Breaking down a really economically illiterate article by Caitlin Johnstone, who has some good positions (on say, censorship and government surveillance) but economics apparently isn’t one of them…
I watched a great video from Michael Boldin over at the Tenth Amendment Center the other day. Even though it was one of their shorter “Fast Friday” episodes, Michael touched on a very interesting topic: happiness and freedom. He argued that the Founders placed extreme value on freedom, to the point where several of them said things to the effect of: “You cannot be truly happy unless you are free.” That simple but profound statement got me thinking.
The structure and details of investing is one place pop “economists” seem to love to be ignorant. For example, we have the eminent Thomas Piketty, who says the return on investment in capital exceeds the overall rate of growth of the economy. We’ll get into that in more detail in a minute, but first let’s start with a great example of what he’s missing: the potential downsides of investment.
First off, I cannot recommend highly enough this recent episode of the Scott Horton Show. Scott talks to Matt Taibbi about the recent court order (released on July 4, 2023) that prevented the Feds from asking social media websites to censor you.
One clear-as-day indicator that the state is out of control is its desire for censorship.
Now, a “good” state (if such a thing is possible) is not interested in forcing the people to think a certain way about any particular issue. If it does anything, it provides facts or arranges for round-tables where a variety of perspectives are discussed.
The state loves to regulate the market. They often couch their regulations in words like “efficiency,” “savings,” and “choice,” but the fact is that all their regulations can do is impede the efficiency of the market, force savings where consumers want better solutions, and eliminate choices.
There has been a lot of noise about some recent tweets by the Libertarian Party of New Hampshire. Apparently they’re too edgy.
I’m here to provide a different perspective. Enjoy the video!