Marc Faber: Cyprus Will Happen Everywhere

Growing wealth inequality means that the wealthy have nowhere to hide and that events like those in Cyprus will happen in more countries around the world, including developed nations, said Marc Faber, on CNBC.

"It will happen everywhere in the world, in Western democracies," Faber said"Squawk on the Street" on Tuesday. "You have more people that vote for a living than work for a living. I think you have to be prepared to lose 20 to 30 percent. I think you're lucky if you don't lose your life."

"If you look at what happened in Cyprus, basically people with money will lose part of their wealth, either through expropriation or higher taxation," he added.

"The problem is that 92 percent of financial wealth is owned by 5 percent of the population. The majority of people don't own meaningful stock positions and they don't benefit from a rise in the stock market. They are being hurt by a rising cost of living and we all know that the real incomes of median households has been going down for the last few years," he said.

Six Arrested in Bribe Probe into New York Mayor's Race

Six New York politicians were arrested for their alleged role in a bribery scandal in which a prominent Democrat paid top Republicans for permission to run on their ticket in the city's upcoming mayoral race, prosecutors said, according to Reuters.

Authorities described the scheme - potentially one of the biggest political scandals to hit New York in years - as an attempt to game the city's first wide-open mayoral election in more than a decade. New York will choose a new mayor in November, when Michael Bloomberg's third term comes to an end.

 

The charges center on State Senator Malcolm Smith, a Democrat from Queens, who prosecutors said made payments to a city councilman to set up meetings with top New York Republicans to assist in getting him on the mayoral ballot.

Smith and the councilman, Daniel Halloran, a Republican from Queens, were among the six politicians arrested on Tuesday morning in connection to the bribery scandal, an official at the U.S. Attorney's office in Manhattan said.

The Disturbing Similarity Between Cyprus and Lehman Bros. (and the difference)

Ed Yardeni notes the difference and 

similarity

between Cyprus and Lehman Brothers

:

"Cyprus may be a one-off unique situation. So far, it hasn't triggered a financial meltdown comparable to Lehman. However, there is at least one similarity that is disturbing: Both reflected "bailout burnout" by policymakers. On the other hand, this time financial market participants may be less panic prone knowing that the ECB will do whatever it takes to defend the euro. When Lehman hit the fan, no one had a clue of the Fed's unprecedented QE response to the resulting financial crisis. So far, Italian and Spanish government bond yields remain relatively low. The S&P 500 Bank stock price index is down only 2.5% since March 15."

Rand Paul's Neocon Vision For The Empire

By, Chris Rossini

The hits just keep coming.

HuffPo has a piece on Rand Paul's views regarding the shutting down of U.S. military bases on foreign soil.

“I’m not saying don’t have any,” he said. "I'm just saying maybe not 900. I mean, I’d rather have one at Fort Campbell and Fort Knox than one in Timbuktu.”

And it turns out Paul is not opposed to keeping military bases in Iraq, or in that part of the world, for the foreseeable future...

"I think having some places and bases where we could orchestrate attacks if we had to, if there's a regrouping of people, wouldn't be too unreasonable. But I think out patrolling the villages after 12 years, the Afghans should be doing that," Paul said...

"Some libertarians argue that Western occupation fans the flames of radical Islam -– I agree," Paul said in that speech. "But I don’t agree that absent Western occupation that radical Islam 'goes quietly into that good night.'”

So Rand knows that occupation fans the flames...But seems to think that he has the recipe for the precise amount of fanning that needs to be done.

And what of Rand's views on Radical Islam?

Well, back in Feb. (prior to the #StandWithRand-palooza), Justin Raimondo wrote a scathing piece, called Rand Paul’s War Against “Radical Islam”.

In it, Raimondo said:

Rand Paul and his advisors have made a political decision to align themselves with the furthest-right fringe of the GOP. We’re not talking here about the most radical of his father’s followers, who tend toward the secular – and hate him for endorsing Mitt Romney at the GOP’s Tampa Bay convention, just as the elder Paul’s convention delegates were being stolen out from under him.

His new allies are the folks he recently traveled with to Israel, a gaggle of born-again fundamentalists active in the American Family Association: the Mississippi-based AFA is one of the more extreme Christian Right groups, whose spokesmen have said "the jihadists on 9/11 were the agents of God’s wrath in order to get our attention as a people,” and likened gays to Nazis...

Although he never gives religious import to this foreign policy views, this lunacy is really the basis of Sen. Paul’s "realism."

It makes me wonder, what does Rand have to do? What does he have to say? How far does he have to stray from the ideas of Liberty for libertarians to throw in the towel?

Each week, Rand seems to keep pushing the envelope further and further.

Perhaps he thinks that the libertarian votes are in his pocket and he can get away with anything. Let's hope that isn't the case.

What a shame if the story ends up that libertarians help (either directly or through a Rand endorsement) install another Neocon into the Oval Office. And what an "up yours" the Neocons could deliver to Ron Paul as a result.

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"Obamacare Cost Me Work"

An EPJ reader emails:

I work in television production as a freelance worker. While freelance, I do work for one major media company that uses me quite a lot and accounts for probably 85% of my work. I regularly work 3-4 days per week with them and often more depending on the time of year.

Today we were told that freelancers would soon have to work under 30 hours per week. Since shifts are 8 hours, this means nobody will be able to work here as a freelancer for more than 3 days per week (24 hours total).

I've calculated that the maximum I can make in a year with them is now about 30% less than I have made with this company in each of the past 2 years.

As a regular EPJ reader, this news did not surprise me and I was prepared for it with the knowledge of how Obamacare is distorting the market , particularly for part-timers and freelancers like myself.

Most of my fellow freelancers however are in shock over the announcement, and I've yet to hear anyone relate it to Obamacare.

Murray Rothbard Discusses Hyperinflation

By, Chris Rossini

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Maybe Stephan Kinsella Can Give Travis Holte the Answer

Travis Holte emails:

The Drudge Formula, What is it? I'm dying to know.

I emailed back:

 Your man Stephan says its not scarce. You should know it already.

Initial Report on Debate

Okay, I won't spoil all the fun, but the debate went for two plus hours.

Some highlights:

Kinsella is clueless about Rothbard's view on IP.

It is clear that Kinsella didn't even read the paper he cites here. He couldn't tell me a damn thing that was in it.

I told him I had a formula dealing with getting a link on the Drudge page, yet he wouldn't grant me that this formula was scarce. I naturally, asked him what the formula was, which of course he didn't know. But still he wouldn't grant to me that it was scarce.

I was only able to cover about 5 points of the major problems in the views Kinsella has, so I will put together a booklet covering all 16 points, but rest assured that they are as damning as the ones I brought up in the debate.

All those following Kinsella and Tucker on their nutty IP views should listen to the interview closely and notice how he attempts to dance away when I have him cornered.

Hopefully, this starts to expose Kinsella-Tucker IP theory for what it is: Two glib guys talking out of their hat.

The booklet, should further bury the sloppy, poor thinking views of these two characters.

Fastest-Growing Jobs Pay Under $10/Hour

This weekend, I had a discussion with a businessman, who sits on the board of a publicly traded staffing firm. He tells me that the middle class is disappearing. The country is being split into those savvy enough to survive in the overly regulated economy and everyone else.

CNN reports on the data that demonstrates this phenomena:

Some 58% of the jobs created during the recovery have been low-wage positions, according to a 2012 report by the National Employment Law Project. These low-wage jobs had a median hourly wage of $13.83 or less.

Employment & wages for largest U.S. occupations

Occupation	U.S. employment	2012 annual mean wage
Retail salesperson	4,340,000	$25,310
Cashier	3,314,010	$20,370
Food prep worker	2,943,810	$18,720
Office clerk	2,808,100	$29,270
Registered nurse	2,633,980	$67,930
Waiter	2,332,020	$20,710
Customer service representative	2,299,750	$33,110
Laborer	2,143,940	$26,410
Janitor/cleaner	2,097,380	$24,850
Secretary/administrative assistant	2,085,680	$33,560

Bottom line: The crony capitalists have built a moat around their businesses, eliminating the kind of competition that would hire high skilled labor. Obamacare, simply adds to the difficulties in hiring anything but very cheap labor. Outside of a tiny sliver of opportunity for software engineers and lawyers in Silicon Valley, you either launch something on your own or you will end up part a low paid tool for the crony machine.

Profit Column: EPJ versus Business Insider

The anti-gold, leftist, web site, Business Insider, which was co-founded by Henry Blodget, lost $3 million in 2012, according to Blodget. And get this, he says the site has ONLY spent $7 million of the $13 million it has raised.

This suggests that his cash flow is much worse than the $3 million loss.

EPJ is comfortably profitable. All those wanting to invest have been turned down.

To Protect Connected Restaurants, D.C. May Curb Food Trucks:

By Tim Carney


Should D.C.'s food laws try to protect consumers and public safety? Or should they try to protect brick-and-mortar restaurants from competition?

D.C.'s restaurant lobbyists, along with many local politicians and bureaucrats, seem to think the government's job is to save the delis and diners, bistros and brasseries from the scourge of falafel trucks, barbecue buses and weenie wagons.

Most of downtown D.C., according to the Food Truck Association of Metropolitan Washington, would be off-limits to food trucks under new regulations proposed by the Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs. The Golden Triangle would be sacred ground, not to be soiled by the unclean tires of mobile vendors, except for those fortunate few smiled upon by the whimsical gods of the DCRA.

The rules would designate a few food truck parking spots around prime locations such as George Washington University, Farragut Square and the Verizon Center. These spots would be awarded by lottery once a month to a handful of trucks, and all other trucks would be prohibited from coming within 500 feet of these zones. The proposed regs would also prohibit trucks from parking anywhere that lacks 10 feet of "unobstructed sidewalk."


When I called Food Truck Association President Doug Povich for this column, he said, "I wish the story wasn't 'restaurants vs. food trucks.' " But it is.

The restaurant lobby hasn't fully embraced DCRA's proposed rules yet -- the eateries want to ensure the rules are strict enough. Kathy Hollinger, president of the Restaurant Association Metropolitan Washington, wants a limit of two or three trucks on either side of a park, reports my Washington Examiner colleague Eric P. Newcomer.

Why should there be any limit -- besides the number of legal parking spots -- on how many trucks can line up on either side of Farragut Square? The clear reason is restraining competition. Jim Doherty, owner of the Washington Deli, said of food truck proliferation, "If they don't stop it, they're going to be everywhere. ... There's so little barrier to entry."


Read the rest here.

Click, Print, Gun

To (All) the Colleges That Rejected Me

By Suzy Lee Weiss

Like me, millions of high-school seniors with sour grapes are asking themselves this week how they failed to get into the colleges of their dreams. It's simple: For years, they—we—were lied to.

Colleges tell you, "Just be yourself." That is great advice, as long as yourself has nine extracurriculars, six leadership positions, three varsity sports, killer SAT scores and two moms. Then by all means, be yourself! If you work at a local pizza shop and are the slowest person on the cross-country team, consider taking your business elsewhere.

What could I have done differently over the past years?

For starters, had I known two years ago what I know now, I would have gladly worn a headdress to school. Show me to any closet, and I would've happily come out of it. "Diversity!" I offer about as much diversity as a saltine cracker. If it were up to me, I would've been any of the diversities: Navajo, Pacific Islander, anything. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, I salute you and your 1/32 Cherokee heritage.

I also probably should have started a fake charity. Providing veterinary services for homeless people's pets. Collecting donations for the underprivileged chimpanzees of the Congo. Raising awareness for Chapped-Lips-in-the-Winter Syndrome. Fun-runs, dance-a-thons, bake sales—as long as you're using someone else's misfortunes to try to propel yourself into the Ivy League, you're golden.

Having a tiger mom helps, too. As the youngest of four daughters, I noticed long ago that my parents gave up on parenting me. It has been great in certain ways: Instead of "Be home by 11," it's "Don't wake us up when you come through the door, we're trying to sleep." 

Read the rest here.

(ht Felix Bronstein)

Report: Caroline Kennedy to Be Named Ambassador to Japan

Caroline Kennedy, the daughter of President John F. Kennedy, will be nominated to be the next ambassador to Japan, the Washington Post reports.

DEBATE ON!!

My debate with Stephan Kinsella over intellectual property is today. The debate will be posted here at EPJ and by Kinsella at his site, at 5:00 PM ET. The debate will actually take place at 11:00 AM ET. The time between the recording and the actual posting is to allow for any technical glitches that might occur, but the tape will be the raw unedited audio. I can't wait, I set my alarm for 5:00 AM (to finish today's EPJ Daily Alert early), but am so excited I woke up on my own at 4:00 AM.

Below are the original terms I drew up and Kinsella agreed to. There will be no moderator.  Just yesterday, Kinsella asked for more time for his opening statement. He asked for 5 to 8 minutes instead of the 3 minutes we originally agreed to. I have consented to this as long as he agrees to go first.

Wenzel and Kinsella will have an opening 3 minute statement (Now 5 to 8 for Kinsella).  

- Following the opening statements, each participant will get 2 minutes to speak (rebut) each other. Both may speak longer than 2 minutes if the other does not interject. But at the 2 minute mark the other is permitted to inject if he so chooses. 

- The process can continue for up to 1 1/2 hrs. 

Both will simultaneously publish on April 1st at 5pm ET.

I sure hope it doesn't go 90 minutes, but it appears that Kinsella is a talker and he will have plenty of explaining to do. In his tiny 70 page booklet, I found 16 serious errors (there were others). I'll try to keep it interesting, by keeping my comments short and to the point, simply exposing the myth that is Kinsella. On some pages in his book and other writings, he is either very confused or deliberately misleading. I will let those, who listen to the debate, decide.

Fearless Krugman Forecasts (1998 Edition)

In 1988, Paul Krugman stepped up to the plate and told us:

 The growth of the Internet will slow drastically, as the flaw in "Metcalfe's law"--which states that the number of potential connections in a network is proportional to the square of the number of participants--becomes apparent: most people have nothing to say to each other! By 2005 or so, it will become clear that the Internet's impact on the economy has been no greater than the fax machine's. 

As the rate of technological change in computing slows, the number of jobs for IT specialists will decelerate, then actually turn down; ten years from now, the phrase information economy will sound silly.

(ht ZeroHedge)

Murray Rothbard on leftist Norman Brown and right-winger George Gilder

By, Chris Rossini

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