Robert Lenzner and Judge Richard Posner Argue for International Socialism

I responded to a Forbes article by Robert Lenzner in which Lenzner quotes Judge Posner in arguing that subsidies to large, incompetently run Wall Street firms that produce no value are essential because otherwise benefits to Posner's employers, the University of Chicago and the federal court system, will slow to a trickle.

Posner has made a career arguing that the judicial system optimizes social welfare. In Posner's view, the United States is wealthy because of judges and academics, not because of the innovation of the free market. In his view, all that is needed to become wealthy is further government control and centralization.

The difference between Posner and Stalin is this: whereas Posner, like Trotsky, argues for international socialism, Stalin argued for socialism in one country.

My response to Lenser follows:

Judge Posner's theory that he is smarter than the dynamic of markets is in a long tradition of advocacy of centralized economic planning that goes back to the days of the Emperor Diocletian. Posner's ideas worked so well in the Soviet Union and Cuba that he aims to transplant them here. The difference is that in the Soviet Union the spoils of socialism went to armed thugs, whereas in the USA Posner aims to distribute them to donors to the University of Chicago and his clients in the federal court system.

Posner's ideas do not work. The court system has done nothing to make the economy more rational. Rather, it has redistributed wealth to the wealthy. Now, Posner aims to extend his failed utilitarian strategy by subsidizing incompetently run Wall Street firms which have been cancer in the lungs of the American economy for a century.

The idea that Bear Stearns needed help from me is like saying that my grandfather's pneumonia ought to have been encouraged by his physician.

If Wall Street created value it would not need subsidies. If it created value, we would not need to transfer massive amounts of wealth to it annually via the Federal Reserve Bank's monetary expansion. Wall Street steals from the productive sector of the economy and donates it to the unproductive, say universities and the court system.

In the 19th century the American economy was relatively decentralized, there was no Fed, the courts had less power, and the real hourly wage increased two percent per year. In the 20th century we have increasing power arrogated to a self-serving federal court system and Wall Street, and real wages are increasing 2% per 25 years.

Posner, Lensner and the rest of the "oh dear Wall Street needs a trillion dollars of your money or the sky will fall" corrupt nexus of mass media, courts and academia should move to Cuba, that benign island nation off the shore of Florida where Posner's ideas flourish.

Town of Olive Conservative Caucus Nominates Vince Barringer

I attended the Town of Olive Conservative Caucus last night in the Town of Olive Justice Court on Bostock Road. The most remarkable thing about that building is that the men's rooms have two wooden doors. You open the rickety wooden door to the men's room and there's a small ante-room and then you open a second rickety wooden door.

The Town of Olive has a split personality. The Conservative Party has about 85 members and gets about 10 percent of the popular vote in the town. But the town is no longer Republican as it once was. In the late 1980s, I am told, the Republican majority became Democratic as immigrants from New York City, owners of weekend houses, rock stars (no kidding) and other Democrats moved to Olive. Thus, there is a split personality, with a large chunk of the population descendants or long time residents and a large chunk consumers of granola and yogurt. As in New York City, many of the Republicans are left of the Democrats, but the Conservatives can play a decisive role. The candidates need to seem conservative on fiscal issues but liberal on environmental and lifestyle issues. There is a healthy competition for the Conservative Party nod because of the area's split personality.

All of the town's incumbents are Democrats. The Democrats enjoy roughly a ten percent lead in enrollment. The Democratic town supervisor, Berndt Leifeld, has been supervisor since 1988, according to the Olive Press. Timothy Cox, an attorney with the Catskill Watershed Commission and a former Republican, is running for town justice. Bruce Lamonda (who I know from the Emerson Inn and Spa's workout room) and Linda Burkhardt are running for town council and Jim Fugel, who turned down a cross-nomination from the Republicans, is running for highway supervisor. Running unopposed is Sylvia Rozzelle for town clerk. The Democratic candidates are all worthy. However, Republican challenger Vince Barringer makes an excellent point: Leifeld has been serving for over 20 years and is the highest paid town supervisor in Ulster County and among the highest paid in the State. This is excessive given that the Town of Olive is a small town, with less than 4,000 residents.

The Conservatives gave the nod to most of the Republicans, and this was a positive step as their support was not given. Barringer got the Conservative Party nod for town supervisor. Two charming and capable Republicans, both excellent candidates, Don van Buren and Craig Grazier, got the nod for town board. But the compassionate and insightful Earla van Kleeck was nudged out by Tim Cox. Van Kleeck is a good candidate and has an excellent shot at town justice. The Republican candidate for highway supervisor, Chet Scofield, was unable to attend the caucus and was nudged out by Democratic incumbent Fugel.

The candidates spoke to about 20 Conservatives and roughly an equal number of observers, of whom I was one. One of the interesting phenomena of a small town is that the politics are a little less subtle than in Albany or New York City. Two of the Democratic candidates' children are enrolled Conservatives and one of these began to aggressively disrupt and argue when the Republican candidate for town supervisor, Vince Barringer, was speaking. Nevertheless, I thought the Conservative caucus meeting was very well run and the outcome overall is positive for the Republican cause.

Tax Slaves in the Town of Olive

The American Association of Retired People reports that there will be no social security increase next year for the first time since 1975. The reason is lack of inflation or deflation. I was previously wrong about this, predicting continued inflation. The reason for the deflation has been credit contraction. The new reserves that the Federal Reserve printed have not yet been lent. When they are, inflation will resume.

Nevertheless, for deflation we see remarkable phenomena. The price of food has been rising. Gasoline now sells in the high two dollars or low three dollars per gallon. The New York City subway recently raised its price. That is a curious set of events for a "deflation". Of course, New York State and local taxes are on the rise. I guess state and local governments have not been reading the propaganda of the New York Times, which incidentally, raised its prices too.

Here in the Town of Olive in the Socialist State of the Empire school taxes were raised about 5 percent and the school budget was raised by a similar amount. It is remarkable that in a deflation the cost of education has been increasing. Berndt Leifeld, the Town supervisor, has not provided data about education results in Olive. I would think that if school costs are rising, educational outcomes are rising too. I'm sure the high school students are reading Cicero these days rather than playing Nintendo or Mafia Wars. The extra 5% in the school budget has unquestionably been well spent. Mr. Leifeld seems to have forgotten to ask the school board to publish statistics on education outcomes. There seems to be a transparency problem in Town government.

One of the local residents has seen his taxes rise 5%, but he lives on social security which has not increased. Therefore, he can no longer afford to live in his house. It seems that the Town of Olive does not follow the inflation principles of the Social Security administration.

The American system of government is one of gradual enslavement. The masters of the slaves are vested special interests who manipulate government: incompetent government employees; educational institutions that do not educate but demand higher wages; and, of course, ever worse management and ever higher taxes. But who puts the masters in place? The slaves themselves.

Let it be said that Americans are the first people who have willingly, as a society, enslaved themselves, appointing their own masters and depriving themselves of property by democratic vote in order to subsidize their masters. We live in a nation of slaves, with slave minds and slave attitudes. This is no longer a free country.

I Told You So

During last year's presidential campaign I came to the conclusion that Barack Hussein Obama was the spiritual successor to George W. Bush and that the best way to continue Bush's policies was to elect Obama. Obama claimed that he would turn around the economy and end the Iraqi War, the two glaring areas in which President Bush demonstrated his incompetence. Especially with respect to these two areas Mr. Obama's promise was "change".

The concept that President Obama represents "change" with respect to the economy is illustrated by his recent reappointment of the architect of President Bush's economic policies, Ben Bernanke. Mr. Bernanke is the best friend Wall Street ever had, and it seems obvious from Mr. Bernanke's reappointment that President Obama is Wall Street's president. With respect to Iraq President Obama reappointed another Bush appointee, Robert Gates. As well, he has done nothing to change the Bush policy in Iraq.

Perhaps we might consider the meaning of the word "change" to have been permanently bastardized. According to Obama, the meaning of "change" is to continue Bush policies, and add a few, like his absurd health reform proposal, that are even worse than Bush's.

One good result of the 2008 election: the American Democratic Party propaganda institutions can no longer be taken seriously. The propaganda system's aggressive support for Obama, a Bush clone, has not only made it into a laughing stock but has convinced us that the left can produce its own George W. Bush. Only Democrats and fools read newspapers or watch televised news.