The Empire Strikes Out - The US Economic Crisis

An analysis of the current US economic crisis from Freedomain Radio - what is going on, and why. September 2008. For free economics podcasts, please visit http://www.freedomainradio.com/economics.html or http://www.freedomainradio.com/politics.html

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• banking
• crisis
• economic
• federal
• housing
• libertarian
• mortgage
• reserve
• street
• wall

[TadRapidly]

3o minutes of pure education. Brilliant. So how do you like gold/silver?

[stefbot]

Thanks, I appreciate your kind words -- I would be happy in a free society to explore gold and silver, I talk more about how free market currencies could operate in my free book Practical Anarchy, available on my website... :)

[esalian9]

Your videos are addictive.

[stefbot]

braincrack ;)

[reyter2007]

It isnt any mystery, Karl Marx realized over 100 years ago. It comes down to simple math in the end. USA was the most advanced capitalist power and thus, they are having these problems sooner than others but the rest are not far behind. Capitalism doesnt work.

[stefbot]

I would amend your statement slightly to say that violence does not work... I hope you don't mind too much! :)

[zeno57]

You r right ,I used to be a dealership mechanic,in the winter thing were slow so I worked on cars at my house at night ,I found out I could make as much in one night as all week on the job so I quit and now work 4 myself.Since peeps r not buying new cars the old ones will need repair,more work 4 me,LOL

[lnd3005]

Yup. When the dollar's worth nothing, even a trillion dollar debt is easy to repay.

[fyusuf]

@pattycakes65 Good stuff.

[MrJosephMarzullo]

@Zen5012 I agree with you. Friend request sent ;) Capitalism has a bad name, but so does socialism, and rightly so. I think of myself as a voluntaryist. Are you ancap. I'm also an atheist. Are you a buddhist? I think buddhism is a great guide for 'how to live', but, other than that, I see a lot of the same bs you see in other religions. Karma.. doesn't exist. There is no proof of an afterlife, for example. Sorry for going off-topic :p I think a better philosophy would be the one Stefan advocates

[Zen5012]

@MrJosephMarzullo

Sure, but you have to understand that "capitalistic" is used in it's modern definition, like "Freedom" or liberal or conservative.

There can certainly be a capitalist country but, you're right, it would have to be one based on voluntary contractual obligations.  This means that, not only must a Government not be in place, there is no need for one to be in place.

[MrJosephMarzullo]

@Zen5012 There is no such thing as a "capitalistic country," unless you're talking about a completely voluntary nation, and that's never the case. All governments are inherently socialist in nature.

[Zen5012]

I have to disagree with this statement though:

"People do not die in an economic collapse". I understand your point, it's not war, disease or famine.

However, people do die. If you look at Argentina's collapse, it may well be the best corollary to us that I can think of. It was a well built capitalistic country that fell from debt, fiat money and corruption.

Not exactly the same but closer than the Soviets or Weimar.

Learn to defend yourself and save a little of what you need.

[Zen5012]

Erin Burnett w/ CNBC said:

"I think people should be careful what they wish for on China. Ya know, if China were to revalue it's currency or China is to start making say, toys that don't have lead in them or food that isn't poisonous, their costs of production are going to go up and that means prices at Wal-Mart here in the United States are going to go up too."

This spokesmouth for The State said, enjoy Chinese Poison because it's cheap.

END THE FUCKING STATE!

[Zen5012]

@lnd3005

But in order to get that inflation killing the dollar value, the debt must rise.

Inflation is simply an increase in the money supply. Higher prices, lower purchasing power etc. are symptoms of this. Paul Krugman finds his biggest weakness in this understanding.

In order to increase a fiat money supply, debt MUST be created. Every dollar in existence is a debt instrument.

From the day the Federal Reserve came into existence, it was mathematically impossible to pay the off the debt.

[Zen5012]

@bgarri57

He's also a man responsible for much of the economic terrorism that we are living through today.

Government does not result in success. The money they spend to "help the economy" comes from decent working people taken at the point of a gun.

Well done - Central Planners - Well done.

And congrats on copying and pasting a wikipedia article.

[nonantianarchist]

@anarchyantichrist

I really hope you feel stupid now, you poor babbling bozo.

[nonantianarchist]

I find it telling that real wages started stagnating shortly after the US went to a full fiat currency.