The movie is set in 2016 as the United States is on the brink of economic disrepair, eerily paralleling the current U.S. economic crisis. Young executive, Dagny Taggart, runs one of the largest remaining railroads. To save the railroad from financial ruin, Dagny seeks out entrepreneurial industrialist Henry Rearden, whose super-strength metal holds the promise of the future.  As government interference cripples economic growth, the country’s most competent and productive workers systematically disappear, expanding the realm of government influence and control. Dagny fights back against the growing influence of socialism.

Below you will find a short Q&A with Harmon Kaslow, producer of the film:

Q: Can you provide some opening comments about Atlas Shrugged: Part 1?

A: We are extremely proud of Part 1. We put together an amazing team and had an incredible experience adapting the novel. We learned a lot through the process and are very excited about proceeding with Part 2.

Q: Did the production time impose any constraints on the film? Were there any things you wished you could have done but weren’t able to?

A: John Aglialoro’s journey from acquiring the rights in 1992 to financing the production in 2010 is a fascinating story that is consistent with the novel’s themes of individualism. This is one of America’s greatest novels, yet no one but John had the courage to finance its production. So we had to proceed as an independent production and use our limited financial resources wisely. We also had a ticking clock that forced us to start production prior to June 15, 2010 or risk losing the rights. All the while, we had in our hearts a desire to adapt faithfully the book into a movie that would be entertaining and true to Ayn Rand’s message. Given these variables, my focus was on getting all of the moving parts that go into producing a motion picture in place so that the production team had what they needed to remain as faithful to Ayn’s vision as possible under the circumstances. John and the rest of the team were supportive and up to the challenge. We’re never going to be able to please everyone but one thing we know for sure: we did what everyone said was absolutely impossible – MADE ATLAS SHRUGGED INTO A MOVIE. Opinions vary but again, we are extremely proud of Part 1 and have every intention of making a great Part 2.

Q: Was the film tailored at all to tap into recent political events?

A: We wanted to adapt faithfully the book. So when you see things relating to what’s happening today, those are events that we thought could occur. What’s interesting is that many of the events we thought might happen … are happening. You have to go back and remember what the world was like in April/May 2010 when we were writing the screenplay. While there were conflicts in the Middle East, the implosion we’re experiencing now was not happening. The book is prophetic, and if you understand its message and add a bit of creativity and thought, Brian O’Toole and John Aglialoro, the screenwriters, did an excellent job in setting the foundation and context of where and when the events in our adaptation were taking place and gave us an authentic view of what the near future might look like. We dated the film September 2, 2016 and many of the things we projected might happen are happening now. A lot of these things are coming to fruition a lot sooner than any of us expected, which shows that Atlas Shrugged remains an incredibly relevant piece of literature.

Q: Do you think the message is crucial given our current political and policy environment?  

A: When it comes to the politics of Atlas Shrugged, the message really hits a wide group of people who believe that self reliance is the key to happiness and true liberty. This is about a movement back to the role of reason in human life, and the role of government and the citizen. I believe the movie does a great job of illustrating the power of the individual.

Q: Do you believe that Rand was actually prescient or just possessed a preternatural understanding of human behavior?  

A: Ayn Rand was not born in America. Apparently, she had some life-changing experiences in Russia before coming to America which inevitably impacted and shaped her view of this great country and all that it offered. She had experienced, first hand, a different form of government, which most likely affected her view of the role of the government and the individual. She seemed to have a very sound understanding of America’s greatness. It seems like immigrants see the opportunities we tend to take for granted and she saw that opportunity was being quashed by the government and was courageous enough to tell us a story that would inspire us to not stand idle and let it happen.  What’s important to John and me is that the movie inspires people to read the book.

Q: How do you respond to critics of some of the Rand’s more salacious beliefs — her atheism, the extra-marital affairs, the “greed” — all of which appear to have been represented in the film?

A: We feel no way about Ayn Rand being an anything. We are very proud to have the opportunity to bring Ayn Rand’s magnum opus to the silver screen. It’s an incredible honor that we take very seriously, and we hope to do her justice. When John and I embarked on producing Part 1 staying true to book was of primary importance. So, there was never any reason to explore Ayn Rand’s personal position on the issues you mention above. More importantly, I think people of faith will find that the film, like the story, emphasizes cardinal virtues such as self-reliance, integrity, honesty, strength of character, liberty and justice.

Q: What has been your response to the Atlas Shrugged reviews?

A: We believe the successes and failures of Part 1 are entirely on us. We are extremely proud of the work we did on Part 1. We had an amazing team, and it was truly an incredible experience. We’re never going to be able to please everyone but one thing we know for sure… we did what everyone said was absolutely impossible – MADE ATLAS SHRUGGED INTO A MOVIE. Opinions vary but again, we are extremely proud of Part 1 and have every intention of making a great Part 2.

Q: With the upcoming elections in 2012, do you believe the film can provide any guidance for Americans?

A: Absolutely, Ayn Rand’s core message really revolves around respecting the rights of the individual – that’s where I think voters will find a real connection between the book and their political beliefs.

Q: Ayn Rand’s thoughts, as conveyed in Atlas Shrugged, have caused debate and discussion around the world and next to the Bible it’s one of the most widely sold books.  Why do you think it’s so important for the book to become a movie and for people to see it? 

A: These films are our best hope for bringing Ayn’s view to a culture that has never needed it more. Since 1957, Atlas Shrugged has inspired those who are intent on rationally living their lives for their own sake and, in the process, bettering the world around them. Since today’s generation gets most of their messaging from visual and sensory presentation rather than from the written word, this generation is ripe to experience the morality of individual responsibility and achievement through the medium of film.

Q: What would satisfy you most in terms of reception for the DVD/Blu-Ray release of the film?

A: People get their friends to watch the movie and then they buy the book and their lives are changed for the better.

Q: Will there be an Atlas Shrugged Part 2?

A: Without question. We know there’s been a lot of speculation as to whether or not we’d continue – all of it due to our own mixed messages – but I can tell you now, beyond a shadow of a doubt, we are fully committed on every front to getting part 2 done. It’s all systems go, and there’s no turning back.

The Immune reads like a movie that keeps you guessing until the very end. It could easily be a huge blockbuster big screen thriller someday. Of course, that is if those in Hollywood are able to overlook the anti-government and decidedly libertarian message of the story. The great thing about Doc Lucky’s story is that it remains true to the liberty message without being overly preachy. In other words, this is not an Ayn Rand novel. I do love reading Ayn Rand, but this is much more mainstream and accessible. In fact it could be used as a gentle introduction to the libertarian ideology for those just starting down that path.

The book explores privacy, gun rights, civil liberties, foreign policy, government health care, global governance, and more. There’s even an evil character that I can only guess was patterned after Nancy Pelosi.

The story follows physician John Long in the not so-distant future when bio-genetically manufactured organisms that resemble flying “man-o-wars” (called airwars) begin emerging all over the world and killing humans randomly. Long is an ordinary physician who is lucky enough to be immune to the stings of the airwars. This makes him supremely useful to the propaganda machine of an international governing body that uses the airwar crisis as an excuse to continually strip individual freedoms from the world’s citizens. Hmm… doesn’t that sound all-too-familiar? And that’s not all they try to strip away as you’ll find out when you read the book.

This is truly a wonderful first novel for Doc Lucky Meisenheimer. The Immune succeeds on several levels. It is both heavy and light. It works equally as a “beach book” page-turner, and as an intellectual pursuit of individual liberty. Perhaps some of those that utilize it as the former will morph into using it as the latter by the time the last page is read.

If you are going to pursue liberty you might as well have fun doing it. That’s what reading The Immune is all about. I can’t recommend it enough. Add it to your reading list now. You’ll thank me later.

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The Immune by Doc Lucky Meisenheimer goes on sale May 13th, 2011. To order and find out more, see http://www.theimmune.com/

Here is his GMA appearance:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQFV9nN91Oc

Here is his interview with Hannity on the radio:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-i0LbuS5KkM

Go, Rand, go.

It is certainly a sci-fi page turner with a fast moving plot and interesting characters. The novel juxtaposes two societies, a society with very little freedom and another that is about as libertarian as you can get. Byrd accomplishes this effort quite effectively without getting overly preachy. There are no multi-page John Galt style speeches. Byrd uses the plot to emphasize the free vs. non-free “fight” in a quite understated way.

I’m sure there are those that will balk that Byrd’s vision of a future where environmentalists control society in such a way, but that’s not really the point here as I see it. The point really is to illustrate that your individual freedom is being assaulted on all fronts, not just the obvious ones.

Yes, the climate change zealots are dangerous to your freedoms. Are they as dangerous as terrorists? Maybe more dangerous, maybe less, but I would argue that Byrd’s future vision is not too far from our future reality.

We may have slightly cleaner air, but at what cost? Is it worth it to live in a prison-like society to shave a degree or two off the global average?

The book makes a perfect, if not mischievous gift, for your favorite Left-leaning environmentalist friends, if you have any. Of course, fans of Ayn Rand, Robert Heinlein, and L. Neil Smith will find “The Light of Day” a wonderful addition to their libertarian fiction bookshelves.

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NOTE: If you use the links in the above article for purchasing books LibertyMaven.com gets a cut.

Now I’ll go into the preliminaries. Goyette gives up the goods in a methodical way. The book is divided into four sections: “Where we are”, “How we got here”, “What happens next”, and “What to do”.

For those that study Austrian economics and have read recent books such as Tom Woods excellent “Meltdown” much of the first part of the book will be a bit like preaching to the choir. However, for interested neophytes the book is a perfect introduction. In fact I feel that it has supplanted Tom Woods’ “Meltdown” as the one book to recommend to your curious but currently misinformed friends. If fact, having them read both books could be all the information they need.

For the more experienced readers the desire to skip directly to the final section of the book may be too much to resist. After all, most of us feel like we know why and how the economy collapsed at this point. What we do not know is what to do about it. Goyette does not disappoint.  He doesn’t tell you how to allocate your investments, but he makes very specific recommendations in the final section of the book, including where to find more information about each investment to research it for yourself.

I had first heard of Goyette during Ron Paul’s Presidential campaign of  2008. To me he was just another radio talk show host, but upon reading this, his first, book, I learned he is much more than just another conservative radio talk show host. He has a resume suggesting that he knows of what he writes. From his own bio page:

“With years of experience as a financial professional in the commodities, securities, currency and precious metals business, he has long been a participant in the national economic debate. In fact more than 25 years ago Charles arranged for a then little-known Texas Congressman to be the keynote speaker at a series of monetary conferences he hosted.”

Goyette’s liberty gene runs deep and his “Meltdown” may save your financial life someday. Even if it doesn’t, isn’t it worth $20, just in case?

Purchase Goyette’s “The Dollar Meltdown” at Amazon and LibertyMaven gets a cut.

It turns out he was not much more than the architect of the housing bubble which contributed greatly to the economic mess we are suffering through right now. He was the maestro of moral hazard.

Greenspan’s successor, along with his partner in the Treasury are traipsing down the same path. Bernanke and Geithner are the Dukes of Moral Hazard. Bernanke is Luke and Geithner is Bo.

While they tinker with the economy (General Lee) they are making life hell for the rest of us. We are a bunch of Rosco P. Coltranes to them.

What is this moral hazard that I speak of?

Moral hazard is the prospect that a party insulated from risk may behave differently from the way it would behave if it were fully exposed to the risk.

So the Dukes continue their bailouts, money printing, and money laundering just to keep the moral hazard government-sponsored Ponzi scheme afloat.

Meanwhile the dollars we are left with purchase less with every passing day. This is how our dearly beloved government can utilize the hidden tax of inflation to raise taxes. And they can do it without major public scorn since most do not understand that inflation is as evil a tax as the income tax.

There are a few things we can do to help people understand. First, make sure you contact your representative and request they cosponsor HR1207 or S604 to audit the Fed. Next, read Ron Paul’s newly released book, “End the Fed“. It will give you a deeper understanding of The Federal Reserve and arm you with persuasive arguments for abolishing it. Paul effectively ties the Fed to the general persistent growth of government and its intrusion in our lives.

With the Fed around there is no such thing as “limited” government. Government is a perpetual growth industry.

Aren’t we tired of this constant heavy hand regulating us into oblivion? It is high time for the people to stand up and regulate the government.

That would be change I could believe in.

One of the key ingredients in attaining some semblance of freedom is to become financially independent. A new book, “5 Steps To Freedom“, by Jeff Nabers and Phoebe Chongchua supplies us with some extremely effective tools to escape financial slavery. Take elements of Tom Wood’s “Meltdown“, Ron Paul’s “Manifesto“, and Peter Schiff’s “Crash Proof” all rolled into one and you come very close to describing “5 Steps To Freedom”.

The five high level steps are:

1. Measure
2. Move
3. Maintain
4. Multiply
5. Mention

The first portion of the book is an education on topics such as:

• How to evaluate your wealth by creating your own currency without using the fluctuating values of federal reserve notes as your only measure.
• Knowing what inflation is and how it affects your wealth.
• Why investing in precious metals like gold is a great way to help protect your existing wealth.
• How the government manipulates economic statistics to make us believe we are more prosperous than we really are.
• And much more.

The final part of the book gives us several case studies that demonstrate how we should think about investments. This portion is extremely useful because it shows how seemingly good investment ideas can end up being much more risky than you think. It’s an effective method to teach an investment mindset geared toward income rather than speculation-a running theme in the book.

The principles of freedom are apparent throughout the book. It becomes obvious, even before he is mentioned several times, that the authors are huge fans of Ron Paul. The book can be thought of as a no-nonsense guide to investing for libertarians and freedom-seeking individuals of all flavors.

The only negative regarding the book is that I found the transition between the first part and the case studies to be a bit like an infomercial, but once the case studies started that quickly disappeared. Jeff Nabers promotes the Solo 401K in the book, but he does so mostly by example and never tries to force it upon the reader. It is offered as a tool for those looking for an alternative, freedom-oriented investment direction.

The philosophy of liberty is an ongoing theme and applying that to investment decisions makes this book indispensable in today’s freedom-eroding world. I recommend it highly.

Purchase “5 Steps To Freedom” and be sure to visit the accompanying web site: 5StepsToFreedomBook.com for more information.  Your financial net worth will thank you later.

by Jake Towne, the Champion of the Constitution

Originally published Saturday, July 25, 2009 at http://www.nolanchart.com/article6666.html

Douglas Gnazzo’s 2008 book, Honest Money: A History of United States Gold and Silver Currency, is an essential add to the reading list of any serious student of monetary systems. Far shorter than the massive tome of Edwin Vieira’s hopefully-soon-to-be-reprinted Pieces of Eight at 226 pages, Gnazzo takes the reader on a pleasurable blitzkrieg through our country’s rich monetary history, from the founders and the Constitution to modern times. Perhaps the most enthralling section of the book is the closing chapters where Gnazzo’s gives his thoughts on a future commodity-based currency and, more importantly, how to transition there from where we are now. Like myself, Gnazzo has called for a national debate on the subject before it is too late.

Gnazzo splashes all the colors of the truth on the wall for his readers. He relates how our money was slowly debased by the politicians’ wars and those pesky central bankers who weeviled their way back into power after America’s first two central banks were destroyed. He relates how the destructive virus of public debt was sown in during the founding of our country chiefly by Alexander Hamilton, the Revolutionary war hero and mercantilistic servant of the aristocracy in America.

With patience, Gnazzo carefully explains the legal differences between currency, bills of credit, lawful money (still coins of gold and silver per the Constitution to this very day), and the public debt. He relates how Hamilton as Secretary of the Treasury, deliberately confused the bills of credit and public debt with lawful money, a distinction that should never have been made.

The key points he lists to remember when dealing with the national debt are:

• Federal Reserve Notes (bills of credit) circulate as currency by “fiat,” or decree
• Federal Reserve Notes are secured by U.S. Treasury Bonds (also bills of credit)
• Federal Reserve Notes “pay off” U.S. T-Bond principle & interest

His accurate conclusion? It is “all one big circular game of musical chairs.” Gnazzo is also quite the philosopher, and just one of the many insights I took from his book was the subject of this article “What is Wealth?”

Honest Money is available here in both PDF and audio book formats. I don’t wish to delve too deeply into the book, but I will say I have read a lot of literature on monetary systems over the past year, from Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations, Thomas Paine, the 1894 Coin’s Financial School from the silver Populist movement, to plenty of more modern authors like Rothbard’s critical works, Cleon Skousen, Milton Friedman, Antal Fekete, the Bill Bonner crew, Ferdinand Lips and Gary North. Gnazzo’s books tops them all for its combination of quality of research, intensity, and brevity. If I had to pick a single, medium-length 200-page book for the willing student of honest money to read/listen to, this would be the one. The prologue to the book can be read for free here.

The next installment of my Money Matrix series will attempt to synthesize learnings from Gnazzo’s book with Mises’ Human Action and current events in the US Treasury market.  For me, the implications derived from my studies have been profound.

P.S. What about a 50 pager version, you ask? Free download from Rothbard here. Please note I have made no financial gains (nor stand to make any!) from this book review.

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Jake Towne is running for U.S. Congress in Pennsylvania’s 15th District in the 2010 election as a citizen unaffiliated with any political parties.  Jake also writes at www.LibertyMaven.com and www.CampaignForLiberty.com.  A master campaign presentation for internet viewing is available.  A novel campaign website built by Raging Debate, TowneForCongress.com has recently opened. [Reach the Author Here!]

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Summary of Articles and Bibliography for Jake Towne, the Champion of the Constitution (7/2/2009)

by Jake Towne, the Champion of the Constitution

Originally published on Thursday, July 9, 2009 at http://www.nolanchart.com/article6610.html

Yesterday I was unpacking my books from China, a chore that took a few hours. I came upon a wonderfully illustrated, hardbound edition of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s “The Wreck of the Hesperus.” Unable to resist, I sat down and cracked it open – the copy is about 70 years old.  (photo1 photo2)

For a little background, Longfellow was a New Englander who lived seaside for much of his life from 1807-1882. Many of his poems have a rhythmic cadence, and he is also very well known for the poem “Paul Revere’s Ride.” Here is “The Wreck of the Hesperus:”

It was the schooner Hesperus,
That sailed the wintery sea;
And the skipper had taken his little daughter,
To bear him company.

Blue were her eyes as the fairy flax,
Her cheeks like the dawn of day,
And her bosom white as the hawthorn buds,
That ope in the month of May.

The Skipper he stood beside the helm,
His pipe was in his mouth,
And he watched how the veering flaw did blow
The smoke now West, now South.

Then up and spake an old Sailor,
Had sailed the Spanish Main,
“I pray thee, put into yonder port,
for I fear a hurricane.

“Last night the moon had a golden ring,
And to-night no moon we see!”
The skipper, he blew whiff from his pipe,
And a scornful laugh laughed he.

Colder and louder blew the wind,
A gale from the Northeast,
The snow fell hissing in the brine,
And the billows frothed like yeast.

Down came the storm, and smote amain
The vessel in its strength;
She shuddered and paused, like a frighted steed,
Then leaped her cable’s length.

“Come hither! come hither! my little daughter,
And do not tremble so;
For I can weather the roughest gale
That ever wind did blow.”

He wrapped her warm in his seaman’s coat
Against the stinging blast;
He cut a rope from a broken spar,
And bound her to the mast.

“O father! I hear the church bells ring,
Oh, say, what may it be?”
“Tis a fog-bell on a rock bound coast!” –
And he steered for the open sea.

“O father! I hear the sound of guns;
Oh, say, what may it be?”
Some ship in distress, that cannot live
In such an angry sea!”

“O father! I see a gleaming light.
Oh say, what may it be?”
But the father answered never a word,
A frozen corpse was he.

Lashed to the helm, all stiff and stark,
With his face turned to the skies,
The lantern gleamed through the gleaming snow
On his fixed and glassy eyes.

Then the maiden clasped her hands and prayed
That saved she might be;
And she thought of Christ, who stilled the wave,
On the Lake of Galilee.

And fast through the midnight dark and drear,
Through the whistling sleet and snow,
Like a sheeted ghost, the vessel swept
Tow’rds the reef of Norman’s Woe.

And ever the fitful gusts between
A sound came from the land;
It was the sound of the trampling surf,
On the rocks and hard sea-sand.

The breakers were right beneath her bows,
She drifted a dreary wreck,
And a whooping billow swept the crew
Like icicles from her deck.

She struck where the white and fleecy waves
Looked soft as carded wool,
But the cruel rocks, they gored her side
Like the horns of an angry bull.

Her rattling shrouds, all sheathed in ice,
With the masts went by the board;
Like a vessel of glass, she stove and sank,
Ho! ho! the breakers roared!

At daybreak, on the bleak sea-beach,
A fisherman stood aghast,
To see the form of a maiden fair,
Lashed close to a drifting mast.

The salt sea was frozen on her breast,
The salt tears in her eyes;
And he saw her hair, like the brown sea-weed,
On the billows fall and rise.

Such was the wreck of the Hesperus,
In the midnight and the snow!
Christ save us all from a death like this,
On the reef of Norman’s Woe!

In the past, the poem just brought thoughts of pity for the poor maiden and her headstrong father. This time though, an allegory struck me.

The Father/Skipper is the world’s central bankers and governments who have fastened us, say Lady Liberty or the maiden, to the mast using the bonds of fiat money. We too, may have little warning before the time arrives when we realize that the central bankers are powerless and frozen dead at the wheel.

For the time being, the charade made by the Money Masters is still in place, but the storm still rages on. Meanwhile they lie, saying that we are in deflation of -2%, when the truth is prices are inflating at a +6% rate. They say unemployment is 10%, or 9.6% like it’s some kind of going-out-of-business sale, when the truth is it’s at depression levels of 21%.

Of course their prime fear is a psychological realization of these facts by the population at large. Some have even told me that my writing is a disservice, as if the charade could be maintained forever.

The fact remains, it cannot. The US banking system is horribly insolvent. The $592 Trillion USD in notional derivatives contracts still hangs like the sword of Damocles above us. The prolonging of mass unemployment is, in a major fashion, due to government propping up the financial sector and housing bubble which should have – admittedly rather violently due to the machinations of the FED – collapsed back in 2007. However, a recovery would then have been rather swift, and the bankrupted firms quickly bought up by stronger hands. Instead the malaise spread to all other sectors of the economy.

In their desperation, the central bankers and world governments may turn to desperate delay tactics. At the G8 meeting this week, the Associated Press reports a group called United Future World Currency bribed [my terminology] world leaders with a gift commissioned by Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, 10 handmade books bound with silk and gold thread with a marble bas-relief for the covers. The group also included 10 coins made of gold, valued at about $4,000 each for each of the world leaders. Members of the group, per its website include Belgian central banker Luc Luycx and Italian central banker Guido Crapanzano.

It is extremely ironic that the gifts were made of true money, gold, and a lot of lip service is given to gold but the plans for the people would simply be the usual fiat, fractionally-reserved FRAUDULENT currency. See the design here, and logos here. Their website states that they are also seeking to destroy the anonymity of money, and make it completely traceable and have funded studies to “to study the potential for a new coin with a high level of protection against counterfeits. In short, an ‘intelligent coin’ that can communicate with mobile phones, give and receive inputs and be recognized as fake or authentic.” Privacy advocates, including myself, will be screaming bloody murder.

Perhaps the most laughable section of United Future World Currency’s website is the skewed version of monetary history written by Silvana Balbi de Caro. Ironically, the history still gives lip service and acknowledges that gold and silver have been money throughout all of human history. It even alludes to the uncontested fact that when the gold and silver coins are debased with base metals, it always coincides with the collapse of major empires. However, it skips the last 70 years of fiat monetary rule completely, and omits any admission of John Law, the Song dynasty’s disastrous experiments with paper money, the closing of the gold window by Nixon, hyperinflations due to paper currencies like Weimar in the 1920s, Argentina in the 1990s, and Zimbabwe today. It’s stupid conclusion:

“Yet global market mechanisms are knocking at the door: the boundaries that divide us today will seem too narrow for tomorrow’s generation. Old national currencies will seem a relic from the past. And the utopia of a universal currency will become reality.“

Always be wary when people speak of “utopia.” It would be a utopia for central bankers – a new money worldwide that they can inflate as evenly as they so please. However this misses a key fact.

Consumers, not central bankers, are the true sovereigns of market economies. The marketplace should choose the currency, and people should be free to use whatever they so wish as money. In our United States, gold and silver coins are the only forms of lawful money the government is allowed to issue, yet we trade worthless scraps of linen embedded with cyanide, arsenic and mercury, bills of credit known as Federal Reserve Notes, as if they were money when the reality is that FRNs are merely ghosts and shadows of true money.

The fact remains that there is only one surefire way of escaping the Hesperus before it wrecks. The bonds strapping you down can be cut with a blade forged of physical gold and silver. View buying a little physical gold and silver as calamity insurance because our trusty Skippers remain adamant to keep at sea as the perfect storm continues to rage.

For the Republic!

Jake Towne, the Champion of the Constitution

Special thanks to AH for the tip on United Future World Currency.

Jake Towne is running for U.S. Congress in Pennsylvania’s 15th District in the 2010 election as a citizen unaffiliated with any political parties.  Jake also writes at www.LibertyMaven.com and www.CampaignForLiberty.com.  A master campaign presentation for internet viewing is available. [Reach the Author Here!]

An interim campaign website is here while a dot com is being setup, due for release on July 15, 2009.

P.S. – The “Towne for Congress” Youtube Channel has just opened, you can view me give a speech on “Regaining Our Individual Rights” at the local July 3rd Tea Party rally here.  Text is here

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Summary of Articles and Bibliography for Jake Towne, the Champion of the Constitution (7/2/2009)

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This is not your usual Ron Paul video. He seems a bit uncomfortable being the one expected to initiate the questions, but as the discussion moves along he becomes more comfortable (or maybe it’s me that feels uncomfortable with Ron Paul in this role).

There were some fascinating moments. The discussion regarding Thomas Jefferson and how his presidency did not quite match his rhetoric was one of these moments. The discussion of Herbert Hoover and Woodrow Wilson are others. During the discussion we also find out which U.S. President Ron Paul thinks was the worst in history.

The full interview is embedded below. It is almost 60 minutes long. If you have problems with the video below you can watch it directly on youtube. There are some audio/video sync problems in part 5 (FYI).

The dollar truly is an illusion and gold is real money. Mayer’s book hammers this home in a profound way. One of the great things about the book is that it covers the fundamentals and history of money as we know it. If you ever wondered how the idea of fractional reserve banking came about then you should read this book. If you want an answer to the question, “What is money?”, then this book is for you.

Mayer utilizes several quotes from economists past and present to reinforce his points. He invokes the likes of Ron Paul, Lew Rockwell, Ludwig Von Mises, Alan Greenspan, and many others.

“The Great Credit Contraction” is a quick, educational, and enjoyable read and I highly recommend it.

I would venture to say that the book is the modern day equivalent of “Economics in One Lesson” by Henry Hazlit. While some of “Meltdown” is devoted to our current situation it is also filled with lessons in Austrian economic theory.  But it is not written for economists, it is written for you and me.

If you want to understand how we entered economic “bust” territory  it is easy to cast blame on the Federal Reserve and leave it at that. Woods does so in the book of course, but he goes farther. He refutes most, if not all, of the arguments commonly put forth against bringing back a gold or commodity standard. He successfully argues that abandoning hard money was a fundamental tectonic shift leading to the economic earthquake we are living through today.

One of the most convincing arguments (based on statistical reality) for a commodity monetary system in the book is written:

“But when Americans had a legitimate commodity standard, they had a money that held its value. In fact, it actually gained in value. An item that cost $100 in 1820 would have cost only $63.02 in 1913.” – Tom Woods

Deflation is also tackled in the guide. Woods argues that deflation is not the devil. In fact, he demonstrates that there is such a thing as “growth deflation”. Much of the book is of the “forget what you think you know” variety. Like John Stossel and Penn Jillette, Woods is a myth buster and bullshit detector. He just happens to focus on economic fallacies rather than the broad topics covered by Stossel and Jillette.

In addition to cited statistics, quotes, and facts, also lending credence to his arguments is that he casts blame not just on the Democrats for laws like the Community Reinvestment Act, but also on the big spending Republicans. There is certainly a lot of blame to go around these days, but Woods emphasizes that the real blame should be placed at the Federal Reserve’s doorsteps.

Once the Fed was born the free market in America died. It is the Fed’s job to regulate. The second you introduce regulation into the market, the free market is no longer free. Every economic decision or action from that point on becomes influenced in some way by the Federal Reserve. As Ron Paul argues with HR-1207, if we want to regulate something the target should be the Fed rather than private businesses and banks.

Tom Woods has written the perfect economic travel guide arriving on bookshelves at just the right time. This is required reading for everyone in America, so you better get started.