ECONOMIC FASCISM
Public-private partnerships is fascism.  It also has synonyms like "industrial policy" and "planned capitalism."  Mussolini declared the classic definition of fascism by saying that "Fascism is the partnership between corporation and state." This is a more elaborate portrait of fascism. 

Seymour Martin Lipset wrote an economic comparison between the US and Canada.

STATES WITH FASTEST GROWING ECONOMY

 

It's all about farmland and oil. According to 24/7 Wall Street, they are:

10. Nebraska
> GDP growth: 3.0%
> 2013 GDP: $109.6 billion (16th lowest)
> 1-yr. population change: 0.7% (25th highest)
> 2013 unemployment: 3.9% (3rd lowest)

9. South Dakota
> GDP growth: 3.1%
> 2013 GDP: $46.7 billion (4th lowest)
> 1-yr. population change: 1.3% (6th highest)
> 2013 unemployment: 3.8% (2nd lowest)

8. Texas
> GDP growth: 3.7%
> 2013 GDP: $1.5 trillion (2nd highest)
> 1-yr. population change: 1.5% (4th highest)
> 2013 unemployment: 6.3% (17th lowest)

7. Utah
> GDP growth: 3.8%
> 2013 GDP: $141.2 billion (19th lowest)
> 1-yr. population change: 1.6% (2nd highest)
> 2013 unemployment: 4.4% (4th lowest)

6. Colorado
> GDP growth: 3.8%
> 2013 GDP: $294.4 billion (18th highest)
> 1-yr. population change: 1.5% (3rd highest)
> 2013 unemployment: 6.8% (25th highest)

5. Idaho
> GDP growth: 4.1%
> 2013 GDP: $62.2 billion (9th lowest)
> 1-yr. population change: 1.0% (12th highest)
> 2013 unemployment: 6.2% (15th lowest)

4. Oklahoma
> GDP growth: 4.2%
> 2013 GDP: $182.1 billion (22nd lowest)
> 1-yr. population change: 0.9% (17th highest)
> 2013 unemployment: 5.4% (11th lowest)

3. West Virginia
> GDP growth: 5.1%
> 2013 GDP: $74.0 billion (12th lowest)
> 1-yr. population change: -0.1% (the lowest)
> 2013 unemployment: 6.5% (18th lowest)

2. Wyoming
> GDP growth: 7.6%
> 2013 GDP: $45.4 billion (2nd lowest)
> 1-yr. population change: 1.0% (11th highest)
> 2013 unemployment: 4.6% (6th lowest)

1. North Dakota
> GDP growth: 9.7%
> 2013 GDP: $56.3 billion (5th lowest)
> 1-yr. population change: 3.1% (the highest)
> 2013 unemployment: 2.9% (the lowest)

140 YEARS OF GOLD & SILVER
 
Mike Mahoney is a big silver bug. I think that this is his best video. Ever.

WALTER BLOCK ON RENT CONTROL
Rent control was introduced in WWI.

Returned in WWII.  Great need to have people on the coasts, where ships were being built, supply of housing and demand of housing.  Demand increased because of military building.  Rents rose.  Supply and demand issue, not greedy landlords.  But local cities imposed rent control.

Demand is greater than supply.
Rent control came about because rents were frozen at a certain point.  It was at equilibrium.  When you have inflation, both the supply and demand curves rise.  You're left with a dotted line.  The solid lines vanish because of inflation.  Fixity of rents.  Can't raise your rents.

First generation of rent controls, there were no exceptions.  But after WWII, money gravitated toward other things because there was profit to be made.  But not on housing because of rent control.  More rent control a city had, the

NY City didn't get rid of rent control.
Second generation rent control had exceptions.  If you built a new building, the rent control commission would tell you how much you can charge.

without rent control, the incentive that a landlord had was to serve the customers.

Vacancy decontrol gives landlord power to get tenants to leave.  Under rent control, the last thing you want to do is satisfy the customer.

3rd Generation of Rent control came in the 70s.
You could build on 70% of your land.  Commissioners said that was too much and said that you can build only on 40% and gave the owner 1 year.  Required to knock buildings down.  Takes 2 to 3 to 4 years to build an apartment house.  Zoning variants causes . .

No one builds under the 40% rule.

Landlords are promising 6 months' free rent.
A year

Then rent stabilization came in.  Couldn't control, so they didn't control.  Stabilization was a way of getting around the builders.  Builders versus the zoning commission.

Government enters and provides public housing.  You have to get on a waiting list.  If your house burned down, you get to the head of the waiting list.  Fire insurance paid out huge sums because there was incentive to burn rent control buildings.  Unbelievable.

If you didn't pay your rent . . . .  You go to rent an apartment and stop paying rent, the landlord takes him to court.  Takes 6 months to

Can't kick people out during Christmas.

Stop paying rent in the summer and couldn't collect rent, so the landlords had incentive to burn the building down.

Next to bombing, rent control was the best way to destroy buildings.

Rothbard on rent control.
Block on rent control.  And here.

CLINTONS FLUSH WITH CASH
Good for them.  When it comes to the federal government, the only way to be a member of that club is to be a millionaire or a billionaire or heir or heiress to either class.  Hardly will the club or its members tolerate someone outside that millionaire's club.  Ron Paul is the exception.  As was the Minnesota Congressman Paul Wellstone.
Bloomberg reports:

Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton raised $200 million in 10 months for their foundation’s endowment, positioning the nonprofit to survive even if its cash-collecting namesakes engage in a 2016 presidential run.

With four-fifths of their $250-million target in the bank, they are also changing fundraising strategies to include small donors -- a tactic that would create a list that could be politically useful, as well....

The Clintons’ initial appeals for foundation money were to contributors who could give $1 million or more. Those answering that call included Irish cell phone billionaire Denis O’Brien, and Bill Austin, owner of Minnesota’s Starkey Laboratories. Others were charities founded by Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim Helu -- the world’s second richest man -- and one run by Chicago venture capitalist J.B. Pritzker and his wife.

I find the Pritzker donation most interesting, since the Pritker's were key players in getting President Obama's initial presidential run off the ground.  Penny Priztker is now US Secretary of Commerce.
(h/t Bob Wenzel)

Make Progress, Not Work

How Social Security Works

I loved this illustration.


Funny how Social Security was never taught this way when I went to school.  Social Security was always a good and never characterized as theft.  Taxes were characterized the same way.  "But without taxes, who would build the roads?" liberals love to cry.