Ground Control to Major Tom

It was bound to happen. I hoped however; I hoped that things may be changing. I was on cloud 9 a few days ago; amazing what less than 48 hours and a dose of reality can do for the mind. The House veto on the bailout may all be for not. The Senate early this morning voted FOR, by a margin of 74-25, the somewhat altered buy ultimatley the same bullshit bailout bill. Might as well call this bill "Stick it to the American taxpayer." The same flawed logic of how artificially low interest rates would "stimulate" the market is being used for this bailout. The idea that letting the credit markets correct naturally is "to risky" is the logic in DC. I thought that the government interference into the market by creating Fannie and Freddie and the absolute failure of them would teach our government something; apparently I was banking on a majority of politicians learning from past mistakes and having some foresight; I'll pause there to give you time to laugh histarically at that.

Here is the unattractive truth people; were are in a recession now and it will get worse, much worse. This bailout will make it 10 times worse. We were in for a bad year or two, the way we are going its going to turn into a bad decade. The Austrian theory of the business cycle predicted all of this. If people were to read Ludwig von Mises and Murray Rothbard they would think they were reading a modern day Nostradamus. Except Rothbard and Mises actually predicted something and made accurate assessments. So I guess nothing like Nastradamus actually; but you get my point. The sad part is that both presidential candidates are in support of this bill. Sadder still is the blame that free market capitalism is getting because of this. The problem is that Republicans gave lip service to free market speech but when they were elected did not make any real free market reforms. They simply made more loop holes and advantages for corporations and gave tax incentives to some businesses while neglecting others. They operated state capitalism, also called corporatism. Where private business and government get in bed together and make deals for each of their benefits. When government and business crawl into bed together, the offspring that it would unleash on the world would make even the most extreme conservative scream for it to be aborted. Under a truly free market system these businesses would have to operate solely on competition and would not be given government aid or advantage.

The problem was not lack of regulation; far from it. The real crooks are the businesses and government that made these back door deals and artifically manipulated the market. Under the truly free market system where competition sets the standard all these risky loans and maleinvestment would not have been made on this scale. And if maleinvestments were made the people who gave the loans and those who did not hold up to their ends of the deal would be held responsible; not every single honest hard working American. That is the beauty of the market; responsibility. As the Austrian economist and champion of liberty Frederick Hayek once said

"Liberty not only means that the individual has both the opportunity and the burden of choice; it also means that he must bear the consequences of his actions. Liberty and responsibility are inseparable."

It is safe to say I have come off of my high from a few days ago. My plane is taxiing into the airport and my tray table in front of me is in its upright and locked position. Too bad the landing gear doesn't working and the government is the pilot with the Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke as co-pilot. What's even worse is that all of you are on this plane with me. The only question left is how we land. Do we make an immediate crash landing on the tarmack? Do we land it as soft as we can in an open field or a body of water ? Well if what we are seeing unfold infront of us is any clue my money is on the pilots driving straight into the impending mountain right in front of us. Hope you have a parachute.

In Liberty,
Mr. Jefferson

"It is always from a minority acting in ways different from what the majority would prescribe that the majority in the end learns to do better."
-Frederick Hayek

Obamaholics and McCainiacs: Two Sides of the Same Side.

In light of the recent "debate", and I use that term very loosely, I would like to examine the stances of both Sen. Obama and Sen. McCain.

Support a withdrawl of US troops from the Middel East and the rest of the world?
Obama-No McCain-No

Opposed to the theft of 350 million Americans that has been generously titled a "bailout?"
Obama-No McCain-No

Want to lower taxes across the board for all citizens regaurdless of income?
Obama-No McCain-No

Promise to never raise taxes?
Obama-No McCain-No

Want to return to a sound economic policy with dollars backed by gold?
Obama-No McCain-No

Discuss monetary policy and the Federal Reserve's role in it?
Obama-No McCain-No

Want to decrease the size and power of government?
Obama-No McCain-No

Curb government spending?
Obama-No(hell its his entire campaign goal) McCain-No

Want to abolish the Patriot Act outright? Not alter it, but ABOLISH IT?
Obama-No McCain-No

Fight inflation?
Obama-No McCain-No

Talk about inflation and/or its causes and effects on our dollar?
Obama-No McCain-No

Promise "change" so much they are now beating an entire stable of dead horses to death?
Obama-YES McCain-YES

Want real change in econmic, fiscal, social and foreign policy?
Obama-No McCain-No

Want to abolish the IRS and get rid of the crippling income tax?
Obama-No McCain-No

Want the government to absorb more and more responsibilities of the private sector?
Obama-YES McCain-YES

Want government to spend more money on any given goal?
Obama-YES McCain-YES

Want the government to regulate more of our economic and personal interactions?
Obama-YES McCain-YES

Are both horrible choices for president?
Obama-YES YES YES McCain-YES YES YES

Notice a pattern here? Most of the topics I listed THEY DO NOT EVEN TALK ABOUT! The only differences these two candidates have is what they want to spend government money on. Neither of them want to lower everyone's taxes and give power of choice back to the consumer. Obama wants the Nanny-State to run everything from education to healthcare. Because apprently the state has done such a bang up job on running the war, the economy and is responsible with our tax dollars.....o wait.

Sen. McCain pays lip service to conservative fiscal policy but wants to create a government oversight commitee called the Mortgage and Financial Institution's Trust; or as he called it then MFI. I will link the video of that at the end of this article. How Sen. McCain are you going to decrease government size, power and spending by creating another damn committe?

Other than what they want to spend your money on, there is next to nothing that separtes these two. Infact they agree on a lot of the same actions, such as the bailout, more government spending etc. The specifics are irrelivant because the constant for both is more government, more spending, same intrusive foreing policy, same broken monetary policy and more telling US the people how WE the people can act.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3qLefrvxbq8

In Liberty,
Mr. Jefferson

"In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock."
-Thomas Jefferson