Government will Succeed This Time! Yeah right… - November 1, 2008

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If you put the federal government in charge of the Sahara Desert, in 5 years there’d be a shortage of sand. — Milton Friedman

When government fails, they are rewarded.

When terrorists attacked America (representing a failure in law enforcement and intelligence) we gave more money and vastly more power to government. As long as we are the world police, we’ll have enemies. Eventually we’ll see another attack, how much more money and power can we give?

The Federal Reserve Bank was set up to smooth out the free market depressions of the 19th century. Only after the creation of the Fed did we have the GREAT depression. Even then we didn’t learn. We gave government unprecedented power to fix things. It took over 10 years when normally depressions only lasted a couple years.

Did that teach us anything? Remarkably, NO! Now with our current economic crisis we are once again giving government unprecedented power and money to manipulate the economy.

Do we really expect these monkeys pulling levers have any clue what they are doing? When the market crashed in ‘87 Reagan decided to do nothing. That recession was over in a couple years. Let’s see what happens this time. If history has told us anything, with government meddling it will likely last much longer than a couple years.Government is in charge of k-12 education in America. Despite spending more per capita than any other nation on earth, our students rank among East European and Third World nations. What is government’s answer? Give more money and more power.

Government decided to help students pay for college education. Since the early initiatives, the cost of higher education has gone up 500%. Faster than every other segment of the economy. What’s the answer? Of course, let’s give government more money and more power.

Government regulates and helps to finance health care. This segment of the economy has seen cost increases of 300% in just over 15 years, faster than all other segments except higher education. This mess is a result of lobbyists buying votes (the Prescription Drug Plan), massive regulation, and businesses working the government red tape (insurance companies). What’s the answer? Give government all the money and all the power — nationalize it!

Government now controls our banks. Government is likely to move into automaking, airlines, and who knows what else. They are sure to make a mess. But let’s all save our pennies (if we have any left), because when they fail, they’ll be demanding more money and more power to fix it.

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Reduce Oil Prices by Regulating Speculators? - July 12, 2008

As the dollar falls, oil prices go upNo…

Government intervention will make the problem worse. Didn’t we already experience what happens when government interferes with the free market while Carter was president?

Speculation makes markets react faster and increases liquidity.  Without liquidity the market could be much worse and subject to larger price fluctuations.

Speculators are not the problem.  The number 1 problem is government created:  The Gulf War has cost 600 Billion dollars.  Rather than force Americans to pay for this in taxes, the government has borrowed and printed money.  This has caused the dollar to crash in value.  Oil is a commodity, just like gold, copper, and steel.  All of these items have gone up in dollars as the dollar has gone done in value.

If the dollar held it’s past value, oil would be under $100 a barrel.

Besides the crashing dollar, other significant causes are:  increasing demand from Asia, decrease in new discoveries, subsidized gas in China, and high per capita consumption in the U.S.

Speculation is a debatable factor.  I don’t think it hurts us, but I know government interference will!

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