by Doug Casey
International Man
International Man: What is the role of a justice system in a society, and what should the State have to do with it?
Doug Casey: In my view, what really holds a society together isn’t the laws enacted by legislatures or dictators, but peer pressure, social opprobrium, and moral approbation. In general, society is pretty self-regulating. It’s why people pay their bills at restaurants even though there’s not a cop at the door. Criminals are the exception, not the rule—although, it must be said, they naturally gravitate towards the government.
When somebody commits a crime, there’s a trial to determine what harm has been done, who should be compensated, and so forth. Courts determine these things. But I would argue that the state is not a necessary part of any of this. Society, like markets, tends to be self-ordering.
In 1972, while excavating to build a factory on the Black Sea coast of Bulgaria, a backhoe operator noticed gold objects glimmering in the bucket of his machine.
The GOP primary season has come alive, and the state of play is abysmal. Front and center there is Donald Trump, while everyone else, including a few real Republicans and several neo-con fakers, stumble along far in the rear.
Oil prices have sold off meaningfully from their recent highs. Brent and WTI crude oil lost $4.51/bbl and $4.89/bbl, respectively, from $91.17/bbl and $86.91/bbl (see Exhibit 1) at the time of writing.
American Homes 4 Rent and Invitation Homes sold over 3,000 older single-family houses in 2023.
“Something will have to give.”
President Joe Biden’s pro-migration border chief is opening new processing centers for Muslim migrants, amid pro-HAMAS riots in U.S. cities and just after Congress granted $3.5 billion more for migration within the $95 billion aid package for Ukraine and Israel.
In a throwaway line of green marketing for her country, Iceland’s Prime Minister Katrín Jakobsdóttir told the Financial Times in late March that her island in the mid-Atlantic should use its abundant energy not for bitcoin mining but for… growing corn(!).
This week, Congress moved closer to passing four separate bills with $95 billion in funding for Ukraine, Israel, Indo-Pacific allies, and the domestic submarine industrial base. This funding has been debated for months, with much of it intended for wars that have been going on—and likely will continue—for a while. In other words, it’s not new or surprising. Yet once again, it will be labeled “emergency spending,” a tool allowing legislators to double down on their fiscal irresponsibility.
I’ll preface my commentary with the obvious: All of the “mostly peaceful” protests by our “college educated” on campuses nationwide that are clearly pro-Hamas and aimed at Jewish students are wrong, illegal, and all involved should either go back to the classes their parents and taxpayers are funding or be arrested and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
Video captured at New York University shows that some of the students protesting there have no idea why.
According to the absurd numbers that the government feeds us, the unemployment rate is very low and there are lots of jobs available. But if what they are telling us is true, why are so many Americans not able to find work? As you will see below, some people haven’t been hired even though they have literally applied for hundreds of jobs. There seems to be an enormous disconnect between what is actually happening in the real economy and the economic narrative that they are constantly pushing. By the time you are done reading this article, I think that you will agree with me.