The best way to destroy the capitalist system is to debauch the currency. By a continuing process of inflation, governments can confiscate, secretly and unobserved, an important part of the wealth of their citizens.
— John Maynard Keynes
Bizarro Peace Prize Awarded to Obama →
From AntiWar.com:
Let’s say you’re the President of the United States — okay? And you’re on the brink of escalating what promises to be a wider, more intense war than that which George W. Bush launched in Iraq. You’ve already sent in reinforcements, but you’re undecided about just how many more troops you’re going to send to Afghanistan – could be 20,000, could be 40,000, or even 60,000. But, in any case, you’ve ruled out withdrawal and diplomacy: the only option you have left is more war.
This just plain freaks me out, but maybe I’m paranoid.
It's not a tax, it's just the government taking your money →
From Reason Magazine:
“I don’t think I’m making it up,” Mr. Stephanopoulos said […] He cited the dictionary’s definition of “tax”—”a charge, usually of money, imposed by authority on persons or property for public purposes.”
Mr. Obama: “George, the fact that you looked up Merriam’s Dictionary, the definition of tax increase, indicates to me that you’re stretching a little bit right now…”
Because only the dishonest or clinically insane believe that “words” have a “real meaning”.
I’m sorry, I have to go read that again, because I still can’t believe he actually said that.
Government is the only institution that can take a perfectly good piece of paper, print some noble words on it, and make it perfectly worthless.
— Ludwig von Mises
Against Intellectual Monopoly →
Interesting (and free!) book about Intellectual Property. PDF here.
It is a long and dangerous jump from the assertion that innovators deserve compensation for their efforts to the conclusion that patents and copyrights, that is monopoly, are the best or the only way of providing that reward.
In the most corrupt state are the most laws.
— Terence
Regardless of popular sanction, War is Mass Murder, Conscription is Slavery, and Taxation is Robbery.
— Murray Rothbard, For a New Liberty: The Libertarian Manifesto
Economics in One Lesson by Henry Hazlitt →
The whole of economics can be reduced to a single lesson, and that lesson can be reduced to a single sentence. The art of economics consists in looking not merely at the immediate but at the longer effects of any act or policy; it consists in tracing the consequences of that policy not merely for one group but for all groups.
Originally published in 1946, this book is still incredibly relevant. I know, I know, it’s about economics, but it’s fascinating. Really.
You can also download a PDF version.
The state is the great fictitious entity by which everyone seeks to live at the expense of everyone else.
