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Archive for category General

Government is not charity

Aug 19

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Great quote from Walter Williams article, The Founders’ Vision Versus Ours, on historical perspective and the role of government.

Madison

In 1794, when Congress appropriated $15,000 to assist some French refugees, James Madison, the acknowledged father of our Constitution, stood on the floor of the House to object, saying, “I cannot undertake to lay my finger on that article of the Constitution which granted a right to Congress of expending, on objects of benevolence, the money of their constituents.” He later added, “(T)he government of the United States is a definite government, confined to specified objects. It is not like the state governments, whose powers are more general. Charity is no part of the legislative duty of the government.” Two hundred years later, at least two-thirds of a multi-trillion-dollar federal budget is spent on charity or “objects of benevolence.”

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The Man versus the State by Herbert Spencer

Jul 9

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A powerful and time-relevant quote from Herbert Spencer… published in 1884Herbert Spencer

The extension of this policy, causing extension of corresponding ideas, fosters everywhere the tacit assumption that Government should step in whenever anything is not going right. “Surely you would not have this misery continue!” exclaims someone, if you hint a demurrer to much that is now being said and done. Observe what is implied by this exclamation. It takes for granted, first, that all suffering ought to be prevented, which is not true: much suffering is curative, and prevention of it is prevention of a remedy. In the second place, it takes for granted that every evil can be removed: the truth being that with the existing defects of human nature, many evils can only be thrust out of one place or form into another place or form often being increased by the change. The exclamation also implies the unhesitating belief, here especially concerning us, that evils of all kinds should be dealt with by the State. There does not occur the inquiry whether there are at work other agencies capable of dealing with evils, and whether the evils in question may not be among those which are best dealt with by these other agencies. And obviously, the more numerous governmental interventions become, the more confirmed does this habit of thought grow, and the more loud and perpetual the demands for intervention.

Read the book | Buy the book

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Jon Stewart on Obama

Jun 22

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The Daily Show With Jon Stewart Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c
Respect My Authoritah
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Tea Party

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Insider trading is legal…

Jun 16

Posted by robparis in General | 4 Comments

Insider trading is legal… as long as you’re a member of the United States Congress. A bill has been proposed to stop members of Congress from trading on insider information, but the bill seems to be stalled in Congress. Convenient.

The bill, H.R.682 – Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act (STOCK Act), sponsored by Washington Democrat Brian Baird, has only been able to garner 7 sponsors in 18 months.

It is a little suspicious that members of Congress routinely outperform the market. According to Stephen Bainbridge,

A 2004 study of the results of stock trading by United States Senators during the 1990s found that that senators on average beat the market by 12% a year. In sharp contrast, U.S. households on average underperformed the market by 1.4% a year and even corporate insiders on average beat the market by only about 6% a year during that period. A reasonable inference is that some Senators had access to – and were using – material nonpublic information about the companies in whose stock they trade.

See this article by Stephen Bainbridge for more information.

Read the full text of H.R.682 – Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act.

See a summary of the bill below:

1/26/2009–Introduced.Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act – Amends the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and the Commodities Exchange Act to direct both the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) to prohibit purchase or sale of either securities or commodities for future delivery by a person in possession of material nonpublic information regarding pending or prospective legislative action if the information was obtained:

(1) knowingly from a Member or employee of Congress;
(2) by reason of being a Member or employee of Congress; and
(3) other federal employees.

Amends the Code of Official Conduct of the Rules of the House of Representatives to prohibit designated House personnel from disclosing material nonpublic information relating to any pending or prospective legislative action relating to either securities of a publicly-traded company or a commodity if such personnel has reason to believe that the information will be used to buy or sell the securities or commodity based on such information. Amends the Ethics in Government Act of 1978 to require formal disclosure of certain securities and commodities futures transactions to either the Clerk of the House of Representatives or the Secretary of the Senate. Amends the Lobbying Disclosure Act of 1995 to subject to its registration, reporting, and disclosure requirements, as well as requirements for identification of clients and covered legislative and executive officials, all political intelligence activities, contacts, firms, and consultants. Requires the Comptroller General to include political intelligence activities, contacts, firms, and consultants in its annual compliance audits and reports.

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Paper money and the presidents on it

Jun 4

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The pictures of (mostly) former presidents on US currency implies the false notion that these presidents supported paper money, when in fact, they did not. Nor did the constitution.

United States Constitution – Article One, Section Ten

No state shall… coin money; emit bills of credit; make anything but gold and silver coin a tender in payment of debts

The principal author and “Father of the Constitution” James Madison agrees.

Paper money is unjust; to creditors, if a legal tender; to debtors, if not legal tender, by increasing the difficulty of getting specie. It is unconstitutional, for it affects the rights of property as much as taking away equal value in land. It is pernicious, destroying confidence between individuals; discouraging commerce; enriching sharpers; vitiating morals; reversing the end of government; and conspiring with the examples of other states to disgrace republican governments in the eyes of mankind.

George Washington

Paper money has had the effect in your State that it ever will have, to ruin commerce–oppress the honest, and open a door to every species of fraud and injustice.

George Washington letter to Jabez Bowen – 9 January 1787

Thomas Jefferson

Paper is poverty,… it is only the ghost of money, and not money itself.

Thomas Jefferson letter to Colonel Edward Carrington – 27 May 1788

Abraham Lincoln

No duty is more imperative on the government than the duty it owes the people of furnishing them with a sound and uniform currency.

Lincoln during the Log Cabin campaign – 1840

Alexander Hamilton

To emit an unfunded paper as the sign of value ought not to continue a formal part of the constitution, nor ever hereafter to be employed; being, in its nature, pregnant with abuses, and liable to be made the engine of imposition and fraud; holding out temptations equally pernicious to the integrity of government and to the morals of the people.

Alexander Hamilton – Resolutions - June, 1783

Andrew Jackson

In reviewing the conflicts which have taken place between different interests in the United States and the policy pursued since the adop tion of our present form of government, we find nothing that has produced such deep-seated evil as the course of legislation in relation to the currency. The Constitution of the United States unquestionably intended to secure to the people a circulating medium of gold and silver. But the establishment of a national bank by Congress with the privilege of issuing paper money receivable m the payment of the public dues, and the unfortunate course of legislation in the several States upon the same subject, drove from general circulation the con stitutional currency and substituted one of paper in its place.

Andrew Jackson -  Farewell Address – 1837

Thanks to Lawrence Parks and his lecture for the idea.

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