Author: Gary North

Every once in a while, I come across something that I find almost impossible to believe. Somebody sends me a document or a link to an article, and I am stunned. I have just learned of an official study in the Los Angeles school district that says that, by 2020, the school district is going to be in a fiscal crisis of monumental proportions. Already, Chicago’s schools are also facing this. Here is what a November report by the Independent Financial Review Panel reveals: If the District desires to continue as a growing concern beyond [Fiscal Year] 2019-20, capable of … Continue reading →

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This week, The New Yorker published an article on the John Birch Society. It goes into the background of the forgotten missionary to China, John Birch. For this reason alone, the article deserves to be archived in your Evernote files. The article also provides a reasonable summary of the influence of the JBS on the conservative movement, especially in the 1960’s. The author is a professor. He says that he keeps a poster of the Goldwater campaign on his office wall at the university. I have several reasons for keeping a half-century-old “Goldwater for President” poster on a wall of … Continue reading →

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Remnant Review “Well, that’s the news from Lake Wobegon, where all the women are strong, all the men are good looking, and all the children are above average.” — Garrison Keillor To understand why the welfare state will continue to expand its operations until such time as the Great Default ends it, we must understand Lake Wobegon economics. It is the widespread belief that, with respect to paying the bills run up by the welfare state, everyone will pay less than his fair share. This was described well in 1974 by James Dale Davidson. I remember the night I saw … Continue reading →

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I have never had a lot of patience. I suppose this is one of my character flaws. I do not suffer fools lightly. I suppose this is another one of my character flaws. I use strong rhetoric to deal with economic imbeciles. I do not regard this as one of my character flaws. I regard it as one of my strengths. ECONOMIC IMBECILES All around us are economic imbeciles. We find them in the major university economics departments. We find them on the financial media sites. We certainly find them in Congress. Above all, we find them on the Federal … Continue reading →

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The speculator who made millions by shorting the subprime mortgage market says another crisis is now in the pipeline. You may have seen the movie, The Big Short. It’s gong to happen again. The big bank bankers did not learn the lesson Congress wanted them to learn. Why should we expect them to? They skunked Congress — TARP. They got incredibly rich going up, and they got huge retirement settlements after it went down. The public got no “golden parachutes.” The public got hammered. The next crisis already in the pipeline. Read this interview with the man who spotted the … Continue reading →

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Ry Cooder has gotten to the point musically for 50 years. Here, he gets to the point economically. To understand how this happened, watch this.

The post No Bankster Left Behind appeared first on LewRockwell.

Karl Marx is sometimes referred to as a secular prophet. He made lots of predictions. Most of them were wrong. He died in obscurity. Following the death of his wife, Jenny, in December 1881, Marx developed a catarrh that kept him in ill health for the last 15 months of his life. It eventually brought on the bronchitis and pleurisy that killed him in London on 14 March 1883 (age 64). He died a stateless person;[187] family and friends in London buried his body in Highgate Cemetery, London, on 17 March 1883. There were between nine and eleven mourners at … Continue reading →

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Until this week, I had never heard of Eva Cassidy. I was sent a link to her version of “Over the Rainbow.” The man who sent it to me admitted that had never heard of her. Someone had sent him the link. It has had over two million hits in just one year. She has been dead since 1996. My friend had been a studio musician before he became a lawyer in the 1970’s. He had been Linda Ronstadt’s lead guitarist on tour. He was aware of the musical world. How had he never heard of her? No record company … Continue reading →

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Back in 1971, I was interviewed for a teaching position at an obscure Michigan college, one which was officially Christian but which survived only because of the state scholarship program that funneled several hundred nonsectarian, often secular students onto the campus. I had sent the dean my vita, and he hastened to tell me that he was not quite sure my academic training was adequate for his college’s high standards. “Well, I’ll tell you,” I replied, “I’ve just had an offer from Michigan State, so I’m not sure I am even in the market right now.” “Oh, that’s different,” was … Continue reading →

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Who remembers Lowell Thomas today? Dr. Jack Wheeler does. In 2002, The Daily Reckoning posted Wheeler’s article, “The Curse of Lawrence of Arabia.” This story was forgotten in 2002. It remains forgotten. The most legendary American journalist of the 20th century was Lowell Thomas. I had the opportunity to meet him in 1978, when we were both guests on The Merv Griffin Show. Off camera, I asked him, “Do you feel you contributed, however inadvertently, to the political mess that is the Middle East today?” He looked at me sharply and asked me what I meant. “Well, after all,” I … Continue reading →

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The CBS Evening News ran this interview. This has been dropped down the memory hole. So has this. Note: he spoke of a black SUV. Note also that he got verbal confirmation from off-camera. This indicates that there were other eyewitnesses. The only eyewitness identifications that I can find speak of three white men. I looked at several published timelines of the shootings. You can, too. Search for “timeline,” “Farook,” “San Bernardino.” No victim identified the two suspects immediately after the shootings, which had ended by the time the police and firefighters arrived at 11:05 a.m. The police had no … Continue reading →

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Picture this. You’re driving down the highway with your nine-year-old son. You’re in the middle lane. On your right, one behind the other, are two buses. The bus in front is painted white. The bus behind is painted yellow. The bus in front has its windows painted over. The bus behind does not. Your son asks you a question. “What are those two buses, Daddy?” You tell him that they are two very different kinds of buses. ” How are the different?” he asks. You explain that on the first bus are prisoners who are being taken to jail. On … Continue reading →

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The twentieth century has witnessed the beginning, development, and end of the most tragic experiment in human history: socialism. The experiment resulted in tremendous human losses, destruction of potentially rich economies, and colossal ecological disasters. The experiment has ended, but the devastation will affect the lives and health of generations to come.The real tragedy of this experiment is that Ludwig von Mises and his followers — among the best economic minds of this century — had exposed the truth about socialism in 1920, yet their warnings went unheeded. — Yuri Maltsev (1990). Socialism is dead as an ideology and also … Continue reading →

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This criticism of free trade is wrong. To understand why it is wrong, first consider this chart of the per capita output of American manufacturing. It is not a chart that most Americans have ever seen. Economist Mark Perry has provided it. He also provides another chart that shows manufacturing output in the five major manufacturing nations.   American manufacturing is a remarkable success. Yet it flourishes within a low-tariff/sales tax framework. It gets more efficient. Firms hire fewer workers to maintain their productivity. That is what efficiency is all about: a reduction in the the price of inputs for … Continue reading →

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My mother died on Sunday night, November 8. We had known this was likely. She would have been 98 next month. She lived across the country from me. I must now make arrangements at a distance. Her memory has been gone for several months. She did not recognize me earlier this year. It is not Alzheimer’s. Her memory has just stopped functioning properly over the last five years. The elder of her church and I are now planning the arrangements. I want the following: 1. Immediate burial 2. Memorial service held at her church whenever the four families can coordinate … Continue reading →

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