Category Archives: Essays

How to Lose a Constitution—Lessons from Roman History

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“Rome at the time of the Catalinarian conspiracy was not the Rome of centuries before, when honor, virtue, and character were the watchwords of Roman life. By Cicero’s time, the place was rife with corruption and power lust. The outward appearances of a Republic were undermined daily by civil strife and a growing welfare-warfare State. Many who gave lip service in public to Republican values were privately conniving to secure power or wealth through political connections. Others were corrupted or bribed into silence by government handouts. The Republic was on life support and Cicero’s voice was soon to be drowned out by a rising tide of political intrigue and violence and popular apathy.”

http://www.fee.org/the_freeman/detail/how-to-lose-a-constitutionlessons-from-roman-history

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Bill Bonner: What Is the Point of Government?

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“There is no faster path to disaster than enthusiastic leadership. Exhibit A: World War I. Exhibit B came next: the disaster known as the Great Depression. In the previous depression, 1920-21, President Harding and Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon simply ignored it. No leadership required. Two years later the depression was over.  But in 1929, when the next one came, President Hoover and then President Roosevelt met it with aggressive leadership. Advancing the preposterous notion that they knew better than business people and investors, they promised to mitigate the Depression with ‘countercyclical policies,’ thereby stretching out the Depression for almost a decade.”

http://bonnerandpartners.com/what-is-the-point-of-government/

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Dimes on Black and Dynamite on Red

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“On the basis of measures that have been reliably correlated with actual subsequent market returns in market cycles across a century of data, we estimate that the S&P 500 Index will be no higher a decade from now than it is today. On the basis of nominal total returns (including dividends), we estimate zero or negative returns for the S&P 500 on every horizon shorter than about 8 years.  At the same time, we don’t have strong views about immediate market prospects. Still, even a run-of-the-mill completion to the present market cycle would wipe out more than half of the market’s gains since the 2009 low, so whatever gains the market experiences in the interim are likely to be transitory.”

http://www.hussmanfunds.com/wmc/wmc140818.htm

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‘Won’t Get Fooled Again’

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Sutton’s Theory of Elite Action, Applied To ISIS

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“ISIS is an organization run by men bent on restoring the Caliphate that crucifies their own jihadists for being too moderate and blows up Islamic holy sites. If ever there were a group fit for their dialectical purpose, it’s ISIS. They are absolutely guaranteed to antagonize every Muslim who is not a part of their particular brand of belief, which is exactly what the elite would need to create an Islamic synthesis. They only lacked money and armaments, yet lo and behold! The US government armed them and then abandoned oil-rich Iraq, leaving a vacuum of power. Again, is this unparalleled incompetence or design?”

http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2014/08/suttons-theory-elite-action.html

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Sending Money Home: Technology or Bureaucracy?

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“Some of the world’s poorest people depend on the money they receive from relatives working in developed countries. In fact, this money dwarfs the world’s official foreign aid budget, and the gap is increasing.  In 2011, total private flows of aid totaled $680 billion—almost five times the $138 billion official figure.  This increase in private aid is great news for all concerned.  Except, perhaps, for bureaucrats, who are loath to let good deeds go unpunished. World Bank and United Nations bean counters are denouncing remittance transfer fees as exploitative. The U.S. C.F.P.B. has issued a rule to crack down on supposed fraud and exploitation affecting the existing remittance-transfer infrastructure.”

http://www.fee.org/the_freeman/detail/sending-money-home-technology-or-bureaucracy

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Understand the Emergence of the Marijuana Meme – Even In China

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Anthony-Wile1

“We can see once more how misleading it is to characterize countries as people. ‘China’ may seem to be monolithically opposed to legal marijuana but its entrepreneurial class is already anticipating the possibility of participating in a post-prohibition world. And in Canada, certain business interests are obviously pressuring the current regime to be more flexible about marijuana consumption, especially in small amounts. Analyze political behaviors or entrepreneurial activities from the standpoint of culture and people rather than ‘lines on a map.’ When it comes to marijuana or any other industrial trend – large or small – a look behind the “curtain” is both beneficial and enlightening.”

http://www.thedailybell.com/editorials/35584/Anthony-Wile-Look-to-Human-Action-to-Understand-the-Emergence-of-the-Marijuana-Meme-Even-in-China/

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Bourgeois Dignity featuring Deirdre McCloskey

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“Economist and historian, Deirdre McCloskey, discusses why the explosion of widespread wealth in the west was the result of changes in rhetoric about markets and free enterprise finally became enthusiastic and encouraging of their inherent dignity.”

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BusinessWeek: The Death of Equities [1979]

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“The huge declines in U.S. stocks in recent months have revived interest in a BusinessWeek cover story from August 1979 entitled ‘The Death of Equities.’ At the time the story was written, the stock market had sustained serious losses and the long-term health of the U.S. economy was a significant concern.  Few, if any, market forecasters were willing to call a recovery at the time, and the story provides a telling look at how inflation had ravaged the market landscape—and investor psychology—at the close of the 1970s. So step back in time with us and read BW’s take on the state of the market in August 1979.”

http://www.businessweek.com/stories/1979-08-13/the-death-of-equitiesbusinessweek-business-news-stock-market-and-financial-advice

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