In the summer of 1969 Professor Percy Graves, a close friend and student of Professor Ludwig von Mises, gave a series of 7 lectures in Buenos Aires to overflow crowds at the Centro de Estudios sobre la Libertad on the dollar crisis. One of those lecutures dealt with the specifics of the 1929 Depression in some detail. Apparently there were Argentinians concerned enough about that crisis that they were willing to invest 7 nights of their life so as not to repeat that economic calamity in their country.

Would that Americans were so inclined.

The great irony is that if one changed 1929 to 2009 and added 80 years to the other dates, Professor Graves could have given the same lecture today word for word and been right on the mark. The only difference at this point is that we don't yet have the diaries and papers of the key players of the 2009 crisis.

The biggest and most dangerous misunderstanding regarding both of these economic crises is that they somehow represent a failure of the free market instead of the failure of government management of the economy.

Mises was once asked by a graduate student at his University of New York seminar what he thought the government should do during a depression. Mises replied in his quiet manner by presenting his free market position in a few well chosen words. Aghast, the student replied, "You mean the government should do nothing?"
Mises leaned back as he frequently did and said, "Yes, but I mean the government should start doing nothing much sooner."

You can download a transcript of the entire lecture at Understanding the Dollar Crisis

Third Party Voting & The Lesser of Two Evils

The intramural debate among Christians over third party candidates is underway once again. When I first voted outside the Demoblican party, I don’t remember any serious discussions about such things among Christians. Their response to my third party comments, if there was any at all, was simply, “Huh ???”

But over the 6 intervening presidential election cycles the debate has matured considerably. Now I hear Christians contemplating complicated electioneering strategies (like switching parties to vote for the other party’s worst candidate in the primary in the hope they will win the nomination and set up an easier race in the fall) or asserting that a vote for a good third party candidate is really a vote for the worst candidate. To which my response was, “Huh???”

So in an effort to catch up to my more articulate brothers and sisters on this quadrenially important topic, I sat down yesterday, after spending the day painting a large sign for my favorite candidate which will be mounted on the main traffic artery through our town, and tried to improve my contribution to this discussion.

On voting for the candidate who can’t win …

• Elections are not a horse race where voters try to pick the winning ticket.


• Elections are a wheelbarrow race where voters make the winner.


• Not voting for a good candidate because he is not expected to win is giving up before the
  wheelbarrow race is over.


• Choosing the lesser-of-two-evils over a good candidate because no else is voting for him is being controlled by peer pressure like a junior high socialite.

On voting for the lesser of two evils …

• If you vote for the lesser of two evils for President, you’ll always have an evil President.
  
• You can’t expect God to provide you with a good President when you vote for an evil one any more than you can expect God to provide you with daily bread when you sleep all day instead of working.


• Voting for the lesser of two evils disobeys the admonition in Exodus 18:21 to choose good men (i.e. able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness) to exercise civil rule.
  
• A vote for the lesser of two evils is doing evil in the hope of stopping evil.
  
• A vote for the lesser of two evils is a wasted vote in getting a good candidate elected.
  
• Voting for the lesser of two evils in the hope of avoiding a greater evil is like stealing food in order not to starve.
  
• Defining an election in terms of the lesser of two evils is like falling for the false dilemma of values clarification exercises where 5 people are stranded in a lifeboat with supplies for 4 and thinking that one person should be thrown overboard (regrettably, of course) in order to keep the other 4 alive.
  
• Voting for a good candidate instead of the lesser of two evils is not a vote for the greater of two evils, anymore than keeping 5 stranded people on a lifeboat for 4 is choosing to kill 5 people.

A vote for a good candidate is, as should be obvious, simply a vote for a good candidate.

Of course, I suspect the real issue is that lesser-of-two-evil voters do not really believe they are choosing the lesser to two evils. They believe they are choosing a basically good candidate who, while qualified for office, is simply not everything they might desire in an ideal candidate. ...
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Faith and the Banking Crisis

Should bad private banking decisions be paid for with your tax dollars? According to a recent Rasmussen survey, 25% of Americans think so. Does the Bible, as the timeless, cultureless, foundation of absolute truth and pure wisdom, have any insights regarding money and banking, debt and taxes that might help us know what is right and wrong in this situation? It sure does, here is a taste of these insights:
Thou shalt not steal (Exodus 20:15) does apply to the situation where the government takes from one taxpayer and gives it to benefit someone else, such as private bankers, and is condemned as stealing and wrong.

Thou shalt lend unto many nations, but thou shalt not borrow (Deut 28:12) is a promised blessing to people and nations who obey God. The Federal Reserve System has been creating money as debt since 1914, when congress transferred the power to coin money and regulate the value thereof to the FRS (US Constitution, Article 1:8). North Dakota also stopped using constitutional (biblical) money when it left Article 1:10, “No state shall.. make any thing but gold and silver coin a tender in payment of debts. As a result of not obeying God (or the Constitution) in our monetary policy, we now have a group of independent international bankers manipulating the value of our money using “confidence” rather than real tangible value. When the bankers print 10% more money, inflation goes up by 10%. Real inflation is now at 12% and aimed toward 16% in 9 months based on the M3 money supply. Inflation is a hidden tax and is stealing our economic liberty.

This is an abomination to the Lord according to Proverbs 11:1 which states that A false balance is abomination to the LORD: but a just weight is his delight. The price for a pound of chicken would only vary according to the market forces, not the unjust devaluing of our currency in the Biblically and Constitutionally sound money system that we once had.

Forced taxation at a rate more than voluntary giving to God (i.e.,tithe of 10%, Malachi 3:8) finances the government to usurp the role of God and the church in areas such as helping those in need. Using tax money to bail out international banks means there will be less money for charitable giving, as well as less capital to grow businesses.

Reading the timeless wisdom of the Bible in light of current affairs can both help find the root of our finanical problems and point to a solution, even if those solutions can only be implemented slowly and incrementally. At least we can know what is right and wrong as we watch the present financial circus!