From the Summit of the Moral High Ground

The best thing about Dr. Ron Paul is that you can follow his career and at every step of the way the message he supports is consistent. He first ran for President as the Libertarian candidate in 1988 running on the same issues, saying the same things, he was just thirty years ahead of his time. As part of the ongoing examination of the key issues on which Dr Paul is running it's time to look at some of his more radical interpretations of what liberty is. 1988: Drug addiction is an illness, not a crime. Doctors are a protected industry. 2008: Freedom of choice 2012: Do you need the government to stop you from taking heroin? If it were legalized today would you take it? Prisons are flooded with drugs, if we cannot keep drugs out of prisons how can you keep drugs out of society? 70% of prisoners at HMP La Moye are drug addicts or runners, maintained at a cost of £45,000 per year.  I undertook a survey at the last election which showed that 53% of people in Jersey were in favour of de-...

Since 1971 government promissory notes have had a floating value, in the intervening forty years the value of $1 has decreased from 1/35th of a troy ounce of gold to just 1/1900th of a troy ounce of gold. A decrease in value of 98.15%. The decision to break the gold standard which allowed $35 to be exchanged for one troy ounce of gold was taken by Nixon in 1971 after the cost of the Vietnam War had bankrupted the United States. Yes, the United States of America has been bankrupt longer than I have been alive and they are still denying it! It has met its debts by employing the insidious tax on capital, inflation. Inflation is the most politically acceptable form of taxation as it is hidden from view. The USA borrows the money with a promise to repay it a number of years later with interest payments in the interim. Of course the value of the debt at the end of the period which may be as long as thirty years is not the same as it was when it was lent. Thirty years ago the prices of goods ...

The time to turn my words into actions has arrived I took the unusual step today of giving notice to all my staff. I have decided that henceforth I will not be an employer. Of course they shall all continue to work with me, but it will be on a self-employed basis, a contract between free and equal individuals rather than a master and his slaves. At the beginnings of Capitalism most people worked on a piecework basis. For example in coal mines, miners were paid on the basis of how much coal they produced and not how many hours they worked. Fishermen I believe still work on the old basis and take a share of the catch. This changed because the owners of the mines noticed that people were limiting production based on how much money they needed for themselves. The 'self-employed' miner working someone's mineshaft changed to become an employed miner who worked set hours. Production increased but the quality of life of the miners declined. This was the shift from Capitalism to Cor...

The Royal Court Building The Royal Court duly convened to consider my representation on Friday. The representation was a very minor part of the incompatibility between the operation of elections in Jersey and the European Convention of Human Rights; it asked the simple question, "Can this Court sit in judgement on itself?" The answer is obviously, no. I know it, you know it and the Court knows it. However " he will win who knows when to fight and when not to fight" and the law officers decided that the preferable option to actually answering is to prevent me from asking the question at all, they therefore gave notice of the intention to seek to strike out the representation.  Perhaps they even read my blog and followed my advice. That would have left a potential avenue through the usual legal processes for the case to eventually be heard in a Court of Appeal and thus in a manner that would be compliant with my Convention rights. Instead I objected to the Constituti...

One of the most unfortunate areas of the recent elections in Jersey was the lack of debate in the electoral process, this combined with a lack of qualitative analysis by the Jersey media combined to limit the ability of the Jersey electorate to make an informed vote and to effectively analyse how each candidate, if elected was likely to proceed. The American system is substantially different; in this format the candidates take part in debates. Questions are asked of an individual candidate with any other candidate free to counter any point raised with a right of reply. This format does not allow candidates to simply say what they think the people want to hear but requires the candidate to be sufficiently informed as to counter any argument which might seek to expose weakness in their position. You may have seen the CTV coverage in which Sir Phillip Bailhache noted that he had not even read the States Budget when asked to comment upon it. An American Political Debate Through th...

Many people were surprised that I initiated proceedings against Deputy Southern following his failure to properly declare his criminal convictions during the nomination meeting for the position of Deputy for St Helier district two. Deputy Southern Authoritarian Opposition to an already Authoritarian States So let's be absolutely clear on the thinking... it was because it seemed to be the right thing to do at the time. I'm sure most people don't go through life making decisions based on vague feelings of what the best course of action is, but I do and it works for me. I say this because I am not seeking to re-write history and say it was my intention all along for things to fall into place the way they have, it is just fortunate that they did. I wrote the representation quickly and submitted it, after a great deal of fence sitting, assurances of action, and lack thereof, by the Constable of St. Helier. Then I read the law. The law clearly states that the person presiding at ...

I previously looked at how both libertarian and green politics transcend the social class based left/right political cleavage  that has dominated politics for as long as universal suffrage has been in place. Society had been developing without government intervention for many years, driven primarily by the Church (both Catholic and later Anglican) who not only drove education, provision of welfare but also industry through the monasteries. It seems ludicrous to current thinking that the question of whether the communion given in church is actually transformed into the body of Christ or is merely symbolic could once have caused such deep divides in communities and wholesale wars across Europe, it is a matter of personal consideration and how another person perceives should be no concern of anyone else's. The idea that someone should be persecuted for their personal beliefs is abhorrent. The religious cleavage in society is now largely consigned to history although it is no...

Hosting a hospitality event in a distillery? Would you let these people organise it? The people of Jersey asked for change and whilst the council of ministers largely ignored the wishes of the people and duly elected exactly the same people back into their old positions some members did listen and the Chairs of the various scrutiny panels have now changed. I have been told, "All States members want to be Ministers or Assistants because then they get free blackberries and their phone bills paid for, whilst Scrutiny members have to pay for their own calls". Pathetic, but probably true. I like to look at the various panels as the effective opposition to the Minsters, now by effective opposition I mean that they are responsible for looking into the detail of propositions, identifying weaknesses and omissions and generally ensuring that any legislation arising is fit for purpose. So: Treasury and Resources is vetted by the Public Accounts Committee,  Economic Development is vette...

The issue of sustainability is one that I was introduced to by Dr. Mark Forskitt over the course of the recent Senator elections in Jersey. A recent comment posed the question - 'Green' Conservative Logo I am fascinated by your love in with greens. Green parties in Europe are distinctly left wing and often prop up socialist parties in government. How does that fit with libertarian right politics? It is true and often commented that European Green parties are like water melons, green on the outside and red in the middle, because of this a lot of the 'green' literature has a distinctly left wing slant to it, however one should not throw the baby out with the bath water. Let's not forget that the Conservative party recently adopted a lot of 'green' policies and recently re-branded to reflect this new approach. The sustainability issue is a valid one; in Jersey just take a look at our reservoirs and you begin to understand that water supply will become a major ...

The 2012 US presidential election could be the most important thing that happens next year. The Libertarian movement is gathering momentum worldwide - in the UK the UK Independence Party are surging in the polls, even Jersey had its first Libertarian candidate in this recent election. The US has had Libertarian candidates since 1988 and Ron Paul, the candidate then is now challenging for the Republication nomination. It is interesting to note that many of those who are part of the Occupy Wall Street movement are not Socialists, but Libertarians and Greens , they are opposing Corporatism, not Capitalism. Particularly the 'special interest' lobbying that goes on with 'campaign funds' being passed by the corporations to politicians, no doubt so that they can do their research and see their way to vote in a particular manner. "If nothing else, Obama has shown us just how corrupt politics are.” The US presidential elections have been going on for some six months alread...

What is really going on and when did it happen? Do you want to know? I'm going to try to bring together all the economics posts of the last month and try to paint the picture of what is actually happening. Before you read on I remind you that ignorance is bliss. On the 27th October I postulated that the collapse of Dexia bank was just the first in a series of dominoes which would fall, well we now see the systemic collapse continuing throughout western governments and banks. The death of the monetary system has its main motive in the refusal of governments either to manage finances responsibly or to repay debt in the usual manner.  Debt grows faster than the economies. The plan is to swindle via the hidden  inflation  tax in return. Greece and now Italy have tumbled because they are locked in a single currency and cannot unilaterally devalue. The creditors (the people who own the bonds) are not involved in the important decisions to debase the currency. Those decisions a...

Central banks have been attempting to drive down interest rates by purchasing long-term treasury debt and selling short-term debt. This is just the latest instance of a central bank desperately flailing around doing something, merely for the sake of doing something. Central Banks still do not understand-- or admit-- that the central banks themselves caused the financial crisis by driving interest rates too low and relentlessly expanding the money supply. Any action on their part will just exacerbate the problem. A one hundred trillion Zimbabwe dollar note how long until we see the same in US dollars? The decision by the ECB to print more Euros under pressure from France is just the latest in a long list of examples. Markets, however, understand that the central banks have failed and have no clue what they are doing. This is why markets are in a tailspin. Stock, bonds, and commodities drop in price while the financial press wondered whether this worldwide sell-off meant that the ent...

Philip Ozouf offered a mea culpa for his recent behaviour.  He promised to be a good boy if  the States let him stay on. CTV said he was just 'misunderstood' provoking a reaction in the Chamber. "The high contacting parties undertake to hold free elections at reasonable intervals, under conditions which will ensure the free expression of the opinion of the people in the choice of legislature ." Extract from the European Convention on Human Rights. Freedom of expression of the opinion of the people is inconceivable without  the assistance of a plurality of parties (Yumak & Sadak v Turkey). Clearly the elections gave the public no clear choice in the composition of the legislature, there was no attempt to ask the public who should be in charge of each department, we get what we are given and we have to just lump it. If anyone ever takes a case under Article 3 of Protocol 1 of the Convention to the Court then it is impossible to tell what they will do with...

Gigabit Jersey  launched a limited trial to residents of Castle Quay early in 2011. It is absurd for Airtel and Sure to suggest that we should not have a fibre optic cable network. Just so they can eliminate competing technologies? Philip Ozouf  and Freddie Cohen were sold on  the idea  during a recent visit to Mumbai, India and both were committed to utilising public money to support its introduction to Jersey. It has become one of the flagship programs of the Jersey government but I am not convinced that it is a wise use of public money. Jersey Telecoms is a private company which is owned by its shareholders, is run by directors for the exclusive benefit of those shareholders. Now 51% of the shares happen to be owned by the States of Jersey but that does not mean it is a public body by any means, nor that it should be given any special favours by the government. Jersey Telecoms should be run by the directors, without the interference of government, with t...

Sir Phillip Bailhache and Ian Gorst I like Ian Gorst, he is a most amiable person. I must admit that it has come as a shock to see him elected as Chief Minister. I even had to re-write the blog post! Fundamentally neither candidate met my primary criteria - a basic understanding of economics.  Nick Palmer on his blog  expresses similar concerns. I'm afraid that like it or not the economic reality is going to come home and it is going to hit hard. For far too long the entire western world has been spending beyond its means, driven by the demands of the electorate to provide ever more extravagant public services coupled with the natural and inevitable inefficiency of bureaucracy. Jersey is perhaps the worst culprit for this, but we have had unusually high revenues which have masked the problem until now. Sir Phillip was right about one point which you may have missed during the hustings - he accurately points out that the inability of the Chief Minister to appoint his 'team' ...

Jersey is heavily exposed to the bond market according to Senator Ozouf, the paltry 9.17% return on Jersey's fund of funds, which would have been 30%+ had the fund simply bought gold instead, is riding the largest bubble in history - government bonds or sovereign debt. Capital is seeking security in bonds But bonds are not particularly secure One nation after another crashes Jersey's reserves are in that market Jersey has about £1.3 billion which would meet government expenditure for about two years, but this includes the social security and employee pension funds. Imagine this scenario: A major government has been forever borrowing from Peter to pay Paul, never lifting a finger to cut its deficits.  Suddenly, global investors pull the plug: They dump the government's bonds like a hot potato. They drive bond prices into the gutter. And they make it impossible for the government to borrow another cent without paying sky-high, budget-busting interest rates. To persuade inves...