We are developing the social individualist meta-context for the future. From the very serious to the extremely frivolous... lets see what is on the mind of the Samizdata people.
Samizdata, derived from Samizdat /n. - a system of clandestine publication of banned literature in the USSR [Russ.,= self-publishing house]
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Poor naive George W. Bush! For all his shambolic presidency, his dreadful mistakes, and the horrors of aggressive imperialism, his last couple of months in office could end up being the most disastrous for the world.
Bloomberg reports:
The leaders of the U.S., France and the European Commission will ask other world leaders to join in a series of summits on the global financial crisis beginning in the U.S. soon after the Nov. 4 presidential election.
President George W. Bush, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and European Commission President Jose Barroso said in a joint statement after meeting yesterday that they will continue pressing for coordination to address “the challenges facing the global economy.”
The initial summit will seek “agreement on principles of reform needed to avoid a repetition and assure global prosperity in the future,” and later meetings “would be designed to implement agreement on specific steps to be taken to meet those principles,” the statement said.
Just how bad this could be is already showing. The report continues:
Sarkozy and Barraso are pressing Bush for a G8 agenda that includes stiffer regulation and supervision for cross-border banks, a global “early warning” system and an overhaul of the International Monetary Fund. Talks may also encompass tougher regulations on hedge funds, new rules for credit-rating companies, limits on executive pay and changing the treatment of tax havens such as the Cayman Islands and Monaco.
Just what has the continuation of the OECD nations’ campaign to plunder smaller states and institute globally uniform (high) taxation got to do with the market crash? Nothing. Executive pay? Irrelevant, too, save in the politics of envy. Mainstream banks, not hedgies, were the ones that crashed after playing iffy games with CDOs, and governments helped pump-up house prices – with enthusiasm. Where this agenda comes in is as an opportunity to kick the resented “Anglo-Saxon” model of capitalism while it is down – even, and especially, in those places where it is not down yet. (Are we missing Commissioner Mandelson yet?)
Mr Bush has lost the thread entirely if he really thinks a transnational “reform” of the financial system can do other than damage “free markets, free enterprise and free trade”. He may have a patchy record on liberty, and a bad record on limited government. His guests in November will have no interest in either. They will tempt him (have tempted him) with the mantle of world saviour, and will try to get him to bind his successors. We shall have to hope that his successor, either one of whom would be well to the economic right of the self-selected ‘international community’, depressingly enough, is more wily and far-sighted.
Meanwhile, where is there left to run?
I like Fridays these days, because on Friday, David Thompsom does another clutch of Friday ephemera, and this Friday’s ephemera included three links to a black guy named Zo, explaining why he will be voting McCain/Palin. When I started listening, I kept thinking, there’s a snag. When is the ambush coming? I don’t know quite why I thought this, but I did. Cognitive dissonance, I imagine. Guys who talk like that just do not think like that. Many of them hardly think at all, except about show business concerning which they are highly knowledgeable.
Another favourite blog-ephemerist is Lynn Sislo (sp?), who will not be voting McCain/Palin, in fact in this posting, she includes a link to a report about the equal and opposite phenomenon to Zo. But best of all, in a more recent Lynn S posting, there is a link to an amazing time-map showing the growth of Walmart. Capitalism at its formidable best (talking of which, have you heard that Buffet is now buying shares?). It is an object lesson in starting slow, getting it right and then – and only then – conquering the universe. Well, not the universe, yet, just America. But give it time. Highly recommended.
Through the miracles of modern technology, Bob Barr will be delivering live replies to the questions put to those ‘other parties’ candidates tonight. You can read more here and get the link for the live broadcast. As it will be at 9pm US eastern time, I will probably not be watching it from here!
Last night I attended a Libertarian Alliance talk/discussion evening at the Evans household, the talk being given by Antoine Clarke. Here is what Antoine said in an email about his talk beforehand. I learned several interesting things which smarter people than me doubtless already realised but which were new to me. The most interesting thing I learned, assuming Antoine was right about it, was that after the first mega-billion dollar bale-out package failed to be agreed by the politicians of the USA, the market immediately went up. But then, as soon as a revised bale-out package, containing more bribes, was agreed, the market went down. “We should do nothing” is a tough political sell, but the smart move, said Antoine. And McCain should have gone with what, according to Antoine, were apparently his instincts and torpedoed the whole damn bale-out operation, and thereby clung onto a chance of being the next President of the USA.
My take on this is that there is a crowding out effect going on here, big time. I trust we are all familiar with this idea. It says that big government plans of any kind not only do harm because the government plans fail and all the wealth it wastes on them is wasted, but, and arguably even worse, because people with better plans in the same line of business are frightened into inactivity. In this spirit, I recall the disgraced former Tory MP Neil Hamilton once saying at a meeting I attended long ago that the money that an earlier Labour government had spent on buying up and ruining the British motor industry would have done a great deal less harm if it had just been put into several thousand suitcases and chucked into the sea (I daresay this would have been good for inflation also). That way, saner motor car entrepreneurs could have gone to work making cars and car stuff in better ways than then prevailed, unimpeded by the fear of great walls of government “investment” screwing up their plans, bidding up the prices of all the people and all the things they wanted to hire and buy and put to good use.
Well, now, exactly the same thing seems to be happening in the banking industry. Were I one of the immensely rich and immensely sensible banking people who had (a) seen this crash coming and cashed out at roughly the right time, and who now (b) has plans to gobble up failed banks and reorganise them along more sensible lines, I would now, despite all my hopes of profitable new business, be sitting on my hands, waiting for all the government plans to do their immense damage before I went wading in and god chewed up too. Only when these government plans had become an obvious failure, and the politicians had just totally given up, would I be ready to move in and sort things out. Only when the politicians lapse into inactivity, which for a brief shining moment looked as if it might happen straight away, does economic optimism, among the people willing to back their optimism with money, reassert itself.
But, as I like to say from time to time when blogging, what do I know? I am no expert on the banking business, and as I say, I only realised this thing about the ups and downs of the world’s stock exchanges when Antoine Clarke pointed it out to me last night. So, did Antoine get this story right? And have I explained this phenomenon, even part of it, even approximately right? Tomorrow afternoon, Antoine, I, and fellow Samizdatista Michael Jennings will be getting together to record a conversation about all this, so comments now would be especially welcome.
I just want to remind any of our readers in Massachusetts to help keep up the pressure for the initiative to end the income tax. The time until eleection day is running out. Money and publicity are the things our folk need so get out there and do your damndest to assist them. The opposition are raising large amounts of money from the people with their snouts deepest into the swill and are doing their best to convince Massachusetts voters to keep feeding them money.
If you are unfamiliar with this ballot initiaitive, or even if you know all about it, you should find this episode of the Glenn and Helen Show is of interest.
Instapundit has been doing yeoman service in covering it and I hope the bar conversations I had with Glenn on this subject back in May had a little bit to do with it!
What does Bob Barr have to say about the latest debate? “Booorrrrrinngggg!” But then, I knew that ahead of time and did not even bother to follow either it or any of the predictable coverage and pontification about nothing.
If you are interested in Bob’s take on the DC feeding frenzy, you can go here to listen.
I’m at the point I was at a month ago: the two tickets consist one one old guy who frankly should have been put to pasture, two leftist asshats who belong in prison, and a lady who’s the only one of the four who’s worth a damn
– Commenter Sunfish.
Both candidates supported the contemptible bailout. Indeed Senator McCain made a special point of supporting a Federal buy up of mortgages so that “people could pay at the new values and stay in their homes”. As the securities which the United States government is buying up are based on mortgages this is at least “logical” I suppose.
However, there were economic policy differences:
Senator Obama told some truly absurd lies, for example he claimed he would cut more spending than he would increase (in reality he would increase Federal government spending by close to a trillion Dollars on top of the various bailouts), and Senator Obama also repeated his lie about cutting taxes for 95% of the population – a lie because he treats welfare payments as ‘tax cuts’.
But I found the differences on health care policy most interesting.
Senator Obama denounced the very idea of buying health cover over State lines – competition is evil and would allow wicked places to attract business by having less regulation “as Delaware does with insurance and credit cards” perhaps Senator Obama should tell Senator Biden how evil the State of Delaware is.
Clearly the chance of competition being allowed to reduced health costs under a President Obama is zero.
Instead there are to be mandates and regulations. given the absurd notion that lack of regulation, rather than credit bubble finance and the government backing of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and ACORN, is the source of all of America’s problems… with fines to make small business enterprises give health cover to their employees. Senator Obama refused to say what size these fines on individuals and business enterprises would be.
William Rees-Mogg wonders, in his Times (of London) column today, whether Barack Obama has it in him to be the next FDR. I sincerely hope not. Let us consider the following data on unemployment rates during the 1930s:
1930: 8.7%
1931: 15.9%
1932: 23.6%
1933: 24.9%
1934: 21.7%
1935: 20.1.%
1936:16.9%
1937:14.3%
1938:19%
1939:17.2%
1940:14.6%
(Source: US Department of Commerce, Historical Statistics of the United States, as quoted by Thomas J. Lorenzo, in “How Capitalism Saved America, page 180-181),
With a set of figures like that, perhaps it is no wonder that hagiographers of FDR prefer to focus more on his record as a war leader these days. If Obama does share any of FDR’s traits for sheer deviousness on the economic front, we have trouble on our hands.
It is amazing how certain myths persist. Back in the early 1980s, when I was doing my history A-levels, one of my teachers gave me the whole ‘heroic’ portrait of FDR. I suspect this is still the default position of most history textbooks today.
Here is a press release on the event scheduled for tomorrow:
Date: Saturday, October 4th
Time: 12:00 Noon – Doors open. Speeches begin at 1 p.m. sharp.
Location: Faneuil Hall in Boston
How to get there: PDF
More on Faneuil Hall: here
You’re going to kick yourself if you miss this Rally to END the income tax.
Maybe you heard the announcements and chatter about this YES on 1, END the state income tax rally on WTKK radio. Or heard Howie Carr asking you to come. Or read about it in the Globe or the Herald or one of the dozens of other newspapers spreading the word.
Sam Adams helped launch the American Revolution from the stage of Faneuil Hall. James Otis won hundreds to the cause of Independence and Liberty at Faneuil Hall.
Come to this rally. Join these champions of liberty. Help rally support for ENDing the income tax this Election Day.
We need you to come. We need you to bring a friend or neighbor. It’ll be exciting – and fun!
Get a look at our speakers:
* Michael Graham, Talk Show Host on WTKK, author, and stand-up comedian.
* Me. Carla Howell. Co-founder and chair of the Committee For Small Government.
* Kamal Jain, government budget analyst, will show you the tax money
* Matt Kinnaman, columnist, former candidate and Republican Party Committee Member
* Keith McCormic, Republican candidate for State Senate in the Hampshire & Franklin District
* Ted Tripp, for Citizens for Limited Taxation
* Cynthia Stead, a small business owner and weekly columnist for the Cape Cod Times and former Massachusetts Legislative and Administrative Aid
* Dr. Chuck Ormsby is a mathematics professor, a columnist, and a two-term member of the North Andover School Committee.
* John Cunningham, small businessman and tax-cutting candidate for U.S. Congress against Democrat Ed Markey
These speakers support you. They are campaigning for you. To END the income tax this November 4th.
Celebrate and Rally with these terrific champions of ENDing the income tax.
Share their laughter.
Savor their passion for lightening the tax burden of 3,400,000 Massachusetts workers and taxpayers.
Delight in their quips and insights into the huge, immediate, direct benefits to taxpayers of ENDing the income tax.
Let them share in your values. Let them meet you.
Please plan to come tomorrow. Put this in your calendar. Or your Blackberry. Or on a prominently placed Post-It Note to remind you.
Date: Saturday, October 4th
Doors Open: Noon to 1 p.m. Come early to get your seat.
Speeches begin: 1 p.m. sharp and run until approximately 2:40
Location: Faneuil Hall in Boston
Please join us. Please come.
Small government is possible,
Carla Howell
It sounds like fun, and if by chance you get thirsty during the speeches, there is a great old pub called the Green Dragon not far away where the Boston Tea Party was purportedly planned…
I have always considered the US Drug Enforcement Agency a bunch of anti-liberty and dangerously out of control houligans (out done only by members of BATF), but this ICE activity just leaves me slack jawed.
I think some ICE and perhaps DEA officers are due for prosecution as accessories to murders. Twelve of them, in fact.
PS: While you are over at Reason…. the second half of the Counter Debate video is now available.
The Cato Institute blog makes this observation:
Some commentators are suggesting that the McCain campaign has panicked about Sarah Palin’s appeal, trying to cram her head with policy-wonkery and then hiding her in a closet when that didn’t work. Let Palin be Palin, they say — let her show her authentic self, the gun-totin’, family-raisin’, reformist governor that Alaskans love.
Good idea. Let’s start with the bailout. Surely a rugged individualist reformer from way outside the Beltway is champing at the bit to denounce this $700 billion bailout for Wall Street insiders cooked up by Washington insiders behind closed doors, without public hearings, with the unanimous support of the mainstream media. Let ‘er rip, Governor Palin. Tell the Wall Street bankers that when a small business makes bad decisions in Wasilla, it goes out of business, and the same rules should apply to large businesses in Manhattan. That’s the Sarah Palin conservatives say America would love.
I am not holding my breath. It would be interesting to see the reaction if she did give the bailout the finger, though. Judging by some of the media coverage of her and the credit crunch, large parts of the MSM press would lose their minds completely.
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Who Are We? The Samizdata people are a bunch of sinister and heavily armed globalist illuminati who seek to infect the entire world with the values of personal liberty and several property. Amongst our many crimes is a sense of humour and the intermittent use of British spelling.
We are also a varied group made up of social individualists, classical liberals, whigs, libertarians, extropians, futurists, ‘Porcupines’, Karl Popper fetishists, recovering neo-conservatives, crazed Ayn Rand worshipers, over-caffeinated Virginia Postrel devotees, witty Frédéric Bastiat wannabes, cypherpunks, minarchists, kritarchists and wild-eyed anarcho-capitalists from Britain, North America, Australia and Europe.
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