MuskegonPundit

Friday, February 12, 2016

The post-WWII "German Miracle"

Ivan Pongracic - The post-WWII "German Miracle", where (West)...:
"The post-WWII "German Miracle", where (West) Germany rebuilt its economy in record time after the utter destruction of the war is a highly instructive case of what works and what doesn't in economics. (Post-WWII Great Britain, which followed a socialist path, is a classic example of what doesn't.) Here's a fascinating passage by one of the architects of the German miracle, the great German free market economist Wilhelm Ropke (also friend of Ludwig von Mises and Friedrich Hayek). (H/T: Darrin Moore)"

"In 1948, "Germany lay prostrate, ravaged by war, impoverished by ten years of repressed inflation, mutilated, demoralized by defeat in an unjustified war and by the exposure of a hateful tyranny, and teeming with refugees . . ."
The Germans in the summer of '48 discarded the concept of a government-run economy and instead unleashed the free market economy and thereby spawned the all-but-forgotten 'German Miracle'.
"This was the beginning of an impressive chapter in economic history when in the span of a few years we witnessed a nation's precipitous fall and its rebirth and the almost total collapse and subsequent swift recovery of its economy.

The world was treated to a unique and instructive example of the paralysis and anarchy which can afflict an economy when utterly mistaken economic policies destroy the foundation of economic order and how quickly and thoroughly it can recover from its fall and start on the steep, upward climb if only economic policy recognizes its error and reverses its course. . . of all countries, it was precisely this one which had the courage to swim against the tide of collectivist and inflationary policies in Europe and set up its own―and contrary―program of free markets and monetary discipline, much to the dismay of the young economists of the Occupation Powers, who had been reared on the doctrines of Marx and Keynes and their disciples.
Not only was the success overwhelming, but it also happened to coincide with the patent failure of socialism in Great Britain (which had replaced the hopelessly discredited Soviet Union as the promised land of the socialists).
It began to look as if the country that had lost the war were better off than the winners.(8)
This was an outrage because it meant the end of the socialist myth.
What made it still harder to swallow was that the defeated Germany should be the one to set this example of prosperity through freedom, for there were few who grasped that this was a not unworthy manner of making good some of the evil that this same country had brought upon the world by means of its previous, opposite example of inflationary collectivism, which had marked the beginning of National Socialism and had been lapped up eagerly by others.
But the success of the new economic course was proscribed by every single chapter of the fashionable Leftist economic doctrine.
This success simply could not be tolerated, and thus false theories combined with wishful thinking to produce those repeated prophecies of doom which accompanied German economic policy from one triumph to the next.
When the false prophets, along with all their various disproved predictions, finally fell into ridicule, they took refuge in the tactics of either remaining as silent as possible on the success of the German market economy or obscuring it with all kinds of statistical juggling and gross misrepresentation of facts."

Ivan Pongracic I should mention that there is an amazing chapter on this whole episode (as well as one on the failure of post-war British socialism) in my good friend Larry White's remarkable book "The Clash of Economic Ideas: The Great Policy Debates and Experiments of the Last Hundred Years" - HIGHLY RECOMMENDED! http://www.amazon.com/The-Clash-Economic.../dp/1107012422

The Clash of Economic Ideas: The Great Policy Debates and Experiments of the…

AMAZON.COM

Benghazi committee Dems gave thousands in bonuses while blasting probe's cost

Benghazi committee Dems gave thousands in bonuses while blasting probe's cost | Fox News

Democrats on the House committee probing the 2012 Benghazi terror attacks awarded tens of thousands of dollars in bonuses to their staff, while at the same time repeatedly attacking Republicans over the rising cost of the investigation.
According to publicly available reports, a total of $33,600 was given to six Democratic staffers at the end of 2014 and 2015.
While the bonuses make up only a fraction of the panel's total expenses to date, critics suggested they undermine the minority members' complaints about the budget.
"This is the height of hypocrisy,” Lisa Boothe, a Republican strategist and president of High Noon Strategies, told FoxNews.com..."

BREAKING: Iran Releases Sickening Pictures of What They Did to Captured U.S. Sailors

BREAKING: Iran Releases Sickening Pictures of What They Did to Captured U.S. Sailors:

"Worse, this provocative propaganda was released after the Obama administration followed through on its end of the much-maligned nuclear deal with Iran, lifting economic sanctions and allowing a flood of tens of billions of dollars to flow into Iran’s economy, where some of it will be used to strengthen its military and fund global terrorism."

STUDY: Federal student loans to blame for skyrocketing college tuition

STUDY: Federal student loans to blame for skyrocketing college tuition | EAGnews.org:
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – The latest research in the never-ending debate about skyrocketing college tuition costs suggests federal student loans could be the underlying problem.
“Student aid accounts for most of the tuition increases between 1987 and 2010, according to a working paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research,” Inside Higher Ed reports.
“The more money students can borrow, the idea goes, the more colleges can charge.”

The study, conducted by professors at Indiana University and the University of Missouri, points to the increased availability of subsidized and unsubsidized loan programs that don’t offset tuition increases.
Colleges charge more, because financial aid bridges the gap, according to the news site.
“You’ve got to somehow tie aid to lowered tuition if you want to give money to students,” Grey Gordon, co-author of the working paper told Inside Higher Ed.
“You have to somehow structure it so college can’t just increase tuition and capture that money.”
Gordon’s research backs what some call the “Bennett Hypothesis,” named after former Secretary of Education William Bennett, who wrote in a 1987 New York Times editorial that “increases in financial aid in recent years have enabled colleges and universities blithely to raise their tuitions,” the American Enterprise Institute reports..."

Mass Shooting Stopped by Concealed Carrier in Louisiana

[VIDEO] Mass Shooting Stopped by Concealed Carrier in Louisiana
FOX 8 WVUE New Orleans News, Weather, Sports, Social

A legal concealed carrier in Treme, Louisiana is being credited with stopping a mass shooting in which four people were shot by the suspect at an area gas station.

According to a NOPD press release:

Around 3:24 p.m., NOPD First District Officers responded to a shooting with multiple victims. Upon arrival, officers learned four males had been struck by gunfire after an apparent argument at the location.

Based on the initial investigation, detectives learned that a group of individuals were driving ATVs and had arrived at the location to get gas. At that time, a man driving a white Volvo, later identified as Richard Macklin, pulled up to the gas station where he and the group began to argue.

Macklin then pulled out a weapon and fired several shots at the group, striking three males ages 30, 31 and 32. One of the victims then pulled out a weapon and returned fire, striking Macklin in the head. All four of the individuals who were shot were brought to the hospital where they are recovering from what are believed to be non-life-threatening injuries.

During the course of the investigation, detectives determined that Macklin was the aggressor in the incident. He will be booked once he is released from the hospital. The other individual who returned fire will not be booked in the shooting. At this time, detectives believe it was an act of self-defense. He was also carrying a legal weapon, that was registered to him and that he had a concealed carry permit to carry.

Macklin, faces three counts of Aggravated Battery by Shooting and one count of Illegal Discharge of a Weapon for his involvement in the incident.

- See more at: http://gunsnfreedom.com/video-mass-shooting-stopped-by-concealed-carrier-in-louisiana/6400#sthash.zL4QemNJ.dpuf

Lunch video-----Milton Friedman Explains the Cause of the Great Depression

Noon-toon

They fall down, go boom! Obama economy killing businesses

They fall down, go boom! Obama economy killing businesses:

"The impact of the “Obama economy,” those ups and downs attributed to the tax-and-spend policies implemented by the president’s administration, is moving further into negative territory with the announcement that dozens of additional retail stores across America are being closed down sooner than planned."

Even More UN Peacekeeper Gang Rapes Reported, This Time in Central Africa

Even More UN Peacekeeper Gang Rapes Reported, This Time in Central Africa | The Daily Sheeple
How come everywhere United Nations Peacekeepers go, young women and girls end up getting raped en masse?

Everyone is outraged, and rightly so, over the “rapefugees” scandalthat’s being covered up in cities across Europe, but those same people don’t seen to realize there was already a scourge of mass rapes going on, just at the hands of people in uniforms sent by the UN instead of asylum seekers.

Reuters reports:

The U.N. peacekeeping mission for Central African Republic said on Thursday it has identified seven new cases of sexual abuse by its troops including women and girls Human Rights Watch (HRW) says were raped or gang raped.

The latest cases, which involved at least five children, come on top of more than 20 allegations of sexual abuse and exploitation by U.N. peacekeepers in the country last year.

At least the refugees aren’t armed and claiming to come in “peace”:

A 14-year-old girl said that last November two armed peacekeepers dragged her into a patch of tall grass where one restrained her arms as the other raped her.

A woman said that three soldiers at the Republic of Congo base gang raped her when she visited in search of food or money.

“They were armed. They said if I resisted they would kill me. They took me one by one,” she told Human Rights Watch.

You never see that one on the mainstream nightly news, do ya? The media blackout on United Nations Gang Rapists is even thicker than the one on mass rapes by asylum seekers.

Meanwhile, government across Europe are putting out ridiculous cartoons and PSA videos in an attempt to placate a public terrified if they leave their house, someone is going to rape them.

Not even kidding, Europe. You better hope the UN doesn’t call peacekeepers in to help with “violence” related to the refugee influx."

UN Peacekeepers Sexually Abused Hundreds of Haitian Women & Girls

Surprise Surprise: UN Peacekeepers Caught Paying 13-Year-Olds for Sex

Why won’t Clinton release the transcripts of those paid speeches?

Why won’t Clinton release the transcripts of those paid speeches? - The Washington Post:
Hillary Clinton had a chance to put to rest swirling questions about her paid speeches to groups such as Goldman Sachs during last week’s final debate before Tuesday’s primary in New Hampshire.
She pointedly refused to take it.
Here’s the key exchange between Clinton and moderator Chuck Todd.
Todd: “Are you willing to release the transcripts of all your paid speeches?

We do know through reporting that there were transcription services for all of those paid speeches.
In full disclosure, would you release all of them?”
Clinton: “I will look into it.
I don’t know the status, but I will certainly look into it.
But I can only repeat what is the fact that I spoke to a lot of different groups with a lot of different constituents, a lot of different kinds of members about issues that had to do with world affairs.”
“I will look into it” means, of course, no way, no how, not ever.
But why did Clinton respond that way?..."

Pentagon orders commanders to prioritize climate change in all military actions

Pentagon orders commanders to prioritize climate change in all military actions - Washington Times
The Pentagon is ordering the top brass to incorporate climate change into virtually everything they do, from testing weapons to training troops to war planning to joint exercises with allies.
A new directive’s theme: The U.S. Armed Forces must show “resilience” and beat back the threat based on “actionable science.”
It says the military will not be able to maintain effectiveness unless the directive is followed.

It orders the establishment of a new layer of bureaucracy — a wide array of “climate change boards, councils and working groups” to infuse climate change into “programs, plans and policies.”
The Pentagon defines resilience to climate change as: “Ability to anticipate, prepare for, and adapt to changing conditions and withstand, respond to, and recover rapidly from disruptions.”
To four-star generals and admirals, among them the regional combatant commanders who plan and fight the nation’s wars, the directive tells them: “Incorporate climate change impacts into plans and operations and integrate DoD guidance and analysis in Combatant Command planning to address climate change-related risks and opportunities across the full range of military operations, including steady-state campaign planning and operations and contingency planning.”
The directive, “Climate Change Adaptation and Resilience,” is in line with President Obama’s view that global warming is the country’s foremost national security threat, or close to it.
Mr. Obama says there is no debate on the existence of man-made global warming and its ensuing climate change.
Supporters of this viewpoint label as “deniers” any scientists who disagree..."

SPREAD THIS: The Mike Brown Autopsy Report the Media REFUSED to Cover

SPREAD THIS: The Mike Brown Autopsy Report the Media REFUSED to Cover:

"The county autopsy report on Michael Brown largely corroborates the account of the shooting given by Ferguson, Mo., Police Officer Darren Wilson. Two independent doctors reviewed the report from St. Louis County for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, KTVI reported.

According to the report, the first shot fired from Wilson’s gun was at close range and hit Brown’s right thumb, adding weight to Wilson’s testimony that the two struggled for the gun in Wilson’s police cruiser."

‘For the Record’: Understanding the Threat of EMP

‘For the Record’: Understanding the Threat of EMP | TheBlaze.com

An Electromagnetic Pulse attack could result in the greatest loss of life in human history, but most people have never heard of an EMP.

An EMP can be triggered by detonating a nuclear warhead above the earth’s atmosphere, which would release a pulse of energy that could destroy electrical grids and electronics such as cell phones and computers over a thousand-mile radius.

“What happens when, when the grid comes down, is there are surges of electricity that blow the big transformers,” Roscoe Bartlett, a former member of the House of Representatives who spearheaded the creation of a Congressional EMP Commission, said. “The estimate is that we could lose somewhere between 100 and 200 of those; that means that the grid would be down for a year or more.”

The Congressional EMP Commission reported that after such an attack Americans would face starvation, a lack of clean water, disease and eventually societal unrest. The commission estimated that 90 percent of the U.S. population would die within a year — nearly 300 million people.

by Taboola