LibertyVoter.Org

By Mises Updates

Featuring some students from Andrew College (of Georgia):

(Thanks to Breanna.)

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Source: MISES INSTITUTE

By Mises Updates

Presented at “Inflation: Causes, Consequences, and Cure”: a free seminar for high school and college students. Hosted at the Mises Institute in Auburn, Alabama, on 11 April 2014.

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Source: MISES INSTITUTE

By Mises Updates

By Ron Paul

Anyone watching last week’s debate over the Republican budget resolution would have experienced déjà vu, as the debate bore a depressing similarity to those of previous years. Once again, the Republicans claimed their budget would cut spending in a responsible manner, while Democratic opponents claimed the plan’s spending cuts would shred the safety net and leave vital programs unfunded. Of course, neither claim is true.

The budget does not cut spending at all, and in fact actually increases spending by $1.5 trillion over ten years. The Republicans are using the old DC trick of spending less than originally planned and calling that reduced spending increase a $5.1 trillion cut in spending. Only in DC could a budget that increases spending by 3.5 percent per year instead of by 5.2 percent per year be attacked as a “slash-and-burn” plan.

The budget also relies on “dynamic scoring.” This trick is where the budget numbers account for increased government revenue generated by economic growth the budget will supposedly unleash. The claims are dubious at best. Of course, reducing government spending will lead to economic growth. But real growth requires real cuts, not this budget’s phony cuts.

As important as reducing spending and balancing the budget is, focusing solely on budget numbers ignores the root of the problem. The real problem is that too many in Washington — and the nation as a whole — refuse to consider any serious reductions in the welfare-warfare state.

I have always maintained that the logical place to start reducing spending is the trillions wasted on our interventionist foreign policy. Unfortunately, there are still too many in Congress who claim to be fiscal hawks when it comes to welfare spending, but turn into Keynesian “doves” when it comes to spending on the military-industrial complex.

These members cling to the mistaken belief that the government can balance it budget, keep taxes low, and even have a growing economy, while spending trillions of dollars policing the world, and propping up some governments and changing others overtly or covertly. Thus, President Obama is attacked as soft on defense because he only wants to spend $5.9 trillion over ten years on the military. In contrast, the Republican budget spends $6.2 trillion over the next decade. That is almost a trillion more than the budget’s total so-called spending cuts.

If there are too many fiscal conservatives who refuse to abandon the warfare state, there are too many liberals who act as if any reduction in welfare …read more

Source: MISES INSTITUTE

By Mises Updates

SPECIAL OFFER: Enroll before the first lecture, and receive a free hardback copy of course text The Mystery of Banking by Murray N. Rothbard, signed by Joseph Salerno, author of the introduction, and instructor of this course.

After enrolling, just email your name and address to academy@mises.org. (This offer applies to students who enrolled before this announcement as well.)

The purpose of this course is to illustrate how Austrian monetary economics is used to analyze historical and current events and policies. The course will also cover controversies between Austrian and mainstream monetary theorists in interpreting the causes, consequences, and remedies for important episodes of monetary disorder. Topics will include:

• Rothbard Versus Friedman: Were the 1920s Inflationary? Were the 1930s Deflationary?
• Deflation: Good or Bad?
• The War on Cash
• Who or What Caused the Financial Crisis and Great Recession?
• Beware of False Gold Standards: From Bretton Woods to the Dollar Bill Standard
• World Currency Wars: Who Will Win and Who Will Lose?

Lectures

Lectures will be Tuesdays at 5:30 p.m. Eastern time.  They will be recorded and made available for enrolled students to download.

Register here. 

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Source: MISES INSTITUTE

By Mises Updates

Interviewed by host Tom Woods, Joe Salerno talks about the Fed, the Great Depression, currency wars, deflation, and why governments hate cash.

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Source: MISES INSTITUTE

Over the past week, those Americans frantically filling out their returns have been reminded of the tax system’s increasing complexity and inefficiency. But it is also important to remember that the root cause of this woe is out-of-control government spending. Cato Institute scholars have long been pushing for cuts in spending and a renewed commitment to fiscal responsibility.

• “The Income Tax: A Century Is Enough,” by Chris Edwards
• “Tax Revolt! It’s Time to Learn from Past Success,” by Brian Domitrovic
• “Options for Tax Reform,” by Chris Edwards

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Source: CATO HEADLINES

By Richard W. Rahn

Richard W. Rahn

Do you think the Internal Revenue Service and other government agencies should have the right to seize your assets, including your bank accounts, when you have not been convicted of wrongdoing? The fact is, the IRS and other government agencies do this all of the time, and often without even a formal accusation of wrongdoing.

Anyone who is awake knows that the IRS has been politicized — and thus critics of the administration live in fear that their property will be taken for the mere act of speaking out against the government.

The American Founding Fathers well understood that if the government was given too much power, it would almost certainly abuse it. Unfortunately, the elaborate system of checks and balances they devised has been steadily eroded by weak-kneed and intellectually bankrupt judges, members of Congress and presidents over the past two centuries, and thus, the United States increasingly resembles an authoritarian state rather than a republic that protects individual liberties.

“Government seizure of property without due process should cease.”

The government has always been able to seize private property that was used to perpetrate a crime or produced by a crime. Under the Constitution, every American has the right to be considered innocent until proven guilty.

Thus, in criminal cases, the government has to convince a judge and jury beyond a reasonable doubt that a crime has been committed. Under civil asset-forfeiture laws, no such proof is required — and, as a result, many innocent people have had their property taken by agents of the federal government.

As people become increasingly aware of the abuses, individual citizens and organizations formed to protect individual liberty are fighting back and beginning to win some cases. There was the widely publicized case of Terry Dehko and his daughter, who had owned a supermarket in Fraser, Mich., since 1978.

The IRS seized their entire bank account of more than $35,000 in April 2013, without arguing before a court of law that the Dehkos had committed a crime. In fact, they had committed no crime. Fortunately, the Dehkos were able to enlist the help of the Institute for Justice, a civil-liberties law firm that works on the behalf of individuals. After a year of expensive litigation, the government did return their money.

Institute for Justice lawyers have noted that the “federal civil forfeiture law features an appalling lack of due process: It empowers the government to seize private property from Americans without …read more

Source: OP-EDS