Liberty Blog

4/29/09

Essentially, war increases the size and scope of government. Government usurps economic and civil liberties for the "safety of society". Military spending increases, and compulsory service becomes more probable. It's for these reasons that war should always be a last resort.

During wartime, people increase their support for government, and thus they are less inclined to challenge the state's actions, even when those actions have little to do with war. From 2002 to 2007, defense spending rose about 60 percent according to government figures. Note that, during this same time period, non-defense spending increased 24 percent, when people let down their guard to support their troops and the war. The government expands under the guise of national defense against foreign enemies. Murray Rothbard wrote - "It is in war that the State really comes into its own; swelling in power, in number, in pride, in absolute dominion over the economy and the society".

War hurts economic growth as well. Spending money on war machines can improve efficiencies because of demand. Improvement in building planes, trucks and miscellaneous parts might be a good thing overall, but the sum is still a net loss because it costs valuable resourses to fuel planes, ship out troops, and bury the dead, as opposed to freeing capital for the private sector. Essentially, we fail to see the decline in economic activity stemming from the added taxes needed to pay for war machines. We fail to see the things people can do or buy because the government takes those goods and reallocates them in a less efficient manner. Only the conqueror benefits from war, and at a very hefty price.

9/17/08

In Rome, from 218 AD to 268 AD, was the first recorded hyperinflation episode known to man. In order to pay for their large, increasing army and building projects, the Roman government raised taxes, but higher taxes soon lead to tax evasion and discouraged economic activity. The taxes were decreased, but government spending exceeded the tax revenues. The government then decided to debase the currency from gold and silver to copper and other cheaper metals and sometimes even decreased the size and weight of their currency. The result was a corresponding increase in prices, which lead government officials to blame the price increases on the greed of the merchants.

Emperor Diocletian further debased the currency to bolster his army against the rising barbarian attacks. In 301 AD, prices rose again. Emperor Diocletian passed a price control law, effectively setting the prices of numerous goods. A contemporary example would be a price control on oil for $1.00/gallon. This may fix short-term inflation, but everyone would be able to afford significantly more gas, which would result in a shortage of supply. Some people would end up with nothing and/or wait in very long lines. Actually, America continues even today to experiment with price controls (interest rates).

Returning to the example of Diocletion, price controls irrevocably altered the very market they were intended to control, such that the lack of profit incentives stifled the respective trade. Compensating efforts were equally dismal. Accordingly, merchants stopped selling goods, but Diocletian countered with laws against hoarding. After people subsequently went out of business, Diocletion countered again by passing a law that forced every man to pursue the profession of his father. The result was merely to turn free men into serfs.

Another known hyperinflation episode began in 1923 to the French Ruhr Valley, a very resource-rich industrial area in Western Europe. During the latter part of this period, the government directly increased the money supply by printing so much fiat paper money that the currency became virtually worthless. The people fervently bought up as many goods as possible, since their currency would soon be used as tinder for fires in their homes. From this episode was coined the term "a wheel barrow full of money".


“Paper is poverty…it is only the ghost of money, and not money itself.” - Thomas Jefferson

Hyperinflation: A period of rapid inflation that leaves a country's currency virtually worthless.

This plan has been circulating the internet

1. Repeal the Federal Reserve Act of 1913. This would provide and instant end to the $9 trillion dollar US debt currently owed to the Fed for borrowing our own money that they merely print.
2. Repeal the Income Tax Act of 1913 which exists to pay the interest on the debt to the Fed.
3. Process the Articles of Impeachment filed (and still pending) for conspiracy, fraud, unlawful conversion and treason in 1934 by Congressman Louis McFadden, the chairman of the House Banking and Currency Committee, against the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve Bank, the Comptroller of the Currency and the Secretary of the Treasury.
4. So everyone would know, publish the words of Congressman McFadden spoken to Congress in 1934:
“…we have in this Country one of the most corrupt institutions the world has ever known. I refer to the Federal Reserve Board and the Rederal Reserve Banks, hereinafter called the Fed. The Fed has cheated the Government of these United States and the people of the United States out of enough money to pay the Nation’s debt. The depredations and iniquities of the Fed has cost enough money to pay the National debt several times over.

“This evil institution has impoverished and ruined the people of these United States, has bankrupted itself, and has practically bankrupted our Government. It has done this through the defects of the law under which it operated, through the maladministration of that law by the Fed and through the corrupt practices of the moneyed vultures who control it.

“Some people think that the Federal Reserve Banks are United States Government institutions. They are not. They are private monopolies which prey upon the people of these United States for the benefit of themselves and their foreign customers; foreign and domestic speculators and swindlers; and the rich and predatory money lenders. In that dark crew of financial pirates there are those who would cut a man’s throat to get a dollar out of his pocket; there are those who send money into states to buy votes to control our legislatures; there are those who maintain International propaganda for the purpose of deceiving us into granting of new concessions which will permit them to cover up their past misdeeds and set again in motion their gigantic train of crime.”

5. Confiscate the total assets of the Federal Reserve Bank thereby effectively returning all the credit, liquidity and wealth that were stolen from the American people in 1913, 1933, 1964 and 2008.

Imagine that. With the mere stroke of a pen on a single piece of paper, Congress, with or without the President, could effectively:
- return all of the people’s wealth.
- end the greatest financial scam in history which will otherwise inevitably lead to tyranny, oppression and the destruction of world order.
- restore the dignity of the American people by abandoning satanic principles such as debt, instant gratification and avoidance of responsibility.
- restore dignity AND SOLVENCY to our children and grandchildren. The deeds to THEIR home should never again call them a TENANT.
- end the vile satanic Internal Revenue Service scam that has literally destroyed the lives of hundreds of thousands of honest Americans and transferred the wealth of a nation to a private banking cartel.