Quote of the Day

"As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them."

-John F. Kennedy 

Quote of the Day

"No government ever voluntarily reduces itself in size. Government programs, once launched, never disappear. Actually, a government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we'll ever see on this earth!"                                                                                                                            
                                                                                     -Ronald Reagan

Auditing the Fed

Good evening, dear readers.  We are going to devote the next several articles to money, or more specifically, monetary policy.  We’re looking at the the history of money and its relation to policy; and we’re having a guest writer contribute a few articles.  For now, however, allow me to tantalize you with a brief critique of a recent issue surrounding the biggest government-sanctioned monopoly: the Federal Reserve.

Quote of the Day

"Manufacturing and commercial monopolies owe their origin not to a tendency imminent in a capitalist economy but to governmental interventionist policy directed against free trade and laissez-faire."


Ludwig von Mises

We're Back!

Good morning, dear readers.  We would like to apologize for the lack of posts this past week.  Weave is up to his eyes in schoolwork and I was out of state for several days.  We're back, however, and the posts will recommence post haste.

Quote of the Day

"I am for doing good to the poor, but... I think the best way of doing good to the poor, is not making them easy in poverty, but leading or driving them out of it.  I observed...that the more public provisions were made for the poor, the less they provided for themselves, and of course became poorer. And, on the contrary, the less was done for them, the more they did for themselves, and became richer."

                                                                                          -Benjamin Franklin

Veterans' Day Special Post

Good morning, dear readers.  Today we have a special Veteran’s Day post for you.  This site celebrates economic and constitutional freedom, but we must never forget that our troops secure those for us.  Without the support of good men and women in our military, we would cease to enjoy the rewards granted us by the Constitution and even the rewards of our own hard work.


There are countries where the military is an organization of vicious thugs, mercenaries available to the highest bidder.  The people of those countries are, for good reason, terrified of their governments' troops.  In the United States, we have a tradition of respect for our military, not out of fear, but out of gratitude for their service and for doing the job a lot of us are afraid to do.  The soldier, sailor, marine, airman, and coast guardsman of the United States are people who, as the oath says, swear to defend the Constitution, not a particular party or person.  Politicians, Republican and Democrat, need to look very carefully at the overall state of the government.  If they stray too far from the Constitution, the traditions inspiring a more cantankerous document might be invoked: the Declaration of Independence.  

In there it states, "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that to secure these rights governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it..."

It's taken for granted that the military is an arm of the government.  That is not entirely accurate.  The military is an arm of the people, managed by the government those people decide to EMPLOY.  If those employees (the President, House of Representatives, the Senate, and the Supreme Court) stray too far from the Constitution, they may no longer enjoy the protection of the servicemen and women who have sworn to defend the document of which they make a mockery.  As the service oath further states, they will defend it "against all enemies, foreign or domestic."  

            I have lived my whole life around the military.  Both my parents were officers in the U.S. Navy during the Cold War and beyond, serving with distinction in multiple theaters of operation.  My mother concluded a successful career as an analyst in 1994, but my father stayed in active duty and was stationed at the Pentagon when terrorists flew a plane into it on September 11, 2001.  Mercifully, he escaped without a scratch, but I vividly recall being a kid in high school, waiting to hear from him that day alongside thousands of other families who would not be receiving such good news. 

            After high school I watched several of my friends go into service academies.  I myself attended the California Maritime Academy (civilian), where I saw many more of my classmates and friends accept commissions in the Coast Guard, Marine Corps, and Navy following graduation.  My own sister is now is in the process of joining the military following college, and I couldn’t be more proud of her. 

The funny thing is that millions of Americans, and probably a lot of our readers, have just as many close friends and family as I who serve or have served.  To us the stories on TV and the Internet about military conflicts and issues hit very close to home, and when someone marginalizes our loved ones or sympathizes with those trying to KILL our loved ones, it makes us understandably upset.  There is a cultural strain of clinical detachment in this country that somehow considers itself more enlightened than the rest of us, and I freely admit that often includes people who study economics.  What we must never forget is that those numbers, those equations, and those formulae all translate to real-world consequences for real people.  When eight soldiers died in Afghanistan two weeks ago, that meant that eight families would never see their sons or daughters again.  When 8,000 men died at Gettysburg (and far more later from the wounds they received), that represented a loss of life that we the test tube nation would never be able to stomach today.  The world’s problems can’t be solved in classrooms and petri dishes, and as long as there are people that will never change.

So we must never cease to remember our men and women in uniform and what they mean to us, and we must never allow the politician, the philosopher, or the scientist to forget that.  They are not numbers.  They are husbands, wives, sons, daughters, and friends to millions of Americans.  Knowing the hazards of their job they chose to serve in a vital capacity, putting on hold lives and families so the rest of us can enjoy ours.  Some people, probably even some servicemen, would say I’m being melodramatic.  Maybe, but my words come from a genuine spirit of respect, honor, and gratitude; and they mirror the sentiments of millions.

                              So to all who serve, now and in the past: Thank you.

Quote of the Day

"All that seems indispensable in stating the account between the dead and the living, is to see that the debts against the latter do not exceed the advances made by the former." 

                                                                                                   -James Madison

Quote of the Day

"'Emergencies' have always been the pretext on which the safeguards of individual liberty have been eroded."

                                                                               Frederich August von Hayek

The Strange Case of the Fiscal Responsibility in Government

Good evening, dear readers.  The year’s horse races are over, and as fascinating as the purely political speculating, ranting, and raving is, the rest of the media has that well in hand.  While it was indeed fun to weigh in on that subject, that is not the point of this blog, and we’re going to steer our articles back toward the politico-economic side of things.  Today we’re going to look at the U.S. Treasury debt instrument (bills, notes, and bonds) and compare it to the debt instruments put out by corporations.  Before you fall asleep from boredom, let me assure you that this will be a sobering look at what investors demand from the institutions from whom they purchase debt instruments and how they never get those demands met when buying from the U.S. government. 

Quote of the Day

"All, too, will bear in mind this sacred principle, that though the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that will to be rightful must be reasonable; that the minority possess their equal rights, which equal law must protect, and to violate would be oppression."

                                                                                 -Thomas Jefferson

Article Postponed till Tomorrow

Good morning, dear readers.  Our Friday article is postponed until tomorrow.  We will still have a quote of the day.  Thank you for reading.

Quote of the Day

"Where justice is denied, where poverty is enforced, where ignorance prevails, and where any one class is made to feel that society is an organized conspiracy to oppress, rob, and degrade them, neither persons nor property are safe."

                                                                                       -Frederick Douglass






I respectfully submit that, while Douglass worked against systemic oppression that was very real, his words apply still today as an indictment of welfare programs, affirmative action, Social Security, and any other government institution or law that makes it tolerable to neglect self-improvement and initiative.  The irony is that those programs make the injustices they claim to fight into realities.

Quote of the Day

"You have enemies?  Good.  That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life."

                                                                                                -Winston Churchill

A Humble View on Parties

Good day, ladies and gentlemen. Today we will be examining the party system and the problems it poses for the allegiances of its members. As we have pointed out previously on this site, party backing and membership sometimes compromises the better judgment of its people, who, rather than pushing issues intended to best assist their constituents, alter those issues that they will back to what they believe the mainstream of their party will support.

Quote of the Day

" Let not him who is houseless pull down the house of another, but let him work diligently and build one for himself, thus by example assuring that his own shall be safe from violence when built."


                                                                                           - Abraham Lincoln

Election Eve Special Post

Good evening, dear readers.  We have tomorrow a few very interesting races to watch, particularly the New Jersey gubernatorial race and the New York race for their 23rd congressional district.  With a lot of talking heads reporting these races and others being referendums on the Obama administration, I can't help but feel that this is just more of the myopia of which the country has long been conscious but that the established media and political machines refuse to acknowledge.

Jargon and the Comprehension of Governance

Good morning, dear readers.  Today we’re going to look at a systemic problem that has blocked politics, law, and economics from being accessible to the people who are supposed to be helped by those systems.  That problem is the overuse of jargon, specifically the use of legalese and cumbersome writing style to make those who are attempting to discover the methods by which their country is being run give up trying to understand and just assume that those methods are to their benefit.

Quote of the Day

"As long as our government is administered for the good of the people, and is regulated by their will; as long as it secures to us the rights of persons and of property, liberty of conscience and of the press, it will be worth defending."              
                                                                                                -Andrew Jackson

Jackson was a controversial president in many ways, but he had a good appreciation of the constitutional intent for government's function.  History also does not give him nearly enough credit for the fight he posed against the establishment of a central banking system.

I was going to post one by Millard Fillmore, just because Weave bet I wouldn't find any of his words that survived history.  I found some, but it reflects the same elitist distrust for the competence of the American people we see in Washington today, and given that Fillmore's presidency is barely a placeholder in the #13 spot I do not feel he is worthy of a quote of the day.  You win, Weave.

Quote of the Day

Concentrated power is not rendered harmless by the good intentions of those who create it.  
                                                                                            
                                                                                                   -Milton Friedman

Quote of the Day

"To the end that the lesson should be constantly enforced that though the people support the Govornment the Government should not support the people.  The friendliness and charity of our countrymen can always be relied upon to relieve their fellow-citizens in misfortune.  This has been repeatedly and quite lately demonstrated.  Federal aid in such cases encourages the expectation of paternal care on the part of the Government and weakens the sturdiness of our national character, while it prevents the indulgence among our people of that kindly sentiment and conduct which strengthens the bonds of a common brotherhood."                                                             
                                                                                                   -Grover Cleveland

Government Stimulus and Artificial Value, Part 2

Good morning, dear readers.  Please enjoy Part 2 of Wednesday's article.  Keep in mind when reading this that the administration recently reported that a good part (more than half) of the recent GDP growth was attributable to the "Cash for Clunkers" program and other initiatives funded exclusively by the government (when I or anyone else says "funded by the government," at all times read "funded by the tax payers").  For some reason we are supposed to consider this cause for celebration.

Quote of the Day

"While all other sciences have advanced, that of government is at a standstill - little better understood, little better practiced now than three or four thousand years ago." 
                                                   
                                                                                            -John Adams

Introducing the Quote of the Day

Good evening, dear readers.  We are going to begin posting quotes daily by people whose economic and political views have been founded on sound principles, and who we believe have been instrumental in shaping the country and the American economy constructively.  Granted, this is often done in forums of opinion, but Weave and I feel very strongly that the wisdom of the past, which produced the principles upon which the most amazing experiment in statesmanship in the history of the world was founded, is being in large part drowned out by newer voices advocating the implementation of principles (political and economic) that have proven time and time again not to work.

You can still read our articles Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, but now you may look forward daily to the words of history.  We urge you to judge based on these words, keeping in mind the track records and prominence of the men and women who uttered them, what was truly intended by the founders of our country and economic system, and whether those intentions led to positive results.  I think it appropriate to begin with some words from our first president.

"There is no practice more dangerous than that of borrowing money; for when money can be had in this way, repayment is seldom thought of in time, the interest becomes a loss, exertions to raise it by dent of industry cease, it comes easy and is spent freely, and many things indulged in that would never be thought of if [they were] to be purchased by the sweat of the brow."


                                                                                                                                   -George Washington

Government Stimulus and Artificial Value, Part 1

Good morning, dear readers.  This is a piece I wrote about two months ago in response to claims that economic stimulus initiatives were working as intended.  Though Christina Romer, the chair of President Obama's Council of Economic Advisors, has claimed recently that stimulus has done the bulk of its work, there are rumblings in the halls of Congress that yet more stimulus money may be in order.  Those who know me best will tell you I have been against every stimulus attempt the government has made from the beginning, for the very simple reason that it counteracts all logical understanding of how economic forces work.  Economic advancement is propelled by the exact same forces from the individual citizen to the government, and those forces rely at all times on perceptions of value.  It is my belief that stimulus skews those perceptions, and so counteracts itself.  As an illustration, I have used the example with which I am most familiar: the acquisition of Merrill Lynch by Bank of America.  Please enjoy.

Introducing the Funhouse

Good evening, dear readers.  This is just a quick post for the evening (not replacing tomorrow's piece) to introduce everyone to the Funhouse, a blog run by Eric Morris.  Eric was kind enough to give Mens Dexter a boost on his blog, so we're doing the same.  I took the time to look over the Funhouse, and here's what I can tell you that you can expect:

1.  A conservative viewpoint, backed up constantly by video from news agencies (even the real ones) to support the argument put forth.

2.  A lot of fun stuff to break up the politics, as well as some uplifting and thoughtful material that transcends political lines.

Anyway, check it out, and remember to return to Mens Dexter tomorrow when we're going to be looking at value and some ways it affects the economy.  To Eric and anyone else affiliated with the Funhouse, thank you once more for the endorsement.

Parties in the United States

Hello all. This is my first post, and I hope to have many more like it. So, I assume a quick introduction is in order. I will be posting under the name of Weave as I do on all websites. Maybe you’ve seen me around, but most likely not seeing as how the internet is expansive. I’m currently a Junior in college and am deeply involved in political science. Over the course of many posts you will see where I stand on most issues and why I have such stances. But enough about me: let’s talk politics.

Today I would like to bring to attention a theory I’ve been working on for quite some time. There are more than two parties in the American political system. To clarify, I’m not talking about single issue parties such as the Abortion Party or the Light Party. Yes, I know that when a voter walks into the voting booth they have a choice of Democrat or Republican, but do those candidates truly represent what members of those parties believe in or are they members of smaller parties who feel that they need to have an R or a D stamped next to their name to stand a chance on the political battlefield? From what I have observed, the latter is nearer the truth. To further demonstrate this we're going to examine a list of what I believe are the political parties of America.

Welcome, Citizens

Good evening, dear readers. This is the first post on a site we hope will prove useful (or at least cathartic) voicing concerns regarding political and social issues of the day from a perspective few in Washington are willing to embrace: economics.

My particular area of expertise is economics, though we are looking for other contributors with understanding of that field, as well as an understanding of constructionist politics. While I am not now going to subject you to a lengthy discourse of the economic status quo, in the future I hope to foster discussion of that very subject and how it will be affected by the decisions of politicians and captains of industry.

First, a little context:
1. I am a conservative. I identify with neither the Republicans nor the Democrats, as I feel that allegiance to any party has led to far more problems than solutions. With party loyalty one often overlooks glaring deficiencies in character or political record in candidates, selecting them purely on whether the parentheses following their names contains an R or a D.

2. I hold a degree in business administration from the California Maritime Academy, and it was there and in my time in the financial service industry, where I had the privilege of watching the financial system's problems come to a boiling point, that I was able to study economics from a perspective to which few have access. Still, the bulk of my knowledge has come from independent research. Economics as schools typically present it is largely Keynesian, and that same viewpoint is held by most of the people in Washington who, in my view, contributed just as much to the crystalline nature of the financial system as any banker. The school of thought I have come to respect the most is Austrian Economics. Von Mises, Rothbard, and the like seem to me to have had the best appreciation of what is viable in an economic model. That Paul Krugman lacks any respect for that philosophy only increases mine.

3. It is my firm belief that government and international corporations should be run financially by the same principles policing people on a personal level. To be specific: one must take in more than one puts out, otherwise there are consequences. On this blog I will cover what I believe to be basic, logical ideas behind finance and economics, and will examine what consequences always eventually befall those who refuse to acknowledge them.

Now that you know where I'm coming from, I'm looking forward to stimulating discussions. After all, physics may be what makes the earth go round, but economics makes the world go round.

We will be posting every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, unless something comes up that begs discussion. The first post will be on Monday, October 26. May the markets be with you.