Last Updated: Mar 25th, 2013 - 16:46:15 Newsletters : 2009 Newsletters : 6 November 2009 Thought for the Day Headlines in yesterday's DomPost, "Key 'doesn't do anything'. Hide gets frank 'among friends'." How wonderful. Our worst experiences as a nation were when we had "strong" leaders doing things. Remember Rob Muldoon the "strong" leader. He sounded very tough on the unions and on the gangs but both groups mostly just got what they wanted. He promised to leave New Zealand "no worse than when he found it" but after a show of economic strength he froze the wages, prices and interest rates and drove our economy into the dirt. What a disaster. Then after a while we got our next "strong" leader who promised to take New Zealand into the top half of the OECD. A very laudable ambition but all her legislation and regulation brought the economy to a standstill and then onto its knees. From a $7billion surplus to a $10 billion loss and, apparently, totally unaware of what was happening. Now she has achieved her ambition and gone to that great land of socialism - the United Nations - and we are left much poorer for her efforts. How pitiful we are. Always looking for that strong leader who can look after us. Are we not grown up? The best leader is the one who leads quietly and encourages his lieutenants to do their appointed tasks and leaves the people to do "their own thing" to the best of their ability or not at their own choosing. If our leader manages to remove some of the dead hand of government and keeps the earnest regulators at bay then private industry will arise again as it always has done and this will produce the wealth of the nation. And when all the dust has settled the people will not recognise that the best leader was leading at all for they will say, "we did it ourselves". And the best leader of all will then congratulate them. Nov 5, 2009, 10:19 Newsletters : 2009 Newsletters : 6 November 2009 Why We Have Rights In our society we have many groups claiming their "rights". The "right" to social justice, the "right" to a benefit from the state when out of work, the "right" to "free" health care, free education, and so on. Why is it that all these rights that others claim end up being an obligation on my part? What are rights? Does anyone have a right to impose an obligation on someone else? Can a society with many legislated rights imposing obligations on some citizens ever be great place to live? Can governments dispense rights? This article may not answer these questions directly but it provides a useful basis for constructive thought about the place of government in our lives. [ Visit Website ] Nov 4, 2009, 12:08 Newsletters : 2009 Newsletters : 6 November 2009 RBI buys half of IMF's gold for sale; who's next? Despite what Central Banks have been saying about gold and currencies for umpteen years now - their actions belie their words. Things are hotting up. [ Visit Website ] Nov 4, 2009, 10:29 Newsletters : 2009 Newsletters : 6 November 2009 Worry about Japan, not America I am not sure that Ambrose understands REAL Economics but this article adds one more chapter to the book of impending economic doom. The feeling of inevitability grows and the tipping point cannot be too far away now. Nov 3, 2009, 19:24 Newsletters : 2009 Newsletters : 6 November 2009 Gold and Economic Freedom Some very interesting history about the beginnings of the US Federal Reserve Banking system. It really did begin as a conspiracy! [ Visit Website ] Nov 3, 2009, 19:08 Newsletters : 2009 Newsletters : 6 November 2009 The "GDP Fraud" We (here at the Foundation) originally used GDP as a measure of how New Zealand has done (economically speaking) compared with the other nations of the world. GDP seemed to be the only common measure with which people were familiar. But GDP is not really a measure of economic growth because it incorporates government expenditure and this is unproductive tax money or borrowed money and freshly printed money, and thus gives a very misleading picture of how a country is progressing. Remember that Russia showed very good GDP figures last century while running the economy into the ground. GDP results are not information they are just propaganda. Nov 3, 2009, 15:06 Newsletters : 2009 Newsletters : 6 November 2009 Be Prepared for the Worst "The large-scale government intervention in the economy is going to end badly." So says Congressman Ron Paul of the US economy. This is exactly as REAL Economics predicts. It will be fascinating to see how this scenario plays out. The unfortunate side is the suffering and despair of the average tax-payer as they struggle to meet the demands placed on them by government. How will New Zealand go? Time will tell! Nov 3, 2009, 09:18 Newsletters : 2009 Newsletters : 6 November 2009 Gold: India’s Capital Asset Through History REAL money is now starting to be talked about. This is a potted history of the use of gold as money and a store of value in India for the past two thousand years. Indian socialism under Indira Ghandi only served to reinforce the population's view that paper money was a fraud. The world is about to understand on a more personal level why the Indians keep a store of gold in the form of jewelery within each family. [ Visit Website ] Oct 30, 2009, 13:58 Newsletters : 2009 Newsletters : 6 November 2009 Hu versus Sarkozy Steve H. Hanke is a Professor of Applied Economics at The Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and a Senior Fellow at the Cato Institute in Washington, D.C. I have said on a number of occasions that government cannot solve the problem - government is the problem. Professor Hanke explains this with reference to Sarkozy's insistance on "solving" France's economic woes and shows how the American recession in 1920 resolved itself within a year whereas government meddling caused the long depression from 1929. Government meddling in the current economic climate will cause us many more woes. Be prepared for more misery. Incidentally, Professor Hanke also shows how Roger Douglas increased happiness in New Zealand and Helen Clark doubled our misery as an example for the world to understand. Again, as I have been at pains to point out for some time. Nice to know that I have such a highly respected economic companion. [ Visit Website ] Oct 27, 2009, 18:16 Newsletters : 2009 Newsletters : 6 November 2009 The Great Banking Scam We have mentioned before how paper money banking leads to moral hazard in the economy. This discussion is very interesting - especially to the socialists! Big Banking is set to win again. [ Visit Website ] Oct 27, 2009, 12:24 Newsletters : 2009 Newsletters : 6 November 2009 Macro for Dummies The world has hit the big recession and in country after country the governments are doing exactly the wrong thing. Bill Bonner takes us through a potted history to show that one leader got it right. We have the example to follow but because it requires some moral fortitude we quiver and quail and sink beneath the weight of the wrong decision. Keynes will be the death of many an economy in the near future. Printing more paper money is the problem not the solution. Oct 26, 2009, 20:05 Newsletters : 2009 Newsletters : 6 November 2009 Quote for the Week The budget should be balanced, the Treasury should be refilled, public debt should be reduced, the arrogance of officialdom should be tempered and controlled, and the assistance to foreign lands should be curtailed lest Rome become bankrupt. People must again learn to work, instead of living on public assistance. Cicero, 55 BC. Oct 19, 2009, 10:39