Free Scotland

Countries never gain independence through violent action, in every case in history a revolution makes a country worse off.  USA is a prime example if you read the history.  Indeed, no revolution was necessary at all: Canada gained its independence without one.

Scotland is down to the wire on a pro-independence referendum, but the bookies give a "no" 4-1 odds. the bookies usually have it right.  Women want British oppression 55 - 45, men want freedom 52 - 48.

The bankers came out and claimed depression ahead if Scotland goes independent.  What is more likely is wealth ahead as Scotland goes the way of Hong Kong, Monaco, Switzerland, Ireland, Singapore, Andorra and dozens of other prox 5 million citizen countries that are richer after escaping their oppressors.  As to the Royal Bank of Scotland, which royal?  If Windsor, then of course they would say that.    The only bank that matters is Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank, a Scottish bank that has always been based in Scotland.  They know better.

The big challenge is if Scotland decides it wants ot be an even more dire welfare state, but that is tough with only five million.  Plus, if they want to join the EU, which would be going from the frying pan to the fire.

But almost all of the above, small countries, wealthy and independent, got there by an accident in history.  Cameron approved of the vote because he believed no way it would pass.  So if it passes, it is an accident.   May God grant Scotland its independence.

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CRS & Savings-led Loan Programs

Catholic Relief Services (CRS) uses "Savings-led" microfinance to advance their mission.  Now one would assume only savings could be lent, but after the bankers discovered they could get away with lending credit, not savings, and also be bailed out when it inevitably failed, this new thing is so widespread that what is normal must be stipulated: savings-led lending.

That's why it's called internal savings and internal lending. It's internal to this group. You don't have to deal with that massive interest rate, you just pool your money and the groups set the rules for lending themselves.
Sometimes you can choose to lend to someone outside of the circle. There is actually an encouragement to lend the money out, because that's how you make investments. By charging a modest interest, you could make a profit.

So they are halfway there... actually lending something, and not far to go really.  "You could" charge interest is scandalous, since it proposes people sin, but CRS is a USA Catholic gig where some 94% of Catholics reject church teaching on birth control, and so what if 99.9% reject church teaching on usury? But "you could" is far away from what NObel laureate Yunus requires, you must, plus turn over your culture to Yunus's henchmen.  (The Nobel prize in Economics is actually a banking prize administered by the Nobel committee, Nobel never funded such a prize, so prizewinners are usually pro-predatory systems.)

The article does have a funny line about a start-up baker:

They sold out everything in one week. It was that popular. They sold cakes to the local police department, so the idea that police love donuts is a global thing. The leader of the group lost a child to starvation before this enterprise.

Loans are always charitable events in a comity.  To charge interest has always been experienced as violence in all major religions and philosophies.  That we can have an extremely temporary dazzling on the part of a very few by allowing usury does not change the fact it is wrong because it does damage.

Hope that CRS goes all the way and promotes usury-free lending.  Then these people will achieve peace and prosperity faster.

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Just Following Orders

When the Israeli's were trying Eichmann for crimes against humanity, they were losing the case as long as Eichmann kept answering he "was just following orders."  Finally they found an order signed by Eichmann directing his followers to force march a group of Jews to camps and their deaths.  Bingo!  He ordered a crime, so he was convicted.  The fact is "just following orders" is an excuse accepted by Governments worldwide.  (Smart operatives ask for the orders in writing, because superiors have a tendency to deny they ever issued the order.)

In the USA we have gotten rid of this problem, now even if you order a crime, there is no sanction if you work for the government.  And if some smart-alecky Israeli or other country tries to prosecute a Dick Chaney at the Hague, well...  the President is authorized to invade the Hague.

Nonetheless, "just following orders" is still the fallback position for people abusing their authority.  Let's listen in to example # 3, 9803, 3882, 7625, 0944, 3816.


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Twelve Inspection Points On Business Start-up

Kevin has sent in an edition of a newsletter that is a perennial favorite.  I understand why the info is popular, it is badly needed.  note that what i teach is rather along these lines, and why I teach is this info has largely disappeared.  Once upon a time, it was passed on from entrepreneur to successor.  now there are too few entrepreneurs.  but this part...

Bill Gates is known as "America's richest man." ... Gates bought the system for a mere $50,000 and presented it to IBM. That was the beginning of Microsoft's rise to power. 
 Apple had by far the best product in the Mac. But Apple made a monumental mistake. They refused to license ALL PC manufacturers to use the Mac operating system. If they had, Apple today could beMicrosoft, and Gates would still be trying to come out with something useful (the fact is Microsoft has been a follower and a great marketer, not an innovator).

I'll argue with because in fact Apple today is bigger than Microsoft, far more profitable...  Gates IS still trying to come out with something more useful... Microsoft is a lousy marketer, simply riding on Government sales, and not an innovator.

But other than that anachronism, the info is very good...  give it a read.

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WE've Been Fooled Again!

Here is a good summary of Obama's War speech...

http://www.lewrockwell.com/lrc-blog/shorter-obama-war-speech-the-top-five-list/

And here is a graph of why we are going to war, and why it will do no good...

http://www.lewrockwell.com/this-chart-says-a-lot/

And here is a review of facts on the ground...

http://www.lewrockwell.com/2014/09/l-reichard-white/seeing-through-the-isis-script/

No cost war!  We've been fooled again!

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How To Bribe an Official, Ex-Im Example

You can safely bet the hotel and airline getting paid for the upgrade is not about to rat anyone out.  But in essence this is how it works.  During the small talk before the meeting, the regulator happens to mention he is going on vacation to Aruba on these dates on this airline and staying at this hotel.

Then comes the upgrades every step of the way, and hey, why not? Some companionship on the side.

These are not isolated incidents. Bloomberg reported that Exxon Mobil in 2009 paid for nearly $100,000 in travel expenses for Ex-Im employees to places such as London, the South Pacific, and Tokyo. While both parties said this was "standard industry practice," the conflict of interest is apparent. Exxon Mobil was seeking $3 billion in financing from Ex-Im at the time — and received it 11 months later. The Heritage Foundation's Diane Katz found that 74 investigations into potential cases of fraud have occurred at Ex-Im since April 2009. For an agency with only 400 employees, this is a very serious problem.

Of course it is standard industry practice.  Get big or get out, this is something small business cannot afford.  Inspectors general can investigate, but they cannot prosecute.

Hong Kong has an answer, as usual: The Independent Commission Against Corruption.   We need people who can not only investigate but make arrests and prosecute malefactors, independent of the State.  Actually, we used to have that in USA, and to this day it exists in qui tam prosecutions.  Need to expand that practice back to include the people prosecuting state actors.

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Aricept and Mom

If an elder ends up in a "nursing home" visit often and make yourself known or the end will be painful and near for the inmate.  It's funny how people will say "mom needs to be in a "care" facility" because they cannot take care of her 24/7 (as if she needs 24/7) and then can make an hour a day to visit.  (You don't need to be there more than ten minutes to keep the screws on their toes.)

My mother was in one of these lovely on top, hell-hole down below places when she fell ill and was sent to the hole.  I came back from travel to visit and her first words were "I thirst."  She looked horrible.

I got her water and other liquids, and inquired of the nurse what her condition was.  As a younger sibling, I was not on the list of approved discussants.  Clearly her treatment was killing her.  I made a nuisance of myself and managed to see the pills my mother was being given, and I later inquired obliquely as to the same pill on the pill cart being given to another.  Out of context, the nurse simply said "Aricept."  I went home and looked it up.  It is for dementia, Alzheimers.

Odd, I thought, as a medical lab scientist working in University laboratories, my mother had 40 years earlier volunteered for a longitudinal study on Alzheimers.  No drugs, just habits and outcomes.  Every year she was subject to a battery of measurements as a part of this study.  And every year they told her she was fine, no symptoms.  So how come the pills?

Aha! Alzheimers cannot be diagnosed until after death, you see, in an autopsy.  So we cannot know if she really has it until she is dead and autopsied.  Now shut up. OK, but if she has no symptoms, why the treatment? HEPA secrecy laws forbid anyone to answer my questions.  Incidentally, Aricept side effects are appetite suppressant.  And if not being fed, well, liquids come with the food.  Medical secrecy laws are to protect the powers that be, not their victims.

By literally nursing my mother back to health in spite of the top-flight health facility she paid for, I was able to get her coherent enough to order the staff to let me look at the records.  I tell you secrecy is meant to protect the state, the drug companies and malefactors.  The records named names, and I raised a stink, the Aricept stopped.  My mother recovered.

They had sold off her apartment to another so now they had a conflict of interest in keeping her in the hole.  They promised to move her to the new highrise, and she died on the day she was to move.

Do I think there is a concerted effort to kill off the elderly?  Of course!  Make as much money as can be made off others' suffering, and then kill them off.

Yet pharmacy records revealed that most of these patients, almost 54 percent, received at least one of what the researchers delicately called “medications of questionable benefit.” More than a third were given a cholinesterase inhibitor (Aricept is the best known) and a quarter received memantine (Namenda), both commonly prescribed for dementia. More than 20 percent were on statins to lower cholesterol, and 7 percent were on blood thinners.

We tolerate this because we benefit from the elders being hurried along.  Matters are arranged so we cannot know.  "It won't be long now" came the words.  She'll be gone in weeks. My mother grew and changed her last four years more than in her entire life, it was amazing to encounter.  I am glad I stopped in our instance what is widespread.

Yes, under capitalism, drug companies are out to make a buck killing the undesirables.  It is the only system that is willing to kill its customers (but outside of capitalism these people would not be customers.)  Future historians will look back on 20th century medicine as the most cruel and brutal in history.

We need a web-based system of matching the young with the old living in their own homes, for the benefit of both.  That would probably be a good business.  Remember, what goes around comes around.

Deregulate medicine, so we can have competition, and lowering costs while ever improving patient and doctor satisfaction.

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U2, Album Giveaway, and IPR

U2 is offering its new album at no cost on iTunes.  No doubt Apple is paying something, but in essence the money is made up in concert ticket sales.

Album sales have vanished. The most U2 would sell in its first week, if they were very very lucky, would between 300,000 and 500,000 copies. 

How odd, no money in selling 300,000 CDs.  What they mean in when management is overpriced, ther eis no money in selling CDs.  I could sell 500,000 at a buck a piece and make $150,000 net.  Not worth anyone's time in the industry, but plenty of money to be made selling CDs to people who cannot get it for "free" from iTunes. Such is the crazy world of IPR.

And what have I been saying?  Why should people control music, why not earn a living by working? And let those who can make money do so?

U2 is retaining control, but giving it away.  Better to give up control and give it away.  I have made vastly more money selling my books working as a micro publisher than was ever possible by using a conventional publisher.  And yes, people "steal my book" but they have zero effect on my markets, they make money where I have zero interest in making money.

Get rid of the USA IPR regime.  It's for people who do not want to work.

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Medicine, Panic and Control

It is now downplayed, but after Saudi Arabians attacked us on 9-11, there was an anthrax scare that we were assured come to us from Iraq.  It turned out to be from Fort Dix, NJ.  A USA thing.

The CDC is notoriously lax with the most deadly viruses.  The CDC ran the abominable Tuskegee Experiments.

Today we have a mysterious virus attacking kids in USA, sending people with common colds to the hospital.  Panic!

Although there's been no confirmed cases of the enterovirus at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, officials admitted 540 patients Friday, said Dr. Derek Wheeler, associate chief of staff at the hospital.

Ebola in Africa, a disease for which we recently became the proud owners via out patent regime, is exploding in Africa.  Sick Americans are brought home, introducing the disease here, contrary to all medical protocols.  Human rights are out the window in Africa as panic spreads to include human rights violations.  WE ARE ALL GOING TO DIE!

Hugh Hewitt mentioned on his radio show today that Washington is beset with fears over the 9-11 anniversary coming up.  We destabilize Moslem regimes no threat to us.  We overturn democratic elections. We train extremists.  We fund extremists.  We arm extremists.  We bomb extremists.  The we announce our borders are porous.    What happens when you do all of that?  The Irish did more to England with less abuse from England.  No wonder they are nervous in DC.

But don't worry.  That horse is lame.

The US Surgeon General wears a flag officer's uniform (Navy is traditional, but is can be any branch).  The CDC and FDA and NIH are under the Surgeon General.  I am told FDA inspectors are now showing up at business inspections in military uniforms, with battle ribbons, etc.  The FDA has snipers.  They are notorious for unwarranted military style raids.  There is very strong evidence FDA employees poisoned Chilean grapes for political reasons, and today the FDA uses this event as a teachable moment for why the FDA is needed.  The case goes cold as it got clearer.

When people behave badly with power and there is no sanction, the culture changes in the organization.  This case is not cold, the evidence is well preserved, and the people in involved well documented.  No one needs to go to jail, but a truth commission can reveal who did what.  Or off to jail if when the truth is out, those who failed to sing can go to Sing Sing.  We do this anyway, immunity from prosecution for testimony.

But as it is now, we have people who cannot be trusted, regulators who are owned by the regulated, who, if an when a PANIC breaks out over a virulent disease, will be ready to bring a military grade oppression to USA.  You see, in a health panic you are guilty until proven innocent, quarantined until proven healthy, suspected of ebola so sent to the ebola concentration camp, where you'll contract ebola.

Ready?  On three, everyone panic...  one...  two...

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Destroying the USA University System

Once we learned to lend credit at usury, there was no rational limit to what we could have.  Universities borrowed massive funds and overpaid for what they overbuilt and the flow of new ideas to be capitalized with "intellectual" "property" "rights" never materialized.   O dear?  What to do?  NPR reports.

Well, raise tuition of course.  And then pitch for more scholarship dollars, but make very sure the poor and minorities cannot access that, by having the IRS tax scholarships as income.  Get a nice $100,000 scholarship, but owe the IRS $30,000.  These kids can't afford $30,000.

Some old solution on the rise: privatdozents with a twist.  A privatdozent is a non-appointed faculty (in Germany) who is free to teach whatever and gets paid directly by the students.  In essence, I and countless others teach on this basis as adjunct lecturers.  We split the revenue with the school, and in essence make money for the school, instead of being a cost center for the school.  We get no other employee benefits.

The schools are thinking about renting out those expense empty laboratories to private researchers.  But there is no possible way that can work out since the schools, given cheap and apparently unlimited credit, paid too much for to much.  Anyone renting a university lab must cover the cost of all that waste.  And as a state institution, it cannot go bankrupt, so, back to nailing the students.

The response to problems in USA is war.  After relentless news that ISIS is crossing the USA borders, when top generals tell us there has never been such a terrifying threat to USA,  polls show growing support for USA re-involvement in the Middle East wars. Tonight we will see how we will solve the crisis in education, we'll expand our wars.

We will get fooled again!

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Money and Lending Alternatives

Mish does a solid on reviewing Lending Club in the context of banking.  I agree with what Mish says, but the premise that anyone should be making interest on loans is a bad idea, as I have said here many times before (search usury on this blog.)

Compare Lending Club to Community Sourced Capital.  Which would you prefer anyway?

If all this talk of banking mystifies you, here is a free book you should download and read right now...

http://mises.org/money.asp

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The Dutch Address Putin

Dozens of Dutch professors, etc,  write Vlad "the bad" Putin, among other points:

Russia is wrongly accused, without evidence or investigation, of delivering the weapons systems that allegedly brought down MH17. For this reason Western Governments claim they have a right to economically pressure Russia.

And if no, then who?

USA policies are so isolationist.  Our actions cause people to shun us, create other trade patterns, leading to our isolation.

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Kiss Your Pension Goodbye

Too late.

So at the end of the day, the HES Complex does not help the US economy pay its way. Essentially, America has been creating jobs only by borrowing from the rest of the world—–more than $10 trillion on a balance of trade basis during the last 30 years.
And most certainly, this is a structural barrier to real economic growth and job creation that the revelers on Jobs Friday have never even remotely bothered to note.

For a wider view, as I have noted, what is not taught.  What he calls immigrating out I call "escape to anarchy.

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Scotland may be forced to austerity

Now that is funny, a line from an article telling the Scots that if they return to independence, they will have to be a bit tighter on the budget.  But there are no people tighter.

The big risk is that Scotland, now a welfare state, will double down and things get worse.  But perhaps a happy accident, they instead go hard money and respect rights.

Hans Herman Hoppe would argue they should restore the Stuarts as well.


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Hillary Would Make a Good President

Scott Simon of the NPR interviewed Henry Kissinger on current events and Super K was sounding sane.  I guess he can afford to be reasonable now (I don't agree, but he is reasonable).

He was pressed on whether Hillary would make a good president...

first deflection: I've known Hillary a long time...  (you bet, she was on the crew impeaching your boss, Nixon, so there must be some stories there....)

second deflection:  I need to suppport Republicans...

cornered answer:  "Yes, hillary would be a good president."

No doubt because of the content of the first deflection,  the powers that be have the goods on Hillary, going back to the Nixon impeachment.  She'd try to be naughty, but she would not get far.

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BBC Reports Russian Soldiers Shot Down MH17

A report must be coming soon proving the Russians had nothing to do with the shoot-down of MH17, because the BBC is reporting proof positive the Russians did it:  three people who heard Moscow accents at the BUK battery that shot down MH17.  When added to the twitter feeds and doctored com-intercepts, well, what more do you need?  And not just any Russians, the report is entitled "Putin's Gamble."

Never mind there is no proof any BUK shot down any jet.  Never mind the USA has released nothing in the way of satellite images or any other intel that would implicate the Russians or the rebels. Never mind I could go to Los Angeles and find three Ukrainians who would agree with anything nasty I had to say about Russians.  This report will make the right wing radio constant rotation, so when the British authorities release a non-committal report, we can all fill in the false report: "Putin shot it down."

I was listening to people still talking about Ferguson, and how the dead fellow had committed a strong arm-robbery just before being killed.  We have a doctored video, but no proof, plus the executing officer had no knowledge of that anyway.  Yes, unarmed people can kill armed people, but in this instance it was an armed person, the cop, who killed an unarmed person.  It just isn't sporting to kill an unarmed person with a firearm, in the way that a dozen or so witnesses relate the execution.

We destabilize, then disaster and then we lie about the threat.  People will not do the decent thing now, resign their commissions, speak out, refuse, do the decent thing now.  Can anyone expect the decent thing after it all falls apart?  Right now is the time to start doing the decent thing.

Truth commissions, not relentless BBC lies.

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Xi Targets Rentseeking

EMBA programs teach how to manage the Keynesian regime, and it perpetuates the misery of capitalism.  Giving freebie "education" to party officials gets you favoritism in the future.  Xi strikes back.

The fight against graft has become Mr Xi’s signature policy since coming to power in late 2012. The latest move arises from concerns that executive management training such as part-time MBAs are hotbeds for networking, as they are globally. In China the fear is that these guanxi, or connections, are prone to corruption, bribery and rent-seeking.

All hail the Communist Party in the fight against rent-seeking!

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FED Sets Up the Next Round of Bailouts

The FED knows it has crippled the economy and knows it will go down, so it is instituting panic moves...

The reason given for why banks must now hold an additional $100 billion dollars of liquid assets is because these securities can easily be exchanged into cash at any time. Treasury securities are the top category for qualifying as liquid assets, although banks can fulfill the requirement through stocks, as well.

It goes on to say this should hold the banks for 30 days in a panic...  we've been in a panic mode with no resolution for six years, and 30 days should do it next step down?

Is this rule not just a "pre-bail-out" set up?  identify in advance which tallies will be targeted for theft?

Is this not goosing the market by directing huge asset allocations (misallocations) at the market?

Sheer madness, but capitalism in action.


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