lundi 28 février 2011

La 'création d'emploi' par les gouvernements, en résumé

If governments could easily create jobs they would. Look no further than the US for proof. Only private enterprise can create jobs, at least lasting ones.

Governments can only take wealth from one place and distribute it elsewhere, by taxation, by force, or by the hidden tax of inflation that comes from printing money. When the stimulus ends, so do the jobs, except the bureaucratic ones, where massive pension problems and needless bureaucrats remain.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock

La bulle immobilière au Canada

Dur de la nier quand on voit ça...

4541 BELMONT AV, Point Grey, Vancouver West, $2,199,000.00



Rare opportunity to own 1/2 block from Locarno Beach on freehold. 60 x 95 RS-1. Build your dream home on one of Vancouver's most prestigious streets.


Merci à Garth Turner de Greater Fool.

samedi 26 février 2011

Le conflit intractable entre l'État et la Société

Without appropriation there cannot be a State, and the power of the State is in direct proportion to the amount of property it appropriates.

Contrariwise, social power is measurable by the amount of property the individual producer is able to retain and dispose of as he sees fit.The State thrives on taxation, Society suffers from it. The difference between a free Society and a dominated one is in the percentage of property the State lays its hands on.


-Frank Chodorov, via Mises.org

lundi 21 février 2011

L'héroisme des protestants arabes


It is a fact: these people hate the tyrants. It is also a fact that these are "our" tyrants. Their very existence exposes the gross hypocrisy of US foreign policy.

God bless these protesters. They are losing their chains. They are changing the Arab world — and the whole globe — by destabilizing and overthrowing the dictators. They are not only doing it without US help. They are doing it despite US support for the dictators they oppose.

These revolutions can mean more than the overthrow of despots; they can end in overthrowing the despotic policy and empire headquartered in Washington, DC. Want to join me in the streets?


-Lew Rockwell

mercredi 16 février 2011

Hillary Clinton se contredit en essayant de justifier la guerre à la drogue

A few weeks ago Hillary Clinton said they can't legalize drugs because "there's too much money in it" – an extremely odd statement. Too much money being spent fighting drugs by a bankrupt government? Too much money dealing in them by the narcotrafficantes, who use a lot of it to pay off the police, the DEA, and other government types? If the stories from the days when Bill was governor of Arkansas – the goings-on in Mena and such – are true, she knows a lot more about the drug business than I do, and from hands-on experience.

The only reason drugs are so profitable, of course, is because they're illegal. If they were legalized, there would be about as much profit in them as any other chemical or agricultural business – maybe less, since marijuana can be grown in useful quantities in a one-bedroom flat. And of course, the more draconian the drug laws, the higher the price drugs command – which draws in more entrepreneurs.

The drug business is problematical – like so many activities – in a number of ways. But it certainly offers giant-sized entrepreneurial profits precisely because it's currently illegal. A drug lord must necessarily make corruption his friend.


-Doug Casey

mardi 15 février 2011

Le président de la banque Mondiale Robert Zoellick affirme que les politiques des banques centrales...

... ont plongé 44 millions d'humains sous le seuil de la 'pauvreté extrême'.

Via Zero Hedge:

World Bank President Zoellick Says Surging Food Prices Have Pushed 44 Million People Into Extreme Poverty

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 02/15/2011 13:21 -0500

We give Robert Zoellick 4 to 6 weeks before he follows Axel Weber, Kevin Warsh and the COO of one of the bankrupt GSEs (we forget his name) into the sunset. The reason? After breaking ranks with the Criminal Bank Cartel last year and calling for a return to the gold standard, the president of the World Bank has dared to be the first among the institutional elite to point out that the cotton in the emperor's clothes, were he to be clothed in the first place, would have surged by 100% in less than a year. According to AP: "World Bank President Robert Zoellick says global food prices have hit "dangerous levels" that could contribute to political instability, push millions of people into poverty and raise the cost of groceries." Not to worry. According to Fed VP Christine Cumming who spoke earlier somewhere, rising commodity costs merely indicate "stronger global demand." Oddly enough, it is this supposed demand for products that has forced 44 million people to enter "extreme poverty"... out of their own volition. We are not sure, but something tells us the Fed's Cumming has a Ph.D.

From AP:

The bank says in a new report that global food prices have jumped 29 percent in the past year, and are just 3 percent below the all-time peak hit in 2008. Zoellick says the rising prices have hit people hardest in the developing world because they spend as much as half their income on food.

The World Bank estimates higher prices for corn, wheat and oil have pushed 44 million people into extreme poverty since last June.

Zoellick said he expects food prices to continue to rise, and that export bans and weather disruptions are partly to blame.

lundi 14 février 2011

La véritable lutte des classes

The aim of that query is to differentiate between those who acquire wealth from voluntary, consensual interactions within a free market and those who secure material gains through the use of coercion. The top of the pyramid in Egypt is not comprised of villains just because they are rich, but as a result of the way that they obtained their riches. The state, then, having the overarching monopoly on the "legitimate" use of force within society, is distinctly the instrument of the class of individuals who would rather steal and exploit than work and produce.

-David S. D'Amato, Mises.org

dimanche 13 février 2011

Les vraies raisons pourquoi Mubarak a délayé sa sortie du pouvoir...

Via Zero Hedge:

The Reason For Mubarak's Power Hand Off Delay: Plundering The Gold

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 02/12/2011

It's official: as Egypt was burning, Mubarak was stealing the gold. When we reported, presumably jokingly, two weeks ago that the Egyptian Central Bank may have been plundered, it turns out we were pretty much accurate once again. For all those wondering why Mubarak was refusing to hand over power for the past two weeks as hundreds of people were dying, we now have the answer - it was all just to make sure he transferred his assets, especially gold, to safe regimes (in the process paying tens of millions in commissions to that most noble of jobs - the banker class). The Telegraph reports: "A US official told The Sunday Telegraph: "Hosni Mubarak used the 18 days it took for protesters to topple him to shift his vast wealth into untraceable accounts overseas, Western intelligence sources have said...There's no doubt that there will have been some frantic financial activity behind the scenes. They can lose the homes and some of the bank accounts, but they will have wanted to get the gold bars and other investments to safe quarters. The Mubaraks are understood to have wanted to shift assets to Gulf states where they have considerable investments already – and, crucially, friendly relations. The United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia have frequently been mentioned as likely final destinations for Mr Mubarak and possibly his family."As usual, we remind readers that according to the World Gold Council, Egypt had 75.6 tonnes of gold at the end of 2010. Should this number not be reduced following Mubarak's plundering, we will know just how pervasive Tungsten is in the world central banking cartel.

From Telegraph:

The former Egyptian president is accused of amassing a fortune of more than £3 billion - although some suggest it could be as much as £40 billion - during his 30 years in power. It is claimed his wealth was tied up in foreign banks, investments, bullion and properties in London, New York, Paris and Beverly Hills.

In the knowledge his downfall was imminent, Mr Mubarak is understood to have attempted to place his assets out of reach of potential investigators.

On Friday night Swiss authorities announced they were freezing any assets Mubarak and his family may hold in the country's banks while pressure was growing for the UK to do the same. Mr Mubarak has strong connections to London and it is thought many millions of pounds are stashed in the UK.

But a senior Western intelligence source claimed that Mubarak had begun moving his fortune in recent weeks.

"We're aware of some urgent conversations within the Mubarak family about how to save these assets," said the source, "And we think their financial advisers have moved some of the money around. If he had real money in Zurich, it may be gone by now."
Perhaps Goldman Sachs can take a proactive PR step and disclose to the population that the flow trade-frontrunning hedge fund had nothing to do with facilitating the transfer of Mubarak's billions in stolen wealth from point A to point B. And perhaps all other banks can follow suit. Either that, or we can all just wait for Mubarak's sworn deposition when he is put on trial for crimes against the Egyptian people some time in 1-2 months. Doing text searches for "Goldman" in those thousand page PDFs will be breeze...

vendredi 11 février 2011

Le succès d'une révolution pacifique

Photos via Zero Hedge.

Et une autre petite tuile pour Mubarak, qui voit une partie de sa fortune illégitime mise hors de sa portée, via Zero Hedge également:

Jordan Islamists Say Mubarak's Fate "Should Be A Lesson To All Arab Regimes" As Switzerland Freezes Former President's Assets

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 02/11/2011 12:24

Barely an hour has passed since Mubarak's departure, and the religious tensions in the middle east are already starting to flare up. First up: the Jordan Muslim Brotherhood has immediately taken advantage of a vacated podium and said that what happened in Egypt should be a lesson to all Arabs. While hopefully nobody will be able to hijack the success of the Egyptian people, one wonders just how heavily the various Middle Eastern regime are sweating tonight...

From Dow Jones:

Jordan's powerful Muslim Brotherhood said Friday Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's decision to step down should be a "lesson" to all Arab regimes.

"Arab regimes should learn a lesson from what happened. All Arab peoples suffer from the corruption of their regimes," Jamil Abu Baker, the movement's spokesman, told AFP. "Mubarak's departure should have happened from the start. It is natural after his oppression and corruption. Congratulations to our people in Egypt."

Abu Baker said the group is in "touch with Muslim brothers in Egypt."

"We are listening to their views although they are busy now," he said.

Many Jordanians flocked to the Egyptian embassy in Amman to celebrate.
Elsewhere, Al Arabiya reported that the Swiss foreign ministry has announced that all of Mubarak's assets have been frozen. That, of course, excludes all the gold that Mubarak has with him. Notably, however, Switzerland refuses to indicate how much money was frozen.

From Reuters:

Switzerland has frozen assets possibly belonging to Hosni Mubarak, who stepped down as president of Egypt on Friday after 30 years of rule, a spokesman for the foreign ministry said.

"I can confirm that Switzerland has frozen possible assets of the former Egyptian president with immediate effect," spokesman Lars Knuchel said, declining to specify how much money was involved.

In recent years, Switzerland has worked hard to improve its image as a haven for ill-gotten assets and has also frozen assets belonging to Tunisia's former President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali as well as those of Ivory Coast's Laurent Gbagbo.
Where is Hosni by the way?

jeudi 10 février 2011

De l'importance du pacifisme, surtout dans le cas d'une révolution

Threats, torture, murder, beating, caging, these are the tools of the State. We, the opponents of the State, cannot possibly beat it at its own game, nor should we try. But with non-violence, we have a chance.

-Lew Rockwell

Les bienfaits de l''aide étrangère'

Via le Telegraph:

WikiLeaks: Egyptian 'torturers' trained by FBI
The US provided officers from the Egyptian secret police with training at the FBI, despite allegations that they routinely tortured detainees and suppressed political opposition.

By Steven Swinford 9:00PM GMT 09 Feb 2011

According to leaked diplomatic cables, the head of the Egyptian state security and investigative service (SSIS) thanked the US for “training opportunities” at the FBI academy in Quantico, Virginia. The SSIS has been repeatedly accused of using violence and brutality to help prop up the regime of President Hosni Mubarak. In April, 2009, the US ambassador in Cairo stated that “Egypt’s police and domestic security services continue to be dogged by persistent, credible allegations of abuse of detainees.
“The Interior Ministry uses SSIS to monitor and sometimes infiltrate the political opposition and civil society. SSIS suppresses political opposition through arrests, harassment and intimidation.”
In October, 2009, “credible” human rights lawyers representing alleged Hizbollah detainees provided details of the techniques employed by the SSIS. The cable states: “The lawyers told us in mid-October that they have compiled accounts from several defendants of GOE [Government of Egypt] torture by electric shocks, sleep deprivation, and stripping them naked for extended periods.

Un Wikileaks québecois à venir

Bonne nouvelle pour la transparence et la liberté d'expression.

Via Cyberpresse:

QuébecLeaks: un WikiLeaks à la québécoise
Philippe Teisceira-Lessard, La Presse Canadienne (Montréal)
09 février 2011 | 16 h 18

Des internautes lanceront, le 16 février prochain, un site inspiré de WikiLeaks mais «fait par des Québécois pour des Québécois», où les individus disposant d'un accès privilégié à des documents sensibles pourront les rendre publics anonymement.

Ce site, appelé QuébecLeaks, se veut une plateforme plus locale, qui ne diffusera que des documents en lien avec les affaires publiques de la province.

«WikiLeaks étant une très grosse organisation, les documents peuvent souvent prendre beaucoup de temps avant d'être sortis, en plus d'être dilués dans une marre d'informations concernant tous les autres pays du monde», affirme le groupe d'internautes, par courriel.

Les membres du groupe refusent de s'identifier, affirmant que le nom de leur porte-parole, le Julian Assange québécois, sera révélé la semaine prochaine, en même temps que la mise en ligne du site. On cite notamment le sort de la tête d'affiche de WikiLeaks pour expliquer cette discrétion.

mercredi 9 février 2011

Les conséquences inattendues inévitables de la régulation gouvernementale

Strict regulation leads naïve people to think, "Everything is under control." That has two important effects. One, it makes them irresponsible – a belief that they don't have to concern themselves. That general attitude then permeates the society. Two, regulation always creates distortions in the market. It's like a lid on a pressure cooker. Everything looks under control until the whole thing blows up.

That's what lies at the root of the concept of "black swan" type unexpected events. The black swan lands when the amount of corruption necessary to evade laws becomes as onerous as the laws themselves.

-Doug Casey

mardi 8 février 2011

Pierre Lemieux déboulonne le mythe du 'laisser faire' Américain

Via la page de David Descôteaux:

Le mythe de l’État fantôme
08/02/2011
Le « capitalisme débridé », la dérèglementation et l’absence de l’État sont-ils responsables du pétrin dans lequel se retrouvent les États-Unis aujourd’hui?

Ce serait une explication trop simple, dit Pierre Lemieux, économiste et professeur associé à l’Université du Québec en Outaouais, dans son livre Une crise peut en cacher une autre.

Cet ouvrage, fort documenté, est une mine d’or pour ceux qui préfèrent les chiffres et les faits aux raccourcis émotionnels qui foisonnent sur ce sujet. En particulier, Lemieux déboulonne, chiffres à l’appui, le mythe du « laisser-faire » américain. (Transparence : je connais personnellement Pierre Lemieux, bien que très peu.)

Le « siècle de l’État »

La part de l’État dans l’économie a explosé au cours du 20e siècle. Elle a quadruplé partout dans le monde, et triplé aux États-Unis.

« À la veille de la récente récession, plus du tiers de ce que les Américains produisaient était détourné vers les coffres de l’État, me précise Pierre Lemieux. Au Québec, c’est environ 40 à 45 % selon les années. La différence est moindre qu’on le croit. »

Difficile de trouver une activité non réglementée aux États-Unis, écrit Lemieux, qui est aussi Senior Fellow à l’Institut économique de Montréal. Le Federal Register, qui contient les textes de loi au niveau fédéral, comptait 75 000 pages en 2007. Un quart de million de bureaucrates fédéraux appliquent la législation fédérale. S’ajoutent à cela les règlementations des États et des administrations locales.

« Si on mesure les budgets réglementaires en dollars constants de 2000, la réglementation a été multipliée par 15 entre 1960 et 2007. Une croissance annuelle de 5,9 % », dit l’auteur.

Mais les « cowboys » à Washington ont complètement déréglementé les banques, non? Non. « Les dépenses annuelles de réglementation bancaire et financière ont, en termes réels, été multipliées par 11 entre 1960 et 2007 », écrit Lemieux.

Reagan et Bush, de gauche?

On dépeint souvent Ronald Reagan et George Bush comme des fanatiques de droite, qui auraient pressé le citron de l’État jusqu’à ce qu’il ne reste que les pépins. Au contraire. Durant les années 1980 — les « années Reagan » —, les dépenses publiques par habitant sont passées de 8000 $ à près de 12 000 $. En 2007, sous George Bush, elles dépassaient 15 000 $.

Ce n’est pas juste à cause des guerres, prévient l’auteur. « Les dépenses non militaires, qui représentent 80 % du budget, ont grimpé de 49,1 % durant les deux mandats de George W. Bush. »

Idem pour la paperasse. Pendant le règne de Bush, le recueil de textes réglementaires fédéraux s’est épaissi de 7000 pages! Sous Ronald Reagan (1981 à 1988), les budgets pour la réglementation économique ont grimpé de 22 %.

Oui, les banquiers américains ont pris trop de risques et ont aggravé la crise. Mais dire simplement que la crise économique résulte de la cupidité des banquiers de Wall Street est trompeur.

N’oublions pas, comme le documente Une crise peut en cacher une autre, que les banques américaines devaient, par la loi, prêter à des familles à risque. Que c’est la banque centrale (la Fed) qui a maintenu au plancher les taux d’intérêt, ouvrant la porte au crédit facile et au gonflement d’une bulle immobilière. Que si les banques prêtaient les yeux fermés, c’était en grande partie parce que Fannie Mae et Freddie Mac, deux sociétés semi-étatiques, achetaient une quantité énorme d’hypothèques aux banques, soulageant ces dernières du risque de défaut de ces prêts.

Les banquiers, ainsi que plusieurs acheteurs de maisons irresponsables, sont coupables. Mais les faits montrent que l’empreinte du gouvernement américain est partout dans cette crise. Comme elle l’est, d’ailleurs, dans son économie.

UNE CRISE PEUT EN CACHER UNE AUTRE, Pierre Lemieux, Les Belles Lettres, Paris, 257 pages.

vendredi 4 février 2011

Point de vue de Gandhi sur la soumission à l'État

Any man who subordinates his will to that of the State surrenders his liberty and thus becomes a slave.

-Mohandas Gandhi


Merci à Jeff Riggenbach, Mises.org.

La valeur nette du clan Mubarak estimée à 40-70 MILLIARDS de $ US

...on voit ici le chemin qu'a pris une bonne partie de l''aide étrangère' généreusement fournie par les États-Unis à l'Égypte depuis 30 ans...

De plus, on apprend que ces sommes sont comparables aux fortunes des autres dirigeants arabes supportés par les États-Unis (!!!).

Via Zero Hedge:

Mubaraks Have an Estimated Net Worth of $40 - $70 BILLION Dollars

Submitted by George Washington on 02/04/2011

→ Washington’s Blog

It pays well to be a dictator who terrorizes his people with U.S. backing.

As ABC News reports:

"He had a very lavish lifestyle with many homes around the country," said [Aladdin Elaasar, author of "The Last Pharaoh: Mubarak and the Uncertain Future of Egypt in the Obama Age], who estimates the family's wealth is between $50 billion to $70 billion.
Remember, two of the men listed as the second and third richest Bill Gates and Warren Buffet - have $53 and $47 billion, respectively.

It's not just Mubarak. ABC writes:

The family's net worth ranges from $40 billion to $70 billion, by some estimates.

Amaney Jamal, a political science professor at Princeton, said those estimates are comparable with the vast wealth of leaders in other Gulf countries.

"The business ventures from his military and government service accumulated to his personal wealth," said Jamal. "There was a lot of corruption in this regime and stifling of public resources for personal gain."

***

Jamal said that Mubarak's assets are most likely in banks outside of Egypt, possibly in the United Kingdom and Switzerland.

"This is the pattern of other Middle Eastern dictators so their wealth will not be taken during a transition, she said. "These leaders plan on this."
The politicians in Washington, D.C., make dictators and giant banks rich, at our expense. Too bad they are not helping the American - let alone the Egyptian - people.

jeudi 3 février 2011

John Maynard Keynes: Économiste dévastateur, et sympathisant Nazi

Les théories économiques de John Maynard Keynes sont responsables de bien de nos afflictions modernes, telles que l'endettement massif des gouvernements et la croyance que dépenser et s'endetter 'fait rouler l'économie'.

Même s'il est mort depuis plus de 60 ans, il vit toujours à travers ses idées destructrices, les gouvernements appréciant bien sûr avoir une justification 'scientifique' pour vivre en haut de leurs moyens.

Je suis tombé sur une citation très illustratrice du personnage en lisant le rapport annuel de la firme d'investissement Leithner et Co, qui se passe de commentaire:

The Nazi movement is in many respects one which has my warm
sympathy; in fact, I might fairly claim that Herr Hitler has repudiated Karl Marx to enlist under the banner of Bernard Shaw.

-John Maynard Keynes, The Sunday Dispatch (4 June 1933)

mercredi 2 février 2011

Surprise! Les 'supporteurs' de Mubarak étaient des officiers de police

Ainsi, le président Mubarak d'Égypte a envoyé des policiers pour servir d'agents provocateurs et amener à la violence les manifestants anti-gouvernements (qui sont restés très pacifiques depuis le début des manifestations la semaine dernière).

Heureusement, la stratégie a été mise à jour.

Via Zero Hedge:

Busted: Pro-Mubarak Thugs Are Police Officers

Submitted by George Washington on 02/02/2011

→ Washington’s Blog


It should surprise no one that some if not all of the violent pro-Mubarak forces are plain clothes police officers.

The Guardian notes:

Sharif Kouddous, a prolific Egyptian tweeter and blogger in Cairo, describes "a brutal and coordinated campaign of violence" by the Mubarak regime, in an article posted on Democracy Now's website:
"Suddenly, rocks started falling out of the sky," said Ismail Naguib, a witness at the scene. "Rocks were flying everywhere. Everywhere." Many people were hit. Some were badly cut, others had arms and legs broken. The mob then charged in; some rode on horseback and camels, trampling and beating people. Groups of them gathered on rooftops around Tahrir and continued to pelt people with rocks.

"It's a massacre," said Selma al-Tarzi as the attack was ongoing. "They have knives, they are throwing molotov bombs, they are burning the trees, they are throwing stones at us ... this is not a demonstration anymore, this is war."

Some of the attackers were caught. Their IDs showed them to be policemen dressed in civilians clothes. Others appeared to be state sponsored "baltagiya" (gangs) and government employees. "Instead of uniformed guys trying to stop you from protesting. You've got non-uniformed guys trying to stop you from protesting," Naguib said.
AP points out:

Supporters of President Hosni Mubarak charged into Cairo's central square on horses and camels brandishing whips while others rained firebombs from rooftops in what appeared to be an orchestrated assault against protesters trying to topple Egypt's leader of 30 years. Three people died and 600 were injured.

The protesters accused Mubarak's regime of unleashing a force of paid thugs and plainclothes police to crush their unprecedented 9-day-old movement, a day after the 82-year-old president refused to step down. They showed off police ID badges they said were wrested from their attackers. Some government workers said their employers ordered them into the streets.

***

If any of the violence is instigated by the government, it should stop immediately," said White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs.

And Al Jazeera reports:

Protesters in Tahrir Square shows the Al Jazeera camera the ID cards of accused plain clothed security (police ID) who came in earlier to create chaos.

This is just like when the British police attacked the non-violent protesters led by Gandhi, or the police in towns in the South of the United States attacked the peaceful protesters led by Martin Luther King, Jr.

La technologie, force liberatrice

Technology is everywhere the friend of the common man, starting with fire and the wheel. But political and religious elites – the Atillas and the witch doctors of the world – always try to keep the genie in the bottle. The printing press, gunpowder, the automobile, the computer – the elites have always hated these things, and don't want the common man to have them. Radical new technologies always work to overturn the status quo.

-Doug Casey

Les politiciens du monde et le dictateur Égyptien Mubarak...

...raconté en photos, via Foreign Policy Journal.

Merci à Robert Wenzel.

Les mensonges révisionnistes d'Al Gore

Via Antagoniste.net:


C’est toujours la faute du réchauffement

Par David

Déclaration de David Viner, chercheur au Climatic Research Unit, à propos des chutes de neige (Mars 2000)


-

The warming is so far manifesting itself more in winters which are less cold than in much hotter summers. According to Dr David Viner, a senior research scientist at the climatic research unit (CRU) of the University of East Anglia, within a few years winter snowfall will become « a very rare and exciting event ». « Children just aren’t going to know what snow is, » he said.

Déclaration d’Al Gore, à propos des chutes de neige (février 2011)

As it turns out, the scientific community has been addressing this particular question for some time now and they say that increased heavy snowfalls are completely consistent with what they have been predicting as a consequence of man-made global warming. In fact, scientists have been warning for at least two decades that global warming could make snowstorms more severe.