Friday, July 30, 2010

Hamilton's Curse

It is no surprise that neoconservatives, who have never opposed big government in the way traditional conservatives have, would join the forces of Hamiltonian nationalists.

"We must have a government of more power," Hamilton wrote to George Washington in August 1780.

Hamilton set out to rewrite the history of the American founding by arguing that the citizens of the states had never been sovereign.

George Washington had condemned the notion of a "living constitution" in his Farewell Address.

Hamilton's Curse: How Jefferson's Arch Enemy Betrayed the American Revolution--and What It Means for Americans Today


American taxpayers have never been presented with itemized federal tax bills.



In the eighteenth century the word congress meant an assembly of sovereign countries.

Private banks were already performing that and all other banking functions that Hamilton wanted his government-run (and -subsidized) bank to perform.

The Panic of 1819 was the first boon-and-bust cycle of the economy caused by government monetary policy.

Between 1937 and 1995, not a single federal law was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.

The economic foolishness of such an idea lies in the fact that in a market economy the only legitimate judges of excellence are consumers, not politicians.

Protectionists know this; that's why they invariably advocate protectionism for the tings that they sell but free trade for the things that they buy, such as parts and materials that they use to manufacture their own products.

Under the Articles of Confederation the central government had no taxing powers at all; revenues were raised by the sovereign states.

Alexander Hamilton ended up beating out his rival Thomas Jefferson in the effort to shape the American government and its influence in citizen's lives.  Because Hamilton won, the American people have lost.


Review by David Gordon 
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"Monetary policy today is guided by little more than government fiat -- by the calculations, often mistaken economic theories, and whims of central bankers or, even worse, politicians. Under such a regime, inflation of three or four percent annually has come to be viewed as a stellar monetary performance. However, under a more sound monetary system -- i.e., a gold standard -- such increases in the general price level would be seen as wildly inflationary." -- Raymond J. Keating

"It's a mistake to think that poor people get the benefit from the welfare system. It's a total fraud. Most welfare go to the rich of this country: the military-industrial complex, the bankers, the foreign dictators, it's totally out of control. [...] This idea that the government has services or goods that they can pass on is a complete farce. Governments have nothing. They can't create anything, they never have. All they can do is steal from one group and give it to another at the destruction of the principles of freedom, and we
ought to challenge that concept." -- Ron Paul

"Cultivators of the earth are the most valuable citizens." -- Thomas Jefferson

"Be assured that if this new provision [the 14th Amendment] be engrafted in the Constitution, it will, in time, change the entire structure and texture of our government,
and sweep away all the guarantees of safety devised and provided by our patriotic Sires of the Revolution." -- Orville Browning

 Liberty Quotes

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