(Aron Huddleston, Roland Manarin, Ron Paul)

This past weekend Roland and Aron visited Jekyll Island, birthplace of the Federal Reserve System for a conference sponsored by the Mises Institute.  Young and old free market thinkers from all over gathered on this small island off the coast of Georgia to explore the history of the Fed, it’s impact on American public life, as well as what the future may hold for the Fed.

Among the notable speakers was Congressman Ron Paul (pictured above).

Some key notes Roland and Aron brought back include:

• John Maynard Keynes isn’t the only game in town.  The far superior free market “Austrian” economic model is getting more attention today.  The American public is fed up with the borrow and spend attitude of our government and the incredible expansion of Federal Reserve policy.
• Inflation is a hidden tax that destroys purchasing power.  Look at the below Consumer Price Index chart dating back to 1790.  Keep in mind that the Fed has been in existence for the past 96 years. 

• We have actually had prosperous times in our history while experiencing deflation.
• Below is the scene of the crime where the meetings took place in 1910 that led to the Federal Reserve creation.

Photo Credit: Mises Institute

Last week I returned from the Von Mises Institute’s Birthplace of Economic Theory Summit held in Salamanca, Spain. 

Here is a brief overview of what I observed:

- The genesis of free market economics wasn’t really Adam Smith.  He merely brought to the Anglo-Saxon world that which the Jesuit scholars in the 1500’s brought to Spain.

- The same free market model that was applied all those centuries ago hasn’t changed because it’s based on human actions. 

- My time in Salamanca reinforced my inner beliefs that free market economics (or what we in the West call Austrian economics) is absolutely the best out there because it takes into consideration the natural state of human behavior. 

- The pragmatists there agreed with my thoughts that the next two years in the market and economy ought to be fine and thereafter the outcome will hinge on what changes may occur with our fiscal and monetary policies. 

- It seemed half of the Americans in attendance were followers of the Von Mises Institute, free market advocates and Libertarian/Classic Liberal thinkers.   

- There is a wonderful free market renaissance going on in Europe but unfortunately not in America yet.  The internet is driving this movement and opening a lot of eyes to show people there is an alternative to big government.

Photo Credit: Ludwig von Mises Institute

The Founding Fathers:  Smugglers, Tax Evaders, and Traitors?

During patriotic holidays, the news media applaud the Founding Fathers.  But rarely does anyone mention some important facts about them:  that they were smugglers, tax evaders, and traitors.

Not only is this important, it is also praiseworthy; it produced the most advanced civilization ever known. 

The Revolution is often said to have begun in 1775 at the Battle of Lexington.  In truth, it began in the 16th century when the first colonists began traveling to the New World.  Consider the hardships these people faced.  Abandoning their relatives and friends, they boarded small leaky boats like the Mayflower – which was only as long as six automobiles – to spend months crossing 3,000 miles of storm-tossed ocean.

Many of these tiny, primitive vessels went down, yet as the years passed, more and more colonists risked their lives to make the journey.  In THE OXFORD HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE, historian Samuel Eliot Morison tells us;

Gottlieb Mittelberger, who came to Philadelphia in 1750, described the misery during his voyage: bad drinking water and putrid salt meat, excessive heat and crowding, lice so thick that they could be scraped off the body, sea so rough that hatches were battened down and everyone vomited in the foul air; passengers succumbing to dysentery, scurvy, typhus, canker, and mouth rot.  Children under seven, he said, rarely survived the voyage, and in his ship no fewer than thirty-two died.  One vessel carrying 400 Palatinate Germans from Rotterdam in August 1738 lost her master and three-quarters of the passengers before stranding on Block Island after a four-month journey.

Why?  What in Europe could have been so horrible that rational people would risk their lives and their children’s lives to escape it?

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