Liberty Maven

by John Browne, Senior Market Strategist, Euro Pacific Capital

According to ABC News:

As the midterm election season approaches, new road signs are popping up everywhere – millions of dollars worth of signs touting “The American Reinvestment and Recovery Act” and reminding passers-by that the program is “Putting America Back to Work.”

On the road leading to Dulles Airport outside Washington, DC there’s a 10′ x 11′ road sign touting a runway improvement project funded by the federal stimulus. The project cost nearly $15 million and has created 17 jobs, according to recovery.gov.

However, there’s another number that caught the eye of ABC News: $10,000. That’s how much money the Washington Airports Authority tells ABC News it spent to make and install the sign – a single sign – announcing that the project is “Funded by The American Reinvestment and Recovery Act” and is “Putting America Back to Work.” The money for the sign was taken out of the budget for the runway improvement project.

Continue article at ABCnews.com.

Statists constantly tell us that we need a huge government to protect us from business monopolies. But they fail to notice that The State is the biggest, baddest monopoly of them all, as well as a major reason why some companies grow so monstrously large.

Just consider the recent economic crisis. The politicians have raged against the banks, but government bailouts, regulations, and shot-gun mergers, have caused the banking industry to become more concentrated rather than less. This is standard operating procedure. Politicians and bureaucrats constantly speak with a forked tongue . . .

* They claim they’re protecting “the little guy” from “the fat cats,” when in reality . . .
* The State actually works for the fat cats (though in an unreliable Mafia kind of way).

A huge part of the business of politics involves conferring subsidies and special protections on favored companies and industries, making many of them near (or actual) monopolies that also happen to be “too big to fail.” Now here comes the latest example of monopoly creation by The State . . .

The Feds want to monopolize the user names and passwords that you employ on the Internet!

The so-called Department of Homeland Security, in cooperation with major corporations like Microsoft, has drafted what they call a “National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace.”

That sounds ominous, and it is. Will you be a “trusted entity,” or a distrusted one?

Read More »

You may notice the trend. As the letter below indicates, more and more aspiring politicians talk about limiting government to the confines of the Constitution. But the incumbents in Congress continue to ignore the Constitution when they write and pass their bills.

One way to cure them of their cluelessness is to pressure them to pass the Enumerated Powers Act. This short, simple bill will require that all bills cite their authority under the Constitution. This requirement will be a step in the right direction of rolling back the federal government to its Constitutional limits.

We’re asking you to . . .

1. Find out if your Representative or Senator has sponsored the Enumerated Powers Act
2. Send a letter to Congress telling them to pass it

You may borrow from or copy this sample letter (include a thank you to any of your reps who are already sponsors of this legislation) . . .

Read More »

The Associated Press is reporting that our Justice Department is going to be watching Arizona for any hints of racial profiling so that they can jump in with another lawsuit against the state.

Interestingly, on Election Day November 2008, the members of the New Black Panthers raised cane with voters at a polling place in Philadelphia wearing uniforms and brandishing billy clubs. The same Justice Department, after looking into the matter, dropped prosecution of the people involved, leading federal prosecutor J. Christian Adams to resign from the Justice Department in protest.

If it had been white supremacists intimidating voters by waving Bibles in the air they would have prosecuted them; if it had been Ku Klux Klan Grand Dragons (the late Robert Byrd excluded) intimidating voters with burning crosses they would have prosecuted them; if it had been Aryan Nation members toting guns they would have prosecuted them. But it wasn’t, it was an angry horde of black supremacists intimidating voters and trying to distract poll workers so that A.C.O.R.N. members could vote illegally, and that was okay.

By practicing federal intimidation of states, our Justice Department, led by Eric Holder, is using its own form of racial profiling – or should I say racist profiling – to decide who and who not to prosecute.

Welcome to Obama’s America 2010.

The Senate will vote on the  Frank-Dodd financial (non)reform bill (H.R. 4173) this week and possibly as soon as today. Although it has the votes to pass, it doesn’t yet have the 60 votes needed to break a filuster.

This bill will only strangle our already-ailing economy, and will do nothing to prevent future financial collapses or bailouts. Please tell your Senators to support the filibuster and oppose Frank-Dodd through our Reduce Regulations campaign.

You may borrow or copy from this letter . . .

Read More »

Ron Paul discusses Michael Steele, foreign policy, politics, and the Afghanistan war on CBS.

Watch CBS News Videos Online

Today presents a fantastic fundraising opportunity for the Liberty movement. Justin Amash, who recently won the endorsement of the Club for Growth, is described by the press as being a serious contender in a two-way race. Amash’s status as a viable candidate is bolstered by recent attacks in the established media against his campaign.

For those who are interested in donating to Amash, a popular message circulating the internet has been posted below. It outlines over 20 reasons as to why one should donate to this campaign.

1 – Ron Paul has endorsed Amash, calling him “one of the most principled young leaders I have seen in a generation.”
2 – Justin Amash supported Ron Paul in 2008, donating over $1000 to his campaign.
3 – Amash has a great chance of winning, with the Grand Rapids Press calling the primary a “two-man race.” With no incumbent and a conservative district, winning the primary virtually guarantees his election.
4 – The big-government GOP establishment is supporting his opponent.
5 – He’s the only legislator to post all of his votes on Facebook in real-time! If you don’t think he’s a true defender of liberty, just see for yourself!

Read More »

by John Downs, Assistant Manager of the Los Angeles branch of Euro Pacific Capital

Although China is not the biggest economy in the world by GDP, (it is third, after growing a remarkable 8.7 percent last year), its exports are increasingly seen as the needed lifeline for many shaky economies. But as China plots its future as the world’s largest exporter, it must be of some concern to them that their top two clients (the US and EU) are broke. As a result, China knows that it will have to look beyond developed markets for continued growth.

While a rebalancing of the Chinese economy towards domestic consumption is increasingly evident, the Chinese are also aggressively focusing investments toward emerging markets. By securing precious natural resources, developing infrastructure and deepening trade relations with the developing world, the Chinese are lessening their economic dependence on the mature markets of the US and EU.

In the developing world, China’s influence is hard to miss. Direct trade agreements with Brazil (China is its largest trade partner) and Argentina reflect its growing influence in South America, long considered the United States’ sphere of influence. Africa has experienced influx of Chinese investment, with resource-for-development contracts being signed with several African countries. Unlike the West, China rarely let’s other interests trump commerce. China has concluded agreements with international pariah states like Sudan, Iran and Venezuela. The warm welcome these countries receive in Beijing stands in sharp contrast to the reception many Chinese companies have received on American shores – just ask CNOOC.

But nowhere is China’s growing influence felt more than in its own backyard.

Read More »

An interesting discussion is ongoing at Daily Kos over the merits of Keynesian economic thought.

VA Classical Liberal writes:

If John Maynard Keynes and F.A. Hayek got into a fight, who’d win?

If it was a real knock-down, drag-out brawl, my money would be on Keynes. At 6’ 6”, he’s got the size, the weight and the reach. Hayek couldn’t lay a glove on him.

But what if they were cutting heads and throwing down rhymes? Then, Keynes could have a real fight on his hands.

You can read the rest of the discussion, and comment, here.