It appears your editor owes an apology to Lord Monckton of Brenchley following last Friday’s Money Morning.
As you know, we’re more than happy to admit when we get something wrong, and on this occasion we have. What did we stuff up? Well, for that you’ll have to wait until tomorrow.
Until then…
Your editor laughed heartily this morning on reading the following paragraph from News Ltd:
“ASIA-Pacific powers, including the United States and China, have vowed to overhaul the crisis-stricken world economy, rejecting protectionism and touting plans for a gargantuan free market.”
Our laughter only increased further when we reached the following paragraph:
“Leaders of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum, who together steer more than half the global economy, have also said they will maintain hefty stimulus spending ‘until a durable economic recovery has clearly taken hold’.”
We wonder if these journalists ever actually read what they’ve written. If we’ve got this right, governments have “plans” for a “gargantuan” free market that will be supported by “hefty” government stimulus spending.
How on earth can that be described as a free market?
It can’t.
In fact their comments are no different to any other comment you’ve heard from politicians over the last twenty, thirty or fifty years.
They all claim they support free markets while simultaneously introducing more and more rules and regulations to ensure markets are under more government control than ever before.
For a start you can’t “plan” any free market let alone a gargantuan free market.
Free markets aren’t planned they just, well, they just are.
And that’s why politicians hate the free market. A free market works without interference and meddling from governments.
In a free market there would be no need for a bunch of megalomaniacal pen pushers (politicians and bureaucrats) to swan off to Singapore for meetings on how to plan a free market.
There would be no need because under a free market they would have no influence on markets. Their meetings would be redundant. There would be nothing to discuss.
In fact, dare we say it, they would be redundant.
But central planners can rest at ease. And free marketers like your editor and cry into their beer.
Because there will be no gargantuan free market. Instead there will be the same old gargantuan state interference, corruption and incompetence. If you skip past the waffle about free trade in Leaders’ Declaration:
“But our common goal remains the same – to support growth and prosperity in the Asia-Pacific region, through free and open trade and investment…”
You’ll see that encouraging free markets and free trade is the last thing on their mind:
“We will leverage APEC’s traditional strengths of voluntary cooperation, capacity building, sharing of best practices, and working with the private sector, to implement necessary reforms in infrastructure development, agriculture/food management, social security, education and workforce training, and regulatory frameworks. We will work with the International Financial Institutions and Multilateral Development Banks to facilitate these efforts. Given APEC’s diversity, these reforms must take into account individual economies’ stage of development, demographic trends, factor and institutional endowments, and comparative advantages.”
A free market isn’t a free market when you have government telling you they will become even more involved in an economy.
It just isn’t possible.
And as for the statement that:
“We firmly reject all forms of protectionism and reaffirm our commitment to keep markets open and refrain from raising new barriers to investment or to trade in goods and services…”
Well, we don’t think we’ve come across a bigger lie since the Australian banks claimed they hadn’t received a single dollar of bail out money.
You only have to compare that statement with the previous one I’ve quoted above. On the one hand they claim to reject protectionism, and on the other hand they claim they’ll support reforms in infrastructure development, agriculture/food, social security, education and regulations.
And you can bet the “reforms” won’t involve less red tape and regulation it will mean more red tape and regulation.
When you look at each one of those topics again you’ll realize each one is the antithesis of free markets.
A free market in infrastructure development? I wouldn’t have thought so. When was the last time any infrastructure project happened on the basis of free market competition or supply and demand? Never.
Agriculture and food is one of the most manipulated and corrupt markets there is. Domestic producers receive numerous ‘free-kicks’ thanks to import regulations, or because of state approved monopolies.
Social security. A free market in social security? Are you kidding me? Social security is one of the biggest drains on the taxpayer wallet. Billions of dollars is stolen from taxpayers each year, swilled around in Canberra and then redistributed to the politicians favourite causes.
We’d love to see a free market in social welfare, but we know it ain’t gonna happen.
And as for education, again, where is the free market there? Nowhere. State schools get complete government funding and even private schools get handouts. How is that a free market when every school gets cash regardless of performance?
It’s clear the politicians either have no idea what free markets are, or more likely, they know exactly what a free market is and are afraid of it.
Because in a truly free market their powers to influence, bribe, threaten and meddle disappear. That’s why they need to maintain as much control over the economy as possible.
But the outcome of the APEC summit makes us realize one thing. It makes all the talk from Lord Monckton of Brenchley about a ‘world government’ all the more plausible.
Have we turned all conspiracy theorist? No. But as I mentioned at the beginning, we’ll have more on that tomorrow.
Cheers.
Kris.
60-Second Market Round Up
by Kris Sayce
Shae has taken a long weekend, which included dressing up as an Oompa-Loompa. We believe it was for a fancy dress party but that is yet to be confirmed!
So we’ll step into the breach for today until she returns tomorrow.
The S&P/ASX200 closed at 4,706.40 down by 41 points.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 10,270.47, a 73 point gain. In Europe the FTSE finished higher by 19 points to 5,296.38.
The Nikkei was down 34 points to 9,770.31.
In Australian dollars gold is trading at $1,198.79, while in US Dollars it is trading at $1,118.90. And the price of silver in Aussie dollars is $18.68 and in US Dollars it is $17.43.
The Aussie dollar against the US dollar, currently trading at USD $0.9340. The Aussie dollar against the Japanese Yen is trading at JPY 83.60.
Crude oil closed at USD$76.35.
For the biggest movers on the market yesterday click here…
{ 12 comments… read them below or add one }
← Previous Comments
BB
I assume no such thing as ethically challenged people can suddenly uphold the right. They certainly say it because what politician will get elected if they openly say “not gonna do a thing for you and I am in it for myself”. None.
I assume that those people who choose to become politicians are just as ethically challenged as anyone else and they only make promises to do good but with no real intention of doing any such thing and in fact become worse the more “power” they accumulate. Has nothing to do with the free market or no free market. It has everthing to do with attituide.
The missus works with a police force in the Aboriginal justice area. Having meet them they are the most corrupt are those that are supposed to uphold the law. They will lie to get out of speeding fines and this is sanctioned and even though they know the the civillian workers in the system are able to rort it and there is a simple fix, it magically never gets achieved. The Aboriginal justice area will never achieve anything of value because the people administering those policies understand that if they are actually sucessful they are out of a job and who wants to lose their job (never mind that there would be other things to do). They should be approaching the job from the point of view that in order to be sucessful I must one day become unnecessary. And who wants to deliberately become “unnecessary”.
My point of view of course is that if you are going to implement laws and uphold them then you need to be doing it cleaner and better than the rest.
There is plenty of research out there to show that it is the fear of being caught that is the deterent and causes people to act “ethically”. Don’t believe me? Take a drive then and see how many people break simple road laws these days and it is because there are no cops out there and there is a reliance on speed and red light cameras for enforcement.
Having said that though I agree with Kris’ main thrust that there should be as little government interference with our daily lives as possible but it will never be possible to have no government interference. If people were ethical, yes, it might acutally be possible.
The following article adds another frightening aspect to the “Treaty”. Politics and religion are a dangerous mix. Don.
“This is not spam or an urban legend… I spoke directly with Brad Thorpe at Hope Channel and he verified it is true. Hope has a CD about this topic. If anyone is interested, they can contact Hope channel. initials of sender.
September 1, 2009
I just received a leaflet in the mail from HOPE channel.
Recently Obama went to Italy to meet for the G-8 summit. He also had a personal interview with the pope, and the pope presented him with a copy of the pope’s latest encyclical. The pope prepared this just for this summit and for Obama. The folks at HOPE read it – it is called “Charity of Truth.” And HOPE believes this is a wake-up call for SDA’s. They have listed 10 points which the pope has made which seem to directly fulfill the SDA understanding of Bible prophecy.
Here are the points:
1. A Global Government. The pope is calling for a “true world political authority” to fix the problems that plague the world. (page 67)
2. Church and State. The pope says this new political authority will make its decisions based on spiritual values. (Chapter 5)
3. The Papacy at the Head. These spiritual values cannot be derived from just any religion, since not “all religions are equal.” (p 55)
4. Religion, Politics and the Economy. The church must influence all areas of society since God must have “a place in the public realm, specifically in regard to its cultural, social, economic, and particularly its political dimensions.” (56)
5. Power to Enforce Law. This “political authority” must have real teeth” and “be vested with the effective power” to enforce its laws around the world. (67)
6. Control Buying and Selling. The new world governing power will institute socialistic policies for government to redistribute wealth. (chapter 3)
7. Resurgence of Labor Unions. Labor Unions are to be empowered to “play a decisive role” in the new world order. (23)
8. The Church’s Goal. Pope Benedict says that this encyclical is to help achieve “The goal of the history of the human family” – to build “the universal city of God.” (7)
9. Redefining Religious Liberty. While claiming not “to interfere in any way in the politics of States,” the pope redefined “liberty” as happening when the world obeys laws shaped by the Roman Church’s spiritual values. According to the pope, as the church influences states to enforce its view of “truth” on others, people are set “free.” “This mission of truth is something that the Church can never renounce.” (9)
10. Immortal Souls. The non-biblical belief that man has an immortal soul helps to insure the pope’s global agenda. “Man is … God’s creature, whom God chose to endow with an immortal soul.” (29)
“The pope’s views on the redistribution of wealth and his agenda set forth in Charity in Truth echo many of the same themes that Obama campaigned for last year. As a result, the White house was excited about the meeting as this insider describes:
“the encyclical ramped up the level of White House enthusiasm for this meeting because you can’t read it without sensing that these two men are seeing economic questions the same way,” says a Catholic adviser to the White House… The Holy Father’s emphasis on putting the human person at the center of the economy strongly echoes themes that Obama campaigned on and is working to implement. (Dan Gilgoff, Obama’s Most Important Catholic Adviser, U.S./NEws & World Report, July 10, 2009).”
← Previous Comments