Since the details of the NSA programs became publicly known a short time ago, already there are signs of market pressures being brought to bear to curtail the actions of the agency and its partner companies.

What is the purpose of telecommunication and internet surveillance?

Of the many crimes that have been committed by governments against their citizens in their global war on cash (also here), perhaps this is the most bizarre. Here is the story

Peter Klein mentioned the Acemoglu-Robinson book, so I thought my review of it might be of interest:

Block, Walter E. 2013. “A 1,000-Year Tour,” Book review of Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity and Poverty, by Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson. Crown Business, 544 pages; Barron’s,

February 4; http://online.barrons.com/article/SB50001424052748703892404578269870031384986.html

Steve Hanke is a maverick free-market economist who for decades has tirelessly advised de-socializing and developing countries against following the disastrous monetary and fiscal policies foisted on them in exchange for bailouts by international bureaucracies like the IMF and World Bank. Hanke’s latest efforts have been directed toward debunking inflation statistics fabricated by governments of developing countries that are trying to cover up the consequences of their highly inflationary or even hyper-inflationary monetary policies.

This quotation appeared on my Facebook page (lifted from Robert Higgs and sourced as Psalm 26:11) and is dedicated to  Keynesians of all stripes:

“As a dog returneth to his vomit, so a fool returneth to his folly.” Psalm 26:11.

      Once upon a time, before Hitler, Stalin, FDR, Juan Peron, and even before Mussolini and Lenin came on the world scene, there lived a man named Dr. Karl Lueger (1844–1910), who was protector of the common man a proponent of social justice, and the mayor of Vienna from 1897 to 1910. Not simply just a mayor, Lueger was a symbolic figure—a prototype of the twentieth- century populist politician who passionately fought for the “little people” and mastered the arts of making propaganda, courting nationalism, and promoting the public welfare.