George Phillips, candidate for Congress in New York's 22nd Congressional district, forwarded a Kingston (NY) Freeman article about his opponent, Congressman Maurice Hinchey. Congressman Hinchey achieved national attention last spring when he proposed price controls on gasoline, a strategy that inevitably leads to shortages and misallocation of resources. Besides Hinchey's economic illiteracy, upstate New York's 22nd district appears to have a Congressman with a violence problem.
The Freeman article reads:
Ex-candidate says he saw Hinchey strike NRA member
By Paul Kirby , Freeman staff
KINGSTON - A former candidate for Ulster County executive says he saw U.S. Rep. Maurice Hinchey smack a man in the head at the Rosendale Street Festival this past summer - an incident that resulted in a harassment charge against the congressman.
Allan Wikman said this week he was "dumbstruck" and "shocked" when he saw Hinchey, D-Hurley, whack Paul Lendvay, chairman of the Catskill Re-gional Friends of the National Rifle Association, on the top of Lendvay's head...
Read the rest of the article here.
Saturday, October 4, 2008
Friday, October 3, 2008
Paying For Your Burger With A Wheelbarrow of Cash
I just received the following e-mail from Howard S. Katz, the "Goldbug".
Dear Mitchell,
Sorry to ruin your day, but I just checked out the Federal Reserve Report. They have been increasing Reserve Bank Credit (their portion of the money supply) at a massive rate. It is up 56% in the past 3 weeks. Since the Fed's portion of the money supply is 57%, this computes to a 32% increase in the nation's money supply in 3 weeks (with more to come later when the nation's banks start lending out all those reserves).
Dear Mitchell,
Sorry to ruin your day, but I just checked out the Federal Reserve Report. They have been increasing Reserve Bank Credit (their portion of the money supply) at a massive rate. It is up 56% in the past 3 weeks. Since the Fed's portion of the money supply is 57%, this computes to a 32% increase in the nation's money supply in 3 weeks (with more to come later when the nation's banks start lending out all those reserves).
Thursday, October 2, 2008
Lots of Change You Can Believe In-$250 Million Worth
Bob Robbins has forwarded a Newsmax article which states that:
"A Newsmax analysis of the 1.4 million individual contributions in the latest master file for the Obama campaign discovered 1,000 separate entries for Mr. Good Will, most of them for $25...Mr. Good Will listed his employer as “Loving” and his profession as “You.” In total, Mr. Good Will gave $17,375...Similarly, a donor identified as “Pro, Doodad,” from “Nando, NY,” gave $19,500 in 786 separate donations, most of them for $25. For most of these donations, Mr. Doodad Pro listed his employer as “Loving” and his profession as “You,” just as Good Will had done."
"With such lax vetting of foreign contributions, the Obama campaign may have indirectly contributed to questionable fundraising by foreigners. In July and August, the head of the Nigeria’s stock market held a series of pro-Obama fundraisers in Lagos, Nigeria’s largest city. The events attracted local Nigerian business owners. At one event, a table for eight at one fundraising dinner went for $16,800. Nigerian press reports claimed sponsors raked in an estimated $900,000...In June, Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi gave a public speech praising Obama, claiming foreign nationals were donating to his campaign... A pair of Palestinian brothers named Hosam and Monir Edwan contributed more than $31,300 to the Obama campaign in October and November 2007, FEC records show."
"More than half of the whopping $426.9 million Barack Obama has raised has come from small donors whose names the Obama campaign won't disclose."
In a different e-mail, Andy Martin writes:
"I was smacked in the face by recent reports that Obama has raised almost a quarter of a billion dollars, almost $250 million, of clandestine campaign cash whose origins Obama has never disclosed. This amount is unbelievable and appears to reflect clear criminal intent to evade federal campaign contribution limitations.
"How does Obama think he can hide a quarter of a billion dollars by labeling the origins as 'petty cash?' Where are the mainstream media? Bothering Sarah Palin?
"I have asked General Mukasey, the Chicago U. S. Attorney and the FBI to open an investigation into the identities and sources of this secret cash. If the cash hoard is legal, we have a right to know. If the cash is tainted or even criminal, we also have a right to know, before the election, not afterwards. The American People should not have a 'pig in a poke' to vote for on November 4th."
"A Newsmax analysis of the 1.4 million individual contributions in the latest master file for the Obama campaign discovered 1,000 separate entries for Mr. Good Will, most of them for $25...Mr. Good Will listed his employer as “Loving” and his profession as “You.” In total, Mr. Good Will gave $17,375...Similarly, a donor identified as “Pro, Doodad,” from “Nando, NY,” gave $19,500 in 786 separate donations, most of them for $25. For most of these donations, Mr. Doodad Pro listed his employer as “Loving” and his profession as “You,” just as Good Will had done."
"With such lax vetting of foreign contributions, the Obama campaign may have indirectly contributed to questionable fundraising by foreigners. In July and August, the head of the Nigeria’s stock market held a series of pro-Obama fundraisers in Lagos, Nigeria’s largest city. The events attracted local Nigerian business owners. At one event, a table for eight at one fundraising dinner went for $16,800. Nigerian press reports claimed sponsors raked in an estimated $900,000...In June, Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi gave a public speech praising Obama, claiming foreign nationals were donating to his campaign... A pair of Palestinian brothers named Hosam and Monir Edwan contributed more than $31,300 to the Obama campaign in October and November 2007, FEC records show."
"More than half of the whopping $426.9 million Barack Obama has raised has come from small donors whose names the Obama campaign won't disclose."
In a different e-mail, Andy Martin writes:
"I was smacked in the face by recent reports that Obama has raised almost a quarter of a billion dollars, almost $250 million, of clandestine campaign cash whose origins Obama has never disclosed. This amount is unbelievable and appears to reflect clear criminal intent to evade federal campaign contribution limitations.
"How does Obama think he can hide a quarter of a billion dollars by labeling the origins as 'petty cash?' Where are the mainstream media? Bothering Sarah Palin?
"I have asked General Mukasey, the Chicago U. S. Attorney and the FBI to open an investigation into the identities and sources of this secret cash. If the cash hoard is legal, we have a right to know. If the cash is tainted or even criminal, we also have a right to know, before the election, not afterwards. The American People should not have a 'pig in a poke' to vote for on November 4th."
19th Century Innovation in David Ames Wells's Recent Economic Changes
David Ames Wells, a 19th century engineer and economist, was chairman of the national revenue commission under President Abraham Lincoln and special commissioner of the revenue under President Andrew Johnson. Wells became an advocate of reduced tariffs and hard money. He opposed free silver. He opposed income taxes. In 1871 he argued in Local Taxation that New York State was losing business to other states because of excessive taxation. His view of the late 19th century deflation was that depression was due to "overproduction". In his book Recent Economic Changes, published in 1889, he argues that unemployment is due to improvement in technology. This was true short term but not long because labor rotated into services. On page 64 he mentions that "fifty years ago the railroad and the locomotive were practically unknown". "The ocean steam marine dates from 1838." "Electricity had then hardly got beyond the stage of an elegant amusement." He adds:
"The following is a further partial list of the inventions, discoveries and applications whose initial point of 'being' is not only more recent than the half-century, but whose fuller or larger development in a majority of instances is also referable to a much more recent date:
The mechanical reapers, mowing and seeding machines
The steam plow and other labor-saving agricultural devices
The Bessemer process and steel rail (1857)
The submarine and trans-oceanic telegraph cables
Photography and all its adjuncts
Electrotype
The steam hammer, repeating and breech loading fire arms and rifled and steel cannon
gun-cotton and dynamite
the industrial use of India-rubber
The steam excavator
The sewing machine
The practical use of the electric light
The application of dynamic electricity as a motor for industry
The steam fire-engine
The telephone, microphone, spectroscope and the process of spectral analysis
The polariscope
The compound steam-engine
The centrifugal process of refining sugar
The rotary printing press
Hydraulic lifts, cranes and elevators
The regenerative furnace
Iron and steel ships
Pressed glass
Wire rope
Petroleum and its derivatives, and analine dyes
The industrial use of metal nickel
Cotton-seed oil
Artificial butter
Stearine candles
Natural Gas
Cheap postage
The postage stamp
How have we doing in the past hundred years? Keep in mind that television and radio were conceptualized by Nikola Tesla, a 19th century inventor who decided not to focus on them. Had he, they could have both been operational by 1910.
How does the 20th century, the century of "Progressivism" compare to the 19th, the century of laissez-faire in terms of real progress? Of course, the twentieth century invented the atom bomb, nuclear power, nuclear submarines, the analog and digital computer, the Internet, "buy and hold" strategy of mutual fund investment and Warren Buffett's stock investment strategy tips (yes, we have made major progress under Progressivism). But overall, it would seem that the age of Progressivism has been one of slow progress.
"The following is a further partial list of the inventions, discoveries and applications whose initial point of 'being' is not only more recent than the half-century, but whose fuller or larger development in a majority of instances is also referable to a much more recent date:
The mechanical reapers, mowing and seeding machines
The steam plow and other labor-saving agricultural devices
The Bessemer process and steel rail (1857)
The submarine and trans-oceanic telegraph cables
Photography and all its adjuncts
Electrotype
The steam hammer, repeating and breech loading fire arms and rifled and steel cannon
gun-cotton and dynamite
the industrial use of India-rubber
The steam excavator
The sewing machine
The practical use of the electric light
The application of dynamic electricity as a motor for industry
The steam fire-engine
The telephone, microphone, spectroscope and the process of spectral analysis
The polariscope
The compound steam-engine
The centrifugal process of refining sugar
The rotary printing press
Hydraulic lifts, cranes and elevators
The regenerative furnace
Iron and steel ships
Pressed glass
Wire rope
Petroleum and its derivatives, and analine dyes
The industrial use of metal nickel
Cotton-seed oil
Artificial butter
Stearine candles
Natural Gas
Cheap postage
The postage stamp
How have we doing in the past hundred years? Keep in mind that television and radio were conceptualized by Nikola Tesla, a 19th century inventor who decided not to focus on them. Had he, they could have both been operational by 1910.
How does the 20th century, the century of "Progressivism" compare to the 19th, the century of laissez-faire in terms of real progress? Of course, the twentieth century invented the atom bomb, nuclear power, nuclear submarines, the analog and digital computer, the Internet, "buy and hold" strategy of mutual fund investment and Warren Buffett's stock investment strategy tips (yes, we have made major progress under Progressivism). But overall, it would seem that the age of Progressivism has been one of slow progress.
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