Congressman Ron Paul and Murray Rothbard vs. Milton Friedman and the Collectivists

Perhaps the main reason America has stagnated and stewed for the last 37 years, since war-criminal Nixon put on wage and price controls, a sort of economic war-crime to match his war-crimes against the Vietnamese and Cambodians, and his war-crimes against the U.S. Constitution,— the main reason, Silverwolf asseverates, is that America has warmly embraced Milton Friedman’s vision of Capitalism, which has a lot in common with Castro’s vision of the State, as its own vision of Capitalism, never flashing that Uncle Miltie’s vision has as little to do with true Capitalism as the collectivist’s “Social Democratic Capitalism”.  We Americans fool ourselves into thinking we are a capitalist society, much more so than our socialist brethren in Euro-Nirvana or Singapore-Fascistica. No, no one tells us what to do with our money — although the State doesn’t mind telling the people how much of what they earn they are allowed to keep, or how much they can give to their children after they pass on in The Passion, or how much yesterday’s dollar is worth today if the Federal Reserve decides that it was too valuable last week, and, well, it would help us all if it were just a little bit weaker. “Help our exports too, so you don’t mind paying another buck a gallon for your gas, do you Silverwolf? After all, we’re all in this together; in fact you could think of us as being one big village.”

No thanks, ms Rodham. Silverwolf will think for himself. And he thinks that for you, and for those other collectivist, pelf-plucking, plunderers running alongside you for the Presidency of what was once, at the time of the Revolution, a Libertarian-spirited country, America has now taken on all the masculinity of a Mrs. Thatcher. It doesn’t surprise Silverwolf that the two Giants of Geriatritism, Mrs. Thatcher and Ronnie-Baby, were both gaga fans of Uncle Miltie, the chump from the Chicago School of Economics. Silverwolf recalls reading (and believing — this was before his inebriation with the Austrian School of Economics) Friedman’s work on why the depression of the 30’s occurred, written with his wife, in which he basically lays the blame on the fact that the Fed didn’t act aggressively enough, and restricted credit right at the time it should have expanded it.

What a great justification for a Fed in the first place! And Silverwolf admits to falling into that mental trap when he first read that work. Gee, if only the Fed had acted more vigorously, Silverwolf had thought after reading it, then that whole terrible economic hangover of the 30’s Depression could have been avoided. Ya see, Silverwolf can be fooled after all! No wonder all the Republican Statists, from McCain to all the main commission-house financial pundits, applauded last weeks bailout of Bear Stearns. And they will no doubt follow suit when the Fed soon announces that they are buying up all the worthless mortgages at the old inflated prices, in order to bail out the large speculators, in a move similar to what the French did after the French Revolution spent itself into insolvency, and forced the public to accept the worthless mortgages (Assignats in fancy-French) as backing for the quickly inflating  French-government bonds, under penalty of death. A peine de la mort. The Socialist Statist’s ultimate weapon to coerce his cozenage.

In opposition to the false economics of Milton Friedman, we find the true economics of Congressman Ron Paul and the late Professor Murray Rothbard, who studied at Columbia (where, he admits, he learned a bunch of junk) and who later taught at the U of Nevada — how appropriate for the Silver State. In a cogent and seminal interview given to the Libertarian journal, The Banner, in 1971, during the height of the Nixon-controlled economy, Rothbard puts his finger on the exact weaknesses and falsehoods of the Friedmanites. Silverwolf believes it is because America has accepted these weaknesses and falsehoods that she is currently in such economic turmoil, and she will never emerge from her economic mental confusion until she sees the false as the false in Friedman’s doctrines. So let’s listen to Professor Rothbard:

” I don’t think Milton, for example, knows anything about the Austrian School” (of Economics). “Obviously, Milton is  more of an expert on his own writing than anyone else…. But I think it is also very clear that you don’t have to be an expert on Friedman’s writings to realize that Milton is in favor of the absolute control of the money supply by the state, that he is in favor of 3 or 4 percent increase in the money supply (the numbers keep changing all the time) by the state every year, that he favors a negative income tax which is essentially a guaranteed annual income by the state, and that he favors a voucher plan which would leave the state solidly in control of the educational system. These things are quite blatant; there is no secret about it. I think it is pretty clear that Friedman is a statist. I mean, if you are in favor of the state having control of the money supply, control of the educational system, and a guaranteed annual income, that’s it. There is not much more that can be said. The fact that the Friedmanites are against price control is all very well, and I hail that, but the fundamental aspects of the state remain. The state still commands the highposts of the economy.”

“This is one of the problems with Friedmanites — they have no political theory of the nature of the state. They think of the state, and this is true of Milton and the whole gang as far as I can see, as another social instrument. In other words, there is the market out there and then there is the state, which is another friendly neighborhood organization. You decide  on which thing, which activity, should be private and which should be state on the basis of an ad hoc, utilitarian kind of approach. ‘Well, let’s see, we’ll feed the thing through the computer. We find that the market usually wins out, that the market is usually better.’ So, most of the time they come out in favor of the market on things like price control or government regulations, but they really think of the state as just another social instrument. And so when they come out in favor of the state, they go all out. In other words, there is no limitation. Well, the state will do this. The state will run the educational system, or whatever the cop out happens to be.”

“They have no realization that the state is essentially a gang of thieves and looters. That they are exploiting the public. That they have a whole bureaucratic apparatus of exploitation, and that they are not just going to give it up. In other words, there is the whole problem of power involved, which the Friedmanites refuse to face. They don’t realize the state is not a social instrument. It’s an inimical organization which is hostile to society, plundering it, which has to be confined, whittled away, reduced and  hopefully ultimately abolished. They have no conception of that at all. They just think of it as just another friendly corner grocer kind of thing which you either use or don’t use.”

 The Banner: “Federal Reserve Chairman Arthur Burns said recently he would expand the money supply at a rate that would insure a “vigorous” expansion of the U.S. economy. What do you think the net result of these policies will be?”

Rothbard: “The net result will be further inflation with black markets and with people losing out. …… And the real root of inflation, which is the money supply, well, the tap is being turned on. It’s unfortunate, but a lot of people, including conservatives and libertarians even have been great fans of A. F. Burns. I’ve never been able to see that. He’s always been an inflationist, a statist, and a pragmatist.”

The unadultered truth, spoken by Professor Murray Nelson Rothbard. All you have to do is substitute the name Ben Bernanke for Arthur F. Burns.

America is being offered a choice between the sound economics of Murray Rothbard, the Capitalist, whose philosophy is championed in this campaign by Congressman Ron Paul, and the false economics of Milton Friedman, the Statist, whose economic regimen (one cannot dignify it by calling it a philosophy) is championed by Ms. Rodham, Obama, and McCain, the Collectivists.

America can choose Ron Paul, Murray Rothbard, and Liberty and Prosperity, or it can choose Clinton-Obama-McCain, Milton Friedman, Collectivism and Inflation. The choice is solely yours when you go into the voting booth.

Ron Paul and Murray Rothbard for President!

Silverwolf can really ullulate to that one.

Hooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooowwwwwwwwwwww! — Silverwolf

Tags: Arthur F. Burns, Ben Bernanke, Capitalism, collectivism, Milton Friedman, Murray Rothbard, Ron Paul, Statism