials.
There are currently two open Board of Governors seats, which will most likely not be filled before the end of President Obama’s tenure. Additionally, both Chair Janet Yellen and Vice-Chair Stanley Fischer’s terms will be up by 2018. Crunch the numbers and you will see that Trump has the opportunity to replace a majority of the Board of Governors and a third of the FOMC with monetary policy hawks during his presidency.
Call me crazy, but assuming that the Republican-controlled House and Senate stands behind him, I believe that Trump just may shock the financial world by shifting this country’s monetary policy in a more hawkish direction.

If Spending Is Our Military Strategy, Our Strategy Is Bankrupt

Mark Mateski

Even today, few deny the long arm of US military might. After all, the US military exhausted the Soviet Union, crushed Saddam Hussein, and drove Osama bin Laden’s al Qaeda into hiding.
To what should we attribute these triumphs? Some would say US planning and foresight. Others would mention the hard work and dedication of US soldiers, sailors, and airmen. Still others would point to the application of superior technology. All would be correct to some degree, but each of these explanations disregards the fact that for more than a lifetime, the United States has wildly outspent its military competitors.

Liberty Defined

Ron Paul

Liberty means to exercise human rights in any manner a person chooses so long as it does not interfere with the exercise of the rights of others. This means, above all else, keeping government out of our lives. Only this path leads to the unleashing of human energies that build civilization, provide security, generate wealth, and protect the people from systematic rights violations. In this sense, only liberty can truly ward off tyranny, the great and eternal foe of mankind.
The definition of liberty I use is the same one that was accepted by Thomas Jefferson and his generation. It is the understanding derived from the great freedom tradition, for Jefferson himself took his understanding from John Locke (1632–1704). I use the term “liberal” without irony or contempt, for the liberal tradition in the true sense, dating from the late Middle Ages until the early part of the twentieth century, was devoted to freeing society from the shackles of the state. This is an agenda I embrace, and one that I believe all should embrace.

The Market Doesn't Solve Problems; People Do

Louis Rouanet

It is wrongly accepted by many liberals (i.e., libertarians) that most, if not all, social problems can be “solved by the market.” But clearly, the “market” cannot magically solve our problems. Let it be clear that there is no doubt that the best way to have social progress is to have a free market economy. However, free markets are not solutions to problems, per se, but are rather what gives us the opportunity to find our own solutions to our own problems by finding the most valuable way to serve one another. For example, Frédéric Bastiat famously wrote in The Law that: “At whatever point of the scientific horizon I start from, I invariably come to the same thing — the solution of the social problem is in liberty.”

The EU vs. Apple vs. Ireland: Why Tax Competition Is a Good Thing

Louis Rouanet

It has now become clear that in many ways the European Union is a cartel of high-tax governments whose goal is to restrain tax competition. The EU's supposedly free — this is, regulated — trade policy is none other than an excuse to homogenize the tax and regulatory regimes of the nation-states.
The ultimate goal of the high-tax member states such as France is to use the EU to milk as much as possible from the productive members of society without losing their tax base. This has never been so clear as it is now with the recent condemnation of Apple by the European Commission which claims that Apple must pay €13 billion in “undue tax benefits” to the Irish government. Commissioner Margrethe Vestager, in charge of competition policy, said:

The Case for Unilateral Free Trade

Louis Rouanet

In the 2016 presidential election, Americans have been given a choice between two types of controlled and managed trade. On the one hand, there is Donald Trump who favors outright protectionism and controlled trade for the benefit of select industries and companies. On the other hand, there is Hillary Clinton who favors trade treaties in order to manage trade. Although she seems to oppose the Trans-Pacific Partnership, it is only because she does not believe this treaty to be “fair.” That is, for Clinton, the TPP is not protectionist enough. While Clinton describes her position as “pro trade” the fact is both Clinton and Trump favor two different types of protectionism. Even the disappointing third party candidate Gary Johnson fails to offer a credible alternative by mistakenly believing that the TPP and managed trade will “advance free trade.”

Sunday, February 19, 2017

Auditing the Federal Reserve

The Fed Enjoys Secrecy Despite Horrendous Mismanagement

The Tragic Background Of Barack Obama aka; Barry Soetoro: Part 1

Soros

President Trump To End McCain’s F-35 Flying Bath Tub: An NWO Tax Funded Scheme To Drain U.S. Military

The Case Against Fed Reform

Congressional Reforms

The Fed Who Cried "Growth"

Why President Trump Will Fumigate the Fed

If Spending Is Our Military Strategy, Our Strategy Is Bankrupt

Liberty Defined

The Market Doesn't Solve Problems; People Do

The EU vs. Apple vs. Ireland: Why Tax Competition Is a Good Thing

The Case for Unilateral Free Trade

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