Monday, February 5, 2007

Milton Friedman, you are my hero

First and foremost let me dismiss the hysteria over Friedman having gone to Chile. Before ever going there, he had refused 2 honorary Chilean university degrees from schools that received government money in order to make it plain and clear that he disapproved of the Pinochet dictatorship. Secondly, he took it upon himself to explain, in person, to the Chilean administration that free markets don’t work without democracy and that democracy doesn’t exist without a free market. 


To observe Prof. Friedman’s genius in action one can look at the obvious Chilean success story or one can look across the globe. Estonia was amid economic chaos in ‘92 with 1000% inflation and 35% unemployment and massive food shortages. It had just elected Mart Laar, her youngest prime minister at 32 and lucky for her he was a great admirer of Milton Friedman. As a matter of fact he claims that the only education he had had in economics was from reading ‘Free to Choose’, Friedman’s masterpiece. Estonia today has 5.8% unemployment and enjoys a $19,600 per capita GDP with only 5% of its population below the poverty line. Unbeknownst to Mart Laar, Estonia was the first country to attempt a flat income tax (24%) as suggested by Friedman. Estonia also employed a no tax rate on companies re-investing Estonia, boosting business and entrepreneurship. Estonia’s economy grew 9.2% last year and today is a solid place to invest as is Chile and many other countries that benefited from Friedman’s wisdom. 


When China and India decided to open her markets moving away from their previous socialist economies it was Friedman who was called upon for advice. Prof. Friedman was also instrumental in getting the American economy up and running, Alan Greenspan can vouch for that, and he is also accredited with ending the military draft in the US. Friedman comes from the Chicago school of economics, the natural inheritors of von Hayek’s Austrian school of economics and it is no exaggeration to credit him and his brilliance with alleviating poverty all over the globe. He was a champion of the very true ideal that free markets and free governments are absolutely essential for each other’s existence. Professor Friedman passed away last year, his genius and enthusiasm will be missed.
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Friday, February 2, 2007

‘Neo-Liberal’ the mating call of the imbecile

Identifying an imbecile is extremely simple, just wait for said imbecile to utter the words ‘neo-liberal’, it’s a dead giveaway. If he is an imbecile, you won’t have to wait very long. Neo-liberal is what one utters when one runs out of reasonable and sensible arguments when debating politics or economics. Neo-liberal is the mating call of the imbecile! The word is completely devoid of meaning as is ‘Washington consensus’ but those deadset in destroying South America can’t stop themselves from uttering these simplistic and quite frankly, moronic terms. It wouldn’t be a big problem except said imbeciles have successfully contaminated our dialogue and society at large with such garbage and now it has infected our vernacular like a cancer. Said cancer has caused South American economies to stagnate, halting progress for her people. 


Chavez, Morales and the legions of idiots who support Lula’s cabal ache for the day they can hold all the power of their nations (and other’s nations as in the case of Chavez) in their hands. The imbeciles congregate in the World Social Forum and for days listen to themselves repeat the call for the destruction of the ‘neo-liberal’ system. I guess they think that life in Cuba, Laos, North Korea, Burma and other socialist backwaters is better than what we could possibly amount to in South America. They are dead wrong in their pathetic assumption that we can’t do any better, and I wish they would just move to these so-called socialist paradises once and for all and leave us alone. Dictatorships from the left and right have had their day, creating destruction everywhere they have established themselves and now the masses are clamoring for them once again. It’s repugnant and downright disappointing. 

If there’s a region of the world that should have learned by now that big government is a recipe for disaster, it’s South America. There’s even a particularly South American word for it: ‘CAUDILHISMO’ (in Portuguese), or ‘CAUDILLISMO’ (in Spanish). Essentially, it means the centralization of rule under one ‘caudilho’ or strong man, and all the sectors of the economy nationalized under the rule of his thumb. This system has only lead to misery, torture, murder, and war. But here it is again! The neo-caudilhistas are yelling ‘down with capitalism, down with the neo-liberals, ‘agrarian reform!’ Brace yourselves people, here come the imbeciles, all dressed in red, thirsty for blood.
Posted by at 21:42:20 | Permalink | No Comments »