My piece on nationalization was published on Lew Rockwell:
“The witchdoctors are rattling their bones and spitting into their potions. Frogs’ legs, squawks one. Eye of newt, cries another.
The right blames Fanny and Freddy for setting off the financial tsunami. Naomi Klein says it’s the Chicago boys and capitalism.
The left denounces private sector greed. The right, public sector do-gooding.
Overpaid CEOs, overdrawn borrowers, underestimated risk. There’s enough blame to go around.
The only problem is that a half-baked understanding of a problem leads to half-baked remedies. And half-baked remedies are worse than no remedy at all.
Nationalization is the cry now. Nobel winner Paul Krugman at the New York Times says it’s as American as apple pie. I daresay that’s the first time Krugman ever appealed to tradition to sell anything.
Even Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke floated it recently, and then backed off, when the market tanked in response. But by now we know that our rulers speak not just from both sides of their mouth, but out of both mouths of their two-faced tyranny…and from its derrière too. We can confidently predict that in the days ahead Republicans and Democrats, private and public sectors will join the breadline for nationalization
Now, in a different country, in a different context, nationalization might make sense. But trotting out Sweden’s history as a model for the U.S. is disingenuous. Sweden is about one-twentieth the size of the US and it has around one-thirtieth of the population. It’s not an empire with a vast portion of its economy dependent on its defense department. And it’s also one of the least corrupt and peaceable countries in the world, by standard measures.
Knowing exactly how corrupt this system is, how deceptive, and how out of control, we would be fools to place our faith in nationalization in America. Or in any other panacea pushed by the state. None of them stands any chance of being anything more than a change of label, a PR facelift. A jackass in a wig and stilettos can kick all it wants, it won’t turn into a chorus girl.
Only the Austrians so far seem to grasp this and only the Austrians seem to understand the underlying problem – which is money. Money backed by nothing tends toward nothing. But there is more to it. The cheapening of money, its lack of intrinsic worth is only an effect, not a cause. The cause lies deeper – in the unconstrained power of the government to print money. The source of corruption is this absolute power.
It’s because the US mint alone can print legal money that money has lost its link to real value and become rapidly cheapening paper. The monopoly of money, you could say, has given us toy dollars, monopoly money…….
Read the rest at Lew Rockwell.
March 2, 2009
Re: Nationalization?
From:
Sent: Mon 3/02/09 11:34 AM
To: lrajiva@hotmail.com
Dear Lila:
Thank-you for your dour but accurate appraisal of the direction which we are going. It is a dark time, when the tendency towards centralism and ultimately (no longer a distant future) tyranny takes its hold. When the princes and the priests all speak lies we need prophets. I read your message, in this article, as one bordering upon despair, which I share. But nonetheless you have identified the means by which a more humane and free society is possible. We need real money, we need a society that is allowed to live by its labors, and to keep the fruit of those labors. Beneath it all, no system can thrive when it is corrupt. No corrupt system should be given more authority. In these days, I hope you continue to speak your message, remind a struggling confused society of what is sound and wise in these matters. The last misappropriation of power has not yet taken place, but the masses while pinning their hopes on Obama, are beginning to question the whole rotten edifice. At least that is my personal read on matters. No days are so hopeful or dangerous. Dissatisfaction can fuel the worst sort of social upheavals. It is only if sanity prevails, and people begin to see a way of life can be built upon freedom and personal initiative and personal responsibility and free markets with sound money that a hopeful and prosperous society can be rebuilt. As you write your message keep speaking of these things, your message has never been more needed, even if at times all might seem hopeless as we look the power being taken by the state and its connected associates.
Sincerely yours,
D. McDonald
From: Damico, A
Sent: Mon 3/02/09 12:01 PM
To: Lila Rajiva
Dear Lila,
Astoundingly powerfull and simply well written. I can only give you accolades for this piece. No one and I mean NO one that reads this post should come away NOT understanding what is going on.
Keep up the good work and God bless you for telling it like it is,
A. D’Amico
Canada
p.s. I can only hope and pray for all of us that your second to last line, “Then comes war”
does not come to pass……………..
Wonderful Article
From: Wright, D. CTR USSOUTHCOM JTFGTMO
Sent: Mon 3/02/09 2:32 PM
To: Lila Rajiva
Ms. Rajiva,
I just read your article on LRC about “Obamanopoly”. Simply wonderful.
I pick an article from LRC once a day to share with my co-workers and
yours is the one for today.
Oddly enough I just completed Ayn Rand’s “Atlas Shrugged” which is an
ideal book for those who cannot see what is happening right now and the
effects that will be seen and felt in a very short time.
Please feel free to ask if there is anything I can ever do for you. I can be reached officially at the below listed email address (NIPR).
Sincerely,
David F. Wright
Interrogator
JTF-JIG-ICE
Team 3
SIPR:
Nationalization in a Time of Monopoly
From: A. Lieberman
Sent: Mon 3/02/09 4:24 PM
To: Lila Rajiva
Great article! I firmly agree with you… hope you are wrong, hope I’m wrong; but unfortunately… you are probably right. I think people who study Austrian economics are the only people who know they are right but hope they are wrong.. that is what we are reduced to.
A. Lieberman
Nathan, R.
Sent: Mon 3/02/09 8:13 PM
To: Lila Rajiva
This guy was pretty smart for his time, even though he wasn’t an economist he had the money thing figured out:
http://www.bfi.org/?q=node/406
R. Nathan
NASA JSC
Sent: Mon 3/02/09 9:12 PM
To: Lila Rajiva
Great article on LRC today.
Bill
Al Benincasa
Sent: Tue 3/03/09 3:26 AM
To: lrajiva@hotmail.com
Lew has always had a terrific selection of essayists, and has added yet another. You go, girl.
Nationalization in a time of monopoly?
From: Grammas, August
Sent: Thu 3/05/09 5:34 PM
To: lrajiva@hotmail.com
Your pen is sharp today, lady.
“… a half-baked understanding of a problem
leads to half-baked remedies.”.
That should be inscribed in big
letters on the Capital building.
August Grammas
It is no crime to be ignorant of economics, which is,
after all, a “dismal science”. But it is totally irresponsible
to have a loud and vociferous opinion on economic
subjects while remaining in this state of ignorance.
Rothbard