EconomicPolicyJournal.com

Thursday, March 28, 2013

LBJ's Great Grandkids and Guns

Juan Williams fills us in on the tragedy resulting from LBJ's mad schemes. It does not appear Williams understands the link between LBJ's programs and the current crisis (He is, for example, in favor of gun controls rather than real remedies), but he sure is aware of the body count and the fatherless families.

One thing you don't hear much about in the discussions of guns: race.

That is an astonishing omission, because race ought to be an inescapable part of the debate. Gun-related violence and murders are concentrated among blacks and Latinos in big cities. Murders with guns are the No. 1 cause of death for African-American men between the ages of 15 and 34. But talking about race in the context of guns would also mean taking on a subject that can't be addressed by passing a law: the family-breakdown issues that lead too many minority children to find social status and power in guns.

The statistics are staggering. In 2009, for example, the Centers for Disease Control reported that 54% of all murders committed, overwhelmingly with guns, are murders of black people. Black people are about 13% of the population.

The Justice Department reports that between 1980 and 2008, "blacks were six times more likely than whites to be homicide victims and seven times more likely than whites to commit homicide."

The dire implications of these numbers is evident in a Children's Defense Fund report that included a chilling historical perspective: The 44,038 black children killed by guns since 1979 (when national data on the age of gun violence victims was first collected) is "nearly 13 times more" than all the black people killed by lynching in the 86-year period of 1882 to 1968.[...]

The debate over gun control too often seems a matter of abstractions about the meaning of the Constitution and the permissible capacities of ammunition magazines. Why is so little time spent on a question of more immediate concern—namely, why are so many young black people using guns to kill their neighbors?

President Obama, a hero in black America as the first black president, has been remarkably quiet on this issue until recently. It was only in December, after the mass killing of mostly white school children in Newtown, Conn., by a white man, that the president took the political risk of backing new gun-control legislation.

Young blacks' violent deaths from handguns hadn't moved him to such action. The president spoke publicly about that matter only after the recent gun murder of a 15-year-old girl from his hometown of Chicago who had performed at his second inaugural. "Last year there were 443 murders with firearms in this city and 65 were people under 18," Mr. Obama said. "That's the equivalent of a Newtown every four months. This is not just a gun issue. It is also an issue of the communities that we are building."

In speaking about social breakdown in those minority communities, the president put the gun issue in the context of high rates of out-of-wedlock births that lead to high rates of childhood poverty. "I wish I had a father who was around and involved," the president said, in words that echoed loudly through black and Latino neighborhoods nationally because he revealed a pain so common, yet so rarely confessed, among young people of color.

The shame and silence is enforced by civil-rights leaders who speak in support of gun control but never about a dysfunctional gangster-rap culture that glorifies promiscuity, drug dealers and the power of the gun.

"Loving, supporting parents . . . [are] the single most important thing," the president told his audience of young, mostly minority children at Hyde Park Academy High School in Chicago. He made the case for parents as the key to giving children a sense of self-esteem beyond the barrel of a gun.

Almost 50 years ago, when the 1964 Civil Rights Act was passed, the national out-of-wedlock birthrate was 7%. Today it is over 40%. According to the CDC, the out-of-wedlock birthrate for white children was just 2% in the 1960s. Today it is 30%. Among black children, the out-of-wedlock birthrate has skyrocketed from 20% in the 1960s to a heartbreaking 72% today. The Hispanic out-of-wedlock rate, which has been measured for a much shorter period, was below 40% in 1990 and stands at more than 50% as of the 2010 census.

The Hairdresser Point of View: Jackie Kennedy vs. Nancy Reagan

NyPo has the details:

Beneath her decorous demeanor, New York style icon Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis cursed like a sailor but was so glamorous, she could make a $35 wig look sublime, according to her longtime hairdresser.

The former first lady’s hairstylist Edgar Montalvo — who’s just returned to the city after a decade in Florida — said in a revealing Page Six interview that, “While people saw [Onassis] as an icon, she didn’t look at it that way.

“She cursed just like anybody,” he said. “I once told her, ‘Jackie, there’s a photographer behind your house,’ and she’d say, ‘That son of a bitch!’[...]

“[Jackie] was wonderful,” added Montalvo, who worked with her for eight years before her death, in 1994. While working for Thomas Morrissey Salon, he was responsible for bringing wigs to Onassis after she was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. “I brought her $2,000, $3,000 wigs and one $35 wig that looked the best out of all of them,” he fondly recalled. “She had really wiry hair, but you wouldn’t know it from looking at her.”

Montalvo — who’s counted Diane von Furstenberg and Joan Rivers as clients, and is now at Upper East Side salon Yossi Yossi — further opened up to us with kind words about his clients — except for another former First Lady Nancy Reagan.

“I have nothing positive to say. Nothing,” he said of her. “And she’s still alive.” He said Reagan would have security arrive before her for appointments. But Onassis arrived “just free.”

“Nancy was pretty rough,” Montalvo said. “I didn’t find her to be pleasant. What’s the word I could use? Not obnoxious. Standoffish. Like the world owed her. That’s the impression I got.”

Of Onassis he added: “Jackie was very normal. I found her to be a cool lady: pleasant, thoughtful, kind. Usually she’d bring a book and half a tuna sandwich [to appointments].”

A Bleg from Tom Woods

He writes at his web site:

I have a bunch of events coming up in the next several weeks, but I would be most grateful if you could help spread the word about this one in particular.

In recent weeks I’ve told you about an initiative developed by the Paulian Iowa GOP: they want to put on a series of events, to be keynoted by me, around the state in order to spread the liberty message to the grassroots of the party. Well, the first of these events is slated to take place April 13 in Dubuque. It’s free, but please RSVP.

The event will run from 1:00-4:00pm. I will speak three times, 30 minutes each time. My first talk will be on the economy. This will not be the usual boilerplate about lower taxes and fewer regulations. Grassroots GOP folks hear this all the time. Of course we need those things. I intend to focus on the Fed, the pretexts for and consequences of the bailouts (which so many so-called “small government” politicians supported), and issues of that nature. I’ll be making my best arguments, but also naming names.

My second talk will be on state nullification. I will show how strong the case for nullification is. I will acknowledge that it does not have the approval of the New York Times. I consider this a good sign, not a bad one. I’ll note that if we’re happy with how things are going, we should by all means continue to do the same old things. We should sit around waiting for the Supreme Court to put things right. If we’re unhappy with a century of failure, isn’t it time to think about changing our approach a bit, even if — heaven forbid! — the New York Times disapproves?

I expect to have the audience on my side after the first two talks. That’s when things get interesting. For my third talk, I’m covering foreign policy.

I hope to see you there.

Privatize Lions and Fence Them in to Save Them?

NYT reports on a scientist, whose thinking is moving in this direction:

After 35 years of field research in the Serengeti plains, Craig Packer, director of the Lion Research Center at the University of Minnesota, has lost all patience with the romance of African wilderness. Fences, he says, are the only way to stop the precipitous and continuing decline in the number of African lions.

“Reality has to intrude,” he said. “Do you want to know the two most hated species in Africa, by a mile? Elephants and lions.” They destroy crops and livestock, he said, and sometimes, in the case of lions, actually eat people.

Dr. Packer’s goal is to save lions. Fencing them in, away from people and livestock, is the best way to do that, he believes, both for conservation and economics. He made that argument in a paper this month in Ecology Letters, along with 57 co-authors, including most of the top lion scientists and conservationists.

The paper lays out the value of fences in clear terms, although it stops short of endorsing fencing as the only sensible option. That is Dr. Packer’s own view. With a growing human population whose rights must be respected, he says, open and free co-existence with lions is not practical, nor is it fair to the humans who have to live with the big cats.

In conversation, Dr. Packer goes beyond the measured scientific prose of the paper, venting his frustration with the fantasy often offered to tourists of a free and unfettered African wilderness. “That’s 130 years ago,” he said. “I’m just trying to push people to admit the obvious. Let’s get real here.”

Ilana Mercer - This Sunday on The Robert Wenzel Show

By, Chris Rossini

This Week's Guest

Ilana Mercer

Libertarian Author, Columnist, Blogger

Sunday March 31st
7AM ET on EPJ

Stephan Kinsella
SPECIAL EDITION
Wenzel vs. Kinsella on IP
Monday April 1st - 5PM ET

2013 Interviews:

2012 Interviews:

Follow @ChrisRossini on Twitter

Bitcoin Bonanza: Cyprus Crisis Boosts Digital Dollars

By John Carney

They won't make a sound no matter how many of them you try to toss in a bucket, and you can't pitch them in a fountain and wish for good luck. But make no mistake, bitcoins are getting big.

The online alternative currency, previously little more than a curiosity in financial markets since its 2009 inception, has zoomed in trading value since the Cyprus banking crisis erupted two weeks ago.

With fears spreading that even insured deposits might not be safe in similar nations hit by banking crises, those looking for a haven to store their wealth have fled to the complicated world of digital cash.

"Incremental demand for bitcoin is coming from the geographic areas most affected by the Cypriot financial crisis—individuals in countries like Greece or Spain, worried that they will be next to feel the threat of deposit taxes," Nicholas Colas, chief market strategist at ConvergEx, said in a report on the startling trend.

Read the rest here.

HOT: Rand Paul Endorses Mitch McConnell in 2014 Senate Race, Won’t Back Tea Party Challenger

Just call him, Mr. Establishment--or Jesse Benton tool.

The Daily Caller is reporting that Rand Paul is endorsing Sen. Mitch McConnell for re-election in 2014.

“Rand Paul has endorsed McConnell,” Jesse Benton, McConnell’s 2014 campaign manager, told The Daily Caller.

According to the Caller, Jesse Benton is behind the move:

Benton, who has worked for both Rand Paul and his father, former Texas Rep. Ron Paul, is credited by insiders with brokering Paul’s support for McConnell.

The Caller goes on:

The move quashes a determined effort by Kentucky Republican Liberty Caucus chairman David Adams, who launched Paul’s Senate bid and served as Paul’s campaign manager through the 2010 primaries, and other tea party leaders to mount a primary challenge against McConnell.

Paul recently appeared in a Mitch McConnell advertisement with the slogan “Stand Up to Obama: Join Mitch & Rand,” prompting Adams to complain on Facebook, “Is anyone buying this, really?”

Benton appears gleeful at the corrupting of Rand and block on the tea party. More from the Caller:

“There’s no support at all at this point for a tea party challenge,” Benton said, in a statement confirmed by other Kentucky Republican insiders.

Countdown to the Wenzel-Kinsella Debate: 4 Days

My debate with Stephan Kinsella over intellectual property is only 4 days away. The debate will be posted here at EPJ and by Kinsella at his site, at 5:00 PM ET on April 1.

Jeffrey Tucker is responsible for advancing Kinsella's anti-IP position. However, despite having a Keynesian-type flair for words and an enthusiasm for Kinsella's perspective, Tucker is very confused about Kinsella's take on IP. He doesn't understand what Kinsella gets right and he swallows like a hungry lion what Kinsella gets wrong. It simply amazes me that Tucker has been able to generate so much enthusiasm for Kinsella's view, when his writings clearly indicate he doesn't understand it.

As a byproduct of my pointing out the weaknesses in Kinsella's views,Tucker's confusion will be exposed. How will Kinsella react? Will he twist his own thinking to back up his buddy or will he admit the errors in Tucker's thinking? It will be fun to find out.

Jeffrey Tucker

Steve Forbes: Conspiracy Theorist

By Bionic Mosquito

Steve Forbes sees in Cyprus the seeds of multiple conspiracies. Welcome to the club, Steve.

Forbes asks: “Can a Cyprus-Like Seizure of Your Money Happen Here?” Before moving on to his numerous other conspiratorial views, I will answer this question.

Yes.

Your bank deposits do not belong to you, but to the bank. In case of bank default, the deposits belong to other senior creditors until various debts of the bank have been satisfied. Your only salvation is in government insurance, to the extent this is honored.

Lew Rockwell offers the following advice. It should be heeded:

After Cyprus, if you or your business has more than $250,000 in a fractional-reserve bank, get the "non-insured" portion out. Put it in another bank, or buy gold, or do something else good with it. This is the least radical move you can make as a bank-denier, but surely the beginning of prudence.

Forbes also answers his own question affirmatively:

Don’t put it past our politicians to try it in a financial emergency. The breaking of contracts by the U.S. government, unfortunately, has happened before….

It is difficult to use the term “contracts” when the US government is involved. Consider the structure: the government is a) one of the parties to the agreement, b) the adjudicator of disputes regarding the agreement, c) the writer of the rules to the agreement, and d) the modifier of previously written rules regarding the agreement.

If a stranger walked up to you and offered to play this role, would you voluntarily agree?

Consider all of the financial aspects of our lives where this is the case: retirements plans, trusts, banking arrangements, brokerage accounts, real estate holdings, tax policies, etc. To varying degrees, there is no security in any of our financial positions, or legal strategies designed to protect or enhance our financial positions. The government controls the terms and adjudicates the disputes to agreements of which it is a party.

Forbes goes on to list a few of the US government transgressions of the past; conspiracy facts, as these are historically known events:

In 1933–34, amid the depths of the Great Depression, the U.S. government seized the American people’s gold holdings.

In the early 1970s President Richard Nixon annulled contracts selling soybeans to Japan.

For this one, Forbes goes on to note the blowback: “(Japan responded by investing in Brazil, which became one of our major soybean competitors.)”

In 2009 the Obama Administration pushed through a brazenly political restructuring of bankrupt General Motors and Chrysler, and huge payoffs were made to the United Auto Workers, a pro-Obama union, at the expense of bondholders.

Forbes doesn’t list the famous act of Nixon in 1971, but any attempt to compile a complete list would be futile.

Forbes moves on to conspiracy theory. Many of these have been floating around the hidden corners of the internet since the early days of the crisis, but now, with Forbes’ blessing, one can certainly say these have gone mainstream:

There have been rumblings from some revenue-hungry Democrats about finding ways to tap into individuals’ retirement accounts.

Some form of this will happen; I suspect the legislation is already written. I think all it will take is another bear-market disaster, similar to 2008 – early 2009. The government will promise a “make-whole” transfer, offering to credit to the individual the high-water mark of his retirement account if he transfers the assets to a government-approved account.

Most of the money in 401(k)s is pretax dollars and grows tax free, depriving the government of needed revenue. Why not integrate them with Social Security and then means-test the benefits?

Yes, why not? The government writes the rules; the government can change the rules.

Holders of Roth IRAs may be in for a rude shock. Their contributions have been made with aftertax dollars, with the promise that the ensuing benefits would be exempt from federal income tax. Slapping a special “emergency” levy on these assets will become an irresistible temptation for politicians as the pot of assets gets bigger.

Isn’t it interesting that recent tax law allowed the conversion from traditional IRAs to Roth IRAs. This accelerated tax receipts to the government, as the tax had to be paid on the previously deferred amounts at the time of conversion as opposed to in the future, coincident with standard withdrawals. If Forbes is correct, the government will take two bites at this apple.

Forbes offers an example from history of a similar action:

Your Social Security “contributions” are made with aftertax dollars, and it was promised that those benefits would be tax free, but Washington started chipping away at that vow back in the 1980s. Today millions of Social Security recipients find a portion of their benefits subject to the IRS.

Forbes notes the stupidity of this Cyprus plan; any hint of a crisis in another state will send depositors scurrying to withdraw cash, furthering the banking crisis. He is right, but anyone not insuring against this risk today, anywhere in the world, is already playing with fire.

In fact, that the technocrats first proposed taking a haircut from all accounts was somewhat baffling to me. I have only recently written that the elite (the inner circle well hidden from even many senior-technocrats) desire to defend regulatory democracy over all else as the economic crisis is managed. This will ultimately lead to sovereign defaults if this is what is necessary to maintain the people’s faith. They will not allow insured deposits to fail.

Allowing the banking system to fail the masses is a sure way to have the general population turn against the system. I couldn’t believe that insured deposits would take a hit, as initially proposed in the Cyprus plan. In the final plan, Cyprus chose to keep whole the insured deposits –perhaps someone took a phone call. My theory has survived. Three weeks and counting!

In the meantime, I welcome Steve Forbes to the club of conspiracy theorists.

Reprinted with permission. Read more by Bionic Mosquito here.

Murray Rothbard: Under Socialism, all life becomes politicized

By, Chris Rossini

Follow @ChrisRossini on Twitter

Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Ron Paul explains to Rudy Giuliani the meaning of the word "Blowback" [2007]

By, Chris Rossini

Follow @ChrisRossini on Twitter

"No Bank Account ANYWHERE In The Eurozone Is Safe"

ht Daily Bail)

Fractional Reserve Swindling

Researchers Find Treatment That Kills Every Kind of Cancer

NyPo reports:

Researchers might have found the Holy Grail in the war against cancer, a miracle drug that has killed every kind of cancer tumor it has come in contact with.

The drug works by blocking a protein called CD47 that is essentially a "do not eat" signal to the body's immune system, according to Science Magazine.

This protein is produced in healthy blood cells but researchers at Stanford University found that cancer cells produced an inordinate amount of the protein thus tricking the immune system into not destroying the harmful cells.

With this observation in mind, the researchers built an antibody that blocked cancer's CD47 so that the body's immune system attacked the dangerous cells.

So far, researchers have used the antibody in mice with human breast, ovary, colon, bladder, brain, liver and prostate tumors transplanted into them. In each of the cases the antibody forced the mice's immune system to kill the cancer cells.

"We showed that even after the tumor has taken hold, the antibody can either cure the tumor or slow its growth and prevent metastasis," said biologist Irving Weissman of the Stanford University School of Medicine in Palo Alto, California.

One side effect of the treatment was that healthy cells were subjected to short-term attacks by the mice's immune system, but the effect was nothing in comparison to the damage done to the cancer cells.

Troika Go Home!!

Cypriot banks have been shut for more than a week. They will re-open tomorrow, however, withdrawals will be limited and capital controls will be instituted to prevent funds from leaving the country.

A central bank official said Cypriots would be allowed to withdraw no more than 300 euros ($380) a day.

Yiangos Demetriou, head of internal audit at the Central Bank, said on state television that the controls would allow unlimited use of credit cards within Cyprus, but set a limit of 5,000 euros per month abroad. He said the measures would last four days but could be reviewed, reports Reuters.

Other details of the controls had yet to be officially announced by late Wednesday. According to a draft of a government decree leaked to Greek newspaper Kathimerini, Cypriots would not be permitted to send money overseas without documentation showing they are paying for imports.

Those travelling abroad could take a maximum of 3,000 euros on each trip, according to the draft.

Reuters: Behind the Charm, a Political Pope

Reuters reports:

"Jorge is a political man with a keen nose for politics," says Rafael Velasco, a Jesuit priest and former colleague who is now rector of the Catholic University of Cordoba, in central Argentina. "It's not an act, the humility. But it's part of his great capacity to intuitively know and read people."

I don't get the connection between humility and a "great capacity to intuitively know and read people." This might be a subtle attempt at signalling the Pope's overwhelming public displays of "humility," might be at bit much for even some Jesuits.

Prepare for the attacks on free markets by this Pope.

3D Printing a Whole House in Amsterdam

Arthur Martin McCannell Krolman emails:

Thought you might like to see this. I own an Ultimaker myself and it's great. I also have 3 printers from Makerbot too. Yes, I'm an addict:

It is surely now but a matter of time before we are reporting on the completion of the first 3D-printed house, or at least something purported to be such a thing. Amsterdam-based DUS Architects is the latest company to show its hand, and has developed its own 3D printer, the 6-meter (20-foot) tall KamerMaker (literally, RoomMaker), with the intention of 3D printing a house before the end of the year.

The intention is that the KamerMaker will print building components on site. The machine can print components, fabricated from polypropylene, up to 2.2 by 2.2 by 3.5 meters (7.2 by 7.2 by 11.5 feet) in size. It's hoped that in future the KamerMaker will be able to print objects from recycled plastic.

DUS Architects has announced that it will commence construction of a 3D-printed canal house in the coming months, with completion before the end of the year. Initially, 1:20 scale components are printed and tested using the open source Ultimaker 3D printer. DUS Architects tells Gizmag that its KamerMaker is in essence a larger Ultimaker, from which 1:1 scale versions of the components will be printed for construction.

Read the rest here.