Medicare and Medicaid A Fifty Year Retrospective

Murray Sabrin emails:

My latest documentary will be shown on Nov. 18, 7pm in Friends Hall (Student Center 219) at Ramapo College. To RSVP, msabrin@ramapo.edu.  http://www.ramapo.edu/asb/medicare-and-medicaid-a-fifty-year-retrospective/

By popular demand, I will be a guest on Julie Briggs' Political Roundtable on Sunday (November 8) at 11am, WMTR, 1250AM. We will discuss the presidential race and other issues affecting the New Jersey and national economies.

  -RW

Murray Sabrin: ‘Big Cancer’ and How the Pharmaceutical Industry Affects Treatment

Dr. Murray Sabrin of Ramapo College discusses the “big business” behind breast cancer. This is a brief clip from the show.

I am going to ask Murray to join me on the Robert Wenzel Show for a full interview.





 -RW

An Open Letter to New Jersey Republicans Concerning Chris Christie

The following letter was sent by Murray Sabrin to Republican state legislators, county chairs, state committee members, and New Hampshire GOP leaders.  

Dear Republican Leader:

Shortly after Chris Christie won the Republican nomination for Governor of New Jersey, he and the Republican State Committee were asked by members of that Committee to embrace the platform of the national Republican Party that was debated and passed at the Republican National Convention in 2008.  Christie declined to endorse that platform and those who he had selected to run the State Committee promised to put a committee together to draft a "statement of principles" for the NJGOP.  That was in 2009.  That committee has yet to meet.

We have since had another Republican National Convention, with an updated party platform debated and passed by the delegates assembled in the Summer of 2012.  Governor Christie was the keynote speaker at that convention, but he has

The Government's Invasion of Iraq Was Based Upon a Lie

The below originally appeared as a letter to the editor of the New Jersey Record.

Regarding "U.S. weighs new Iraq mission" (Page A-1, June 13):

Veterans and families are beginning to question whether their sacrifice in Iraq was worth it. Sadly, the answer is a resounding no.

Our government's invasion of Iraq was based upon a lie — the lie that Saddam Hussein was a threat to the American people. Now we are seeing the unintended consequences of our government's toppling of Saddam's regime: the potential takeover of Iraq by an extreme Islamist group.

With reports that Iranian troops have entered Iraq to support their Shiite friends, a regional war cannot be ruled out in the Middle East, a war that is the direct result of our bipartisan interventionist foreign policy.

The American people need to embrace the insights and admonitions of John Quincy Adams, who said, "[America] goes not abroad in search of monsters to destroy. She is the well-wisher to the freedom and independence of all."

America's foreign policy should be based upon George Washington's farewell address: "The great rule of conduct for us, in regard to foreign nations, is, in extending our commercial relations, to have with them as little political connection as possible."

Unfortunately, President Woodrow Wilson's internationalist-interventionist view of the world has replaced the wisdom of the past, which would have prevented the needless sacrifice of America's soldiers to prop up the military-industrial complex.

Murray Sabrin

Fort Lee, June 13

What David Brat Should Have Told MSNBC's Chuck Todd About the Minimum Wage

By Murray Sabrin

Economics professor David Brat is the latest political sensation after his upset victory in the Seventh Congressional District of Virginia primary against House Majority Leader Eric Cantor last Tuesday night.   On Wednesday, self-identified free market economist Prof. Brat appeared on MSNBC and was asked by reporter Chuck Todd to discuss his view of the federal minimum wage. Professor Brat  said, "I don't have a well-crafted response on that one."

Rather than avoiding the question Prof. Brat should've stated unequivocally, "I don't support federal laws which increase unemployment among the most least skilled workers in our society, which is what the minimum wage law does. Therefore, I oppose any hike in the minimum wage, and in fact I would advocate its repeal so low skilled workers can get that first job and learn the skills they need so they can become more productive and hence earn a higher wage."

Self-described free-market advocates running for political office should confidently state their positions, which undermine the interventionist views so prevalent among the political class and the media.   Unfortunately, Prof. Brat missed an opportunity to articulate his  free-market bona fides.   Let's see  how he responds to the media and others during the campaign about his free-market positions.

Dr. Murray Sabrin is Professor of Finance at the Anisfield School of Business at Ramapo College of New Jersey. He writes at MurraySabrin.com. He recently ran for the Republican nomination for US Senator from New Jersey.

BREAKING Murray Sabrin Loses New Jersey Republican Senate Bid

In a four man race to gain the Republican nomination for US Senate in New Jersey, it appears that libertarian-leaning Murray Sabrin has lost.

With 77% of the precincts reporting, Sabrin has approximately 20% of the vote. It appears that 28% or more will be required for victory.

Thanks Murray, I am glad you stuck to your principles. Hopefully, you made a few people think a bit more about liberty and what it means.

-RW

Murray Sabrin Votes

Yeah, I know, it is not for all of us, but I still want to see Murray win this. He would be an awesome fly in the ointment.

Murray emails:

Just voted at the Fort Lee Museum, a few hundred feet south of the GWB.  Traffic moving nicely.

-RW

Even the Communists in Cuba Get It

Murray Sabrin reports in:

A very skimpy summary of the more than one hour editorial meeting at the Record,http://www.northjersey.com/news/gop-senate-hopeful-would-slash-government-1.1022671.  The print edition headline was more “tame”—“Free-market advocate Sabrin keeps focus on big government.”

At any rate, during the Q&A I talked about cutting business taxes so multinational companies would flock to our shores because America would be the most attractive country to do business in, and lowering tax rates to close to zero would reduce the burden on domestic companies so they could concentrate on growing their enterprises instead of complying with the tax code and unnecessary regulations.

Cuba just announced a zero business tax for ten years so they could attract foreign investment.  After ten years, the corporate tax rate would be 15%.  Even the communists in Cuba get it; lowering taxes would grow the economy.  Shouldn’t “free enterprise” America have tax rates lower than communist Cuba?

I talked about ending crony capitalism and the Federal Reserve's money printing. I talked about protecting our civil liberties. In other words, we discussed how my agenda would increase prosperity, end the Fed created bubbles, and avoid military conflicts overseas.

I stuck to my guns--the limited government vision that has been deep sixed for decades would replace the big government that has given us unofficially 20% percent unemployment and rising prices...stagflation, and a federal government with a $200 trillion dollar unfunded liability.  This is the legacy of big government. 

In addition, I talked about a transition to a free enterprise, limited government society that would take 10-20 years to accomplish, so people can be weaned off of OPM (pronounced opium), other people's money--the worst addiction in our society.

Our website is temporarily off line and until we will resolve this, please send your check to:  Sabrin for Senate 2014, 109 Mercer Street, Hightstown, NJ 08520.  

Winning the primary would set up, according to one journalist, the most exciting Senate race in the country this year.  Instead of being the butt of jokes, New Jersey could be the epicenter of the debate that Bill Clinton said we should have on Meet the Press several years ago:  “What is the role of the government in a free society?”

You can make this debate happen with a generous investment today in our campaign today.   

Murray Sabrin and the Income Tax as the Root of All Evil

Murray Sabrin emails:

I will moderate the April 17th tax symposium, which will focus on Frank Chodorov's 1954 critique of the income tax, The Income Tax:  Root of All Evil.  For information about the panelists and to register, please visit https://www.ramapo.edu/asb/tax-symposium/

The symposium will be streamed live as well.  

Sabrin on the Banality of Booker

Celebrity Senator Silent on Crisis in Ukraine
By Murray Sabrin

Yesterday evening I returned home after giving a two hour guest lecture on our manipulated economy at a university in New York City.  Two hours is what it generally takes to provide the depth students need to get a basic grasp of the subject matter.  Two hours is what it takes to make a start at understanding.

Yesterday, the world's major nuclear-armed powers appeared to moving closer to direct conflict.  The American government, bankrupt from 50 years of waging a series of undeclared wars starting with Vietnam, seems determined to take on Russia with its 8,500 nuclear weapons.   We are heading into this conflict in the usual way in which we head into all our conflicts nowadays:  The media airs scenes of violence, somewhere in the world there is injustice, something must be done, and behind the scenes lobbyists and their corporate masters are licking their lips at the thought of the money they will make.

In this case, dozens have been killed in clashes between protestors and riot police.  As Americans, we've experienced this in the aftermath of the acquittal of police officers in the Rodney King case.  The National Guard and Marines were called out to quell the rioters.  There was a billion dollars in property damage,  53 people were killed and over 2,000 injured.

Imagine the reaction of any American government if any foreign government had suggested imposing economic sanctions on the United States because of its handling of the crisis?  I know, the parallel with the situation in Ukraine is not precise.  In Ukraine, what started as a protest turned violent and has resulted in the elected President fleeing for safety, finding it in Russia, and appealing to that nation to recognize his legitimacy.

Ukraine also suffers from a legacy of shifting populations.  Immigration, famines, forced deportations have left Ukraine  split with a quarter of its population speaking different languages and a substantial portion having an ethnic affinity for another county -- Russia.

In the midst of this crisis there is a race for the United States Senate going on in New Jersey.  Well, not if you read the newspapers.  Exhibiting much of the impatience of American foreign policy, the media has declared incumbent Senator Cory Booker the winner before the campaign has had a chance to start.

Booker is one of Washington's celebrity senators.  A Wall Street player and big city mayor, he is known for having 1.4 million "followers" on Twitter -- a venue that limits communication to slogan-length bites.  It is said that Booker's manipulation of this medium has convinced his "followers" that he personally knows all 1.4 million of them and is concerned about them individually -- as when he offers to shovel snow for all 1.4 million of them.

After giving my two hour lecture, I wondered what  the Senator from New Jersey's thoughts were on the saber-rattling going on over the crisis in Ukraine.  So I went to his official Senate website and looked.  It read very much like the website of a mayor.  I clicked on "news" and found a list of recent press releases -- most jointly written with New Jersey's senior Senator, Bob Menendez.  I searched for the word "Ukraine".  I got back:  "No news found at this time."

There you have it.  This is why we are bankrupt.  This is why our foreign policy has made us the enemies of much of the world.  Why we spend so much on security.  The American government is threat-facing with a nuclear power and one of the few people in America who can actually do something about it -- one of just two Senators representing a state of 8.8 million people -- is twittering banalities instead.

This is tragic, because if someone who has the attention of 1.4 million people could get them to hang around long enough to impart some knowledge, he could be a great teacher and do some good.  If he's serious, Senator Booker should start now by opposing American involvement in a conflict in Ukraine.

Murray Sabrin is a GOP candidate for the U.S Senate.  He is professor of finance at Ramapo College.

Murray Sabrin on the Issues

MurraySabrin2014.com is live. Here is Murray on the issues:

The Economy, the Federal Reserve and Crony Capitalism

The U.S. economy is experiencing the worst recovery since the end of World War II.  Despite trillion dollar  budget deficits under President Obama and the Federal Reserve’s unconscionable money printing known as Quantitative Easing, which has dropped interest rates on savings accounts to virtually 0%, America’s real unemployment rate is more than 20%, according to some economists.  In other words, the federal government’s fiscal and monetary policies have not not “stimulated” the economy.

The American people should initiate a class action suit against the Federal Reserve for financial malpractice.

America’s free enterprise system has been replaced by crony capitalism–bailouts of Wall Street and politically connected firms, and subsidies to inefficient businesses. We need to return to a free market economy across the board so we can enjoy the fruits of a prosperity based on real savings and investments.

Civil Liberties and the Growing Threats to Our Constitutional Rights

Murray became a naturalized citizen on June 25th, 1959 at age 12.  He raised his right hand and swore that he would defend the Constitution from all enemies foreign and domestic.  The real threat to our rights is from the Obama administration, and he will work tirelessly in the United States Senate to repeal every law that infringes on the American people’s constitutional rights that are guaranteed in the Bill of Rights.

Healthcare and ObamaCare

If war is too important to be left to generals, then healthcare is too important to be left to politicians and bureaucrats.  We need to return healthcare decisions to physicians and patients and restore a free market in healthcare, including a nonprofit health care network that provides free healthcare to the uninsured and to low-income families.  In short, Obamacare must be repealed.

Murray is a founding trustee of the Bergen Volunteer Medical Initiative in Hackensack, New Jersey.  He spent several years as trustee planning the creation of the nonprofit center before stepping down in 2008.

The Federal Budget and Taxes 

The federal budget is more than $3.6 trillion.  Instead of promoting the “general welfare” the federal budget is a hodgepodge of special interest spending that undermines the economy’s performance by redistributing income and wealth.  We need to reduce spending not just lower the rate of the budget’s increase.  Moreover, Murray will introduce legislation to reduce tax rates and call for the ending taxes on savings and investment so America will be the most attractive nation in the world to create and grow a business.In addition, the monstrous amount of economic regulations on the books is stifling opportunities and creating uncertainty among business owner and managers.  Murray will work to repeal all unnecessary regulations so the entrepreneurial spirit can blossom once again in America.

Foreign Policy

As a son of Holocaust survivors Murray learned about the horrors of war growing up from his parents who were the only ones in their respective families that survived the Holocaust.  Murray believes the U.s. military should be used to defend and America’s borders and security and not try to build nations around the world.  He believes like “Mr. Republican,” the late Senator Robert Taft, that entangling alliances are not in the interests of our country and puts a huge burden on American taxpayers.

Read more here.

Murray Sabrin Considering Run for US Senate

Occasional EPJ Contributor, Murray Sabrin emails:

I am considering seeking the GOP nomination  to take on Cory Booker [in New Jersey].  I will make a decision in the next couple of weeks.  

 http://www.nj.com/politics/index.ssf/2014/01/ramapo_college_professor_murray_sabrin_considering_us_senate_run.html#incart_river

[...]  If I do it, I want to create the grand coalition, Rs, conservatives, libertarians, independents and pissed off Ds.  The platform would be free enterprise, not cronyism, uncompromising support for the Bill of Rights, a noninterventionist foreign policy and no more legal counterfeiting.  

I replied:

 Murray,

This is a great idea, if you are considering using such a platform to advance hardcore principled libertarianism. If you go Rand Paulian on us and hedge your views in the hope of getting elected, it is a terrible idea.

Best,
Bob

For my take on running for office, see: How to Run for Office Like Ron Paul

UPDATE

Murray responds to my email:

Thanks Bob.  I am going to let it rip if I enter the race.  Antiwar sentiment is high in NJ as is support for civil liberties.  Unfortunately, there is too much support for economic intervention even among Rs.  I will lay down my conditions with GOP party leaders in the next few days.  

Regards,Murra

The Bridgegate Smoking Gun?

By Murray Sabrin

The great mystery remains about the closing of two Fort Lee lanes to the George Washington Bridge in September 2013, now known as the “‘Bridgegate” caper.  We still don’t know who ordered the closing, but we do know that it was not part of a traffic study to determine the impact of reducing the number of lanes to the bridge from the borough.

With all the speculation about what Gov. Christie knew about the lane closings, could there have been a “trigger” that may have caused the governor and/or his staff to retaliate against Fort Lee?  In fact, the New York Times article (January 20),  ”For Christie and MSNBC, a Messy Divorce Plays Out in Public View,” provides a clue that could be the “smoking gun” explaining why Fort Lee could have been the target of an egregious abuse of power, the closing of two lanes to the George Washington Bridge.

The article states, “Mr. Christie, who is known to be sensitive to slights…” may provide the mystery about “Bridgegate.”

At the groundbreaking ceremony in October 2012 for the first phase of the $1 billion project in Fort Lee, several public officials were present including Bergen County Executive Kathleen Donovan, Freeholder chairman John Mitchell, State Sen. Loretta Weinberg (D-37), State Assemblyman Gordon Johnson (D-37), Englewood Mayor Frank Huttle and Freeholder Joan Voss of Fort Lee.  Neither Governor Christie nor Lieutenant Governor Guadagno was present.

The question, therefore that must be asked is: did Mayor Sokolich invite Gov. Christie to the ceremony?  If so, why didn’t the governor show up? If he was busy campaigning for GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney, then why wasn’t Lt. Gov. Guadagno sent in his place?

If Mayor Sokoloich did not invite Gov. Christie, was this the “slight” that triggered “bridge gate?”    Gov. Christie’s theme for his first term in office is the ” Jersey Comeback.”  What better way to highlight New Jersey’s comeback then to make remarks about a privately financed $1 billion development in Fort Lee, the gateway to New York City?

Until all the principals in the “Bridgegate” fiasco testify under oath, the above is just mere speculation. But given Christie’s supersize ego, his sensitivity to “slights,” and the cronyism that apparently is rampant in all administrations, playing hardball is what politics is all about.

So-called public service always takes a backseat to funneling money to the politically connected and soothing the egos of the high and mighty.  Bridgegate, therefore, could be another case study of how government officials abuse their power for the benefit of the few at the expense of the general public.

Dr. Murray Sabrin is Professor of Finance at the Anisfield School of Business at Ramapo College of New Jersey. He writes at MurraySabrin.com.

Murray Sabrin Has Ditched Libertarianism

He is visiting Vietnam and sends along this picture of himself and his wife.

He writes:

First Sabrin Royal couple of Vietnam.   Photo taken in the citadel, hue, Vietnam, 19th century home of Royal couple and site of fierce battles during 1968 Tet offensive.    Off to park hike in a few hours.  So much to write about, especially the immorality of the war.  LBJ and his henchmen should be tried as war criminals posthumously.

Regards,
Murray

UPDATE

Maybe we haven't lost Murray. In a follow up email, he writes:

 I would be the benevolent king.  No more taxes.  My kingdom would be the poorest in all history.

Voluntary donations would sustain the monarchy.  No more wars, no more bureaucrats, no more mandates, no more interventions.   Let freedom reign!

Dump Your Vitamins? Not So Fast Says Dr. Glenn Gero.

By Murray Sabrin

Physicians are recommending that individuals stop taking vitamins in an attempt to improve their health.  I asked Dr. Glenn Gero who is one of New Jersey’s most knowledgeable nutrition experts for his comments:

A poorly orchestrated research study is worse than no study at all.

There is no standardization as to the quality of the supplements taken by the participants of the studies. Nutrients are complexes and must be taken as comprehensive complexes. For example, vitamin E is not d-alpha tocopherol or dl-alpha tocopherol. Vitamin E is a complex of alpha, beta, delta and gamma tocopherols and mixed tocotrienols. Carotenoids are a grouping of hundreds of phyto nutrients and are not just beta carotene; Vitamin C contains bioflavonoids, hesperin and rutin and isn’t merely ascorbic acid. When nutrients are fractionalized and isolated they become drug-like and can manifest negative reactions when taken inappropriately.

Additionally, most store bought multi-vitamins and supplements contain unhealthy fillers, excibients, artificial colors, heavy metal toxins (such as aluminum, as in Centrum), and toxic capsule materials. These are the supplements that are being measured.

When I addressed a director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) about their poorly conducted research studies, his comment was that it would be too costly to conduct studies the way that I had recommended. In other words, in his opinion, ad hominem research is “good enough.”

Let’s put things in perspective: If the equivalent of one jumbo jet with 300 passengers crashed each day of the year, killing all aboard, how many individuals would venture unto an airliner? This amounts to just over 100,000 lives lost every year. Almost exactly equivalent to the number of deaths related pharmaceutical drugs taken as prescribed.

(The statistic of the fatalities associated with prescription drugs was cited in the Journal of the American Medical Association.   The actual number was 106,000 in hospital settings. This does not include others affected who were not hospital bound. The actual number may have been double.)

The deaths associated with quality nutritional supplements are about zero.

Why isn’t the media expounding the risks of pharmaceutical drugs? Could it be because of the revenues they generate for television, radio, the internet and the print media?

Dr. Glenn B. Gero, N.D., D.Sc., M.Sc., R.H. (AHG), M.E.S., C.L.C.
Board-certified Naturopathic Doctor
Registered Herbalist – American Herbalist Guild
Medical/Corrective Exercise Specialist

HOLISTIC NATUROPATHIC CENTER

http://www.holisticnaturopath.com/

 Dr. Murray Sabrin is Professor of Finance at the Anisfield School of Business at Ramapo College of New Jersey. He writes at MurraySabrin.com.

Is NJ Senate Candidate Steve Lonegan a Ron Paul Libertarian?

By Murray Sabrin

Steve Lonegan’s campaign is imploding faster than a sinkhole in Florida. Instead of focusing on the major issues of the day–Obama’s probable military attack on Syria, the NSA spying program on the American people, the Federal Reserve’s unconscionable money printing, the unsustainable federal budget, the reckless federal government expansion into health care known as ObamaCare, and dozens of other issues–Lonegan is getting press for his critique of Cory Booker’s handling of crime in Newark and his remarks about the mayor’s sexual orientation.

Lonegan’s campaign is true to form, namely, attacking his opponent relentlessly on irrelevant issues which have nothing to do about what will be debated in the United States Senate in the next six years.

Yet, in a New York Times article on Wednesday, August 28, Lonegan is portrayed as some sort of “libertarian” candidate in the mold of former Congressman and presidential candidate Ron Paul. Nonsense. Lonegan did not endorse Ron Paul in his last two presidential campaigns for the Republican nomination, and in 2008 the Ron Paul campaign asked me to represent the congressman at presidential forums throughout New Jersey, not Steve Lonegan.

And on Wednesday, August 28, the Lonegan campaign blew an incredible opportunity on the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I have a dream speech” in Washington DC at the height of the civil rights movement to criticize the Obama administration for turning its back on civil liberties in the United States. It’s ironic that the FBI, which spied on Dr. King for years, is with the NSA under the control of Pres. Obama, America’s first African American president, who was made spying on all the American people a hallmark of his administration.

In short, Steve Lonegan could have emerged yesterday as a civil liberties hero to not only the people of New Jersey but to all Americans if he had given a blistering critique of Obama and his police state tactics. He could’ve joined Cory Booker at the hip with Obama and made an unequivocal statement that he would be the champion of civil liberties in the United States Senate.

Obviously, Steve Lonegan is more concerned about Newark’s crime statistics and Booker’s private sexual conduct than defending the individual rights of the American people.

Steve Lonegan’s candidacy for the United States Senate is doing incredible harm to the liberty movement. Instead of making the case for free enterprise, individual rights, limited government, and a non-interventionist foreign policy, he relishes the opportunity to talk about Booker’s job as mayor of Newark and his private life.

With Cory Booker leading Steve Lonegan by 28 points in the latest poll, the former mayor of Bogota is headed for an ignominious defeat in the October special election. Given the tenor of the campaign, one has to wonder if Steve Lonegan is in the race to win it?  Or is Steve Lonegan auditioning for future gig on Fox news?

Dr. Murray Sabrin is Professor of Finance at the Anisfield School of Business at Ramapo College of New Jersey. He writes at MurraySabrin.com.

The Myth that Metadata Mining Keeps Us Safe from Terrorists

The following letter appeared in The Record (July 26).

Regarding “Limiting NSA data collecting will harm us” (Other Views, July 23):

That was one of the most egregious columns I have read in decades. The author, a former Justice Department official, asserts that the National Security Agency must continue its blatantly unconstitutional program of metadata mining to keep the American people safe from terrorist attacks.

The author writes that “protecting the United States from foreign attack is the core mission of the federal government, and a catastrophic failure in that mission could threaten the liberties we all cherish.”

The attack on Americans at home and abroad is the result of blowback, the CIA’s term for the violent acts by young, Middle Eastern individuals, which are the direct consequence of the federal government’s interventionist policies in that part of the world. In short, these attacks will continue as long as our government believes it has the right to station troops in the Middle East and invade countries that are no threat to our national security.

By treating all Americans as potential terrorists at our airports and collecting all our communications, our government is trampling on our liberties. As James Madison warned us more than 200 years ago, “If tyranny and oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy.”

Murray Sabrin

Fort Lee, July 24

Dr. Murray Sabrin is Professor of Finance at the Anisfield School of Business at Ramapo College of New Jersey. He writes at MurraySabrin.com.

My Federal Reserve Moment

Murray Sabrin emails:

I just saw Santelli's exchange with the Wall Street Journal reporter.   Let me tell you about my exchange with a New York Fed official a couple years ago at a conference of academics at the New York Fed.

Toward the end of the conference I asked a question by quoting Fleckenstein's statement in his book, Greenspan's Bubbles, "central bankers are like central planners, they pick an interest rate to two decimal points and shove it down the throat of the market."

You would think I just asked them if that they are pedophiles or  some other deviant person. I forgot who responded to my question, but the tirade he made defending the Fed as the great provider of liquidity was something to behold.

I wish I had a video camera at the time it would been a priceless moment to put on YouTube and other Internet sites.

How Taxpayers are Being Ripped Off

By Murray Sabrin

In an op-ed Senator John McCain bemoans the fact that American cable and satellite subscribers are being ripped off, because they do not have the ability to cancel channels they do not watch…and for which they have to pay now.

The senator then cites how iTunes and Netflix are providing consumers with much more choices than the traditional entertainment suppliers.  So what is the problem?  The marketplace is rising to the occasion; newcomers are giving consumers the opportunity to pay for only what they want.

Rather than leaving the marketplace alone, Senator McCain is offering the Television Consumer Freedom Act, which will give the federal government a sledge hammer to force cable and satellite companies to provide more choices to consumers.

If we take Senator McCain’s principle at face value, then government—at all levels—is ripping off the American people to the tune of trillions of dollars every year.  The American people have to pay for undeclared wars, the military-industrial complex, corporate welfare, farm subsidies, social welfare programs, government schools, etc., they may not want.

So if Senator McCain is concerned about the American people getting ripped off, then he should immediately support individuals, families, business owners and corporations opting out.  People should not be coerced to pay for the welfare-warfare state, a system of massive death, destruction and income redistribution.

If the statists in both major political parties think the American people want big government, then they should abolish the income tax, property taxes, sales taxes, etc., and give the people the opportunity to pay voluntarily for all the government they want.  I would bet a that the American people would send very little of their hard earned money to the money pits known as federal, state and local governments.

Don’t hold your breath for Senator McCain to embrace free enterprise, limited government and a noninterventionist foreign policy.

 Dr. Murray Sabrin is Professor of Finance in the Anisfield School of Business at Ramapo College of New Jersey. The above originally appeared at MurraySabrin.com.

My Encounter with Paul Krugman

By Murray Sabrin

Paul Krugman wears many hats — Princeton University professor, New York Times columnist, Nobel Laureate in Economics (2008), prolific author of scholarly books and journal articles, and now president of the Eastern Economic Association. The EEA is a regional scholarly group that publishes a journal and holds an annual academic conference in New York City every other year. The EEA is housed in the Anisfield School of Business, at Ramapo College, where I have taught Corporate Finance, and Financial Markets and Institutions for the past 25 years.

On September 29 there was a brief ceremony dedicating the Anisfield School of Business as the new home for the EEA. Prior to the dedication, there was a ribbon-cutting ceremony marking the official opening of the Global Financial Trading Lab, which was made possible by a generous gift from Mr. and Mrs. Anisfield. After these two events, Krugman delivered a 40-minute address on the "liquidity trap" and its "discontents," followed by a lively Q&A session.

Krugman is an engaging speaker, droll at times, very serious occasionally, and frustrated as hell that the Obama administration is not taking his advice to spend like no other time in history on the basis that there is "insufficient demand" in the economy to close the "output gap." According to Krugman, the economy is operating below its "full potential," and therefore it is the federal government's duty to take up the slack, because individuals and the business sector are "holding back."

Krugman's thesis, which he articulated in his lecture, has been repeated over and over in his Timescolumn — policymakers are too timid to really turn on the spending spigot because of their "failure to understand" the liquidity trap. According to Krugman, although the Federal Reserve's zero-interest policy has flooded the nation's banks with newly printed dollars, lack of spending by the private sector is causing companies to lay off workers, which in turn causes aggregate demand to decline, and thus the downward spiral is never ending or causing a tepid recovery at best — unless the federal government steps up to the plate to boost aggregate demand. That, in a nutshell, is Krugman's view of the state of the economy.

Many years ago I either read an article by Murray Rothbard or heard him speak at a conference discussing economic policy. He pointed out that any explanation of economic events that does not include the importance of prices as a market-clearing mechanism is a useless exercise.

Read the rest here.