tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35984390752696055722023-06-21T16:42:30.920+12:00Economic WisdomLinks to reliable or amusing articles about EconomicsRon McKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03989126812730583009noreply@blogger.comBlogger171125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3598439075269605572.post-52214712697796082682019-11-02T16:17:00.003+13:002019-11-02T16:17:45.016+13:00Samuel Johnson<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Samuel Johnson said,<br />
<blockquote>How small, of all that human hearts endure, that part which laws or kings can cause or cure.</blockquote></span>Ron McKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03989126812730583009noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3598439075269605572.post-31493851808665951332019-01-19T21:49:00.002+13:002019-01-19T21:49:55.764+13:00Political Power<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><blockquote>Power doesn’t make you smart. It gives you the ability to appear smart by using power like a cudgel. Power, in fact, makes you lazy and stupid. It’s a drug that eventually corrupts your worldview so thoroughly you can’t see reality for what it is.</blockquote><a href="https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2019/01/16/brexit-fears-have-british-establishment-panicking.html">Tom Luongo</a></span>Ron McKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03989126812730583009noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3598439075269605572.post-25282142344306717272016-10-21T08:36:00.003+13:002016-10-21T08:36:55.577+13:00Fear<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><blockquote>Something very sick is at work when a country cannot endure a prolonged period of peace. Something is dreadfully wrong when a people cannot abide leaders who promise to promote peace, instead conferring power on the most vicious and psychopathic who promise to be “strong”. Something is very wrong with a people that fears peace movements and applauds governments that vitiate them. Something is wrong with a people that cannot look at its history and its mistakes. Something is wrong when a people defends its government no matter what evils it perpetrates.</p><p>That something is fear. There is too much fear in the land, deeply buried in American hearts. There is fear of enemies of all sorts and descriptions: foreign enemies, minorities, various religions, anarchists and anarchy, terrorists, communists, nonconformists, health insecurity, job losses, drugs, gang violence, severe weather, climate change, losses of all kinds, illness, dying and death. No fear is too small not to be the foundation for some crusade or war.</blockquote><a href="https://www.lewrockwell.com/2016/10/michael-s-rozeff/something-sick-people/">Michael S Rozeff</a></span>Ron McKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03989126812730583009noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3598439075269605572.post-19443462435990568312016-01-13T16:09:00.000+13:002016-01-13T16:09:01.210+13:00New Allegiance<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><blockquote>Evangelism is inherently political action. The gospel calls people give their ultimate allegiance to Jesus, not the nations state. It proclaims a kingdom that spans the entire world. It transcends ethnicity, culture, gender, economics and political affiliation.</blockquote>Patrick Wu</span>Ron McKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03989126812730583009noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3598439075269605572.post-25730758825110977992016-01-11T16:03:00.000+13:002016-01-11T16:03:06.810+13:00Nation State<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><blockquote>When Christians forget that they are fundamentally citizens of God's kingdom, not the nation state, they become arrogant or presumptuous in political matters.</blockquote>Jennifer McBride</span>Ron McKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03989126812730583009noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3598439075269605572.post-11870433405842283352016-01-09T16:53:00.000+13:002016-01-09T16:53:08.876+13:00God is King<blockquote><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The modern world does not want to face the challenge of theocracy, the news that God actually has become king. What does it look like when God becomes king. That is the question the gospel attempts to address.</p><p>When God becomes king, he will put things to rights. He does not send in the tanks, he sends in the weak and the broken-hearted.</span></blockquote><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">NT Wright</span>Ron McKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03989126812730583009noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3598439075269605572.post-32940232694274602992016-01-07T10:43:00.001+13:002016-01-07T10:43:30.762+13:00Socialistic Military<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><blockquote>The military is a socialist institution.</blockquote>Philip Blond - Radical Republic<br />
</span>Ron McKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03989126812730583009noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3598439075269605572.post-14659633901163839202015-11-21T09:57:00.001+13:002015-11-21T09:58:34.339+13:00Coercion and the State<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><blockquote>The primary criteria available to consider is whether or not an organization can claim a monopoly of legal violence within a territory. If it can, it is a state. However, modern State leaders have understood this monopoly is not sufficient by itself to maintain their power. This is why they use ideologies to hide the violent nature of their authority and make the population more accepting of the state’s coercive methods.<br />
<br />
In the West, since the nineteenth century, nationalism has largely filled the role of manufacturing consent to government domination, by drawing arbitrarily the contours of a fantasized historical and cultural community. After that came the welfare-state ideology which aims to develop a sophisticated system of fiscal redistribution that cultivates a strong feeling of economic dependence on the political class. And then came the ideology of democracy which allows the state to identify itself with society overall by promoting the illusion that the citizenry maintains control over the state bureaucracy.<br />
<br />
Through these means, states in the West have been able to “legitimize” their monopolies over coercion. <br />
<br />
For established states, achieving statehood confers a sort of title of nobility on the international stage. That is why many political movements aim to gain international recognition of their state. The status of “state” implies “civilized society”.<br />
<br />
And yet, there is nothing honorable about the formation and maintenance of states. States are essentially bellicose and exploitative institutions. None of them can claim to be the fruit of a peaceful or contractual process.<br />
<br />
Unfortunately, much of the problem comes from Western citizens themselves who don’t pay attention to their governments, which never hesitate to use a single tragic event in order to increase their power and their “protection” by limiting their citizens’ individual freedoms. By fueling and exploiting fear, governments create a vicious circle which exacerbates the security demands from their populations, which translates into an increase of states” prerogatives. Military spending increases in turn, which satisfies the powerful interest groups that make up the military-industrial complex.</blockquote><a href="http://us1.campaign-archive1.com/?u=bf16b152ccc444bdbbcc229e4&id=2e34827afd&e=31dd81a0ed">Ferghane Azihari</a> at Mises Daily</span>Ron McKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03989126812730583009noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3598439075269605572.post-55168046429689975292015-09-25T09:55:00.002+12:002015-09-25T09:55:26.233+12:00Church and War<blockquote>War is a counter church. It is the most determinative moral experience many people have. That is why Christian realism requires the disavowal of war. Christians do not renounce war because it is often so horrible, but because war, in spite of its horror, or perhaps because it is so horrible, can be so morally compelling. That is why the church does not have an alternative to war. The church is the alternative to war. When Christians no longer see the reality of the church as an alternative to the world’s reality, we abandon the world to war. </blockquote>Stanley HauerwasRon McKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03989126812730583009noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3598439075269605572.post-19684884418257936492015-05-25T20:21:00.000+12:002015-05-25T20:21:36.543+12:00Civil Religion<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><blockquote>Once the nation becomes the primary hermeneutical target of Scripture, the primary community of faith becomes the state. The church is eclipsed in this world and so is the kingdom of God.<br />
<br />
And once the state becomes the primary community of faith because the Scriptures are applied primarily to the state, civil religion is at hand. The church no longer plays the role of prophet to the nation; it becomes a puppet of the state.</blockquote><a href="http://www.allanbevere.com/2015/05/once-again-civil-religion-of-religious.html">Alan Brevere</a> at Faith Seeking Understanding</span>Ron McKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03989126812730583009noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3598439075269605572.post-87051895373046196522015-03-24T19:39:00.002+13:002015-03-24T19:39:39.243+13:00William Godwin<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><blockquote>Government can have no more than two legitimate purposes,the suppression of injustice against individuals within the community and the common defense against external invasion. </blockquote>William Godwin, an English political philosopher of the 18th Century.</span>Ron McKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03989126812730583009noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3598439075269605572.post-42160956628702979072015-01-15T09:40:00.000+13:002015-01-15T09:40:27.773+13:00Democracy<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><blockquote>In a democracy, each party bids for votes with the money it intends to steal after it has won the election.</blockquote><a href="http://bonnerandpartners.com/governments-love-terrorist-wars-oil/">Bill Bonner</a> on Democracy</span>Ron McKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03989126812730583009noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3598439075269605572.post-90663481463493610832015-01-13T09:16:00.005+13:002015-01-15T09:41:03.241+13:00Randolph Bourne.<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><blockquote>War is the health of the state.</blockquote>Randolph Bourne.</span>Ron McKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03989126812730583009noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3598439075269605572.post-57775606131562751702014-11-06T16:20:00.000+13:002014-11-06T16:21:41.522+13:00Rationality and Goodness<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><blockquote>Economists sometime confine rationality and goodness.</p><p>Explaining something does not justify it.</blockquote><a href="http://www.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=2672">Russell Roberts</a> at the London School of Economics.</span>Ron McKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03989126812730583009noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3598439075269605572.post-82971301537055623232014-09-25T14:41:00.001+12:002014-09-25T14:41:51.883+12:00Mercy and War<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><blockquote>The only mercy in war is a speedy conclusion.</blockquote>Michael Scheuer</span>Ron McKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03989126812730583009noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3598439075269605572.post-54925232434293302932014-09-19T15:48:00.000+12:002014-09-19T15:48:14.070+12:00Ersatz Capitalism<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><blockquote>I believe that this high and increasing level of inequality is not the inevitable result of capitalism, nor is it the working out of inexorable economic forces... The high and growing inequality in the United States is a result of its policies and politics, and those that have emulated the United States—the United Kingdom, for example—are seeing similar results. The inequality is a result of the country’s ersatz capitalism—rampant with monopolies and oligopolies, government-conferred benefits on corporations and the rich, bailouts for the banks, deficiencies in corporate governance, and tax laws that allow the richest to move their money to offshore tax havens and pay far less than their fair share of taxes.</blockquote>From the Economist Magazine</span>Ron McKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03989126812730583009noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3598439075269605572.post-87254263520590289622013-09-30T13:12:00.000+13:002013-09-30T13:12:00.135+13:00Market Failure<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><blockquote>Economies don’t fail. They do exactly what they want to do exactly when they want to do it.<br />
<br />
Fed chiefs fail to improve them. Politicians fail to understand them. And everybody fails to appreciate them.</blockquote><a href="http://dailyreckoning.com/author/bbonner/">Bill Bonner</a> on <a href="http://www.bonnerandpartners.com/a-letter-to-nancy-pelosi/#.UkTa1oanp9w">Market Failure</a>. </span>Ron McKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03989126812730583009noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3598439075269605572.post-16197320690097105782013-09-24T08:15:00.000+12:002013-09-27T13:07:39.050+12:00Banking<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><blockquote>Since banking is not a business that creates real wealth, it can only enrich its owners by taking money from other people. It does that by: (1) printing money (and buying the banks’ deadbeat assets); (2) fixing interest rates at artificially low levels (taking money that should rightfully belong to savers); and (3) generally encouraging inflation to rob everyone.</blockquote>Bill Bonner explaining that the Fed is a vast cartel charged with making for its members and clients.</span>Ron McKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03989126812730583009noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3598439075269605572.post-52498855542638674262013-08-26T11:17:00.000+12:002013-08-27T08:40:02.524+12:00William Godwin<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><blockquote>Government can have no more than two legitimate purposes: the suppression of injustice against individuals and the common defense against external invasion.</blockquote>William Godwin in his <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1409989305/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1409989305&linkCode=as2&tag=kingdwatch-20">Enquiry Concerning Political Justice and Its Influence on Morals and Happiness</a>.</span>Ron McKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03989126812730583009noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3598439075269605572.post-21866641655791299152013-08-22T11:14:00.001+12:002013-08-22T11:14:26.775+12:00Declaration<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><blockquote>Nothing happens in the Kingdom of God until there is a declaration.</blockquote>Bill Johnson</span>Ron McKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03989126812730583009noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3598439075269605572.post-49574036350015310832013-07-01T08:45:00.000+12:002013-07-01T08:45:07.717+12:00John Locke<blockquote>In the second of his Two Treatises on Government, the seventeenth-century English political theorist John Locke accepted the inevitability of inequality stemming from the invention of money and private property. But having done so, he also had to acknowledge the need for a state to police the inequities that the market produces. Any state that could do this effectively, however, would also be strong enough to threaten the property holders it was meant to protect. And so a tension was born in the heart of liberalism: you can’t live with the state, since it might rob you, but you also can’t live without it, since the mob might kill you. </blockquote>Ron McKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03989126812730583009noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3598439075269605572.post-76651984298636827312013-05-04T08:15:00.000+12:002013-05-04T08:15:27.854+12:00Society is Peacemaking<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><blockquote>War is harmful, not only to the conquered but to the conqueror. Society has arisen out of the works of peace; the essence of society is peacemaking. Peace and not war is the father of all things. Only economic action has created the wealth around us; labor, not the profession of arms, brings happiness. Peace builds; war destroys.</blockquote>Ludwig von Mises</span>Ron McKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03989126812730583009noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3598439075269605572.post-76707278493698830492013-04-03T19:57:00.001+13:002013-04-03T19:57:49.489+13:00Dangerous Assumption<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><blockquote>The fundamental assumption that both sides share is that those who have a vision of an ideal society have the right and duty to take the reins of power and history and make that vision reality through the use of political power.</blockquote>An anonymous blog comment highlighting the problem with political power.</span>Ron McKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03989126812730583009noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3598439075269605572.post-53732495719922542622013-03-11T19:50:00.000+13:002013-03-11T19:50:31.769+13:00Punishing the Prudent<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><blockquote>Throughout our history – any country’s history – the people who save their money and invest for their future are the ones that you build an economy, a society, and a nation on.<br />
<br />
In America, many people saved their money, put it aside, and didn’t buy four or five houses with no job and no money down. They did what most people would consider the right thing, and what historically has been the right thing. But now, unfortunately, those people are being wiped out, because they are getting 0% return, or virtually no return, on their savings and their investments. We’re wiping them out at the expense of people who went deeply into debt, people who did what most people would consider the wrong thing at the expense of people who did the right thing. This, long-term, has terrible consequences for any nation, any society, any economy.</blockquote><a href="http://www.jimrogers.com/">Jim Rogers</a> on <a href="http://lewrockwell.com/rogers-j/rogers-j181.html">Punishing the Prudent in favor of Rescuing the Irresponsible</a>.</span>Ron McKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03989126812730583009noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3598439075269605572.post-23700510495921914032013-03-01T08:01:00.000+13:002013-03-01T08:01:27.200+13:00Augustine on Empires<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><blockquote>Augustine thought that imperial ambition was self-destructive folly. If humans had been rational, they would have created, not empires, but an enormous number of small states—Augustine says regna, literally “kingdoms”, but he means any political arrangement whatever. A multitude of tiny, harmless polities could have lived at peace among themselves and therefore at peace internally, just as a city contains innumerable households, none of which seeks to dominate the others, and all of which maybe domestically at peace.</blockquote><a href="http://amzn.to/WnXAgj">Alan Ryan</a> in <a href="http://amzn.to/WnXAgj">On Politics</a> (p.175).</span>Ron McKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03989126812730583009noreply@blogger.com0