Brookes News Update

Economic growth and the credit myth : At least monetary cranks can be excused as economic illiterates but what are we to make of the great majority of economists who believe that central banks can promote economic growth by manipulating interest rates and the money supply?
Can a budget surplus really lower taxes?: Contrary to the conventional wisdom, a budget surplus i.e. a monetary surplus, doesn't automatically make room for lower taxes
Unions, capital and living standards: The continual increase in living standards is entirely due to capital accumulation, not unions or interfering politicians. In fact, politicians can exercise a malign influence on economic growth
The mid-term elections and the Colorado canary: The best outcome we can hope for is that the GOP dodges the bullet, barely, which then demoralizes the Dems so much they turn their anger against each other in recriminations
Fidel Castro's anti-Semitism : It turns out that Fidel Castro, "Hollywood's Favourite Dictator" and a media darling, is an anti-Semitic fanatic who tortures and murders his opponents, sponsors international terrorism and admires Adolf Hitler
Green fanatic wants to impose wealth destroying policies: Cathy Zoi, a former Clintonista, is another graphic example of the greens' shoddy intellectual standards. If this genius had her way we would all wind up in rags
Hillary Clintons treasonous record on national defence: Does anyone really believe Hillary Clinton has changed? Does anyone think that if she were president she would not bring in the same ratbag America-haters as before with all that that entails

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ELSEWHERE

Realism in Canada: "Canada, an immigration-hungry nation, has ruled out amnesty for an estimated 200,000 illegal aliens within its borders because of the unfairness of such a policy. According to a letter obtained by the Toronto Globe and Mail, Canadian officials have decided it would not be fair to those immigrants who have applied legally and are waiting in line. Allowing illegal workers to stay would likely "encourage more illegal immigration," noted Linda Arseneau of Citizenship and Immigration Canada's ministerial enquiries division in a letter to the Universal Workers Union."

Vietnamese capitalism working: "In the three decades since Vietnam has gone from communism to a form of capitalism, it has begun surpassing many neighbors. It has Asia's second-fastest-growing economy, with 8.4 percent growth last year, trailing only China's, and the pace of exports to the United States is rising faster than even China's. American companies like Intel and Nike, and investors across the region, are pouring billions of dollars into the country; overseas Vietnamese are returning to run the ventures. In the latest sign of Vietnam's economic vitality, trade negotiators from around the world are preparing, after more than a decade of talks, to put the finishing touches on an agreement, possibly by Oct. 26, for Vietnam to join the World Trade Organization."

A "study" to find the obvious: "Politicians should think twice about allowing some flood-prone areas of the U.S. Gulf coast to be redeveloped in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, a top research group said after studying floods around the world. The U.S.-based RAND Corporation looked at four 20th century floods in the states of Oregon and Mississippi, on the Yangtze River in China and in the province of Zeeland in the Netherlands to see what lessons could be learned for the Gulf coast and New Orleans. "It has been the experience of history that sometimes you are better off conceding land to the water (because flooding will likely reoccur)," James Kahan, author of the RAND report, told Reuters on Tuesday."

How interference with trade makes us all poorer: "No one denies that international trade has unpleasant consequences for some workers. They have to find other jobs that might not pay as much, but should we protect those jobs through trade restrictions? The Washington-based Institute for International Economics has assembled data that might help with the answer. Tariffs and quotas on imported sugar saved 2,261 jobs during the 1990s. As a result of those restrictions, the average household pays $21 more per year for sugar. The total cost, nationally, sums to $826,000 for each job saved. Trade restrictions on luggage saved 226 jobs and cost consumers $1.2 million in higher prices for each job saved. Restrictions on apparel and textiles saved 168,786 jobs at a cost of nearly $200,000 for each job saved. You might wonder how it is possible for, say, the sugar industry to rip off consumers. After all, consumers are far more numerous than sugar workers and sugar bosses. It's easy. A lot is at stake for those in the sugar industry, workers and bosses. They dedicate huge resources to pressure Congress into enacting trade restrictions. But how many of us consumers will devote the same resources to unseat a congressman who voted for sugar restrictions that forced us to pay $21 more for the sugar our family uses? It's the problem of visible beneficiaries of trade restrictions, sugar workers and bosses, gaining at the expense of invisible victims -- sugar consumers. We might think of it as congressional price-gouging."

Prominent Democrat defends sexual harasser: "A former Oakland City Hall employee injected herself into the race for state attorney general on Thursday by charging that Mayor Jerry Brown "enabled" one of his former top aides, Jacques Barzaghi, to repeatedly sexually harass her and other women in the mayor's office.... She told reporters she sought a written reprimand of Barzaghi from Brown, but the mayor pooh-poohed her allegations, leading her to ultimately file a complaint against the city of Oakland in 2001.... Barzaghi, a quixotic and quirky friend of Brown's for more than 30 years, was fired by Brown in July 2004 after Barzaghi's sixth wife called police alleging domestic abuse. Lopez-Bowden's complaint was settled by the city for $50,000 in 2001. Barzaghi was suspended for three weeks without pay and ordered to attend counseling and sexual-harassment training. "I absolutely think it merited firing. He should have had no role in public service," Lopez-Bowden said. Before settling, the city hired an outside lawyer specializing in sexual-harassment cases to conduct an investigation. He interviewed 19 women who had worked with Barzaghi. The conclusion: Barzaghi had a pattern of harassing women other than just Lopez-Bowden. In a 2003 interview in the East Bay Express, Brown said he didn't think complaints by other women about Barzaghi were true. "There are different sides to the story," he said.

Oil tax insanity in California: "Now, as Californians debate the merits of Proposition 87, Clinton and Gore have forgotten their old personas to shill on television and at rallies for a clunker of a left-wing initiative that would hurt the economy, waste taxpayers' money and use Perot-style it's-that-simple arguments to claim there are easy answers to tough energy questions. The measure would tax in-state oil production to raise $4 billion for alternative-energy research. Its TV ads are beyond dishonest, asserting in baldly contradictory fashion that increasing the cost of domestic oil production would somehow lower gasoline prices and reduce dependence on foreign oil. They also imply that little alternative-energy research is under way, when in fact there is more such research than ever."

For more postings, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS and EYE ON BRITAIN. (Mirror sites here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here).

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"All the worth which the human being possesses, all spiritual reality, he possesses only through the State." -- 19th century German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel. Hegel is the most influential philosopher of the Left -- inspiring Karl Marx, the American "Progressives" of the early 20th century and university socialists to this day.

The Big Lie of the late 20th century was that Nazism was Rightist. It was in fact typical of the Leftism of its day. It was only to the Right of Stalin's Communism. The very word "Nazi" is a German abbreviation for "National Socialist" (Nationalsozialistisch)

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