Fresh produce 10.16.09

A lot of links today! Interventionism, the nanny state, and bureaucratic hubris are alive and well. Our colony in Asia... not so much.

1. Consumers can't buy any big screen TV they want, but Hummer is still in business (for now).

2. Australian children under two aren't allowed to watch "too much" TV, says the state.

3. This story foreshadows what will happen when entitlement payments are slashed en masse... You see similar human behavior in this scenario as well.

4. The latest "right" to be bestowed by a government to its people is broadband internet. Upon creation of this new legal right, injustice is created all over the world.

5. FRONTLINE over at PBS does an excellent job of reporting on Obama's war in Afghanistan. It settled the debate for me of whether or not the US is engaged in nation-building.

Fresh Produce 8.5.09

1. The New Reality on Wall St., or, why the stock market will keep rallying.

2. Gary North explains why the Fed is afraid of Ron Paul - and the American people - very clearly. Highly recommended.

3. The UK government plans to install CCTV cameras in the homes of 20,000 "problem families". I kid you not.

4. John Stossel brings attention to a great Barron's article and the problem of the Cake Party. We will be eating spinach for some time, basically.

Fresh produce 7.31.09

1. The chaos that is "Cash for Clunkers".

2. Goldman Sach's record profits (and bonuses) are essentially subsidies. That is to say, their profits are taxpayer dollars.

3. John Stossel ponders outlawing cigarettes. Why not?

4. Capitalism, Jewish Achievement, and the Israel Test: Is Israel a capitalist beacon in the Middle East?

Fresh produce 6.25.09

Mish has a fantastic post today using Dr. Seuss to explain economic realities.

1. Thidwick the Big-Hearted Moose, an illustrated tale.

2. While the Fed is getting more power, no one is forcing them to face the consequences of a recent cover up.

3. Spezify is a very interesting new search engine. Compare it to Wolfram Alpha and Bing. Or the classic.

4. Legislators in Cali want to pay for their debts in IOU's. My question is, who in their right mind would lend them money?

Fresh Produce 6.9.09

1. Does the current US govt hate business? "The economically illiterate partisan Democratic view is that this practice is unpatriotic and bleeds jobs from the U.S. The economic reality is that American companies use this approach to acquire market share overseas. The alternative is losing the business to foreign competitors."

2. "The Federal Reserve intends to hire a veteran lobbyist as it seeks to counter skepticism in Congress about the central bank’s growing power..." Apparently Ron Paul is having an effect.

3. This interview with Gerald Celente conjures images of Ozymandias in Watchmen with all his video feeds. Excerpt: "Washington has declared 'Economic Martial Law'. Wall Street is putting Main Street out of business. The key to watch is Christmas sales. They’ll fail. Christmas will be when reality sets in."

4. A Socratic dialogue on free markets and social welfare. One of the studies quoted therein:

A conservative estimate of the welfare gain to a moderately skilled worker in the median country of our sample moving to the US is P$10,000 per worker, per year, roughly double income per capita of the developing world in aggregate.

Barriers to entry in labor markets keep people poor and unemployed. Unintended consequence, of course.

Fresh produce from the link farm 6.3.09

Lots of interesting new stuff today:

1. New Federal regulations for 2009 cost taxpayers over $1,000,000,000,000 (trillion)!

2. Third-largest US life insurance company buys $400 million worth of gold, for the first time in its 152 year history.

3. "Our wallet is empty. Our bank is closed. Our credit is dried up." - Arnold Schwarzenegger, and California, face reality.

4. 3 great videos: Smart car vs. normal car, the future is now, and a tremendous display of artistic abilities.

Fresh produce from the link farm 6.2.09

1. Romania's former communist car czar writes about his experience.

2. Gerald Celente is excellent in "Looking Back On The Greatest Depression".

3. John Stossel compares economic stimulus to "Pyramids, earthquakes, and wars".

4. Russel Roberts over @ Cafe Hayek doesn't understand why the media cares so much about Obama's personal expenditures. The more the better, right?

5. Peter Schiff's first "political" talk. He tells the Libertarian Party candidates not to run in the Libertarian Party. Worth a look.

Fresh produce + what lies ahead 5.31.09

1. Germany may amend its constitution to ban budget deficits.

2. Russian perspective on American Marxism in 2009.

3. Bond vigilantes. Excerpt:

“There’s becoming an embedded inflationary premium in the bond market that wasn’t there six months ago,” Gross said yesterday in an interview at a conference in Chicago.

The US government is stuck in a very dangerous situation. They have chosen to prop up existing financial institutions with trillions of dollars, yet there are only three ways to get that money: raise taxes, borrow it, or print it. After decades of deficit spending the USA is now unable to raise taxes without strangling growth, borrow money without investors demanding higher interest rates, or print money without risking severe inflation.

The simplest solution is to face the reality that there is no money left for entitlements. The people and the government are to blame for attempting to live beyond their means for so many decades. Germany is cutting spending massively - Obama is spending $634 billion as a down payment on universal health care entitlements. It does not appear to me that the US government is even considering facing the reality that there is no money left for entitlements.

4. The government took on $6.8 trillion in new obligations in 2008, pushing the total owed to a record $63.8 trillion.

Someone will have to pay for this. Maybe this generation, maybe the next generation, but reality will eventually make its presence felt. Unfortunately in this case it will not be gentle.

Fresh produce from the link farm - 5.28.09

1. Green totalitarianism.

2. Balanced perspective of wealth discrepancy in the USA.

3. Where did the TARP money go?

4. Treasury yields rise (see chart), China worried but agrees to keep buying US debt. Of course it doesn't make much of a difference because we'll always have someone to buy our debt.

Fresh, fresh links 5.22.09

Moody's making some realistic assessments, good sci-fi reads, Peter Schiff marginalized, and a lively exchange between a lefty pundit and Ron Paul (as T.O. would say, get your popcorn ready!).

1. The top 10 libertarian science fiction stories.

2. Time Magazine doesn't take kindly to Peter Schiff.

3. Ed Schultz (who?) "debating" Ron Paul on the merits of the Department of Education and Department of Agriculture.

4. Downgrade, downgrade, downgrade, and then maybe downgrade some more!

Fresh produce from the link farm - 5.20.09

Russia's revisionist history, gold coming out of ATM's, our soon to be booming auto industry, and Ron Paul's state of the union address, sort of.

1. "He who controls the present, controls the past. He who controls the past, controls the future."

2. Why auto sales will skyrocket.

3. Where gold comes out of ATM's.

4. Current conditions or just a bad dream?

Fresh produce from the link farm

Today's produce has an artistic flair: choir, acting, drawing, and literature. They are plays on the theme of "totalitarianism" and control, a topic which has always fascinated me.

1. We're gonna spread happiness and freedom, we're gonna change it, we're gonna rearrange it, we're gonna change the world. Yes we can! (Other leaders have cheering squads to greater and lesser degrees obviously, but I couldn't find anything for other US presidents. If anyone does please send me a link.)

2. Fred Thompson absolutely kills it here breaking down exactly why spending more money will get us out of debt. He summarily ends the debate between Austrians and Keynesians. Hilarious.

3. A satirical look at the "Glorious Revolution of 1917", using the medium of cartoon.

4. A powerful short story about individuality, by Kurt Vonnegut.

PS - here's a fruit bat. So cool.

Browse away... you can browse away...

That's like the Pixies' song, you know... "Gouge Away". Anyway, enjoy:

1. Not a very happy story (video).

2. The risk of debt.

3. Actual facts about Canadian health care.

4. Socialists feel the time is ripe.