I'm reading Faith and Liberty:

The Economic Thought of the Late Scholastics, By Alejandro A. Chafuen.

Paraphrasing Juan de Mariana, Chafuen says:

In the beginning, tyrants are soft and smiling, but once their power is well-established, "their sole intent becomes to demolish and offend." "The rich and the good" become their prime victims. Like doctors who use the healing arts to try to expel bad viruses from the body, tyrants "work to expel from the republic those who can contribute most to its brightness and its future."

And directly quoting:

"They drain the individual treasures. Every day they impose new taxes. They plant the seeds of disruption among the citizens. They engage in one war after another. They put into practice every possible method to avoid rebellion against their cruel tyranny. They construct large monstrous monuments but at the cost of the riches and over the protests of their subjects. Do you think, by chance, that the pyramids in Egypt and the underground caves in Olympus of Thesalia had a different origin?"

Emphasis Chafuen's.

Populists are budding tyrants.

I suppose, that when I quote a book I should cite the page number. In the paperback it is pp. 52-53.

Aliina Loviisa is here!!!

5:10
10 lbs 5 oz.
November 20, 2003.
Apgar 9 & 9.
Best lookin' newborn I ever saw.

Have I mentioned I'm a cheesehead?

My favorite quote of the day:

Mark Tauscher -

On win: "We expected to win this game. We know they're a good team and everything but we feel when we're executing we're a good football team. And today we were. To be honest with you, you don't see the same level of excitement as after that Minnesota game because we know there's a ton of work left to do. It's not good enough just to keep winning one, losing one. We're all excited about the win, but we know this win doesn't mean anything if we don't get it done next weekend. It's a gratifying, it's definitely a great win for us, but what are we going to do next?"

I like it because I think it shows exactly the right attitude. Enjoy the win, acknowledge the work still to be done, and commit to work to get it done. Promise nothing but continued effort.

Anyway, as I was saying...

My mother was a Missionary Baptist, so whenever we went to Oklahoma we went to the Missionary Baptist Church in Vian, OK. Still do in fact. My cousin's husband is the pastor there. Hmm. This doesn't look like the right location. Ah! Actually it's this one.

I don't see much that's incompatible between the two churches, but then my mother was really my primary source of information about theology.

But, then the Charismatic Movement hit our church and we got into that. When I was a junior in high school I went to Sunday school and church on Sunday morning, Youth Group and Evening Service Sunday evening (sometimes at the Assembly of God downtown), Wednesday night prayer service, Tuesday night was Youth Bible Study, Thursday was Campus Life, and Friday was Bible Study.

Now, I understood that the Charismatics considered people not to be saved (and therefore going to Hell) if they didn't speak in tongues, but when a missionary from the Missionary Baptists came to Duluth, my mother started going there and I went with her. That was where I discovered that they believed that speaking in tongues was of the Devil.

My mother considered this a minor point. The good news was that I was more influenced on these points by the Wesleyans who, oddly enough, had a compromise position right from the beginning. I have two books on John Wesley. I'll blog it up for all my adoring fans here shortly.

I just got my Mises Memo in the mail.

Which you can get by donating to the Mises Institute. That's where I got the quote above. They're bragging up their kind treatment by Le Monde. The reporter is obviously one of ours. Thank God such a person exists.

Somehow I would like to combine being a hardcore Austrian and a hardcore Objectivist. And somehow squeeze in the fact that I'm a member of the Lutheran Church. ELCA, if anyone cares, although fine theological distinctions aren't of interest to me.
I could be called a methodological atheist. I believe in living as though the responsibility for my life, liberty and happiness could not be shunted off to some - at best - poorly understood superbeing. The motivation for and essence of morality is that we should do what we can to make life worth living for as long as we can.

That might make me a Deist, which are now called Unitarians although I think I'd dislike a lot of the new age crap that's filtered in, and I doubt I'd like their ceremonies.

I was actually raised a fundamentalist Christian. The first and main church I went to as a child was The Darrow Road Wesleyan Church. I got married in that building there, but I don't think I'd been to more than half a dozen services there. They built it just as I was finishing college.

The Wesleyans split off from some of the Methodists over the issue of slavery. The Wesleyans were abolitionists. I consider that admirable. John Wesley founded the Methodist movement within the English Church in the 1700s more or less by inventing the Bible Study. They were rejected and booted out.

Here's the key to individualism.

From: Discovering Mises: A Turning Point

by William H. Peterson

"....(H)uman action proceeds strictly through individuals even though everyone is a member of various organizations such as families, societies, nationalities, political parties, religious groups, states, etc."

My buddy Jim Powell

proving that FDR's [scare quote]Brain Trust[unscare quote] examined the economy through their rectal membranes.

The Libertarian Enterprise

directed me to this organization, whose quarterly report reads like sci-fi.

Thank God!

And if you haven't checked it out yet, here's the SkyCar!

Morgan Reynolds, former Dept. of Labor economist,

backs up my point about Hoover being the father of the New Deal and the enemy of Laissez Faire.

This is Luskin's mission statement:

Chronicle of the Conspiracy
Join us as we discover, document, expose and challenge the bad people, the bad institutions and the bad ideas that stand in the way of wealth creation -- and show you how to fight back!

I want to see some more on that last phrase.

I suppose the guys in the Krugman Truth Squad are modeling fact checking.

In the Kling article

he says this:

The Bugs of Austrianism

Given that Austrian economics focuses on The Knowledge Problem and Competition as a Discovery Procedure, which of the following would you guess would be a metaphor for an Austrian explanation of booms and busts in business investment?

(A) Imagine a restaurant in which the menu includes some items that can be cooked quickly, using stir-fry and microwave techniques, while other dishes such as stews and roasts require longer and more roundabout cooking methods. In a well-functioning restaurant, the extent to which consumers are hungry now or are willing to wait determines the mix of food that is prepared. The waiters deliver the right information to the chefs about how much of each type of meal to prepare. However, like a bad waiter, a central bank can enter the picture and deceive the chefs into thinking that people want more stews and roasts than they truly desire. This leads to a boom in long-term cooking, followed by a bust later on.

(B) Imagine a restaurant in which the chefs have many new recipes to try. Most of them will not be popular, but some will represent successful gastronomic progress. When the chefs become optimistic, they try many new recipes, which means a boom. When the chefs become risk-averse, there is a slump.



For reasons that baffle me, the Austrians prefer explanation (A). Explanation (B) is closer in spirit to Keynes, the arch-enemy of the Austrians.

My experience both in business and in economics leads me to prefer (B). I have never been in a business situation where a decision boiled down to a choice between two projects with known, predictable rates of return, with one project short-term and the other project long-term. Instead, the typical challenge has been to guess whether a new business idea will be successful or not, given uncertainties about feasibility, marketing, technology risk, and other factors.

Austrian Business Cycle Theory, as I, a layman, understand it, states that Booms and Busts are caused by somebody, generally a central banker but historically private banks have issued bank notes based on fractional reserves also, misinforming entrepreneurs about how much money is available. The cooks are being told to try anything they want and to hell with the cost. Truffles from France? Sure! Borrow some of my cash! Plenty more where that came from.
The trouble is, there's not plenty more. Pretty soon you get inflation, or stagflation or hyperinflation if you don't reign in the printing presses or the credit expansion. When you do reign it in, everybody overreacts and you get a crash. It seems to me that Greenspan did what he was supposed to do in popping the bubble and engineering a soft landing for the economy, but everybody went apeshit anyway.

Monetarism is going to get us this response.

The only answer is to go back to gold.

I took the "Are You an Austrian?" quiz

at Mises.org.

I scored 100%, but that may just be the kiss-ass in me looking to please the professor.

There were some Chicago positions worth pursuing, but my current level of economic education tells me that the Austrian points were preferable. [Where should I put the cesur in that sentence?]

Robert Kling at Tech Central Station seems to have been disappointed to only have scored 78%. If every economist in the country scored as much as 50% the world would be a better place.

Another good point, same article.

Some say that by the mere ability to resist evil we become the very evil we fight. That view equates initiation of aggression for spite or profit with defense of self and family. In my humble opinion, the two are not equal. Protection of innocents is a noble cause. Failure to plan or failure to act when necessary is not noble, merely irresponsible for it leads to extinction and encourages predators to victimize others besides us.

Interesting point from an RKBA site.

Becoming an adult involves learning to respect others and to take responsibility for our own actions. Most people learn those skills and appreciate the values on which peaceful coexistence is predicated. Unfortunately, a minority of people, fewer than 2%, decline to behave in a civilized manner. Civilized behavior, for the purpose of our discussion, could be described as acting humanely towards others even if no punishment would be incurred by acting meanly.

Kim du Toit

Nuff said.

The good people I work for just gave me a baby gift.

Of course, being the stereotypical computer nerd, I have no idea how to properly express my appreciation. I'm quite speechless.

EPITAPH ON THE POLITICIAN HIMSELF, Hilaire Belloc

Here richly, with ridiculous display,
The Politician's corpse was laid away.
While all of his acquaintance sneered and slanged
I wept: for I had longed to see him hanged.

Amen.

Of course the article goes on to compare

the enviromentalists' projections of the results of loosening the regs to their preferred perfect utopia of an earth unencumbered by human civilization. Oh, yeah, they didn't say that did they? Ask yourself, what is the standard that their criticism are based on?

I was listening to Bob Davis yesterday

on KSTP, when some knucklehead called up and claimed that George Bush had made America a dirtier place by loosening environmental restrictions.

Funny that that's the first I heard of it. Here's the second. Check this out:

Lawyers at E.P.A. Say It Will Drop Pollution Cases
By CHRISTOPHER DREW and RICHARD A. OPPEL Jr.

Published: November 6, 2003

WASHINGTON, Nov. 5 — A change in enforcement policy will lead the Environmental Protection Agency to drop investigations into 50 power plants for past violations of the Clean Air Act, lawyers at the agency who were briefed on the decision this week said.

The lawyers said in interviews on Wednesday that the decision meant the cases would be judged under new, less stringent rules set to take effect next month, rather than the stricter rules in effect at the time the investigations began.

The lawyers said the new rules include exemptions that would make it almost impossible to sustain the investigations into the plants, which are scattered around the country and owned by 10 utilities.
...
Funny how restrictions not yet in effect can do so much damage. That could be taken either way, they obviously have stopped enforcing the old rules, but when did that start?

I just edited the previous post, so ya know.

I amplified a couple of my comments, but mostly I just improved the divisions between my comments and theirs.

Carrying on:

6. The global divide between poverty and wealth has reached intolerable proportions

Try freedom

and the mounting pressure on natural resources

Try privatizing them.

makes the current model of globalisation unsustainable.

The model that works is no model. Give up trying to control the future.

Social inequality is worsening and undermining the stability of societies in more and more countries. And while the percentage of the world's population living in absolute poverty is declining, the number of people struggling to survive in such poverty has never been higher, as nearly three billion people now live on less than two dollars per day, most of them being women.

I'm back. I read the other day in In Defense of Global Capitalism that the definition of absolute poverty is living on one dollar or less per day. They're fudging the numbers.

At the same time, the benefits of expanding global trade and foreign direct investment remain mostly in the North. For hundreds of millions of workers, basic labour and social rights remain a distant dream and a privilege of those in wealthy nations. Most people in the world lack any form of social protection, while a small minority in many poorer countries enjoy enormous wealth.

That's because they, the wealthy minority, are the government. Bourgeois democracies have strong, well-off middle classes; socialist bureaucracies and hereditary aristocracies don't. Don't pretend you're offering something better.

The Socialist International therefore believes that a central challenge for our world today is to make it possible for developing countries to catch up, but without endangering the global ecological balance.

You can eat as long as you don't endanger a snail darter.

This must be the basis of a global program for sustainable development in three dimensions: economic, social and environmental.

"Wha-a-at...do-o-es...a...ye-ello-ow...li-i-ight...me-e-ean?" Rise up out of poverty slower. (Sorry, I forget what movie that line's from.)

7. For the Socialist International a comprehensive and balanced strategy for sustainable development must be based on a New Global Deal, which would require that:

developing countries improve their integration in the global economy,

Obey us.

build their national capacity in institutional, economic, technological and educational terms,

According to our dictates.

fight against poverty,

Isn't that supposed to be what it's all about? for everyone in politics? You don't have a monopoly on compassion for the poor, even though this phrase presumes to arrogate it to yourselves.

improve working conditions as well as the access of women to the labour market, and control major ecological imbalances.

Tell it to the Saudis.

developed countries open their markets to exports from developing countries,

That's call free trade. I wish we'd thought of it. If we don't soon, the commies'll take the issue from us.

encourage good investment in poorer parts of the World

Free (and later forgiven) loans.

to enhance more balanced development, strengthen cooperation and increase financial aid to developing countries and move toward sustainable consumption and production patterns in ways that preserve social cohesion.

Obey us. But don't get ahead of us. We're in charge here.

The Socialist International recognizes that positive elements for a new global agenda already partially exist in:



the Millennium Development goals adopted by the UN General Assembly in 2000


the Monterrey Consensus that agreed in early 2002 a commitment to improve financial instruments for development


the Plan for Sustainable Development adopted at the World Summit in Johannesburg in 2002


the Development Round of negotiations in international trade launched in Doha in 2001, with a commitment to focus more on developing countries.

We love you guys! Join us!

These positive elements should be fully supported. Nonetheless, efforts to fulfil the these commitments have been frustrated because:

development goals have been pushed aside with the argument that security concerns must be given priority

narrow self-interest continues to undermine the Doha Development Round, most recently in Cancun, where egoism

I wish.

and the drive to protect markets in developed countries, particularly for agriculture, led to a collapse of negotiations

All too true. The unions screwed you.

not enough progress has been made on changing the so-called Washington Consensus, and developing countries have not yet been given a powerful enough voice in the Bretton Woods institutions that remain unable to adequately respond to development challenges or manage financial crises and economic downturns.

Consensus is always a house of cards if it doesn't take place in an election or a legislative vote.

The Socialist International recognises that the obstacles to more balanced global economy and a more just world are more political than technical and therefore must be overcome through political efforts. The International therefore embraces a global agenda for sustainable development that includes the following ten points, all crucial for guaranteeing that globalisation works for all:

i) International trade as an engine for growth and employment must include unhindered access to markets in the developed world for exports from developing countries, especially agricultural and other labour-intensive products, also taking into account that most of farmers are women.

True, but are most farmers really women? I suppose most human beings are female.

ii) The current digital divide must

By fiat, force and/or magic.

be turned into international digital opportunities for all, men and women. Knowledge is becoming the main source of wealth, but can also be the main source of inequalities. Developing countries therefore must leapfrog into the digital economy and the North should help them by launching an inclusion plan for the developing world involving public-private partnerships and technological transfers.

Like I said, fiat, force and magic. Look, this can be done by charity, but charity is always sustainable: the geese lay golden eggs as they can. You can't cut them open to speed up the process.

iii) Turning sustainable development into growth opportunities, by fostering ongoing and undertaking new initiatives to promote environmentally sustainable development in agriculture, energy and transport, and tapping into the employment opportunities this would create.


iv) Adopting a fresh approach to development policies that would combine new trade opportunities, incentives for foreign investment, promoting entrepreneurship, building national productive capacity and social infrastructure and increasing accountability.

That's exactly what free trade and killing corporate welfare (including direct subsidies, grants of monopolies, high tariffs and other interventionist/protectionist measures) would get you.

In developing countries, the stabilisation policies should allow greater fiscal flexibility for investment and enhanced spending, particularly on education, health and social development. At the same time, debt relief must be accelerated and development aid expanded,

"Money for nothin' and your chicks for free."

as decided in the UN (0.7% of GNP), in connection with a concerted poverty reduction strategy.

Also known as Hocus Pocus. If you Big Government types had any idea how to reduce poverty, we'd see some evidence of it by now.

v) Instituting better regulation, accountability and supervision of financial systems to enhance the prospects for sustainable growth and development.

S__t. See previous note.

vi) Investing in people by raising educational levels and providing training for all and incorporating advanced teaching techniques to guarantee the most skilled work force possible. Information technologies should play a key role in improving the quality of education and creating new employment opportunities.

Kind of micromanaging aren't you?

vii) Providing adequate and efficient quality healthcare for all with special attention to women and women's reproductive rights which should be protected from any kind of intimidation. Access to life-saving and essential medicines must be a priority in order to combat contagious diseases worldwide.


viii) Fostering employability and a more skilled and versatile work force through active labour market policies that would include efforts against all forms of discrimination and providing greater assistance and training for the working poor to upgrade their skill levels. A safety net for social protection has proved to be crucial for people struggling to adapt to change. Specific strategies are needed for the informal economy. Better integration policies and better cooperation between host and origin countries are necessary to humanise migration flows.

Never relinquish centralized control, but always expand it.

ix) Tackling drug related crime and money laundering by strengthening international cooperation with shared responsibility, reducing both supply and demand, involving civil society in preventing and treating drug use and providing technological and trade support to alternative productions in poor countries.

...always expand itx)

Placing greater emphasis on the provision of global public services, especially with regard to sanitation, health care, child care facilities, education, employment promotion and environmental protection. The principle of public service cannot be sacrificed to the consecration of the market. Tax systems should also be adapted to promote better public services and a new global tax should be created to fund the global public goods.

That's what the Second Amendment is all about.

8. For the Socialist International, the following mandates represent a clear test of the political will to ensure a fairer and more just global economy and where the gender perspective should also be included.

The cancellation of the debt of the poorest countries, subject to minimum conditions of good governance and going further than the ineffective HIPC programme.

And don't forget that gender perspective.

The unilateral opening of markets in the developed world to exports from the poorest countries.

You said that before...wait! Unilateral?! Well, it worked for Britain in the nineteenth century.

The establishment of a Committee and a Fund against Hunger, within the United Nations System, as proposed by President Lula.

Gotta suck up to him!

A radical change of policy on agricultural subsidies in Europe, the United States and Japan, putting an end to this unacceptable distortion of markets that remains one of the principle obstacles to development in the South.

Absolutely! But it's not a socialist thing, it's a free market thing.

The abolition of offshore tax havens, which constitute not only a fiscal injustice but are also - through lack of regulation, transparency and accountability - a key factor in the financing and proliferation of terrorism, drug trafficking, trafficking in women and organised crime, and provide shelter for non-democratic regimes to escape from punishment for their corrupt behaviour.

No, no, no, no, no. Your taxes are too high, your regulations are too tight, and you've banned too many victimless activities for your police to deal with so they don't have the resources to catch true victimizers.

A substantial increase in public development assistance, which continues to fall unacceptably short of previously agreed targets. The support to the World Fund for Solidarity which was recently adopted by the United Nations General Assembly.

I already said what I thought about the U. N.

A sustained international commitment to rectifying the great scandal of our time - the situation in Sub-Saharan Africa. That region is not only the principle victim of the adverse effects of globalisation, but it also remains excluded from the benefits, while being abandoned to war, poverty, hunger, debt and death.

Of course, nobody there could take responsibility. There are no responsible people there.

The NEPAD initiative begun by a number of African countries, which links development to respect for democracy and good governance, deserves much stronger support than it has received thus far.

That could be good. I'll have to check that out.

9. Critical to the prospects for worldwide sustainable development is a deep transformation of governance at all levels - international, regional, national and local - including:

Better governance through greater transparency and accountability and a higher quality of political decision-making and policy formulation, including stronger women participation. At least one third should be female politicians.

The latter hardly guarantees the former.

Enhanced participation of the various stakeholders of the civil society.

What did Bork say about the Tenth Amendment? It was a "mere tautology"? Would that it were so, in that case, but this portends ill. They mean "chosen" (not necessarily elected by the people) representatives of stakeholder collectives.

More extensive interaction between national and international levels of governance, particularly through the process of regional integration

None of those nasty national borders.

10. With regard to reform of governance at the global level, the Socialist International is deeply committed to working for:



The establishment of a UN Security Council on the Economy, Society and the Environment - in effect, a Council for Sustainable Development - that would coordinate sustainable development on a global scale,

A Cabrini Green in every locale! Don't step on the grass!

push forward effective responses to inequality

Down with the Technocrats!

and financial volatility and promote economic growth and job expansion. This Council, composed in much more representative terms than the current Security Council,

Down with the U.S.!

should be entitled to make the main choices regarding the coordination of the multilateral organisations in the financial, economic, social and environmental areas. This Council would hold meetings at different levels, including annual summits of heads of state and government together with the top managers of international agencies and organisations.


Reform of the Bretton Woods system and revision of the Washington consensus to include greater democratic control of international institutions, better representation of the developing world and rules of conditionality that take into account not only financial stability and market liberalisation, which should be applied more leniently, but also the economic and social needs of national populations. A world financial authority should have real supervisory and regulatory powers, enabling it to guarantee the transparency of financial markets through compliance with effective codes of conduct.

Ah, cut your taxes!

The strengthening of international environmental governance, building on existing institutions, the United Nations Environment Programme, and establishing a World Environment Organisation, WEO, to promote the implementation of existing agreements and treaties such as the Kyoto Protocol, draft new ones, formulate policy and compile reliable information on the actual state of the world's environment.

I didn't vote for the U. N. ambassador or anybody else in the State Department.

A greater role and stronger intervention capability for the International Labour Organisation.

Really?

A new equilibrium in the way economic, social and environmental issues are addressed by international institutions, rooted in a more democratic, transparent and balanced process. The WTO, the ILO and the new WEO should work together to ensure that trade is both free and fair, to reject new forms of protectionism, to preserve cultural identity and diversity and to enforce core labour standards and promote sustainable development policies worldwide.

"Enforce core labour standards"? Whose core labor standards? Core to whom and for what? as Ayn Rand might say.

11. The Socialist International views regional integration as a key instrument to promote sustainable development, combine social cohesion with competitiveness and shape a better architecture of international relations.

Who asked ya?

As the experience of the European Union indicates, regional integration cannot be limited simply to free trade.

Big government failed, so we need bigger big government.

It must integrate political, social, economic and environmental dimensions, so that open inter-regionalism can become a powerful tool for achieving better global governance. In this context, the SI fully supports the efforts to promote integration in Latin America in all the referred dimensions, also as an instrument to consolidate democracy and overcome conflict.

12. Humanity has reached a crossroads.

What else is new?

The present world order, marked by unilateralism,

Who? You mean us?

disrespect for human rights,

That ain't us.

social injustice and unequal development is reaching its limit.

So Marx said. His solution proved a chimera. Ours didn't. It's called: the free and natural growth of human knowledge.

Building a New World Order based on multilateralism, democracy, respect for human rights and sustainable development is therefore necessary and increasingly demanded by citizens of nations both women and men, throughout both the North and South. The Socialist International is committed to the enormous political work required to build a better world and calls on all progressive and democratic women and men to join in the effort through a truly global alliance.

Christ! I thought it'd never end.


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But, what I really want to do

is fisk the Declaration of Sao Paolo.

XXII Congress of the Socialist International

SÃo Paulo, 27-29 October 2003


Declaration of SÃo Paulo

1. The Socialist International, the global movement of social democratic, socialist and labour parties, holding its XXII Congress in São Paulo at the invitation of the Partido dos Trabalhadores, calls on all socially and politically progressive people

Who want to ossify society within an unbreakable government shell.

and organisations to come together in a global coalition to promote a new world order based on a new multilateralism for peace, security,

Yes, talking is better than killing.

sustainable development,

I'm working for sustainable government.

social justice,

Making sure people get what they truly earn is social and it is just.

democracy,

You mean centralized control by unremovable, incumbent politicians.

respect for human rights and gender equality.

I'm with ya. Bring all those barbarian states up to US levels with regard to respect for the individual.

2. The intense globalisation process, of markets and economies as well as technology, communications and cultural exchange, has accelerated for some the creation of wealth and increases in productivity and trade — but at an unacceptable cost: the widening of the gap between rich and poor countries, and between rich people and poor people in countries of both the North and the South.

The rich countries do the first clause of this point, the poor countries are ruled by tyrants and/or gangsters who tax, regulate and otherwise punish all free activity within their borders.

At the same time, the world is witnessing ever greater threats to peace, the emergence and deepening of regional conflicts, the possible connection of terrorism and the spread of weapons of mass destruction, the revival of religious fundamentalism, exacerbated nationalism, increasing racist and xenophobic attitudes and all forms of discrimination.

I missed the ad campaign for those things. I guess Madison Avenue either failed here or is running a stealth campaign to force us to buy hatred.

3. The current system of global governance, established in the aftermath of the World War II, needs reform to be able to meet the challenges of the 21st century.

Yeah, dump it.

Neoconservatives are attempting to exploit the situation to dismantle all forms of global governance, to minimise the role of the United Nations, to undermine multilateral institutions, to promote unilateralism and the consecration of the market,

I don't know if there are neocons in Europe, but the ones I know want the U.S. to take over the world, yes. As a libertarian, I with 'em up to the imperialist part. I want the U.S. to live according to its constitution and try to persuade others that this is the way to go. Neocons btw are more Corporatist than Capitalist, they like government run of, by and for big business. The Market is not consecrated by subsidies for the rich. It is desecrated by them.

and to impose the will of the powerful to decide the future of mankind.

As opposed to the weak and ignorant? The weak never lead anything, no matter what your rhetoric states, and the ignorant lead all to often. When they get powerful. Although, anyone who thinks Marx was a great economist....

We need to improve the work of the international community, to modernise and strengthen multilateral institutions to further our collective interests.

Those of us who showed up here at this Congress.

The International is steadfastly working to mobilise all the world's progressives to define and implement a comprehensive strategy for sustainable development and reform of the global system of governance. The goal is to shape globalisation so that it provides opportunity for all, making world markets work for everyone and to establish an effective system of multilateral governance, based on the rule of law and a more balanced, more just architecture of international relations, with a reformed and modernised United Nations as its cornerstone.

International anarchy would be better. Hell, American neocon imperialism would be better.

As was the case after World War II, a new vision is needed based on the enforcement of international law, more effective regulation of world markets and more democratic, accountable and efficient global institutions to formulate and carry out policies on behalf of people everywhere.

Democratic accountability will never be efficient. The free market is efficient. I get to choose what I want based on what I can produce to trade for it. Oh, sorry, that's Say's law. The socialists want everybody in the world to vote on what I can have for breakfast. [Oh, they don't really mean that.]4.

The international community must be able to act to preserve and enforce peace, promote security and guarantee respect for fundamental human rights, including their full enjoyment by women and girls, wherever they are threatened or under attack. Intervention, however, must be based on clear evidence and criteria, as well as adherence to international law that combine respect for both the sovereignty of nations and the sovereignty of their citizens, and must be carried out in accordance with the decisions of the United Nations.

Jesus Christ. The UN gets to vote on which bureaucrat will slap my wrist.

The International therefore believes that reform of the United Nations cannot be delayed any longer and will continue to be strongly engaged in the process. Achieving lasting peace and security requires that the United Nations Charter be updated to meet today's new challenges, and that the Security Council be reformed to make it more representative, democratic and responsive.

Get your own Security Council.

5. Peace is not simply the absence of war, but the result of international relations that are well managed and coordinated on the basis of fairness, justice and a commitment to the common good. This is particularly important when addressing the growing threat of terrorism.


The condemnation of terrorism must be unconditional. There can be no excuses, for nothing, not even the poverty and injustice endured by so many people today, can justify terrorist acts.


However, confronting terrorism cannot come at the cost of sacrificing freedom and human rights, or through the double standard of supporting so-called friendly dictatorships. It must also be remembered that justice, social cohesion and cultural and religious tolerance remain important factors in promoting peace and stability at the local, national and global levels, and for making it more difficult for terrorists to recruit desperate people into their groups.

That's what Bush says.

6. The global divide between poverty and wealth has reached intolerable proportions

Try freedom

and the mounting pressure on natural resources

Try privatizing them.

makes the current model of globalisation unsustainable.

The model that works is no model. Give up trying to control the future.

Social inequality is worsening and undermining the stability of societies in more and more countries. And while the percentage of the world's population living in absolute poverty is declining, the number of people struggling to survive in such poverty has never been higher, as nearly three billion people now live on less than two dollars per day, most of them being women.

It's lunch time. I'll post this and be back.

At the same time, the benefits of expanding global trade and foreign direct investment remain mostly in the North. For hundreds of millions of workers, basic labour and social rights remain a distant dream and a privilege of those in wealthy nations. Most people in the world lack any form of social protection, while a small minority in many poorer countries enjoy enormous wealth.


The Socialist International therefore believes that a central challenge for our world today is to make it possible for developing countries to catch up, but without endangering the global ecological balance. This must be the basis of a global program for sustainable development in three dimensions — economic, social and environmental.


7. For the Socialist International a comprehensive and balanced strategy for sustainable development must be based on a New Global Deal, which would require that:



developing countries improve their integration in the global economy, build their national capacity in institutional, economic, technological and educational terms, fight against poverty, improve working conditions as well as the access of women to the labour market, and control major ecological imbalances.


developed countries open their markets to exports from developing countries, encourage good investment in poorer parts of the World to enhance more balanced development, strengthen cooperation and increase financial aid to developing countries and move toward sustainable consumption and production patterns in ways that preserve social cohesion.


The Socialist International recognises that positive elements for a new global agenda already partially exist in:



the Millennium Development goals adopted by the UN General Assembly in 2000


the Monterrey Consensus that agreed in early 2002 a commitment to improve financial instruments for development


the Plan for Sustainable Development adopted at the World Summit in Johannesburg in 2002


the Development Round of negotiations in international trade launched in Doha in 2001, with a commitment to focus more on developing countries.


These positive elements should be fully supported. Nonetheless, efforts to fulfil the these commitments have been frustrated because:



development goals have been pushed aside with the argument that security concerns must be given priority


narrow self-interest continues to undermine the Doha Development Round, most recently in Cancún, where egoism and the drive to protect markets in developed countries, particularly for agriculture, led to a collapse of negotiations


not enough progress has been made on changing the so-called Washington Consensus, and developing countries have not yet been given a powerful enough voice in the Bretton Woods institutions that remain unable to adequately respond to development challenges or manage financial crises and economic downturns.


The Socialist International recognises that the obstacles to more balanced global economy and a more just world are more political than technical and therefore must be overcome through political efforts. The International therefore embraces a global agenda for sustainable development that includes the following ten points, all crucial for guaranteeing that globalisation works for all:



i) International trade as an engine for growth and employment must include unhindered access to markets in the developed world for exports from developing countries, especially agricultural and other labour-intensive products, also taking into account that most of farmers are women.


ii) The current digital divide must be turned into international digital opportunities for all, men and women. Knowledge is becoming the main source of wealth, but can also be the main source of inequalities. Developing countries therefore must leapfrog into the digital economy and the North should help them by launching an inclusion plan for the developing world involving public-private partnerships and technological transfers.


iii) Turning sustainable development into growth opportunities, by fostering ongoing and undertaking new initiatives to promote environmentally sustainable development in agriculture, energy and transport, and tapping into the employment opportunities this would create.


iv) Adopting a fresh approach to development policies that would combine new trade opportunities, incentives for foreign investment, promoting entrepreneurship, building national productive capacity and social infrastructure and increasing accountability. In developing countries, the stabilisation policies should allow greater fiscal flexibility for investment and enhanced spending, particularly on education, health and social development. At the same time, debt relief must be accelerated and development aid expanded, as decided in the UN (0.7% of GNP), in connection with a concerted poverty reduction strategy.


v) Instituting better regulation, accountability and supervision of financial systems to enhance the prospects for sustainable growth and development.


vi) Investing in people by raising educational levels and providing training for all and incorporating advanced teaching techniques to guarantee the most skilled work force possible. Information technologies should play a key role in improving the quality of education and creating new employment opportunities.


vii) Providing adequate and efficient quality healthcare for all with special attention to women and women's reproductive rights which should be protected from any kind of intimidation. Access to life-saving and essential medicines must be a priority in order to combat contagious diseases worldwide.


viii) Fostering employability and a more skilled and versatile work force through active labour market policies that would include efforts against all forms of discrimination and providing greater assistance and training for the working poor to upgrade their skill levels. A safety net for social protection has proved to be crucial for people struggling to adapt to change. Specific strategies are needed for the informal economy. Better integration policies and better cooperation between host and origin countries are necessary to humanise migration flows.


ix) Tackling drug related crime and money laundering by strengthening international cooperation with shared responsibility, reducing both supply and demand, involving civil society in preventing and treating drug use and providing technological and trade support to alternative productions in poor countries.


x) Placing greater emphasis on the provision of global public services, especially with regard to sanitation, health care, child care facilities, education, employment promotion and environmental protection. The principle of public service cannot be sacrificed to the consecration of the market. Tax systems should also be adapted to promote better public services and a new global tax should be created to fund the global public goods.


8. For the Socialist International, the following mandates represent a clear test of the political will to ensure a fairer and more just global economy and where the gender perspective should also be included.



The cancellation of the debt of the poorest countries, subject to minimum conditions of good governance and going further than the ineffective HIPC programme.


The unilateral opening of markets in the developed world to exports from the poorest countries.


The establishment of a Committee and a Fund against Hunger, within the United Nations System, as proposed by President Lula.


A radical change of policy on agricultural subsidies in Europe, the United States and Japan, putting an end to this unacceptable distortion of markets that remains one of the principle obstacles to development in the South.


The abolition of offshore tax havens, which constitute not only a fiscal injustice but are also — through lack of regulation, transparency and accountability — a key factor in the financing and proliferation of terrorism, drug trafficking, trafficking in women and organised crime, and provide shelter for non-democratic regimes to escape from punishment for their corrupt behaviour.


A substantial increase in public development assistance, which continues to fall unacceptably short of previously agreed targets. The support to the World Fund for Solidarity which was recently adopted by the United Nations General Assembly.


A sustained international commitment to rectifying the great scandal of our time — the situation in Sub-Saharan Africa. That region is not only the principle victim of the adverse effects of globalisation, but it also remains excluded from the benefits, while being abandoned to war, poverty, hunger, debt and death. The NEPAD initiative begun by a number of African countries, which links development to respect for democracy and good governance, deserves much stronger support than it has received thus far.


9. Critical to the prospects for worldwide sustainable development is a deep transformation of governance at all levels — international, regional, national and local — including:



Better governance through greater transparency and accountability and a higher quality of political decision-making and policy formulation, including stronger women participation. At least one third should be female politicians.


Enhanced participation of the various stakeholders of the civil society.


More extensive interaction between national and international levels of governance, particularly through the process of regional integration


10. With regard to reform of governance at the global level, the Socialist International is deeply committed to working for:



The establishment of a UN Security Council on the Economy, Society and the Environment — in effect, a Council for Sustainable Development — that would coordinate sustainable development on a global scale, push forward effective responses to inequality and financial volatility and promote economic growth and job expansion. This Council, composed in much more representative terms than the current Security Council, should be entitled to make the main choices regarding the coordination of the multilateral organisations in the financial, economic, social and environmental areas. This Council would hold meetings at different levels, including annual summits of heads of state and government together with the top managers of international agencies and organisations.


Reform of the Bretton Woods system and revision of the Washington consensus to include greater democratic control of international institutions, better representation of the developing world and rules of conditionality that take into account not only financial stability and market liberalisation, which should be applied more leniently, but also the economic and social needs of national populations. A world financial authority should have real supervisory and regulatory powers, enabling it to guarantee the transparency of financial markets through compliance with effective codes of conduct.


The strengthening of international environmental governance, building on existing institutions, the United Nations Environment Programme, and establishing a World Environment Organisation, WEO, to promote the implementation of existing agreements and treaties such as the Kyoto Protocol, draft new ones, formulate policy and compile reliable information on the actual state of the world’s environment.


A greater role and stronger intervention capability for the International Labour Organisation.


A new equilibrium in the way economic, social and environmental issues are addressed by international institutions, rooted in a more democratic, transparent and balanced process. The WTO, the ILO and the new WEO should work together to ensure that trade is both free and fair, to reject new forms of protectionism, to preserve cultural identity and diversity and to enforce core labour standards and promote sustainable development policies worldwide.


11. The Socialist International views regional integration as a key instrument to promote sustainable development, combine social cohesion with competitiveness and shape a better architecture of international relations. As the experience of the European Union indicates, regional integration cannot be limited simply to free trade. It must integrate political, social, economic and environmental dimensions, so that open inter-regionalism can become a powerful tool for achieving better global governance. In this context, the SI fully supports the efforts to promote integration in Latin America in all the referred dimensions, also as an instrument to consolidate democracy and overcome conflict.


12. Humanity has reached a crossroads. The present world order, marked by unilateralism, disrespect for human rights, social injustice and unequal development is reaching its limit. Building a New World Order based on multilateralism, democracy, respect for human rights and sustainable development is therefore necessary and increasingly demanded by citizens of nations both women and men, throughout both the North and South. The Socialist International is committed to the enormous political work required to build a better world and calls on all progressive and democratic women and men to join in the effort through a truly global alliance.




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I already deleted, after reading it, my Liberator Online.

Actually, I get it at home too. I'll update with links after work.

Anyway, they linked me to the Socialist International website. Their point was that Tony Blair is a veep of that organization. He didn't show up and was elected in absentia. I'm not overly concerned about that, I think that the cause of the Clinton economic expansion was, besides the monetary bubble, his apparently unshakable belief in global capitalism. The giant sucking sound doesn't really seem to be hurting us. I would say quite the opposite, but I won't elaborate on the analogy. Ricardo's Law of Association was right again. Of course, if you're a union guy, your exploitation of us non-union guys via special protections and privileges from the government for your industries is ending. Of course, a guy like Clinton, or Blair, would just want to globalize all that as well.

Compassionate Conservatism means never having to say Veto.

There's your bumper sticker of the day.