United Liberty

The 2008 Mises Institute Supporters Summit

The Gold Standard Revisited

This past weekend was a chance for many of the Mises Institute’s supporters to get together, get familiar, and get updated on the Austrian tradition’s interpretation of recent events.  The focus of this weekend seminar was on the gold standard, and the increasingly desperate need for sound money in today’s fiat fiasco of an economy.  Speakers, local and international, delivered the message of monetary sanity to the supporters and students in attendance, as well as those who tuned in around the world via Mises.org.  Talks were given by many of today’s

For this entry, we will go outside his aforementioned email. Don’t worry; we’ll be returning to it very soon.After taking another look at the debate between Congressman Price and Dr. Lawson, his “Keeping in Touch” newsletter that he sent to the 4th District voters (at taxpayer expense), and his Vote Smart page, there’s a particular claim that Congressman Price likes to make (or at least imply) that his recent record shows to be a bowl of mush.

This claim is that he is some sort of a principled fiscal conservative who works tirelessly for balanced budgets.

I’m grateful that Dr. Tom DiLorenzo, professor of economics at Loyola College, took the time to write a rebuttal to an inexplicably ignorant hit-piece recently published in the Wall Street Journal entitled “A Short Banking History of the United States.”

The author of this article, Mr. John Steele Gordon, makes a number of spurious claims in an attempt to discredit the economic philosophy of sound money controlled by the people, and defend Alexander Hamilton’s loyalty to banking interests in the drive to create a private central bank to own our money supply.

I am generally against most all government activities in the marketplace, especially those that involve social micromanagement; however, there is one idea that started on the left and has been making its way through the libertarian sphere that has some good potential. I am talking about a revenue neutral carbon tax, one which reduces or completely replaces other taxes such as payroll, income, capital gains/dividends, etc.

Lately we have heard quite a bit about Barack Obama’s “spread the wealth” comment, which has given new ammunition to the McCain campaign and its supporters in accusing Obama of being “socialist”.  As accurate as it is to describe much of Obama’s platform as socialist, to have McCain accusing Obama of supporting socialism is rather like the pot calling the kettle black.

You know it’s getting close when a 20-year incumbent needs to attack his opponent, and his political ideology, head on. Anyone who’s in office for that long should be able to stand on the merits of his own record, rather than launching attacks. Here is an excerpt from a letter that he recently sent out to his supporters.

For years liberals, conservatives, independents, DC, Main Street and Wall Street seemingly defied all normality and not only embraced, but nearly worshiped the same individual, Alan Greenspan. After rising in 1987 to the position of Chairman of the Federal Reserve, the most powerful financial position in the world, he presided over the most sustained period of economic growth in the history of America. He rode the wave of private sector technological achievements that created abnormally high productivity growth. To many it was his greatness that brought about the increase in income, increase in homeownership, increase in credit, increase in all things material — while still maintaining price stability.

While during these times of financial instability most of our attention turns to Wall Street and Washington, the fiscal policies that our individual governors persue can greatly lessen or worsen the situation within our given states. The Cato Institute recently released their 2008 Fiscal Report Card for American Governors. The criteria is fairly straight forward. Tax and/or spending increases lower the governors’ scores, while tax and/or spending cuts will raise them.

Last night at UNC, Chapel Hill Rep. David Price and Dr. Lawson squared off in a debate, drawing a sharp contrast in their approach for the direction of our country. Dr. Lawson presented a clear and concise message to the students — restore common sense.

A video will be made available in the next day or so of the full debate, and I am confident you all will be as excited as we were last night.

These days it seems there is little disagreement that consumers are over-leveraged and over-consuming, yet few pundits, economists, or politicians are willing to accept the remedies obviously needed to solve the massive crisis. Our culture tells us we must spend everything we make, and then more, and not only keep up with the Joneses, but to kick their ass or go down in a sea of debt trying.