Libertarians for Ron Paul

“The most basic principle to being a free American is the notion that we as individuals are responsible for our own lives and decisions. We do not have the right to rob our neighbors to make up for our mistakes, neither does our neighbor have any right to tell us how to live, so long as we aren’t infringing on their rights. Freedom to make bad decisions is inherent in the freedom to make good ones. If we are only free to make good decisions, we are not really free.”

“Socialist ideologies blur this line between self reliance and government control because the mistakes of the individual are spread to everyone else. Thus the government becomes very interested in your decisions and way of life, with the justification that you could make a mistake others will have to pay for. The end result is, of course, that everyone loses privacy and control over their own lives. Whether they realize it or not, they are no longer truly free.”

“This week in Congress brought some examples from both sides of the aisle on these issues of freedom and personal responsibility. We talked about online gambling quite a bit with the markup of some legislation dealing with the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act. Now, I am not someone who enjoys throwing money away, but I am someone who understands issues of freedom and self-ownership. As such, I strongly support the right of free people to do with their hard-earned money as they please. Gambling is ultimately a matter of personal choice, and some people find it entertaining. As long as I am not forced to underwrite their losses, it is none of my business what gamblers do with their time and money.”

Full column by Rep. Ron Paul @ http://www.freeliberal.com/archives/003412.html

“Just a few years ago, lending institutions were spending considerable time in courtrooms, accused of practicing so-called redlining, predatory lending, and discrimination. Bankers were not making enough loans to minorities, low-income households, and families with bad credit. A number of studies showed that white buyers were given preferential treatment when it came to obtaining a loan. A superficial examination of the records seemed to indicate a clear bias toward white couples.”…

“…Soon the federal government was in the forefront of initiating laws and adopting rhetoric to assist low-income, high-risk borrowers with generous mortgage programs, often enticing home buyers into loans they could not afford. The legislation included the American Dream Down Payment Act in 2003, which authorized the distribution of $200 million a year to help low-income families with down payments and closing costs. President Bush explicitly told federal agencies to loosen up or eliminate regulatory barriers to affordable home ownership.”

“Meanwhile, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, both government-sponsored enterprises that subsidize credit through the U.S. Treasury, got into the act.”

“According to Kathleen Hays at CNNMoney in 2005, “Fannie and Freddie have blazed the way for competitive mortgage products that have helped to revolutionize the mortgage lending industry in ways that the more conservative, less innovative banks had not in the past.”

Real Estate professional Larry Samuels looks at the mortgage mess http://ca.lp.org/lp20080505.shtml

“Oil prices are on the minds of many Americans as gas hits $4 a gallon, and continues to surge. How high can prices go? How can we solve these problems? What, or who, is to blame?”

“Part of the answer lies in understanding bubbles and monetary inflation, but especially the Federal Reserve System. The Federal Reserve is charged with controlling inflation through interest rate manipulation, however, many fail to realize that creating money, and therefore inflation, is really its only tool. When the Federal Reserve inflates the dollar as drastically as it has in the past few decades, the first users of the newly created money go in search of investments for their dollars. They must invest this money quickly and aggressively before it loses value. This causes certain sectors to expand beyond what would naturally occur in the free market. Eventually the sector overheats and the bubble bursts. Overinvestment in dotcoms eventually led to a collapse of the NASDAQ. Next we had the housing bubble, and now we are seeing the price of oil being bid up in the creation of another new bubble. Investors are now looking to commodities like oil, for stability and growth as they pull capital out of real estate. This increased demand for investment vehicles related to oil contributes to driving up the price of the actual product.”

Full column by Rep. Ron Paul @ http://www.freeliberal.com/archives/003380.html

“Speculation is growing that the U.S. economy may have already slipped into recession. If the past is any guide, politicians on the campaign trail will be tempted to blame trade and globalization for the passing pain of the business cycle. But an analysis of previous recessions and expansions shows that international trade and investment are not to blame for downturns in the economy and may, in fact, be moderating the business cycle.”

“In recent decades, as foreign trade and investment have been rising as a share of the U.S. economy, recessions have actually become milder and less frequent. The softening of the business cycle has become so striking that economists now refer to it as “The Great Moderation.” The more benign trend appears to date from the mid-1980s.”…

“America’s recent experience of a more globalized and less volatile economy has not been unique in the world. Other countries that have opened themselves to global markets have been less vulnerable to financial and economic shocks.”

Complete article by Daniel T. Griswold @ http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=9446

California voters have an opportunity on June 3, 2008 to protect property rights and limit the eminent domain powers of local governments. Throughout California, local governments have been using eminent domain to take homes, farmlands and business property, and transferring this property to private developers.

The Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association has qualified Proposition 98 for the June 3rd primary ballot. Proposition 98 will prohibit eminent domain takings for the purpose of helping private business. It will also add safeguards if property is taken for public use. Proposition 98 will really protect property rights in California.

Proposition 99 was put on the ballot by the League of Cities, as a decoy, It offers little protection against eminent domain, but claims that it protects our homes. The Libertarian Party of California urges you to vote YES on Proposition 98, NO on Proposition 99. http://ca.lp.org/june08_9899.shtml

.A more thorough look at the two propositions in California Freedom ca.lp.org/cf/CF-200805.pdf 

“Naomi Klein’s The Shock Doctrine purports to be an exposé of the ruthless nature of free-market capitalism and its chief recent exponent, Milton Friedman. Klein argues that capitalism goes hand in hand with dictatorship and brutality and that dictators and other unscrupulous political figures take advantage of “shocks”—catastrophes real or manufactured—to consolidate their power and implement unpopular market reforms. Klein cites Chile under General Augusto Pinochet, Britain under Margaret Thatcher, China during the Tiananmen Square crisis, and the ongoing war in Iraq as examples of this process.”

“Klein’s analysis is hopelessly flawed at virtually every level. Friedman’s own words reveal him to be an advocate of peace, democracy, and individual rights. He argued that gradual economic reforms were often preferable to swift ones and that the public should be fully informed about them, the better to prepare themselves in advance. Further, Friedman condemned the Pinochet regime and opposed the war in Iraq.”

“Klein’s historical examples also fall apart under scrutiny. For example, Klein alleges that the Tiananmen Square crackdown was intended to crush opposition to pro-market reforms, when in fact it caused liberalization to stall for years. She also argues that Thatcher used the Falklands War as cover for her unpopular economic policies, when actually those economic policies and their results enjoyed strong public support.”

Johan Norberg subjects Naomi Klein’s “Shock Doctrine” to fact-based analysis @ http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=9384

In the June issue of Reason, Rep. Ron Paul and six other commentators discuss the (sorry) state of the economy. Read it here http://reason.com/news/show/126021.html 

 - As Congress attempts to put together a farm bill stacked with subsidies and other expensive programs at the taxpayer’s expense, the Libertarian Party is calling for the bill to be scrapped completely.

“It’s absurd that we’re paying farmers billions of dollars during a time of soaring crop prices,” says Libertarian Party National Media Coordinator Andrew Davis. “Taxpayers should not be subsidizing farmers while paying higher prices at the grocery store.  Congress has a unique opportunity to put farm subsidies out to pasture once and for all by not renewing the farm bill.  Farming, like any other American industry, should be left to the forces of the market, and not to the influences of government intervention.”

Full release from The Libertarian Party http://www.lp.org/media/article_582.shtml 

“Few policies have done more to destroy community and opportunity for minorities than eminent domain. Some 3 to 4 million Americans, most of them ethnic minorities, have been forcibly displaced from their homes as a result of urban renewal takings since World War II.”

“The fact is that eminent-domain abuse is a crucial constitutional rights issue. On Tuesday, the Alabama Advisory Committee of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights will hold a public forum at Birmingham’s historic Sixteenth Street Baptist church to address ongoing property seizures in the state. The church was not only a center of early civil rights action, but also, tragically, where four schoolgirls lost their lives in a bombing in 1963.”

David Beito & Ilya Somin look at this vital issue in the Kansas City Star http://www.kansascity.com/273/story/594562.html