Economic History
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Friday, March 11th, 2022In 1776, Adam Smith published a ground breaking book, The Wealth of Nations. Smith introduced the French phrase laissez-faire to the English speaking world. The phrase best translates as “free market.” Smith criticized European monarchs for subsidizing domestic production and granting monopolies for foreign trade. He argued that monarch redistributed income from small farmers and […]
I’m Not Scared of Words
Tuesday, October 12th, 2021Every time we turn around Fox News and the rest of the professional conservatives cry like babies about scary socialism. It doesn’t take much education to know they haven’t a clue what socialism is. They simply want to scare and paralyze American. In the early 1900s apartment and factory fires killed thousands. As a society […]
Opposite Day Shouldn’t Be Everyday
Thursday, May 13th, 2021Every once in a while, when they were young, my boys would play “Opposite Day.†It was game about saying one thing, but meaning another. For example, if you want to someone to “stay,†you would say “go.†If you wanted the TV “on,†you would ask someone to turn it “off.†The game is […]
Safe and Secure Markets
Thursday, February 25th, 2021Markets are truly a human wonder. They allow us to buy products which we lack the skill, resources or time to make for ourselves. We rarely think about markets until they leave us in the cold. Markets are simply part of our everyday life. We shop for food and clothing. Sometimes we make big decisions […]
Socialist Ghosts
Saturday, October 10th, 2020Clever politicians have turned socialism into a frightening ghost. It has replaced terrorism as the catchall phrase. Should we get our pitch forks and kill this really scary monster? Maybe, but be careful what you kill. You might just kill a friend. Socialism simply means public ownership of property. No more. No less. Governments turned […]
Donald Defunds Social Security
Thursday, August 13th, 2020Donald Trump issued an Executive order defunding Social Security of the next 4 months. In 1936 President Franklyn D. Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act into law. It was the first permanent piece of social welfare legislation. It has stabilized the lives of our seniors ever since. The Social Security Administration, an agency of the […]
Heal the Pain
Thursday, July 30th, 2020How do we react to pain? Do we treat it or ignore it? The answer to this question is at the heart of the argument between liberals and conservatives. In October of 1929 Wall Street crashed. The financial markets froze as speculators could not pay their loans. Banks lost income and failed. Bank failures wiped […]
Defend Security, Medicare, and our Public schools.
Monday, February 24th, 2020Make no mistake, the real targets of the “socialist” scare word are Social Security, Medicare, and our public schools. If these are privatized, billions more dollars will flow to the top 1% rather than into needed services. Stop the scam. If you receive a pay check from a local school board, a city, tribe a […]
Home of the Brave
Saturday, February 22nd, 2020“People who have opportunity to work and earn, and who have an assured income in their old age, are free. They are free of the fear of poverty. They are free of public or private charity. They can live happier, more useful lives. That’s real freedom. And that is something we should be proud of-that’s […]