2/5

*****

I watched this documentary on BBC2 (22/11/2011) with Ian Hislop proposing that the bankers from the Victorian era were good. He showed the philanthropic nature of Victorian era financiers Samuel Gurney, George Peabody, Angela Burdett-Coutts and Natty Rothschild. He concludes that the philanthropic nature of these people is something that bankers of today should follow.

The title of the documentary infers that bankers of today are bad. The sole reason they are bad is that they make too much money; they should be giving it away. He brings in ex St Paul’s Canon Chancellor, Giles Fraser, who invariably states that "the love of money is the root of all evil".

How the west was lost
Book written by Dambisa Moyo
3/5

*****
How the west was lost, provides a general overview of the financial crisis, the hows and whys, and also predictions of the future of the West against the rising "Rest": China, India, South America. She explains how this is changing the landscape of the global economy. With all things staying the same and the general trends continuing, China will become the largest economy, taking the title from the USA within the next decade.

You really have to hand it to Peter Schiff. It must have been extremely frustrating trying to get through to the OWS protesters. He is having to answer the same questions over and over again. It does look like he started to get through to some people in understanding that the issue is not capitalism, but government intervention. This is again from reasontv on youtube.

A summary of what the green movement is today and what lies behind the Climate Change / Global Warming industry. Brought to you by reason.tv youtube channel.

It is just a matter of time before the "broken windows fallacy" rears its ugly head in relation to the London riots. I wouldn't be surprised if the Bank of England or some politician or media pundit explains how the riots destruction will actually help the economy.

Just in case this meme of "destruction helping the economy" spreads, (where destruction equals war, riots, robbery, crime of any kind), this video explains the fallacy.

I first read about this fallacy in Henry Hazlitt's excellent book, "Economics in one lesson", where he introduces Frederic Bastiat's simple story.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parable_of_the_broken_window

Sometimes there is a concerted effort to prevent a meme from spreading. If successful, it becomes transparent and you need to dig a little to find what information is being hidden or distorted. At other times, it becomes blindingly obvious.

This is the reporting from our very own BBC on the recent Iowa Republican straw poll results. See if you can work out what is wrong with this report?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-14520535

Now the purpose of news is to report the facts. The news report shows that Michele Bachmann came first, but who came second? What was the margin of difference between first and second place? Well you won't find this information in the video. The "accuracy" and "impartiality" that the BBC covets seems to have been thrown out with the facts.

There is going to be a lot of analysis and finger pointing following the riots in England. The media will try to psychoanalyse the mindset of the rioters and be asking what motivated the violence and theft. There will be much talk about the underprivileged youth and sense of hopelessness in these poor areas. Politicians will try to take advantage of the events, blaming the other parties’ policies as the cause.

What will be overlooked is the main reason why the riots took place and what motivated the mob mentality. These rioters are the children of the state. Raised by parents on welfare, housed by councils, schooled by government run schools, healed by socialised healthcare and completing the cycle by graduating to the dole queues. The welfare is funded by the very people that these rioters attacked; the hard working taxpayers in this country.

I found this clip on the website www.georgeoughttohelp.com and thought it cleverly summed up the morality of taxation as it stands today.

Finally some civilised coverage of the NewsCorp scandal. It comes from the editor, Allister Heath, of the free London financial paper "City AM". I really have to applaud this paper and hope that the journalistic standards it holds rubs off on the other news media. Allister cuts through the media hysteria and exposes the hypocrisy behind the political outrage.

Read Article here: Our Free Press Must not be censored.

London, July 7, 2010: The phone hacking/police informant scandal at NewsCorp has finally come to a head. The 168 year old British paper is being shut down. Today is the last print run for the newspaper.

For those that aren't aware, The News of the World is a Sunday tabloid that features the sordid private lives of celebrities. To get some of their stories, they used private detectives who hacked into celebrities’ voice mails. They also paid police for information for stories.