The Fed (and Central Planning) Are Fueling Substance Abuse

The Fed (and Central Planning) Are Fueling Substance Abuse

By Doug French

Karl Marx’s Communist Manifesto, included ten planks required to create a socialist dictatorship. Number five on the list is “Centralization of credit in the hands of the state, by means of a national bank with state capital and an exclusive monopoly.” America’s Federal Reserve satisfies this requirement, especially the modern version, which grows exponentially in size, scope, and power, engineering financial repression “for governments to increase tax income and domestically-held debt.”1

While socialism continues to creep from university classrooms to replace once-upon-a-time laissez-faire in everyday America, opioid use has grown to be termed an epidemic.

Teachers Unions Are Bad for Teachers. Here’s Why

Teachers Unions Are Bad for Teachers. Here’s Why

Rigid pay scales, high dues, lousy pension system: Membership has its privileges.

The New Jersey Education Association, the state chapter of the largest teachers union in the country, boasted more than 200,000 members and $154 million in revenue last year. You might think it focuses on helping teachers become more effective and making the public schools better—especially now, with more than 80% of the state’s districts still not offering full-time in-person instruction 13 months after the pandemic began.

Value Is Subjective: Neither Gold Nor Crypto Have "Real Value"

Value Is Subjective: Neither Gold Nor Crypto Have "Real Value"

By Connor Mortell

A major hurdle to the adoption of bitcoin is that while the average person may be at least open to the idea that fiat money is not the ideal, they still struggle to see a difference between fiat money and cryptocurrency. And this lumping together is not just held to the average adopter but includes many brilliant household names such as Peter Schiff and Elon Musk. This widespread conflation of cryptocurrency and fiat currency comes from two vital misunderstandings: a lack of an understanding of what exactly fiat is and a lack of understanding of value’s subjectivity.

Understanding the Fed's Balance Sheet

Understanding the Fed's Balance Sheet

By Robert Aro

The Fed’s balance sheet could easily be replaced with the phrase abracadabra; truly, there is little else in the world which works as magically as it does. Often cited, seldom understood, few seem to realize that as the balance sheet expands, so too does the power of this central bank at the expense of the entire nation.

Rich Millennials Plot the End of Civilization

Rich Millennials Plot the End of Civilization

By Doug French

The New York Times managed to find some young people whose silver spoons provide a sour taste in their mouths. To hear them talk, their good fortune is making them sick.

“I want to build a world where someone like me, a young person who controls tens of millions of dollars, is impossible,” Sam Jacobs, 25, told the Times. Jacobs went off to college a normal young man and came back a socialist. Suddenly his family’s “extreme, plutocratic wealth” became too much of a burden for him.

“He wants to put his inheritance toward ending capitalism,” Zoë Beery wrote for the NYT, “and by that he means using his money to undo systems that accumulate money for those at the top, and that have played a large role in widening economic and racial inequality.”

Fedcoin: A New Scheme for Tyranny and Poverty

Fedcoin: A New Scheme for Tyranny and Poverty

By Ron Paul

If some Congress members get their way, the Federal Reserve may soon be able to track many of your purchases in real time and share that information with government agencies. This is just one of the problems with the proposed “digital dollar” or “fedcoin.”

Fedcoin was initially included in the first coronavirus spending bill. While the proposal was dropped from the final version of the bill, there is still great interest in fedcoin on Capitol Hill. Some progressives have embraced fedcoin as a way to provide Americans with a “universal basic income.”

Both the Senate Banking Committee and the House Financial Services Committee held hearings on fedcoin in June. This is the first step toward making fedcoin a reality.

The Fed: Money Printing to Infinity and Beyond

The Fed: Money Printing to Infinity and Beyond

By Michael Maharrey

After the June Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting, Fed Chair Jerome Powell committed to “do whatever we can, for as long as it takes.”

Nothing has changed — the July meeting was rewind and replay.

“We remain committed to using our tools to do what we can and for as long as it takes to provide some relief and stability to ensure that the recovery will be as long as possible and to limit lasting damage to the economy,” Powell said as the July FOMC meeting wrapped up Wednesday.

A Black Swan With Teeth

A Black Swan With Teeth

By Peter Schiff

For years I have been warning that during the age of permanent stimulus (which began in earnest with the Federal Reserve’s reaction to the dotcom crash of 2000), each successive economic contraction would have to be met with ever larger, increasingly ineffective, doses of monetary and fiscal stimulus to keep the economy from spiraling into depression. I have also said that the enormity of the asset price gains over the last 10 years had increased the danger because reflating the bloated stock, real estate, and public and private debt markets would bring on doses of stimulus that could prove lethal for the economy. But even though I expected that the next financial crisis would be catastrophic, I thought that it would come into the world in the usual way, as a credit crisis triggered by over leverage. But the Coronavirus ripped up those stage notes, and instead ushered in a threat that is faster and deeper than I imagined, and I imagined a lot. It’s a perfect storm, a black swan with teeth.

Governor Murphy's Virus Math Doesn't Add Up

Governor Murphy's Virus Math Doesn't Add Up

By John McKnight

I have done some research on the state's Virus website.  I am finding that the Governor is not using his own numbers which he claims to be guided by.  Deaths at Long Term Care Facilities number 4556 or 51.8% of the state total of 8801.  The number of deaths in the general population is therefore 4345.  The % of the state population of 8,882,190 is .04%.  That seems to be comparable to other seasonal flus, although it is hard to tell as those numbers are not, conveniently, up to date on the website