Free kibbles

ECONOMY:

Jeffrey Tucker explains that Haiti's crushing poverty is a result of the lack of capital because the government aggressively steals wealth.

"This is an interesting case of a peculiar way in which government is keeping prosperity at bay. It is not wrecking the country through an intense enforcement of taxation and regulation or nationalization. One gets the sense that most people never have any face time with a government official and never deal with paperwork or bureaucracy really. The state strikes only when there is something to loot. And loot it does: predictably and consistently. And that alone is enough to guarantee a permanent state of poverty.Now, to be sure, there are plenty of Americans who are firmly convinced that we would all be better off if we grew our own food, bought only locally, kept firms small, eschewed modern conveniences like home appliances, went back to using only natural products, expropriated wealthy savers, harassed the capitalistic class until it felt itself unwelcome and vanished. This paradise has a name, and it is Haiti."

We're moving in that direction.

The gold standard is a way to regulate greed in government and Wall Street.

TAX AND SPEND:

Irish government taxing pension plans to raise money so it can spend it ostensibly to stimulate the economy. This is wrong on so many levels. Note that Ireland's government can't afford to borrow any money and the bailout restrictions are limiting the aristocrats. I bet they're discussing pulling out of the eurozone like Greece. Eventually every country in the western world plus Japan will likely do the same.

REGULATION:

Yet another study concludes the minimum wage harms blacks more than others.

GLOBAL WARMING AND ENERGY:

Greenpeace loses charity status in New Zealand. Greenpeace has charity status? More corruption.

Even a government research bureau recognizes that raising taxes on oil companies would make gasoline more expensive. It's not rocket science.

Obama's pretense of investigating speculators and oil producers for price gouging is political theater.

POLICE STATE:

New York City to require all new cell phones have an app for receiving terror warnings. Leave my cell phone alone. It looks like everybody is going to get this.

WAR:

Bin Laden's youngest son may have escaped the SEAL raid.

On the ever-changing story of Osama bin Laden's reported assassination. This might be a seminal moment in journalism. I can't think of a time when all the evidence for such a major event was completely erased in plain sight. It's not like this cover-up is happening in the background. The president came right out and said he destroyed the most important evidence and he wasn't going to release any of the rest of the evidence. The press cannot verify any of the claims of the administration, yet it reported the story as fact.

POLITICS:

Fifty two percent of Republicans want a third party. The aristocrats don't care what the people. want.

The Republican establishment must be cringing at the results of this Zogby poll.

LOCAL:

The Feds sent a SWAT team on a food stamp raid that was expected to produce no arrests.

Sheriff's deputy killed in chase over burned out tail lights. Is burned out tail lights worth killing somebody over? Apparently it was for those sheriffs. Doesn't it make more sense to just run the guy's plate and give him a ticket at home than to risk people's lives? It's amazing how cops can turn a simple traffic stop into a lethal event.

MISC:

Robert Murphy shoots down a wacky new economic theory.