Economics Archives - Page 12 of 12 - The I Spy Radio Show

Socialism Defined

By Dr Mark | February 6, 2016 | Comments 0 Comment

Air Dates: February 6 & 7, 2015 | Dr. Richard Rahn (CATO Institute)
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Here we are, not even three decades from the end of the Cold War, and America has an avowed socialist running for office. And not just any office — the highest office in the land.

Great. America’s socialized education system has officially failed.

But what is socialism? Discerning and intelligent voters realize socialism is bad, but what is it and why is socialism so bad? Not just that, but why is socialism especially bad for America? Why does socialism fail every time it has been tried? And if socialism always fails every time without fail, why do the so-called “smart people in the room” (the socialist elites) keep trying to push America into socialism?

Join us this week to find out what socialism is, its history and origins, why it fails, and why —yes, Virginia—it will fail again.

Socialism Defined

In his fantastic article, “Socialism means Coercion” Dr. Richard Rahn of the CATO Institute defines socialism this way: “Socialism is a system in which the government owns or controls the means of production, and allocates resources and rewards.”

But it’s more than that. It is a system rooted in envy and jealousy; it is only adopted as a political system when ignorance reins supreme. It depends on the stupidity of the masses who would trade their freedom for slavery to the state. It depends on the ignorance of voters to pass a system that, they believe, will only take from others. Socialism is the policy of envy.

Join host Mark Anderson, as he walks you through socialism defined. You’ll learn:

What socialism means
Its origins as a response to America’s highly successful experiment with representational republicanism and as a response to the vast wealth created by the Industrial Revolution
Its origins in anti-Christianity philosophy and German pagan romanticism
Why capitalism and the free market system are so vastly superior to socialism
Are there differences between socialism, communism, and fascism

And then stick around for the last half of the show with Dr. Richard Rahn of the CATO institute as the two of them expand on socialism’s massive historical failure

Links Mentioned

Dr. Richard Rahn’s article in the Washington Times, “Socialism means Coercion”
The CATO Institute is a think tank “dedicated to the principles of individual liberty, limited government, free markets and peace.”
Bernie Sanders loves to claim socialism has succeeded in Scandinavia – this article debunks the success of Scandinavia socialism
Recent CBO study shows the rich not only pay their fair share but the fair share of a lot of others

The following articles helped form much of the discussion for this week’s show:

Communism, socialism, and fascism defined
Socialism versus European Democracy by Ludwig von Mises – excellent article on France’s early experiences with socialism
Philosophic & religious origins of socialism and as a response to the success of the Industrial Revolution

EPA Colluding with Environmentalists and Tribes

By Dr Mark | October 21, 2015 | Comments 0 Comment

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Air Dates: Oct 24 & 25, 2015 | Lawrence Kogan & Tom Collier (CEO of Pebble Partnership)

The EPA long ago lost its watchdog status and has turned rabid environmentalist. Now, clear evidence of the EPA colluding with environmentalists and tribes is beginning to emerge—ironically, in what the EPA had hoped to turn into one of its trophy cases: the Pebble Mine.

Show 5-43 will air the weekend of Oct 24th & 25th. Join us as we expose collusion between the EPA and “environmental” organizations, the tribes, and other players.

What’s important to understand in this fight against a government agency run-amok, is that they violated the rule of law and a basic tenet of American freedoms: due process. The EPA, by applying an obscure rule that it had never used before in its four-decades’ old existence and by trying to circumvent the permit process, it was denying Pebble Partnership its due process. Just as though it had arrested someone in suspected of a crime and put them in jail without any Miranda rights, no legal counsel, and so on.

Links Mentioned

Lawrence Kogan’s firm: the Kogan Law Group – tons of great info and articles on the assault by the Enviro-Left on our free market system
Tom Collier’s group – the Pebble Partnership.

This Week on I Spy Radio - Public Lands Transfer to States can mean jobs—real jobs

Devolution – Public Lands Transfer to States

By Dr Mark | September 11, 2015 | Comments 0 Comment

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Air Dates: September 12 & 13, 2015 | Jonathan Williams & Karla Jones

Devolution is defined as “the transfer or delegation of power to a lower level, especially by central government to local or regional administration.” When it comes to the transfer of public lands here in the U.S., this means the federal government giving control of federally held public lands to the states in which those lands reside. Why is this important? Jobs.

With more than 98 million Americans continuing to be out of the workforce, the jobs resulting from a public lands transfer to states means more than ever that the federal government honor their promise to relinquish control of the public lands held in trust. At one time, Illinois and Missouri both had more than 50% of their land controlled by the federal government when they entered statehood. Now, the federal government holds only 1% and 4%, respectively. So why do they maintain control of so much public lands states west of the Rockies—on average, more than 50% of these states? Why should Illinois get to have 99% of their land and Oregon gets less than 47% of its land?

94 million Americans out of work - the U.S. economy as of September 2015 has clearly fallen off a cliff. Time for a public lands transfer to states. — US Economy off a cliff. Time for a public lands transfer to states.

We’ve talked in the past with Ken Ivory and it’s seemed a little theoretical at times: what would it be like if the states got their lands back? Now we some direct evidence of what it would look like from our neighbor to the north: Canada.

We’ll start by talking with Jonathan Williams of ALEC (American Legislative Exchange Council) about the continuing record numbers of Americans not working and the state policies that consistently work to put people to work; policies that ALEC advocates. We’ll then talk about a federal policy that needs to happen: a public lands transfer to states. Karla Jones, also with ALEC, walks us through the process. We’ll examine the roadblocks and hurdles to making this happen, astonishing examples of federal mismanagement to private land management, and then look at how this has unfolded in Canada.

Sorry, environmentalists; it wasn’t the end of the world.

Links Mentioned

If you’re not visiting American Legislative Exchange Council on a regular basis, you’re missing out on a huge amount of incredible information — policies that your state ought to be implementing if they want to be successful. Don’t you want your state to be successful? Of course you do! Then visit alec.org.
Read ALEC’s State Lands report, which we discuss with Karla Jones. (You can download a copy for easier reading; see the Download PDF link on the right-side of the page.)
Heritage Foundation article, “1,000 people per day: Why Red States are Getting Richer and Blue States Poorer“

This week on I Spy Radio - Forest fires and mismangement of state lands

Oregon Forest Fires – State Lands Going Up in Smoke

By Dr Mark | August 26, 2015 | Comments 0 Comment

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Air Dates: August 29 & 30, 2015 | Suzan Ellis Jones, John Charles, Rep. Ken Ivory

With more than its share of forest fires, Oregon’s state lands scream mismanagement. Oregon’s rather infamous environmental policies only seem to kill trees, owls, and profits—and the only thing they seem to protect are politicians. But these last few weeks, the smoke from the fires are hard to ignore. It’s time to look at Oregon’s mismanagement of its lands.

We start the show by interviewing Suzan Ellis-Jones. Unlike the “environmentalists,” Suzan actually makes her home in rural Oregon — Baker County to be exact. Baker is one of several Oregon counties that have ravaged by brutal, devastating, heartbreaking forest fires — fires that could have been prevented. By the way. Have you ever noticed that environmental lobbyists just can’t be pulled away from their favorite coffee shops in downtown Portland to go fight fires? Why is that?

Perhaps it’s because they’re too busy spewing nonsense into papers like the Eugene Register-Guard about how the timber industry runs this state. What?

Elliot State Forest Map — Map: Oregon’s Elliot State Forest

To sort out that nonsense, we need a real expert, so this week we also talk with John Charles of the Cascade Policy Institute, about the recently announced intention by the State Lands’ Board to sell off the Elliot Forest. The Elliot State Forest is perhaps the epitome of mismanagement. Well, except it hasn’t caught fire—yet. We’ll also get a handle on that “board” (it’s really just three people) and how they are utterly failing in their fiduciary duty to the state. Yes, that’s right. The state is ordered to make money from those state lands — but when has a pesky law ever mattered to a career politician? That’s for the rest of us.

Speaking of which, we wrap things up with Rep. Ken Ivory (UT) about the complete inadequacy and unwillingness by the agencies to follow laws let alone their own rules. Rep. Ivory is also President of the American Lands Council and he fills us in on the environmental devastation being caused by out-of-control agencies and career bureaucrats, to whom laws do not apply.

And don’t miss the shocking developments in Montana and what the federal government ordered Montana to do. Here’s a hint: they were handing out fiddles.

Sometimes, it doesn’t even seem like we’re in America any more. Is it 2016 yet…?

Links Mentioned

Cascade Policy Institute’s website and a great article on the mismanagement of Oregon’s State Lands: “When will the State Land Board Restore the ‘Trust’ in Oregon’s State Lands Trust?“
American Lands Council website (be sure to check our events page for links to Rep. Ivory’s event in Baker City)

5-32 Chinese Invasion – China’s Silent War with the US

By Dr Mark | August 4, 2015 | Comments 1 comment

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: ^{To download the show, right-click the mic, then “Save Link As…” or use the handy player below}

Air Dates: August 8 & 9, 2015 | James Hirsen & Kevin Freeman

Seemingly almost without notice, China is quietly invading the U.S. Perhaps taking a page from the Soviet Union era’s failed communist takeover, China is waging war against the U.S. — not with nuclear ICBMs but through economic and cultural warfare. And the scary thing is, they’re winning.

This Chinese invasion is taking many forms. Some months ago, we brought your attention to the economic warfare China is waging against the U.S. Their silent warfare has intensified. This week, we take a deeper look at the threat no one seems to be paying attention to—at least seemingly no one in the Obama administration. Why are they opening the door to our enemies?

The Chinese Invasion of Hollywood

We’ll start by talking to James Hirsen of Headline Hollywood about the Chinese invasion of Hollywood. Why are Hollywood elites—the uber-liberal of liberals, who famously decry any sort of censorship—getting into bed with Chinese investors? What are the Chinese hoping to get out of this strange marriage?

The Chinese Invasion of US Companies

As of 2008 the Chinese government had hired more than 100,000 full-time hackers to do nothing but try to hack into America’s government and U.S. companies. Given that, and the Obama administration’s penchant for words not actions, it’s perhaps not surprising that a former NSA director recently said that every major US company has been hacked into by the Chinese. This gives the Chinese access to trade secrets, companies’ financial information, and future plans. Talk about insider trading. Are we ripe for a disaster? We’ll talk with Kevin Freeman about China’s silent war with the U.S. Kevin is one of the world’s leading authorities on financial and economic warfare.

Since the mainstream media is focused on Donald Trump, you probably haven’t heard that the Chinese markets have suffered huge losses, more than 30%, in the last few months. The Chinese government has officially accused the U.S. of hacking their system. Did we?

Hillary Clinton’s Emails Hacked?

Given the Chinese hack attacks on our infrastructure, on our government, and that Hillary used a private server for official, classified State Department business, could one of these 100,000-plus Chinese hackers found their way into Hillary emails? Tune in to hear the stunning revelation of how easily Hillary’s private server may have exposed the entire U.S. government to infiltration.

Show 5-19 Urban vs Rural

By Dr Mark | May 5, 2015 | Comments 0 Comment

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Air Dates: May 9 & 10, 2015

When it comes to land use and natural resources, it seems to be an unending battle for control between two combatants: urban vs rural. Often, this means that the Urbans (city dwellers) want or need the sanctimonious psychological safety of believing they’ve “protected” or “saved” the environment, which means blocking rural people (country dwellers) from accessing, using, harvesting or otherwise touching natural resources. In other words, they want the benefits of what the rural areas produces (food, wood, water, etc.) without actually harvesting any of it.

This is like wanting beef without touching cows.

Even worse, after blocking rural people from engaging in economic activities that they—the city dwellers—haven’t “sanction” they—the city dwellers—raise taxes and inflict other economic hardships.

If this sounds all too familiar, you probably live in a rural area. If you’ve never ever heard of this, you undoubtedly live in a city.

We talk with William Tucker about the “Detroit-ification” of rural areas and the incomparable harm city dwellers are inflicting on people who’ve chosen to living the country and provide city dwellers with all the benefits of life that the city dwellers just won’t get their hands dirty to do. And we talk with Rep. Tom McClintock (R-CA) about the perfect example of cities destroying rural areas—California.

Links Mentioned

American Media Institute – news the way it used to be. Reported and investigated, not packaged.
Article by William Tucker: “How high taxes and regulation are killing one of the most prosperous states in the nation.”
Rep. Tom McClintock represents the 4th Congressional District of California, which takes in both urban and rural areas. It runs east of Sacramento to the Nevada border, and then southeast, including mountainous regions and Yosemite National Park. (map)
Wall Street Journal article: “Where are the smelt” another article on California’s self-inflicted devastation.
Article – Gov Brown proposes $10,000 fines for water users

Show 5-17 Why Oregon Fails at Economics

By Dr Mark | April 27, 2015 | Comments 0 Comment

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Air Dates: April 25 & 26, 2015

This week, it’s about economics. Yeah, yeah. Don’t groan. You need to know this stuff. Otherwise, you’ll be boondoggled into thinking raising taxes is good. Or that raising minimum wage doesn’t impact businesses. Or big government works. Or any number of progressive ideologies. Next thing you know, you’ll be believing global warming and then it’s all down hill from there.

With guests Jonathan Williams of American Legislative Exchange Council and Jan Meekcoms of National Federation of Independent Businesses.

Always fun talking with Mark Anderson @ispyradioshow about #oregon #tcot. I just wish Oregon had a better outlook https://t.co/d6TcClSnnp

— Jonathan Williams (@Taxeconomist) April 25, 2015

Links mentioned

ALEC – American Legislative Exchange Council. One of the good guys. You can tell, because the political Left hates them so much they think one of the Baldwin boys needs to rename himself.
NFIB – National Federation of Independent Businesses. Here’s the state chapter for Oregon (have you joined yet??) and the national organization.
Download your own copy of Rich States, Poor States and take a look at how your state is doing (you might want your legislators’ number on speed dial)
A quick one-sheet verview from ALEC on Oregon’s outlook (this link opens a PDF)
NFIB-Oregon is holding its Day at the Capital on April 29. More info.
Both of these fine organizations offer memberships. Why not join them and add your voice to the chorus of conservative voices trying to safeguard your economic freedom?

Additional Links & Info

Talk to liberals? Not sure how to answer their unicorns-and-fairies myths about the minimum wage? Here’s a great Forbes article (by an NFIB economist no less) that debunks progressive myths.

Rally ‘Round the Flag Event

When: Saturday, June 20, 2015, 10am – 4pm
Where: Fairgrounds, Cottage Grove, Oregon
Cost: Free!

Here in Oregon, we have a strong heritage of using our natural resources wisely. But well-intended yet weak-minded “environmentalists” believe they are “protecting” the environment by not touching it–or allowing anyone else to harvest them. Worse, our lands are being controlled by people out east who’ve never set foot on them and have no idea about how to manage them; people who’ve been persuaded by the well-funded environmental lobby that we should never touch these lands.

Oregon Citizen’s Lobby invites you to join them for a fantastic day of speakers, networking, and fun! And a chance to learn more about the effort to transfer control of the federal lands to the people who know best how to manage them: Oregonians.

The event will feature prominent leaders in this effort, booths, networking opportunities, and a panel discussion to answer your questions.

Featured Guests:

Rep. Ken Ivory (UT) of the American Lands Council
Noah Wall, FreedomWorks Grassroots Director
Jeff Kropf, Oregon Capital Watch
Mark Anderson, host of I Spy Radio
David Hunnicutt, Oregonians in Action
Dennis Linthicum, former Klamath County Commissioner

Battle for Public Lands

By Dr Mark | April 21, 2015 | Comments 3 comments

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Air Dates: Jan 10 & 11, 2015

The federal government holds title to 640 million of acres of land, mostly west of the Mississippi. In some states, this is more than 60% of all land within their borders. The battle as to who should own that land, whether the feds or states, has been going on since before the 1900s. Why does this matter? They represent trillions of dollars of economic activity.

This week on I Spy Radio, we talk with Rep. Ken Ivory (UT) about the continuing battle to force the federal government to honor their promise to transfer land to the states in which it belongs. We start by getting some clarification and history on exactly who legally owns the land: the feds or the states? We also discuss on-going battles in states like Utah—which threw down the gauntlet, demanding their land by Dec. 31, 2014—and Wyoming, which had 1 million acres unilaterally seized by Obama’s EPA. Find out what counties can do, why Canada is already transferring control of its land to its territories, and what strategies and tactics the new Republican-controlled Congress is likely to pursue.

Links mentioned

The American Lands Council – be sure to sign their petition to let lawmakers know this matters to you!
Great resource on the issue of the transfer of federal lands: American Lands Council FAQ’s.
Utah passed HB 148 in 2012, demanding the federal government transfer ownership of the land to Utah. Here’s a link to more info on HB 148 (via Constitutional Defense Council)
1 million acres seized from Wyoming by Obama’s EPA 1 million acres seized from Wyoming by Obama’s EPA & an update regarding lawsuit by WY against the EPA’s actions
Politifacts article: Napolitano: Unconstitutional for Fed to own land.

Related Links

The battle over federally held lands is an ongoing effort – Lawmakers from 9 states gather in Utah, discuss ways to take control fed land.
Why this matters: EPA wants to assert control over any land that gets wet.
An interesting timeline of land-use laws in Oregon.

Economic Warfare

By Dr Mark | April 21, 2015 | Comments 0 Comment

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Air Dates: Jan 17 & 18, 2015

The 21st century’s battlefields won’t just involve bombs and guns. Enter the age of economic warfare and financial terrorism. And when it comes to warfare, you attack your enemy’s weaknesses. The problem is, the U.S. has created a massive weakness and the States are helping—and in this day and age, we’re more vulnerable than ever.

We know that regular I Spy Radio listeners are keenly aware that at the heart of big government lies big spending. In fact, big government simply could not exist without big spending.

But what do you know about the actual mechanism that allows the federal government to enact policies it is not constitutionally allowed to do? We talk about grant-in-aid funding with State Senator Doug Whitsett and how this funding is really about states giving up their own authority.

Perhaps even worse is the extremely vulnerable position this spending puts us in. We talk with Kevin Freeman, one of the world’s leading authorities on economic warfare and financial terrorism. With groups like ISIS, this is no longer “just” threats from countries like China and Russia. It’s real, it’s happened and find out why it will happen again. Tune in to hear why all this spending is like a bomb we built — and then handed to the terrorists.

Links mentioned

Sen. Doug Whitsett’s Newsletter – more info on the grant-in-aid funding and how this both cedes states’ rights and how the U.S. is digging its own grave. If you’re not currently receiving Sen. Whitsett’s newsletter, be sure to sign up!
Kevin Freeman’s blog: Global Economic Warfare. Read his white paper, submitted to the Department of Defense – Economic Warfare: Risks and Responses; an analysis of twenty-first century risks in light of the recent market collapse
Kevin’s books are Game Plan: How to Protect Yourself from the Coming Cyber-Economic Attack and Secret Weapon: How Economic Terrorism Brought Down the U.S. Stock Market and Why It can Happen Again.
The Chinese economic warfare plan: an easy-to-read Wikipedia article on the plan. Want to read the plan? Download here. *A great article on World Net Daily about Wall Street turning a blind eye to its own vulnerabilities. Also discusses the Russian attack in 2008
We didn’t cover it on the show but here’s a fascinating article in the UK Telegraph about how the U.S. unleashes its own economic weapons. Eerily reminiscent of how President Obama can “deem” anyone an enemy combatant, no?

Show 5-05 | Socialism Exposed: Superiority of Capitalism

By Dr Mark | April 21, 2015 | Comments 0 Comment

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Air Dates: Jan 30 & 31, 2015

By now, you’ve heard or read the usual conservative fact-checking of Obama’s State of the Union speech but we wanted to go deeper than just fact-checking to analyze the progressive ideology that lie at the heart of the speech.

This week on I Spy, we talk with author and economist Dr. Gerard Lameiro to analyze the underlying philosophies and values on display in Obama’s State of the Union address.

For example, most of I Spy listeners know that the free-market system is superior to socialism but why is it so superior? What makes it more successful from both an economic and philosophical standpoint? And what is so unique about the American system of capitalism that makes it better than any other free-market system in the world? We also analyze Obama’s faith in big government to drive the economy, the unfairness of wealth, that regulation is the solution, and much more.

Links mentioned

Dr. Lameiro’s terrific website: www.gerardlameiro.com
Why is American capitalism so superior? See Dr. Lameiro’s “Achitecture of American Capitalism“
Check out this terrific graphic about the characteristics of a free-market economy
See also his “Socialism’s Chain of Control“
His books include Renewing America and its Heritage of Freedom (What Freedom-Loving Americans Can Do to Help), America’s Economic War (A Citizen’s Handbook for Understanding the War between American Capitalism and Socialism), and Choosing the Good Life (two competing economic visions, capitalism and socialism).