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HEALTH CARE:

The week Obama was inaugurated, I warned that he would probably cause the violent explosion of the Democrat Party.

"But only the most radical liberals will support Obama as our economy tanks. At some point Obama's attack dogs will turn on him. The knee-jerk response of the radical left will be to call anybody who criticizes Obama, even more moderate liberals, a racist. Liberals have called conservatives racists for so long that it's meaningless, but when liberals start calling each other racists again like they did in the primary, the country will either rise above knee-jerk accusations of racism and accept harsh criticism of Obama at face value or the Democrat coalition will disintegrate. Or explode."

That essay is well worth a second read if I do say so myself. ;) Now we have Democrat Rep. Pete Stark calling moderate Democrats "brain dead" only seven months after Obama was inaugurated. Obama's plan is working amazingly well. He wants to see the streets erupt in violence, and he's well on his way to making it happen. I like the term Medicoup too.

FEDERAL RESERVE:

Mises scholar blasts recently renominated Ben Bernanke on multiple instances of duplicity between his rhetoric and his harmful actions. Here's one:

"Bernanke's other primary goals included stable prices and moderate long-term interest rates. A focal point of his 2007 and 2008 opening remarks at the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City's Economic Symposium, held at Jackson Hole, Wyoming, focused on price-stability maintenance. His press release of August 25 thanking President Obama for his nomination reiterated his desire "to help provide a solid foundation for growth and prosperity in an environment of price stability."
And yet the consumer price index (CPI) at the end of last year was 5 percent higher than the year before. It was the first time in more than a decade that the American CPI had increased on this scale. At the same time as inflation was increasing, Mr. Bernanke justified keeping the federal-funds rate low, even though this policy increases inflationary pressures. Nowhere was the conflict between Bernanke's previously sought-after goal of price stability reconciled with this newfound goal of financial-system stability."

Bernanke might just be the most dangerous man in America over the next four years.

INFLATION:

Mises's life experiences and inflation.

"Mises realized that inflation hurt some people at the expense of others. Those who were industrious, conscientious, and responsible, who worked hard and saved, were "losers," as the inflation eroded their savings. Those who borrowed to live beyond their means and spent lavishly were "winners," as they were able to repay their creditors with worthless paper money."

Sound familiar? In a natural economy, one based on voluntary exchange with sound money, prices slowly fall over time. Because humans get more efficient year after year and produce more goods and services with the same amount of labor, prices steadily fall in a natural economy. This is the natural economic response to human advancement and makes us all wealthier. So every year, people's savings become more valuable. Every year, people on fixed incomes become more wealthy. But because government perverts our economy and inflates our money supply, we suffer inflation and loss of wealth year after year. And not just the price inflation we can see, but we also lose the natural reduction in prices that would make us all wealthier.

Mises also explains the reason that communism must always end in totalitarian government by a monster:"Mises shocked his contemporaries with a book Socialism, in which he explained that if the Communists did away with private property, they would be unable to calculate and thus unable to plan production. In a Communist society, he said, in which all property was communally owned, the planners would have to rely on soldiers and hangmen to enforce their edicts.
Without private property, there would be no private owners bidding for goods and services, and no exchanges among real owners. Without private owners, each guided by the desire for profits and the fear of losses, there would be no market prices to indicate what people wanted and how much they were willing to pay for it. Without market prices, there would be no competition and no profit-and-loss system. And without a profit-and-loss system, there would be no network of interrelated, consumer-directed, independent producers. Without private property, competition, market prices, and a profit-and-loss system, the planners would not know what to produce, how much to produce, or how to produce it."

MISC:

Boortz thinks the Glenn Beck boycott will expand to include all major talk radio hosts. I don't think many companies are that stupid. A corporation would have to be run by idiots to wage economic war against Rush Limbaugh's audience. A few are. Most are not. Glenn Beck's advertisers will return soon enough too.