Sunday, May 20, 2012

Thousands Expected to Protest in Chicago Against NATO

Protesters gathering in Chicago for the NATO summit were gearing up for their largest demonstration Sunday, when thousands are expected to march from Chicago's Grant Park to the convention center where President Barack Obama and dozens of other world leaders will meet.

Hours before the main demonstration was set to start, protesters were already gathering at the park holding signs including one that read: "NATO, Go Home."

Both anti-war protesters and others affiliated with the Occupy movement are expected to march.

AP quotes a clearly statist-sympathizing Chicago economist:
"It's strange because downtown is empty," said Gabe Labovitz, a 44-year-old economist out for a walk near his home. "The police presence is reassuring but unnerving".
UPDATE: Turns out Labovitz IS a statist economist. He works for the Chicago Economic and Market Analysis Staff, which was formed "pursuant to Section 209 of Title II of the National Housing Act, which requires the Secretary of HUD to complete statistical surveys and economic studies that guide the development of housing and the creation of a sound mortgage market."

Title II of the National Housing Act was a key piece of legislation that acted as a catalyst that resulted in the subprime market crash.

As for Labovitz's statistical role. Government collecting statistics is always evil and simply leads to the blooming of more mad central planning ideas.

It should be noted that in booming Hong Kong hardly any statistics were kept by the government for decades:
In order to evaluate the speed and magnitude of post-war industrialization, one would normally turn to industrial production statistics, but in the case of Hong Kong this is impossible, for none exist. There is, in fact, a scarcity of published economic statistics of every kind, and a total absence of national income accounts. This situation is the direct result of the Government’s anachronistic economic policy, which attaches little value to comprehensive economic and social statistics.
Indeed a one time Hong Kong colonial administrator Sir John Cowperthwaite was decidedly against statistics keeping:
Asked what the key thing poor countries should do, Cowperthwaite once remarked, "They should abolish the office of national statistics." He refused to collect all but the most superficial statistics, believing they led the state to fiddle about remedying perceived ills, thus hindering the working of the market. This caused consternation: a Whitehall delegation was sent to find out why employment statistics were not being collected, but the financial secretary literally sent them back on the next plane [...] He opposed giving special benefits to business; when a group of businessmen asked him to fund a tunnel across Hong Kong harbour, he argued that if it made economic sense, the private sector would pay for it (as indeed it did).

1 comment:

  1. "NATO, Go Home"?? Newsflash: The American imperium is NATO's home, buddies..

    ReplyDelete