It is amazing that this system, jerrybuilt at Bretton Woods in 1944, is not only still tolerated but regarded as practically sacrosanct. Its paternity was not auspicious. Its two fathers were Harry Dexter White of the United States and Lord Keynes of England.
The fundamental question is, who is the owner of the funds paid in taxes? Is it the citizens, who have earned the funds and who turn them over under threat of being fined or imprisoned — or even killed — or is it the government?
Just as, for them, liberty must be the highest political end, peace must be the highest end of foreign policy.
I have not been persuaded by Mish's alternate framework. To be clear, I'm not arguing that Mish's fans should abandon their hero. Rather, I will simply point out that Mish's "calls" have not been nearly as prescient as he so often claims.
We must face the fact, once and for all, that the argument of economists against the draft, though correct as far as it goes, is hopelessly narrow and inadequate.
R.C. wouldn't tolerate news stories that referred to the "public schools," for example. His reporters were required to refer to them as "government schools." R.C. himself preferred the phrase "gun-run schools" and used it liberally on the editorial page.
On the contrary, the record of nearly every government in the world, in our time, is one of recurrent or continuous monetary inflation. It is to this monetary inflation that the apparent "successes" of full-employment policies are due.
This arms deal is aggressive and demeaning; and it in no way protects the interests of the United States. Until our military is completely out of the Arabian Peninsula, we cannot expect to make any peace with foreign nations.
Plans are already in the works to put the initiative back on the ballot for 2012, which is expected to have higher turnout from young people.
Plans are already in the works to put the initiative back on the ballot for 2012, which is expected to have higher turnout from young people. But in order for the ballot initiative to succeed, we must first understand why it failed.
