Lew Rockwell Institute

FOX commentator Charles Payne recently repeated Pat Buchanan’s old post hoc, ergo propter hoc fallacy (After this, therefore because of this) about tariffs in a Breitbart column.  The fallacy goes like this: 1).  Economic growth occurred during the post Civil War period up to the turn of the century.  2).  High protectionist tariffs were imposed during the Lincoln regime and lasted for some fifty years.  3).  Therefore, the protectionist tariffs caused the economic growth.  Yes, and the rooster crows in the morning, then the sun comes up, therefore the rooster crowing causes the sun to come up.

It was the absence of income taxation and a hardly noticeable regulatory regime that were the most important policy issues related to post Civil War growth, along with the existence of the gold standard (in various forms).  International trade was a small fraction of the entire economy, so tariff taxes on imports could not possibly have been the One Cause of post-war prosperity as Buchanan and now Payne argue.  In addition, many of the tariff taxes were imposed on inputs used in the manufacturing process by American corporations, hindering economic growth.  This period of protectionist tariff plunder was especially harmful to American farmers because a tax on imports eventually becomes a de facto tax on exports, and farmers exported huge amounts of their produce.  This is because impoverishing America’s trading partners by blocking them from selling here results in the fact that they then have fewer dollars with which to buy American goods.  At the time that was overwhelmingly American farm produce.  Tariff taxes also reduced the disposable income of the American working class during that period, as all taxation does.

Furthermore, if what these two cheerleaders for the quintessentially anti-populist policy of protectionist plunder of average Americans were true, then there should have been hardly any economic growth at all from the end of World War II until today, when the average tariff rate declined for 78 years from about 11 percent to 2.5 percent last year as shown in this graph.   That was before President Trump proposed an almost sixfold increase in the average tariff tax rate last week.

No one ever created prosperity by raising taxes and as Ron Unz recently wrote, President Trump’s tariff tax increase proposal could well turn out to be the biggest one-time tax increase in world history.

The post The Tariff Tax Statistic the Trump Fanboys Don’t Want You to Know About appeared first on LewRockwell.

Oscar Garu forwards this message about Milei’s “end of the CEPO”:

“This is a joke.  The common people, who would have exchanged pesos in cash for dollars are substantially prevented from doing so with the ridiculous limit of $100 U.S. per month.  Caputo’s [the Argentinian Minister of Economy] and Milei’s friends, who are in to take advantage of the carry trade, and who keep their pesos in the banks will have the golden opportunity to exchange their pesos, acquired while the exchange rate with the Dollar was kept artificially low by the government, and to drain a big part of the new dollars flowing in through the IMF’s new credits for Argentina.  Anyway, how you can claim to lift the exchange controls when there is a new and stifling limit for cash is a big mystery.”

The post “Another Scam”: The Supposed End of Argentinian Currency Controls (The “CEPO”) by Milei appeared first on LewRockwell.

Lysander Spooner on the difference between a government and a highwayman (1870)
Found in: No Treason. No. VI. The Constitution of No Authority (1870)

The constitutional lawyer, legal theorist, abolitionist, and radical individualist Lysander Spooner (1808-1887) applied the same moral principles to the actions of an organization as he did to a single individual. This led him to make some harsh criticisms of the government as this powerful quotation reveals:

“But this theory of our government is wholly different from the practical fact. The fact is that the government, like a highwayman, says to a man: Your money, or your life. And many, if not most, taxes are paid under the compulsion of that threat.

“The government does not, indeed, waylay a man in a lonely place, spring upon him from the road side, and, holding a pistol to his head, proceed to rifle his pockets. But the robbery is none the less a robbery on that account; and it is far more dastardly and shameful.

“The highwayman takes solely upon himself the responsibility, danger, and crime of his own act. He does not pretend that he has any rightful claim to your money, or that he intends to use it for your own benefit. He does not pretend to be anything but a robber. He has not acquired impudence enough to profess to be merely a “protector,” and that he takes men’s money against their will, merely to enable him to “protect” those infatuated travellers, who feel perfectly able to protect themselves, or do not appreciate his peculiar system of protection. He is too sensible a man to make such professions as these. Furthermore, having taken your money, he leaves you, as you wish him to do. He does not persist in following you on the road, against your will; assuming to be your rightful “sovereign,” on account of the “protection” he affords you. He does not keep “protecting” you, by commanding you to bow down and serve him; by requiring you to do this, and forbidding you to do that; by robbing you of more money as often as he finds it for his interest or pleasure to do so; and by branding you as a rebel, a traitor, and an enemy to your country, and shooting you down without mercy, if you dispute his authority, or resist his demands. He is too much of a gentleman to be guilty of such impostures, and insults, and villanies as these. In short, he does not, in addition to robbing you, attempt to make you either his dupe or his slave.”

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Gail Appel wrote:

Biden’s “ success” in Afghanistan. And wait ‘til you see Syria and Bangladesh! Every fashionista knows that black burkas with the entire face and head covered are sizzling hot( literally) compared to those frumpy saris that wrap snugly around the hips and rear, leaving  6 “ of bare midriff.

See here.

The post Where are the feminists? appeared first on LewRockwell.

Thanks, John Smith. 

The Hill.

The post Memo says no terrorism or antisemitism link in case of Tufts’s Rumeysa Ozturk appeared first on LewRockwell.

Gail Appel wrote:

A hermaphroditic Fauci/Duby symbiosis.

See here.

The post What would be the be the hybrid chimera outcome of Hannibal Lechter,Mengele,DeSade,Moreau,Dahmer,Gates,Frankenstein and Ed Gein? appeared first on LewRockwell.

Thanks, John Smith. 

New Republic

The post State Department Memo on Abducted Tufts Student Exposes Rubio’s Lies appeared first on LewRockwell.

Thanks, John Frahm.

InfoWars

The post Trump’s Well-Intentioned Use Of The REAL ID Act To Protect Election Integrity & Deport Illegals Is A Globalist Trojan Horse! appeared first on LewRockwell.

Thanks, Ginny Garner. 

Global Research

The post Dark Forces of the Anglo American-Zionist Empire are Behind the World Crisis appeared first on LewRockwell.

Thanks, Gail Appel.

See here.

The post Seems Tucker has awakened appeared first on LewRockwell.

Thanks, Jay Stephenson. 

This tweet explains it well:

AidenHunterX (@Aiden Hunter) posted: Does anybody else get the distinct impression that Murray’s appearance was supposed to be some kind of profound culture-changing moment that would finally shut us up?

It’s like they were counting on Murray to go in and broadside Joe by surprise. Not to engage in argumentation.

See here.

The post Why did Trump & Nikki Haley gush over Douglas Murray after his debate with Dave Smith? appeared first on LewRockwell.

Thanks, John Smith. 

Antiwar.com

The post Israel Bombs Christian-Run Hospital in Gaza City on Palm Sunday appeared first on LewRockwell.

Thanks, John Smith. 

Arab News

The post Israel denies entry to Jerusalem for Palestinian Christians marking Palm Sunday appeared first on LewRockwell.

Thanks, Andy Thomas.

Vox Popoli

The post Trade Deficit = Whip Hand appeared first on LewRockwell.

Thanks, John Frahm.

Lifesite News

The post Archbishop Viganò says ‘cyberattack’ has taken down his Exsurge Domine website appeared first on LewRockwell.

Click Here:

Eugyppius

The post Incoming German government appeared first on LewRockwell.

Brass knuckles, which can be made of any material, metal or not, are worn around the knuckles of the hand to increase the force and damage of a punch. Although they are not illegal on the federal level in the United States, they are illegal in about 20 states and in many foreign countries—but not in “Red” China.

A 1931 law in Michigan, MCL 750.224(1)(d), imposes severe penalties, including a possible prison sentence, for possession of brass knuckles. A Grand Rapids-area man was charged with unlawfully possessing brass knuckles. He argued that the statutory prohibition violates both the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and Article 1, § 6 of the Michigan Constitution. A state trial court denied the man’s motion to dismiss the charges. However, the Michigan Court of Appeals, in a unanimous 18-page opinion, recently affirmed the state’s prohibition of brass knuckles.

Judge Christopher Murray wrote in his opinion that the Michigan “ban on the possession of metallic knuckles falls within the historical tradition of prohibiting the concealed carry of metallic knuckles as a dangerous and unusual weapon.” He previously said during oral arguments in November: “If you ask everybody out here, probably they’d all say brass knuckles are used by the gangs and the thugs who want to go make a point. The history and tradition of the use is not a glamorous one.”

So, since brass knuckles can be used to assault, harm, disfigure, disables, or even kill someone, should the state of Michigan or any other state, ban them?

Of course not.

First of all, brass knuckles don’t assault, harm, disfigure, disable, or kill by themselves. They are attached to someone’s hand and move as the hand moves. Brass knuckles are an inanimate object.

Second, brass knuckles are not just offensive weapons. They can be used to fend off an assailant and let him know that he picked on the wrong person.

Third, hammers, knives, axes, clubs, baseball bats, crowbars, scissors, pipe wrenches, and blunt instruments can be used to assault, harm, disfigure, or kill just as much as brass knuckles.

Fourth, the deadliest weapon that can injure or kill at a distance is a gun. Thousands of Americans are killed every year with pistols or rifles. Yet, guns are not illegal in Michigan or any other state. They may be regulated, and in some cases heavily regulated, but they are not illegal like brass knuckles are.

Fifth, guns, knives, and clubs “are used by the gangs and the thugs who want to go make a point” just like brass knuckles. Yet, it is only brass knuckles that are banned in Michigan (and about 20 other states).

Sixth, if someone assaults, harms, disfigure, disables, or kills someone else—whether it is with brass knuckles, a metal object, or a gun—then he commits a crime that should be punished. No one should be punished for possessing an object that might be used to commit a crime. If so, then no one should be allowed to own golf clubs.

Seventh, if brass knuckles are outlawed, then only outlaws will have brass knuckles. No one who is going to assault, harm, disfigure, disable, or kill someone is concerned about laws against brass knuckles.

Michigan should legalize brass knuckles and any other object or substance that it prohibits. And the federal government and all of the other states should do likewise.

The post Seven Reasons Why Brass Knuckles Should Not Be Banned appeared first on LewRockwell.

For many years now I have been talking about the growing global economic divide between East and West. This volatile opposition between the BRICS nations and the US is not a product of the Trump era. It has been decades in the making with a myriad of complex working parts and numerous US trading partners have been preparing for the fallout as far back as 2008.

At the same time behind the scenes there have been malicious influences at play: Special interests within the Davos community have been working diligently to undermine the US economy and the dollar. But what is the ultimate aim of this agenda?

In 2018 I published an article titled ‘World War III Will Be An Economic War’ – In it I outlined the basic mechanics of the East vs West paradigm and how banking institutions like the IMF and BIS were positioning to take advantage of the chaos. At the time, the “trade war” witnessed a kind of false start, but all the pieces were there for what we are seeing today. Don’t let the 90 day pauses on some tariffs fool you, economic decoupling is going to be the dominant theme of the decade and the tariffs will undoubtedly spring up over and over again.

Trump’s incredible return to the White House sets the stage for the end of globalism (and that’s a good thing), but I want to make it clear that the pitfalls are numerous and the establishment could try to use the end of the old world order to bring in their “new world order”.

In 2018 I noted:

“The bottom line is this: Russia and China are in full support of globalist controlled institutions like the Bank for International Settlements (the central bank of central banks) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The governments of both nations have called for the IMF to assert their Special Drawing Rights basket currency framework as a foundation for a new world reserve currency system. Again, both Russia and China want the IMF, a globalist controlled entity, to become the de facto ruler of a new global monetary structure…”

“With the rise of simple to generate cryptocurrencies and the easily tracked blockchain exchange mechanism, globalists now have the perfect liquidity tool for replacing the dollar as world reserve. All they need now is a crisis event to provide cover for the transition…”

“…It would appear that a crisis event is now being triggered in the form of an international trade war. This trade war, in my view, is designed to become so widespread that it will one day be considered a “world war.”

As I’ve mentioned many times, the dollar’s world reserve status, instituted with the Bretton Woods Agreement in 1944, has long been America’s Achilles Heel.

The US technically enjoys an enviable trade advantage as well as a monetary stimulus advantage because the dollar is used in the majority of international transactions. This means the Federal Reserve can print dollars with wild abandon and most of them will be absorbed overseas by foreign banks, governments and corporations. In this way, the dollar is already a kind of beta test for a one world currency.

However, the Bretton Woods Agreement came with a series of caveats, some of them unspoken. For the “privilege” of controlling the reserve currency, the US is expected to financially backstop allies as well as provide the vast majority of military support for NATO. The revelations behind the DOGE audits alone show an endless flood of dollars from American taxpayer funds into a vast array of subsidies for foreign governments. Americans has been paying for everyone and everything.

You know those supposedly amazing social welfare and healthcare programs in Europe? Yeah, we make that possible through billions in foreign aid to the those countries along with hundreds of billions spent on defense so that Europeans can sleep easy at night.

The situation is even worse when we consider how many trillions of dollars were created from thin air by the Federal Rserve and transferred overseas after the crash of 2008. Not to mention the trillions poured into foreign economies during the pandemic. In the meantime, relentless money creation is finally catching up to us in the form of a stagflation crisis. The dollar system, as we know it, is precariously unstable and more stimulus is not going to save it.

It’s not surprising the US has been hit with an inflationary freight train. We haven’t just been printing dollars for ourselves, we’ve been printing dollars for the entire planet.

The old world agreements are ending, and in many ways this is necessary. European leaders are going full authoritarian; they now throw people in prison daily for online speech and they are also throwing their right-leaning political opponents in prison to prevent them from participating in elections. Europe is no longer our ally and the US public is starting to realize it.

Outsourced production in Asia, the foundation of the current global supply chain, is in need of reform. Because of our reserve status America has become the world’s cash cow. We have been relegated to the position of dutiful consumer nation, spending our increasingly devalued dollars in a spiraling cycle of inflationary decline while we produce very little on our own soil.

Donald Trump’s tariff actions, which I suspect will be cumulative over the next few years, are an expression of America’s desire to end the globalist status quo and bring back balance. That said, the rhetoric from the rest of the world and the media is that these tariffs constitute an “act of war”.

As I predicted years ago, the US is not allowed to stray from the Bretton Woods system without being painted as an “aggressor” nation bent on destroying our neighbors. Keep in mind, most of the countries affected by Trump’s tariffs have had their own tariffs on American goods for decades. When they do it, it’s normal. When we do it, it’s a betrayal.

Enter the BRICS; this international trade body is currently headed by Brazil and includes China, Russia, India, South Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates among others. The running theory for many alternative economists is that the BRICS will eventually move to fully decouple from the US dollar and introduce their own shared currency system.

I have posited a similar theory, though I argue that the situation is not as simple as some analysts think. This is not just an East vs West division leading to a break in the dollar structure; there is a lot more going on.

Ten years ago the BRICS were in a much better position economically and that would have been the time to introduce a competing monetary framework. Today, Russia is in the midst of a proxy war with NATO in Ukraine, China is on the edge of deflationary collapse and South Africa is on the edge of social collapse. There’s not a single BRICS member beyond oil producers like Saudi Arabia that is not facing extreme fiscal turmoil. In other words, the BRICS do not currently have the ability to counter the dollar.

That said, I don’t think this was ever the plan. Rather, globalist institutions like the IMF, BIS and World Bank have been preparing for the rollout of CBDCs (Central Bank Digital Currencies) along with a single IMF controlled global digital currency attached to the SDR basket. The BRICS cannot compete with the dollar, unless the IMF and BIS help them to do so.

As IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva admitted in 2023:

“CBDCs should not be fragmented national propositions… To have more efficient and fairer transactions we need systems that connect countries: we need interoperability…For this reason at the IMF, we are working on the concept of a global CBDC platform.”

Such program could only be accomplished after serious economic turmoil has made the populations of all nations desperate for a centralized solution. The upcoming BRICS Summit in Rio de Janeiro, slated for July, should be watched carefully because it is timed almost exactly in line with the end of Trump’s 90 day tariff pause. The summit is expected to address the trade war in depth as well as the subject of “de-dollerization”. Trump has previously threatened a 150% tariff on any country that makes an attempt to de-dollerize.

While speaking at the BRICS Summit in 2024, held at Kazan (Russia), Russian President Vladimir Putin said:

“The dollar is being used as a weapon. We really see that this is so. I think that this is a big mistake by those who do this”.

This was the same summit where Putin shared a mock up of a “BRICS dollar” and spoke about the adaptation of a BRICS currency. Of course, Russia is in no position to field a new reserve currency and neither is China, but I believe this talk is a precursor to a larger international push for a new reserve system managed by the IMF.

The BRICS intend to court the Mexican government at the July 2025 summit in Rio de Jeneiro and there is also talk of European nations increasing trade with China as a way to frustrate Trump’s tariff efforts. But again, China’s economy is currently flirting with deflationary disaster and there’s not a single nation or group of nations that will be able to fill the void in consumer markets left behind by the US.

Even though a Chinese-based solution is unlikely, the behavior of the BRICS indicates that there is some kind of plan afoot. China and India have been stockpiling massive gold reserves and this may be in preparation for a break from the dollar, with gold skyrocketing as the dollar falls. The ongoing shift into crypto and CBDCs is also, I believe, an attempt to create a cushion for de-dollerization.

Just remember that none of this is possible without globalist organizations facilitating the spread of the technology. The BIS has been particularly active the past 5 years in testing cross-border CBDC swaps and secure CBDC transactions. The BRICS would be nothing more than a vehicle for the proliferation of a globalist CBDC reset.

Does this mean that the US and Trump are falling into a trap? Do tariffs make it easier to justify an international shift way from the dollar? Is Trump making things easier for the globalists? I argue that this reset is going to be attempted regardless; Trump and conservatives are going to be blamed regardless. Americans will blame the BRICS and Europe – The BRICS and Europe will blame America.

It should also be noted that the middle class and poverty stricken citizens of China and Europe largely HATE their governments. The elites have abused them beyond all measure and what little freedoms they have left are being erased. Most of these people are on the side of anti-globalism. This war is not everyone in the world against the US, though the corporate media would have you believe this is the case.

Tariffs are a way for the US to disrupt the forced interdependency of globalism, but there’s going to be pain involved as things change. In other words, tariffs are necessary. The end of globalism is necessary. America needs to stop relying on the dollar’s reserve status and the global supply chain. But we should be wary of what kind of system ends up replacing the Bretton Woods structure. Meaning, we may have to use any means at our disposal to stop a new global monetary scheme before it can take hold.

The next BRICS Summit should be scrutinized carefully because it could give us insight into when the next stage of the “reset” will begin. Don’t be surprised if their rhetoric is wildly hostile towards the US and decoupling from the dollar is the main topic of discussion. Also don’t be surprised if “de-dollerization” becomes a household term in the next couple of years.

This article was originally published at Birch Gold Group.

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A change of pace is always welcome, especially when writing a column about politics. The latter can be as boring as writing about cooking, and the only newspaper that used a cookery writer as a political pundit is The New York Times. I think he’s called Frank Bruni and he’s reported to be going blind due to his loathing of Donald Trump.

Never mind. When your correspondent was still in shorts and newly arrived in America, the greatest and most feared gangster was one Frank Costello. Brought up in front of a Senate investigating committee, his lawyers managed to keep his face out of camera range and only his hands were televised. Somebody at home figured out that his nails were manicured and polished. He lost a few points among us after that.

Years later at a chic nightclub I watched as some greasy-looking fellow kept running his fingers up and down my wife’s naked back. I stood up and punched downward. All hell broke loose. The owner, Oleg Cassini, Jackie Kennedy’s couturier and JFK’s procurer, demanded I apologize to the slob I had hit as he was Senator Williams of New Jersey. The year was 1966. I did nothing of the sort but instead went to the bathroom to wash my hands as I had cut my knuckle during the fracas. That’s when I heard the following from a man speaking on the telephone: “Yeah, his name is Taki, and he lives in the Sherry-Netherland.”

“When your correspondent was still in shorts and newly arrived in America, the greatest and most feared gangster was one Frank Costello.”

Although he was a mincing rat of a man, I took what I was hearing rather seriously. In fact his words had an elegiac sense of doom—gangsters spraying the 18-year-old wife’s face with acid and other such horrors. This, I said to myself, is real; cancel culture for good. So, with no time for heroics, I called on my friend Tom Corbally, man about town, lady-killer par excellence, decorated rear gunner on more than thirty missions over Germany, and among the best-looking men in New York City and definitely connected with the city’s most powerful but criminal members. “Don’t worry, kid, we’ll go see Mr. C,” said Tom when I visited him at 530 Park Avenue. Mr. C was the way people in the know referred to Frank Costello, retired head of the Cosa Nostra, but still no one to disrespect, and then some.

We met at Childs, on 79th Street and Madison Avenue, where Mr. C lunched and dined daily. His voice was gravelly, more like Robert Kennedy’s today, and his accent was not exactly upper-class, but neither was it Brooklynese, as my father used to call it. After I explained my predicament, Mr. C asked only one question: “Were you in any way out of line?” “No, sir,” I answered truthfully. “I’ll see what I can do,” said Mr. C.

A few days later at P.J. Clarke’s, another popular city hangout back then, the rat man spotted me and came up with his hand extended. “Hey, Taki, no hard feelings, everything’s fine,” said the rat. “And the senator said you had a hell of a right.” Obviously Mr. C’s magic wand had done the trick. Incidentally, Senator Williams, having survived a right cross, did not end well. Like a more recent senator from New Jersey, he was indicted in something called Arabgate and disappeared from view. My problem was how to thank Mr. C for services rendered. My finances were tight, so I went to my mother and spilled the beans, and she came to the rescue. “Just don’t tell your father you know people like this gangster,” she warned.

Alas, more problems ensued. My mother bought a pair of Cartier cuff links that if memory serves were green and very chic and expensive. They did not register with Mr. C, who told Tom Corbally that “your friend Taki is a cheapskate.” Size mattered to those gents, and the cuff links I gave him were understated to say the least. But then we made up for good. Tom had told Mr. C that Gianni Agnelli and I were great friends, and Mr. C told me he’d like to meet the Fiat heir and chairman-to-be. Costello had a daily morning shave at the Waldorf Astoria barbershop, and Gianni Agnelli kept a suite at the Waldorf Towers. I pleaded with Gianni to come down to the barbershop for two minutes, and he finally said yes. Mr. C called him Giovanni, while Gianni called him Mr. Costello. “I wanted to meet you and tell you my first car was a Fiat,” said Mr. C. “I won it in a raffle in Atlantic City when I was a kid. I told the man holding the mic that No. 9 wins. He told me to get lost. Then I showed him the rod and repeated that No. 9 wins. And it did.” “How amusing,” said Agnelli, “I don’t think our advertising department can use it.”

Yep, those were the days, and they all came back because of a new movie, The Alto Knights, that features Frank Costello played by Robert De Niro. In this film Mr. C is shown as an uxorious husband. In real life Mr. C was married but spending three nights a week with Thelma Martin, his mistress, whose apartment was a couple of blocks down from where he lived with his wife. Movies always show life to be worse than it really is.

This originally appeared on Taki’s Magazine.

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