How Libertarian Is the 2012 GOP Field?

The Cato Institute’s David Boaz and John Samples size up the 2012 GOP field. Video produced by Caleb Brown and Austin Bragg.

How Libertarian Is the 2012 GOP Field?, posted with vodpod

Creating a Free State: Filmmaker Christina Heller on Building a Libertopia in New Hampshire

Tired of waiting for a libertarian United States of America? Maybe the answer is to start small.

Enter Libertopia, a documentary by director Christina Heller and producer Craig Goodale that follows three guys’ attempt to make one state free. Heller sat down with Reason.tv’s Ted Balaker to discuss the Free State Project, why she admires libertarians, and how a persuasive band of Free Staters just might have transformed her from a liberal into a libertarian.

The Free State Project was proposed by a Yale PhD student in 2001, and the goal was to convince 20,000 pro-liberty activists to commit to moving to New Hampshire in hopes of returning the state to its “Live Free or Die” roots. So far, the project reports that there are more than 10,000 participants, and almost 900 “early movers” have already settled in the Granite State.The documentary follows one man who is walking across the country to raise awareness about the Free State Project, another who already moved to New Hampshire and works as an advocate for medical marijuana patients, and a Ron Paul-inspired teenager who decides to leave his friends and family in California to live in New Hampshire.

Interview by Ted Balaker. Shot by Zach Weissmueller, Hawk Jensen, and Alex Manning. Edited by Weissmueller.

Creating a Free State: Filmmaker Christina Hell…, posted with vodpod

Adam Posen Discusses Asset Bubbles

What did central bankers have to know and then be empowered to do in order to have avoided the housing bubble and economic fallout? Adam Posen is an External Member of the Monetary Policy Committee for the Bank of England, and a Senior Fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. He spoke at the Cato Institute’s Monetary Conference held in November 2010.

The problem with his analysis is that he doesn’t differentiate between periods of healthy growth vs. periods of inflation (or other government policy) driven growth. That’s why he says not all booms are followed by busts. But it’s fairly easy to spot inflation-driven growth, so it’s also fairly easy to spot bubbles, despite what he thinks.

See my previous post on Monetary Policy, Housing and Other Bubbles and get the free book shown there.

Adam Posen Discusses Asset Bubbles, posted with vodpod

 

How to Balance the Budget W/O Raising Taxes!

 

Using only a big piece of pork, a large knife, and a small knife, the budget chef shows how to balance the federal budget by 2020.

As a special treat, he does it without raising taxes from the current Bush-era rates!It seems like a complicated preparation at first, but it’s so simple that almost any elected official should be able to pull it off like a pro!

Domestic and foreign investors will love this, and it will also help create a stable environment conducive to long-term, sustainable economic growth.Between 2011 and 2020, the Congressional Budget Office estimates that total federal outlays – for defense, agriculture subsidies, Medicare, Social Security, you name it – will total a whopping $42.1 trillion (in 2010 dollars). To bring outlays down to revenue, we need to cut a total of $1.3 trillion in total expenditures over the next 10 years.

That sounds like a really tall order until you realize that it cutting just 3.6 percent a year for each of the next 10 years. To put it in dollar terms, it means cutting about $130 billion a year from budgets that will average over $4 trillion. That’s not so hard now, is it? By making small, systematic cuts to a federal budget that is larded up with more fat than an Ponderosa buffet, we can balance the budget without even nicking essential services.

This video is based on “How to Balance the Budget Without Raising Taxes,” by Nick Gillespie and Reason economics columnist Veronique de Rugy of the Mercatus Center. Read that December 5, 2010 piece for detailed breakdowns of spending amounts: http://reason.com/archives/2010/12/05/how-to-balance-the-budget-with

Budget Chef Presents: How to Balance the Budget…, posted with vodpod

 

I Never Anticipated This!

A love song for economist F. A. Hayek?

But, “The Road to Serfdom” was #1 on Amazon for a few weeks this summer and is still above Obummer’s books despite being over 50 years old. It’s encouaging to see the young people getting interested in things that will actually make a difference in their lives after their parents just kicked the can down the road.

Original song by Dorian Electra.Filmed by Clara Lee, Madeline Scholl, and Ciaran Finlayson.

Lyrics:

Hey there Freidrich Hayek, ya lookin really niceYour methodology is oh so preciseYou break down social science to the fundamentalsRules and social order are the essentials

Chorus:The use of knowledge in societyby each of us we make the economyIt’s not magic that somehow our plans all alignThe result of human action, not of human design

Tell me your thoughts on resource misallocationDistorted price signals and misinformationInterest rates that are made artificially lowTelling producers where resources should go

Chorus

Since these low interest rates, like you said, are liesMalinvestments come as no surpriseSoon these mistakes will all be revealedand then corrected, unless they’re concealed

Chorus

Sometimes I dream all day ’bout bein’ Mrs. HayekWe’d share milkshakes, watch sunsets, and kayakWe’d work together on that business cycle theoryOh darlin’ you’ve been workin’ hard, you must be weary

Come to my couch, on which you can restI’ll make tea, we’ll talk credit and interestThen I can talk about my interest in youOf course we’ll talk ’bout the economy, too

Just me and you (x2)Me and YouOh, ohMe and You

I Never Anticipated This!, posted with vodpod