Economic Battle Rap

Those of us who insist on taking part in the political process by voting should take the time to learn something about economics. Here is Hayek and Keynes, dumbed down.

Libertarians @ Large live tonight from 7-8P

Libertarians At Large airs on channels Comcast 57 and Verizon 27, from 7-8 p.m., every third Thursday of the month. Tune in tonight as Doug Horner's guest this month will be Libertarian, Scott Wise from Whitley County, one of the contenders for the 3rd Congressional District. Call in to ask questions or just let us know you are listening. Please contribute to the conversation. By following this link you can see a three minute clip from September 2009 show when Scott appeared with Doug along side Dan Drexler.

The Libertarian Party of Allen County would like to thank Access Fort Wayne and the Allen County Public Library for providing us these opportunities to serve the public and promote the discussion at all levels of government about what is best for the future of of our communities, state, and nation.

Also please remember that we now have a Facebook Group Page also, check it out.

LPIN NEWS

The Libertarian Party of Indiana has announced that the State Party's website has been revamped to a magazine style and will launch sometime in February in a wordpress format. They are looking for contributors and editors video and podcasters. For more information contact Chris Spangle the LPIN Executive Director via email lpinhq@lpin.org at your convenience.

Additionally, In previous years, the Libertarian Party of Indiana held a strategy meeting in every January of an election year. Chair Sam Goldstein has announced the restarting of this tradition on January 30th, 2010. All LPIN membership is encouraged to attend, and help set our goals for not only the 2010 election cycle, but the next two years. Long range planning is essential to success. All those planning to run for office in 2010 should attend this meeting.

* When: January 30th at Noon.
* Where: The Life Center, 4002 E Southport Road Indianapolis, IN 46237
* (Behind Fifth Third Bank and McDonald's)
* Who: All State Officers and Central Committee Members will be in attendance.

All Members and candidates are welcomed to help set the 2010 Election strategy. (This is a closed party event. Non-LPIN members are not allowed to attend. For more information, please visit the membership page of LPIN.org: http://www.lpin.org/membership

How to help Haitians and raise home prices

There are over 15 million vacant homes in the United States. This is a problem if you want to sell a home, but it gives you an edge if you are a first time home buyer. Since bad news is more dramatic than good news, there has been much more fuss about the plight of homeowners than the discount that home buyers are getting.

So there have been many policy proposals intended to raise home prices. Personally I don't think it should be a priority. Artificially propping up home prices treats the symptom and not the disease. (The disease is a matter for another post.) But if you, unlike me, happen to think that raising home prices is a legitimate policy goal, here's an idea that I'm throwing out there.

We should let Haitians displaced by the earthquake resettle in the US. There are potential economic pros and cons to this, but I would argue that humanitarian considerations outweigh both at the moment. We could set up a system in which states and cities decide how many refugees they are willing to accept. I would imagine that some states would prefer to not allow any Haitian inside their borders, but hopefully other states would be generous enough to allow a few in.

Thought of the day

Our country was a lot safer when our enemies fought each other. Remember the good old days when Iraq was fighting Iran and Osama Bin Ladin was fighting the Soviets?

What does a Muslim look like?

There have been some calls for Muslim men to be subject to extra scrutiny when boarding an airplane. Morality aside, this simply is not an effective strategy for detecting or deterring potential terrorists. How do you tell if someone is Muslim?

You could ask them, since most Muslims are quite open about their faith. But I would suspect that a Muslim with hostile intentions would lie about his faith to avoid increased scrutiny.

Skin color is a poor indicator, since there are black, white, and Asian Muslims.

In India, if a male body goes unclaimed, it is given a Muslim burial if the penis is circumcised and Hindu cremation if it has not been cut. Of course this method of determining someone's religious faith would be ineffective in the US.

Putting in a policy that subjects Muslims to additional scrutiny would only serve to alienate peace-loving Muslims.

Predictions for the new year and new decade

It's been a week, so you all should be over your hangovers by now. It New Year and New Decade prediction time. Feel free to post your prediction for this year or the next ten years. I only ask that you post your basis for your prediction.

My prediction for the year: Obama's approval ratings will play a role in the midterm elections. If his approval ratings are above %50, the Democrats will gain seats in the House. If his approval ratings are below %50, his party will lose seats. Conventional wisdom holds that the party that controls the White House loses seats during the the midterms. That was not the case in 1998 and 2002, when Clinton and Bush's higher approval ratings seemed to give their respective parties a boost.

My prediction for the decade: Unemployment will stay above %5 until US forces are withdrawn from Iraq. It is a common fallacy that war is good for the economy. In fact, whether a war is justified or not, it still constitutes a heavy expenditure of resources, time, effort, and human lives. There are a lot of talented people serving overseas right now. They could be here figuring out the best way to develop American industry.