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Here.

I'd quibble that not ALL of the money was lent into existence - just 99.9% (at the very least, 97% - since 1959, the money stock has grown from approximately 300 billion to 10,300 billion).

Think about it - 97 cents of every dollar you use was lent into existence, requiring the payment of interest to a fed-connected banker.

Good job if you can get it.

60 minutes on Sunday night must've been scripted by a libertarian. First, we have Bush failing to admit failure and resorting to the sunk cost fallacy, because its not his money or blood that's being sacrificed going forward. All his incentives are to spend as much as possible so he can call this mess a success at some point. If his "surge" fails, no further skin off his back - it's already a failure, and, again, its not his money that's being spent. If it succeeds, all the better.

Next, you have a profile of the Duke rape case. DA Nifong is acting rationally pursuant to the exact same incentives Bush is following: full speed ahead for as long as he possibly can. It's not his money that's being spent in this obviously futile prosecution - he has nothing to lose by pushing through. He, unlike Bush however, could possibly have a lot to lose if he doesn't bull through this - it's at least remotely possible that he'll be brought up on ethics charges which could (but never would for an agent of the state) cause him to lose his license. So he's acting rationally and doing everything he can to see this prosecution gets to trial.

None of this would be true in a free market - these actors would have only their own resources to spend and would act in a more objectively rational way - realizing at some point that they can't afford to continue these futile efforts. But through the state, they get to just pushing risks off on to taxpayers, while enjoying any benefit that accrues.

Cooperation or Competition? Which better describes the free market?

I say Cooperation. Why?

Let's look at pro sports as an analogy. Sure, the NFL franchises compete with each other on the field. But they all agree to play by certain rules. Using stick'um, or spikes on your shoulder pads, is against these rules, so they don't do it (at least anymore with stick'um - yes, I'm a Philly fan and I still remember the 1980 Raiders bathing in it). That is cooperation. They couldn't actually play the game if they didn't first cooperate.

The free market is the same. You cooperate in that you refrain from stealing, robbing, or murdering your neighbor. THat's cooperation, and it's necessary before what we call competition can occur. It's cooperation because you can't force it - people are either willing to respect the rules, or they will find a way around them. If the people don't accept the rules, you end up being left with two options: leave them alone, or kill them. Any other course is doomed to failure. See, e.g., Iraq.

No sooner do I post my last post than I notice that Pro Libertate is having similar dreams.

Fevered visions of the past, present and future:

The Great Depression never ended, we just outsourced it. As the structural problems with state managed capitalism began getting more and more severe, WWII happened. WWII flattened the economies of the rest of the industrialized world, leaving the U.S. at a tremendous competitive advantage. Furthermore, U.S. labor was now just happy not to be a conscript anymore, so there was a brief cultural lull in upward wage pressures - in essence, the masses accepted the fact that their windows were now broken. Labor was willing to start from essentially zero. These factors allowed for a booming U.S. economy and a general feeling of improving conditions for at least a decade, if not a little longer.

As this advantage started wearing off, the polarization of the world into Soviet bloc and U.S. allies allowed for further export of economic dislocation. Two bit dictators were propped up, "for national security", and allowed to repress their people ruthlessly, turning whole regions of the world into impoverished masses, willing to work for nothing, producing resources and goods for the American consumer at ever cheaper prices, through the magic of contemporaneous inflation of money supplies, with the excess being skimmed off the top by those positioned to take advantage.

However, this export couldn't last forever, and, in an attempt to monetize the debt generated by an attempted grab of natural resources in the Pacific through military force, the U.S. was forced to truly abandon any semblance of fiscal restraint. However, this did not happen until the U.S. dollar, through overt manipulations and the convergence of innocent factors, became the currency of last resort. Even this couldn't totally stave off the dislocation, however. In the 1970s, stagflation set in, signalling a return of domestic Depression.

A brief shining moment amid the horror, when inflation was choked out, and Americans began to realize they couldn't have their cake and eat it, too. Then came "morning in America" and a massive influx of fiat money to pay for a massive military machine, capable of imposing its will anywhere in the world. This influx of new money created heady days and held off the return of the Depression for a while longer - but this was only possible because of the early choke out of inflation.

After the fall of the Soviet bloc, in the 1990s, the root problems of the Great Depression started to show their faces once more. Now, there was no more excuse to prop up repressive regimes around the world. Other countries became more competitive. America was showing its fragile base. The printing presses were cranked up once more, creating the dot com boom, making people believe once again that the U.S. was special, different, deserving of its position living high off the hog.

Like all booms created by monetary inflation, the dot com boom started to crumble, of course, as always, creating a reversion to the mean by going into a recession of essentially equal magnitude. But that couldn't be allowed, so the printing presses were cranked up even faster.

Meanwhile, a new excuse to prop up corrupt foreign governments was found - the War on Terror. The U.S. military once again featured prominently as the recipient of the newly printed fiat money. Wars were started far from home as a way to distract the populace, and ominously, to pave the way for larger future wars that could provide the release valve that WWII provided.

The new monetary inflation created a housing bubble, as well as a private equity bubble. The private equity bubble, especially, served the purpose of transferring wealth very quickly from the have-nots to the have-muches, without most people noticing. But again, these bubbles, like all bubbles, could not last forever. And the U.S. populace was pretty much tapped out - not much more wealth could be extracted there to sustain the momentum necessary to avoid a return of the Depression to the U.S.

As the economy slipped further and further into depression, and the U.S. dollar creeped perilously towards collapse, the U.S. military structure issued warnings to countries on the other side of the world, near its failing current war. The stage was slowly being set to start a regional conflagaration.

On the day that even the most ardent administration supporters were forced to admit that the country had slipped into "a mild recession", intelligence gets "leaked" regarding foreign countries' involvement in the U.S.'s war in Mesopotamia. Within weeks, the U.S. has bombed one or both of these countries into the stone age. The middle east erupts in violence. U.S. troops in Iraq are now surrounded by hostile forces - all lines of supply cut off.

Calls for a draft, having been percolating for over a year, are now insistent - "we must go over there and save our boys!" The draft is instituted, but of course this can't happen in a vacuum. Already demonized as the harbinger of the inflation that has been recently ravishing the U.S. economy, wages are put under even more upward pressure by the decreased supply caused by a draft. The administration and Congress quickly enact wage ceilings "for the good of the Nation."

Meanwhile, the Homeland security and immigration beauracracies, having recently been beefed up for other purposes, are now put to use in myriad fashions. First, the detention of all draft resisters, and prevention of their escape to neighboring countries. Next, all those who are deemed terrorists or terrorist sympathizers, including small government proponents (having earlier been deemed as included in such a definition), are preventatively detained as enemy combatants. Controls are placed on the press and propaganda originating from the highest levels of the Pentagon is distributed as actual news. Anyone caught using gold coins, or suggesting that the dollar is weak or worthless is prosecuted as an economic terrorist.

Several key industries, including what remains of the steel industry, as well as some rubber wheel plants, are nationalized to supply the military with the necessary supplies. Refusal to do one's duty and work at these plants when called to is made a crime.

Meanwhile, in the rest of the world, Europe burns as the large muslim immigrant population engages in massive rioting. Some right wing Europeans hint that the United States may have had a hand in instigating the riots, but noone can prove this.

Similarly, China and Russia find themselves dealing with upsurging muslim unrest in central asia. China and Russia, unlike Europe, have no problem airing their accusations that the United States is using its assets in the central asian republics to support and instigate these problems. In response, the United States and the sole major producer left untouched in the middle east, Saudi Arabia, announce an exclusive deal whereby all of SA's oil goes to the United States. At the same time, the United States freezes all Chinese holdings in the United States, and declares all debts to China or Chinese nationals null and void.

The world starts to partition into opposing camps, Sino-Russian and Euro-American, with each side now seeking to prop up two bit dictators in the name of national security. The United States has a likely brief, but significant economic advantage, as much of the middle east can't get to its oil, and the part that can is a military vassal, dependent on the U.S. for security. Wages will be reduced to the lowest possible level, a feudal police state will be established.

Just a nightmare?

If you think so, you haven't been paying attention. Some of the details might vary, especially with regard to what the Chinese and Russians do - they may very well be the precipitating blow and become even more of an "enemy". But this is where we're heading, and I can't shake the feeling that there's no way to avoid it. I'm an optimist at heart, so I remain open to the hope that it can be averted, but it just seems that the trap is already set, and the only way out is going to be through it.

It is the process, not the politicians or lobbyists, that need to be reformed.

Yellow journalism was a common tactic by those writing articles on cannabis to demonize the substance and ultimately influence public policy prior to the plant’s criminalization. Newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst filled his newspapers with racist and sexist appeals and used other assorted dirty tactics to demonize cannabis, a plant that posed a major threat to the future profitability of his timber and paper manufacturing endeavors.

While the equivalent in scale may not be a reality just yet, this scenario may be on it’s way towards being replayed here in America. The target this time: dietary supplements. Bill Sardi’s LRC article published today provides the scoop on the story concerning dietary supplements.

The one in particular that triggered my recall of “reefer madness” is called resveratrol, a molecule found in red wine and is being sold as a dietary supplement. (Bill Sardi wrote a different column about resveratrol back in ‘03, one that introduced me to pinot noir wine) Is it just me, or does the following scenario described by Sardi sound familiar:

“Resveratrol, a red wine molecule, sold as a food supplement, is now being widely hailed for its broad biological action. Resveratrol could virtually wipe out all existing medications for diabetes, cholesterol, heart attacks, strokes, cancer, Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, or as Fortune Magazine says in their upcoming report on this miracle molecule – ‘Hell, pretty much all age-related disease.’ Why, one sole dietary supplement threatens to bring down the entire pharmaceutical industry.”

Sounds like a rehash (yes, a pun - but is it intended?) of the situation concerning hemp back in the 1930s, right down to the upcoming report in a mainstream publication touting the miraculous possibilities - Fortune for resveratrol and Popular Mechanics for hemp. (this link goes to a scan of the actual article) Just as one dietary supplement may threaten the entire pharmaceutical industry, hemp once posed a similar threat to numerous industries - pharmaceutical, petrochemical, paper, cotton, etc.

It seems clear to me that the inquisitions of today have no regard for human health. Those who carry out such witch hunts seem motivated by the spoils of politics.

More and more people are saying something to that effect. Micro$oft’s crooked ways are causing more people to switch to Linux, including people who would rather not switch. Here are some of the things I’ve stumbled upon these last couple of days, some of which you may already be familiar with.

* At least two friends of liberty have recently switched to Linux: Sunni Maravillosa and Carlton Hobbs. There is a lot of interesting material in Carlton’s essay and an informative discussion over at Sunni’s entry, so give them both a look if Linux is of any interest to you.
* Micro$oft Vista, the upcoming operating system from the lair of Bill Gates, is looking like more and more of a nightmare for those who will wind up using it. This is something I’ve blogged about before, so consider these latest findings in addition to the stuff already known about Vista. First, Charlie Demerjian’s recent Inquirer article explains why he feels forced to reluctantly switch to Linux. In his words:

“Vista forces you to re-activate, or so I am told, if you look at it in the right way. Microsoft, in possibly the most shortsighted move in the company’s history, decided to lock Vista down to the first PC it is installed to and not allow you to move it legally. If you call it up, whine and lie, you can socially engineeer a few reactivations, but technically this is a licence violation. I won’t do that.

So, when I change the mobo on my box, or an unspecified other bit of hardware or three, Microsoft decides that my box is a new computer and my $399 copy of Vista is a doorstop - I must spend another $399 to continue working. Bill Gates does need the money, he gives away a lot of it on trips to cities thinking of moving to Linux.”

I then discovered (link via Lev Lafayette) this cost analysis of Vista’s content protection. Here’s the executive summary:

“Windows Vista includes an extensive reworking of core OS elements in order to
provide content protection for so-called “premium content”, typically HD data
from Blu-Ray and HD-DVD sources. Providing this protection incurs
considerable costs in terms of system performance, system stability, technical
support overhead, and hardware and software cost. These issues affect not
only users of Vista but the entire PC industry, since the effects of the
protection measures extend to cover all hardware and software that will ever
come into contact with Vista, even if it’s not used directly with Vista (for
example hardware in a Macintosh computer or on a Linux server). This document
analyses the cost involved in Vista’s content protection, and the collateral
damage that this incurs throughout the computer industry.”

If that doesn’t quite register for you, here’s the executive executive summary:

“The Vista Content Protection specification could very well constitute the longest suicide note in history.”

* Thomas Van Wyk is thinking of switching too. He seemed interested by something in the Hobbs article that caught my eye too - the idea of a portable OS. The example Hobbs provides is running a Linux OS via USB, whether it’s a standard external USB hard drive or one of those tiny flash drives (Pen Drive Linux).

As for me, I’ll be experimenting with at least a couple of portable options before thinking about removing XP from my computer. I’d love to try the flash drive option, but my flash drive holds only 512 MB data, whereas it looks as if at least 1 GB will be needed to run Linux off of one. I’ll be taking the CD/DVD route instead.

While reading Ran Prieur’s page called “Switching to Linux”, I learned about Puppy Linux. Here’s the part of Ran’s entry that caught my attention:

“Anyway, after the economy of conquest runs out of spoils, and the culture of increase crashes, we will still be doing what humans do best: adapting. And if we still have electricity and phone lines, we can run quite a good internet with software that works on both old and new computers, which is Puppy’s specialty. Its creator, Barry Kauler, travels around staying with different people (just like I do), so he designed Puppy to run on almost any PC without leaving a footprint. The coolest thing about Puppy is that it doesn’t even need a hard drive — it boots off a CD and runs completely in RAM. Any changes and downloads are saved in a file that can go on a hard drive, a flash drive, or back to the CD. So you can carry around a virtual “computer” on a 25 cent disk that can run in any machine that boots from CD and has 256MB RAM.

You can install it to the hard drive if you want to, but it runs much faster off the CD because everything happens in RAM with no moving parts. Another thing I like is that I never have to enter a password. Puppy is inherently highly secure because every boot is like a fresh install. The only thing that ever gets saved is one big file in a special format. For Puppy to get a virus, it wouldn’t be enough for someone to design a Linux virus — someone would have to design a Puppy virus. I can go to the most dangerous places on the internet and get no adware, no spyware, nothing.”

I downloaded and burned Puppy to disc and will be fooling around with it in the next few days. An anonymous comment following Thomas’s entry mentioned a distro called “Dream Linux” that also runs off of CD, so that presents another option for me to check into. The idea of being able to run your own OS anywhere through a CD or DVD is just badass, if you ask me. A CD may not hold much data aside from an OS, but a DVD sure would, for those who have DVD burners.

I also have Ubuntu on CD and I was planning on installing it onto my old hard drive that I was going to stick into an external enclosure, but the drive is toast. The disc is buried under a pile of papers somewhere, and I’ve been too busy to give it much attention. If all goes well with Puppy, it may give me the boost I need to make the full switch, with or without an external hard drive.

I’ve already said “hasta la vista” to other M$ products and proprietary products in general as I’ve been using open source alternatives for a long time now. I was using Mozilla before Firefox even came out, programs like GIMP and Open Office have been used quite a bit on my machine, and I recently downloaded Foxit as an alternative to Adobe’s PDF reader.

It’s time to say “hasta la vista” to M$ before they unleash Vista to wreck havoc on the computing world. Use whatever OS you want by all means, but keep in mind that Vista signals a major acceleration in the Big Brotherization of computers. Then again, it could also signal the beginning of the end for centralized computing systems.

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Robert Anton Wilson’s writing has introduced some illuminating discord to my senses, but personal sources of illumination have taken the form of music as well. Alice Coltrane is responsible for much of that within me, especially within the past year or so. It sure was spooky for me to discover that she, like Wilson, has just moved on, beyond the world we perceive. The news is especially unfortunate considering that she had recently returned to the music world after a long hiatus to share some of the celestial sounds stirring in her soul.

Known by most for being John’s widow, she has often been unappreciated as an artist, which is unfortunate. She was blazing through uncharted territory much of the time, blending her jazz sensibilities with lush string arrangments and a cosmic aura, making the results a treasure to absorb. The bold trail she laid out also contributed to her unappreciated status, one that thankfully appears to be changing as her music is attracting some younger ears, such as my own.

Alice not only rocked the house of the lord with her piano play, but also brought spiritual relief with the harp, an instrument generally alien to the jazz world. When one’s thinking is other worldly, things like that happen - and we all get to benefit, if our ears and minds are open enough for the challenge.

Like Wilson, I have a feeling that Alice Coltrane’s musical legacy will be cherished more in the years to come, as new ideas await the paradigm shifts that follow the fading influence of old puritans and other dinosaurs.

The zip file below provides a nice introduction to Alice’s musical contribution to the world. You’ll find the following jewels within (in mp3 format):

* “Journey In Satchidananda” ~~ The opening number from the 1970 album of the same name. This song sets the tone for the album, one that immerses the listener in a journey through eastern soundscapes with some of the finer jazz musicians of her era. A great sample from one of her most celebrated albums.

* “Peace on Earth” ~~ This is from a posthumous John Coltrane release, now out-of-print, called Infinity. What makes this rare album so unusual and attractive is that it consists of performances by John mixed with Alice’s contibutions (harp & string arrangements) after his death. Many, especially purists, scoffed at the idea, but the results aren’t bad. Some, like myself, are quited pleased with what we hear, and I think John himself would approve.

* “Bliss: The Eternal Now” and “Angel of Sunlight” ~~ Two great tastes from a project deserving of more credit - Alice’s 1974 collaboration with Carlos Santana called Illuminations. The former piece lives up to it’s title, blending cosmic chaos on strings with meditative guitar interplay by Carlos. The latter unleases the power of sunlight with heavy jazz-rock abandon, at times sounding either deeply soulful or loose and highly charged. Alice’s inspiration certainly brings out a side of Carlos that many have never experienced.

DOWNLOAD: Alice.zip

May her musical contributions continue to breathe life into others as her life takes a turn towards the “afterlife.”