Patrick McKnight
The Fed (and Central Planning) Are Fueling ...

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.

The Fed (and Central Planning) Are Fueling Substance Abuse
Patrick McKnight
Why You Need F-You Money

By J.L. Collins

Those who live paycheck to paycheck are slaves. Those who carry debt are slaves with even stouter shackles. Don’t think for the moment their masters don’t know it.

Why You Need F-You Money
Patrick McKnight
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.

Teachers Unions Are Bad for Teachers. Here’s Why
Patrick McKnight
Value Is Subjective: Neither Gold Nor Crypto ...

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.

Value Is Subjective: Neither Gold Nor Crypto Have "Real Value"
Patrick McKnight
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.

Understanding the Fed's Balance Sheet

economics

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.

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.

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.

What If We Had A Gold Standard System, Right Now?

What If We Had A Gold Standard System, Right Now?

By Nathan Lewis

For most of the 182 years between 1789 and 1971, the United States embraced the principle of a dollar linked to gold — at first, at $20.67/oz., and then, after 1933, $35/oz. Nearly every economist today will tell you that was a terrible policy. We can tell it was a disaster because, during that time, the United States became the wealthiest and most prosperous country in the history of the world.

This is economist logic.

Hickenlooper is Right: Socialism is NOT the Answer 

Hickenlooper is Right: Socialism is NOT the Answer 

By Lee Enochs  

This past weekend was a busy one for many Americans, as many of us enjoyed the great outdoors as the weather warmed around the country, the liberal political world also showed signs of heating up. A particularly “heated moment” took place just a few days ago at California’s Democratic Convention during 2020 presidential hopeful Hickenlooper brief but controversial remarks before that progressive political body.

The fawning adulation and applause the pragmatic former Governor of Colorado received at that Democratic Convention quickly turned into anger, vitriol and a cascade of boos as Hickenlooper rejected the notion that socialism is the answer to America’s political and economic problems. “If we want to beat Donald Trump and achieve big progressive goals, socialism is not the answer," Hickenlooper boldly proclaimed to a crowd of more than 4,500 progressive delegates this past Saturday.

The Current Crisis in Venezuela Demonstrates Why Socialism is a Bad Idea

The Current Crisis in Venezuela Demonstrates Why Socialism is a Bad Idea

By Lee Enochs

Socialism is on the rise in America today. There is inconvertible evidence for this disturbing political and economic trend as veteran correspondent Andrew Malcolm reported in his recent insightful op-ed entitled, “How President Trump Helps Divide Democrats by Fanning the Flames of Socialism.” Malcolm cites a recent Gallup poll that indicates that 57% of Democrats viewed socialism positively, while only 47% viewed capitalism positively (See: Star - Telegram, February 20, 2019).

So serious is the rise of socialism in America today, that President Trump devoted a substantial portion of his recent “State of the Union” address dealing with the issue and said, “Here, in the United States, we are alarmed by new calls to adopt socialism in our country. America was founded on liberty and independence — not government coercion, domination and control. We are born free, and we will stay free. Tonight, we renew our resolve that America will never be a socialist country.”

The economic and political issues involved here are enormous and put simply, socialism is a dubious economic theory that opposes capitalist notions of individualized profit and private property and advocates that that the vesting of the ownership and control of the means of production and distribution of capital, land and etc., should be controlled and regulated by the state.

Why the Green New Deal is Ridiculous

Why the Green New Deal is Ridiculous

By Lee Enochs 

In the most expansive and comprehensive plan for progressive control of the American government in history, freshman Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a “Democratic Socialist,” rolled out her highly anticipated and very controversial “Green New Deal” yesterday.

The non-binding and flagrantly audacious resolution, promises to restructure the entire American economy for the stated purpose of eliminating the U.S. carbon footprint by 2030.

Why the Rise of Socialism is Bad for America

Why the Rise of Socialism is Bad for America

By Lee Enochs 

Socialism, the political and economic theory of social organization, which postulates that the means of production, distribution, and exchange of monetary resources for goods should be regulated by the state, is on the rise in the United States. 

 The economic and political system of socialism are directly related to the concepts of “collectivism,” the practice or principle of giving a group priority over each individual in it, and “statism,” a political system in which the state has substantial centralized control over social and economic affairs of a given state or society.