A world full of "undead" banks

The banking industry in the world has become "undead." They are not quite dead yet, but they are surely undead.

Detlev Schlichter has written a wonderful piece on his blog. Quite rightly, he refers banks as parastatal dinosaurs. Here is an excerpt from his article:

One thing is now clear to even the most casual observer: banks are not capitalist businesses. In their present incarnation they have little to do with the free market and no place in it. They are constantly oscillating between two positions: One moment, they are a state protectorate, in desperate need of support from the state printing press or unlimited taxpayer funds, as, in the absence of such support, we are supposedly faced with the dreaded social fallout of complete financial collapse; the next moment they are a convenient tool for state policy, simply to be fed with ample bank reserves and enticed with low interest rates to create yet more cheap credit and help manufacture some artificial growth spurt. Either the banks are the permanent welfare queens of the fiat money systems, or convenient policy levers for the macro-economic central planners. In any case, capitalist businesses look different.


Central banks and modern fiat money banks are quite simply a blot on the capitalist system. In order for capitalism to operate smoothly they will ultimately have to be removed. I believe that the underlying logic of capitalism will work in that direction. Personally, I believe that trying to ‘reform’ the present system is a waste of time and energy. It is particularly unbecoming for libertarians as they run the risk of getting infected with the strains of statism that run through the system. Let’s replace this system with something better. With a market-based monetary system.

We have NREGA, they have Food Stamps

If this is how Uncle Sam glorifies food stamps, then it is only a question of time before USA too starts having a NREGA...

Ron Paul: Syria is none of our business!

It is time the world listened to this guy.. Ron Paul

Fear and madness in the New World Order

David Rothkopf has written an interesting book - Superclass: The Global Power Elite and the World 

This is how the book's description goes:

Each of them is one in a million. They number six thousand on a planet of six billion. They run our governments, our largest corporations, the powerhouses of international finance, the media, world religions, and, from the shadows, the world's most dangerous criminal and terrorist organizations. They are the global superclass, and they are shaping the history of our time.

Today's superclass has achieved unprecedented levels of wealth and power. They have globalized more rapidly than any other group. But do they have more in common with one another than with their own countrymen, as nationalist critics have argued? They control globalization more than anyone else. But has their influence fed the growing economic and social inequity that divides the world? What happens behind closeddoor meetings in Davos or aboard corporate jets at 41,000 feet? Conspiracy or collaboration? Deal-making or idle self-indulgence? What does the rise of Asia and Latin America mean for the conventional wisdom that shapes our destinies? Who sets the rules for a group that operates beyond national laws?

Drawn from scores of exclusive interviews and extensive original reporting, Superclass answers all of these questions and more. It draws back the curtain on a privileged society that most of us know little about, even though it profoundly affects our everyday lives. It is the first in-depth examination of the connections between the global communities of leaders who are at the helm of every major enterprise on the planet and control its greatest wealth. And it is an unprecedented examination of the trends within the superclass, which are likely to alter our politics, our institutions, and the shape of the world in which we live.

Draining the lifeblood from the economy

In his new article, Casey Research’s managing director David Galland says, "Europe has been quietly taken over by communists."

He goes on to say:


...operating from headquarters in Belgium, upwards of 30,000 bureaucratic functionaries working for the European Commission, and sub-commissions such as the Education Commission and the Competition Commission, are concocting an endless stream of perfect-world regulations whose net intent is to manage the economies of all EU members.


And, for good measure, all functions of civil society.


No matter how they spin their actions as the spawn of lofty goals and high principles, even a cursory glance reveals that the EU is now operating as a command economy – one where the productive capacity of commercial enterprises, fishing and farming being just one small corner, is being directed by central planners.

Click here to read more.

Ayn Rand is dangerous to the left, and therefore she’s smeared

Recently UK's hardcore leftist newspaper, The Guardian, published  George Monbiot's article titled 'How Ayn Rand became the new right's version of Marx.'  Instead of providing us with coherent and logical arguments, Monbiot chooses to use absurd lines like, "Rand's is the philosophy of the psychopath, a misanthropic fantasy of cruelty, revenge and greed."


Forbes has published an article by Ole Martin Moen, which makes the point that as Ayn Rand is dangerous to the leftist ideology, she is smeared. 


Ole Martin Moen writes, "More and more people are getting Rand’s point, and Randians are now everywhere, ranging from Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales to the movements surrounding Ron Paul and Gary Johnson. Ayn Rand is dangerous to the left, and therefore she’s smeared – something of which she herself was acutely aware. When The Ayn Rand Lexicon was made, she told the editor that such a lexicon would be very convenient: “People will be able to look up BREAKFAST and see that I did not advocate eating babies for breakfast.”"

The Gods of Socialism

“Change” is not only the quintessence of Marxism, it is its credo as well. Marxists believes that the nationalization of the economy generates not only political and social changes, but spiritual changes. Eventually, these changes make Marxism a religion — the only religion permitted — and the Marxist leader the only god allowed. The religious adulation of Lenin and Stalin, which filled oceans of newsprint and generated international respect for Marxism and admiration for its leaders, may well be one of the greatest hoaxes perpetrated in history. Its lingering tentacles live on. Even today, visitors in Moscow wait patiently in long lines in order to pay their respects to Lenin’s embalmed body, which has been exposed as a holy relic in Moscow’s Red Square Mausoleum since shortly after his death in 1924.

Click  here  to read more...

The 5 traits of radically successful people

Success isn’t just about hard work. We hear about hard work all the time—it’s what Olympic champions talk about when they get to the top of the podium and it’s what the media credits as the sole force behind of multimillion-dollar Internet entrepreneurs.

But there has to be something else in the equation of obtaining unimaginable success. What other traits tipped the odds in favor of the world’s most successful people?

What helped propel their careers before they had track records? Click here to read more of the article by Alex Banayan, a venture capitalist, whose upcoming book will feature 25 of the world’s most successful people and will focus on the little things they did to propel their careers.

Murray Rothbard Understanding Libertarian-ism

Counterfeiting by the power elite

King may roll his sleeves up – or down – but they won't obscure the reality of what's going on. A small group of people – a dynastic power elite – controls money and has set up a series of elaborate justifications to rationalize the insanity of their control.

The system is rotten to the core. It is actually intended to provide a series of rolling bankruptcies worldwide that will lead inevitably to global governance. Seen this way, it's doing exactly what it was intended to do.

Click here to  read more.

Incredible - real knowledge becomes cheap in this era of rampant price rise

The Mises Institute is running a 50% off summer sale on their courses.

So you can get The Road to Serfdom: Despotism, Then and Now, an online 5 week course taught by Thomas DiLorenzo at a bargain rate.

Click here for details

Modern Day Fairy Tale of 3 Economic Wizards

Once upon a time (today), in a land not so far away (USA), there lived a trio of economic wizards (economists), whose names shall remain anonymous (Paul Krugman, Greg Mankiw, Ben Bernanke).

Click here to read more of Mish's fascinating fairy tale

A "Made-in-Harvard" economic decline for India

I have certainly lost faith in these smooth talking high flying economists that we have imported from the Harvard and Oxford universities of the world. By foisting on us their obsolete socialist ideas, these fake economists have ruined the Indian economy. They are directly responsible for unemployment and poverty.

Now it seems to me that Harvard and Oxford universities are probably the world's biggest repositories of obsolete and unworkable economic ideas. Harvard is the new Kremlin.

Swapan Dasgupta has written a good article in today's Daily Pioneer: A Made-in-India economic decline

As always, he delivers the punch line in the end of the article: "Therefore, when Montek is pilloried these days for spending too much on his frequent foreign visits and mocked for spending `35 lakhs on the renovation of two toilets in Yojana Bhavan, there is an underlying story that is also unfolding. The country has lost faith in the intellectual integrity of its glib economists."


Click here to read more of Swapan Dasgupta's article. 

Does the government really exist?

Economist bids "Farewell to Incredible India"

The article published in new issue of Economist says, "Bereft of leaders, an Asian giant is destined for a period of lower growth. The human cost will be immense."

The article goes on to says, "Instead the dreary conclusion is that India’s feeble politics are now ushering in several years of feebler economic growth. Indeed, the politicians’ most complacent belief is that voters will just put up with lower growth—because they supposedly care only about state handouts, the next meal, cricket and religion. But as Indians discover that slower growth means fewer jobs and more poverty, they will become angry. Perhaps that might be no bad thing, if it makes them vote for change."

Click here to read more...

Libertarian endorsements...

All roads lead to gold

Max and Stacy interview Detlev Schlichter about the ongoing paper money collapse.

Why is it that the people who are the most UNAPPRECIATIVE are also the ones who want EVERYTHING?

The more conventional definition of greed is “gimmee, gimmee, gimmee.” This is what I call blind wanting. Greedy people by this definition want the benefits of someone else’s hard work, thought or achievement. They’re not willing to exercise the self-responsibility to give themselves what they want. They’re unwilling to go without, even for temporary periods while they save the money or find whatever they’re seeking. Think of a spoiled teenager who doesn’t value the concept of money. “Gimmee what I want” is the overriding mentality, without reference to, “How can I legitimately get what I want?” Of course, not all teenagers are like this, and some adults ARE.

Anyone who’s greedy in this irresponsible sense will also, by definition, be needy. Why? Because self-responsibility is a necessary part of life. It’s a necessary component of self-esteem, self-respect and even survival. If you lack self-responsibility, then you will lack independence. This will make you needy.

Whenever you give or provide for someone who’s greedy in this unappreciative sense, you’re conveying a message to them. That message is, “I know you cannot provide for yourself what you want. But you’re entitled to what you want, and I’m going to give it to you.” THAT’S why you don’t get any appreciation from them. They feel they’re entitled to it and you reinforce this false belief by giving it to them.

Click here to read more.

Democracy - The God that failed

Democracy - The God  that failed by Hans-Hermann Hoppe is a really good book - "Someone asked me the other day if I believe in conspiracies. Well, sure. Here’s one. It is called the political system. It is nothing if not a giant conspiracy to rob, trick and subjugate the population.”

Here is an excerpt from the review:

The word conspiracy comes from the Latin roots con and spiro, meaning to breathe together. It implies a shared interest and an understanding between people that doesn’t always need to be openly stated. In the normal use of the term, the purpose of a conspiracy is always negative or destructive — a deceptive plot to do something bad.

This is why the government is always accusing other people of conspiring — terrorists cells, armed resistance at home and abroad, rebellious and plotting sectors of society — but exempts itself completely. The regime regards itself as unimpeachably fantastic, never destructive, never nefarious. Therefore, it is incapable of conspiracy.

It all depends on how you look at it. You don’t have to work yourself into a fever over the Bilderbergers or the Trilateralists to see real conspiracy. Take a look at any government bureaucracy. Everyone there knows the goal: more power, more money and less work. The bureaucratic class “breathes together” toward the same nefarious goal of making itself safer and richer, while making normal life difficult for those who are subject to its dictates. And it all comes at the expense of everyone else.

Click here to read more.

Gold is not a bubble

As the gold-sceptics keep reminding us, gold pays no coupon and no dividend, it does not offer a running yield, so traditional measures of ‘fair value’ do not apply. But gold is money, and just as the paper ticket in your wallet does not pay interest, neither does gold. Gold is a monetary asset that has functioned as a medium of exchange and a store of value for thousands of years, around the world and in almost all societies and cultures. Many modern economists believe that gold has now been successfully replaced with state paper money, such as paper dollars, paper euros, paper yen, and so forth. Holding gold is therefore redundant. The present crisis is a stark reminder that this faith in fiat money is misplaced.

Click here to read more.

Patronizing Chinese Volkswagen Ad Shows Us the Shape of Elite Future