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Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Ben Shapiro :: Townhall.com Columnist
Is Obama Designing the End of Capitalism?
by Ben Shapiro
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Amid all of the mixed messages on the strength of the economy coming from the White House, one theme has emerged loudly, clearly, and unvaryingly: The American economic system is about to undergo a profound shift. “Never allow a crisis to go to waste,” President Obama’s chief of staff Rahm Emanuel famously stated. “Never waste a good crisis,” concurred Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Americans, said Obama, should “discover great opportunity in great crisis.” What kind of opportunity? “Capitalism,” Secretary of the Treasury Tim Geithner said last week, “will be different.”

All of Obama’s economic policies thus far are designed to drive America into full embrace of socialism. His chief means for this transformation: inflation. He is attempting to inflate the currency through two primary means: intense deficit spending, and pushing up production costs through union subsidization. In order to make these measures politically palatable, he cites FDR as an example of good deficit spending; he cites the credit crunch as an excuse for inflationary monetary policy; and he recommends unionization in order to boost wages.

It’s a beautiful strategy for purposefully trashing capitalism, all the while blaming capitalism for its own downfall. John Maynard Keynes, the liberal economist who championed government intervention during recessions, recognized Obama’s inflationary strategy for what it is: “Lenin is said to have declared that the best way to destroy the capitalist system was to debauch the currency,” said Keynes. “Lenin was certainly right. The process engages all the hidden forces of economic law on the side of destruction, and does it in a manner which not one man in a million is able to diagnose.”

Obama pursues inflation -- government devaluation of the currency -- with the zeal of the newly converted. His deficit spending will be financed either through higher taxes or through inflation. Obama says he will push higher taxes -- after all, he wants to appease the Chinese, who don’t want their U.S. securities paid off with inflated dollars. But covertly, Obama fully intends on inflating the currency to pay of the massive deficit he has shoved through Congress. Meanwhile, he uses the increased prices produced by inflation to justify continuing unionization -- he backs “card check” legislation -- forcing up the cost of doing business and throwing people out of work. He then blames unemployment on the failure of the free market and states that the government must step in to hire more Americans.

It’s the same tried and true policy that created the Great Depression. During the inflationary period following the institution of the Federal Reserve in 1913, the purchasing power of the dollar fell rapidly -- 56 percent by 1929. The easy availability of credit led to the same sort of economic bubble mirrored during the recent real estate boom. Continued...

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About The Author
Ben Shapiro is a regular guest on dozens of radio shows around the United States and Canada and author of Project President: Bad Hair and Botox on the Road to the White House.
 
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©Creators Syndicate
Americans Are Waking Up
Americans are waking up to the fact that the Obama administration does not know what to do about the economy because they haven't a clue what caused the meltdown.

This economic situation has been predicted for decades by those people who are true free market capitalists such as Ludwig von Mises, Murray Rothbard and Congressman Ron Paul.

The Federal Reserve was founded by Congress in 1913 to keep the US economy from experiencing the normal ups and downs of a free market system.

It only took 15 years before the Great Depression came along and proved that government intervention not only does not solve the problem but makes it worse by delaying the necessary market corrections.

Government intervention and central planning is not Capitalism/Free Market economics but is Socialism that leads to Marxism/Communism when the central government planning replaces individual consumer choices.

Capitalism in a true free market allows people to use their own discretion as to what bank they want to deal with, and they quickly learn whether or not they made the right decision.

The bank that enjoys a good reputation will grow and prosper while the bank that uses poor banking practices will not keep customers and will go bankrupt...not propped up and bailed out by a government FDIC giving a false sense of financial safety to the consumers.

Basically speaking, the US needs to abolish the private, central banking Federal Reserve System and let the local banks handle their local monetary needs.

To tax more and spend more is irrational. Government needs to CUT TAXES and to CUT SPENDING to a bare minimum. Cut out ALL foreign aid and close ALL 800 foreign military bases and bring home ALL our troops.

If Obama and Congress will not do this they WILL most assuredly be voted out immediately.






To B2 Slim
Did you ever see that old Lucille Ball skit in which she plays a vaudeville guy who goes crazy every time he hears the word "Chicago"? Every time somebody says "Chicago" he does this "Slowly I turn" routine and goes nuts, starts beating up on everybody. Just hearing the word "Chicago" sets her off. So now I am reading your posts, and I am wondering if we are supposed to react that way, because you don't write in sentences. You don't express a thought. You just write lists of words you hope we will find scary, like Soros! Hollywood! So what are you saying, Soros is good to his mother? Hollywood is in California? You seem to think we will all start foaming at the mouth if you just breathe a poisonous word at us. Why don't you see if you can write a sentence to show us what you mean? Then we can have a conversation. PS, a hint: If you don't actually know what some of the words mean, or who some of the people are, google them. Wikipedia is a good place to start.
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