About economic ignorance . . .

"The people who believe that tariffs are good for the nation are literally incapable of deductive economic reasoning. This argument has been used by mercantilists ever since the late 17th century. Adam Smith'sWealth of Nations is a refutation of the mercantilist position. Nevertheless, people who are incapable of following a line of economic argumentation, and who get patriotic when they hear the word 'nation,' rush to promote tariffs. Thus, the combination of an ignorant patriotism and an ignorant economic analysis produces the statement: 'Protectionism is good for the nation.'"

- Gary North, November 2013

"Unfortunately, so few people understand economic logic, that this subsidy from the majority to the minority is not understood as being a coercive wealth-transfer program for the benefit of the minority. Very few Americans understand this. Very few Chinese understand it. Whenever a nation adopts mercantilism, which is approximately 100% of the time, it does so on the basis that almost no one understands that the policy inflicts damage on the vast majority of citizens, and it benefits only a minority who are in the export sector of the economy."

"It is a shame that most people do not understand economics, but not a shame for favored exporters, who benefit from the theft of purchasing power. You cannot get something for nothing. A minority group of exporters get a lot. The masses get rising prices for almost everything."

- Gary North, January 2013

On just war . . .

"There are various views of war, but there simply has not been too much exegesis on the topic in our circles. A common phenomenon, therefore—and which I think is a result of that relative neglect—has been the acceptance of the status quo standing army, warmongering, interventionist foreign policy, etc., that is common among establishment types and neoconservatives. There has even been expressed an outright 'crusade' view of warfare—aggressive foreign policy, conquest—by some in the Reformed world."

"Dr. Bahnsen begins by noting the deficiency of rational, biblical thought on this issue: 'There is far too much emotional rhetoric and knee-jerk responses, too much sloganizing, too little analytical thinking, and above all, too little biblical thinking.'” 

"Thus, as theonomists, we must acknowledge that God is sovereign even in warfare. All civil and earthly authorities will give account to God for how they conduct war. This means that we must take seriously how the Bible places real constraints upon how we conduct warfare: 'The biblical ethic is not an ethic of any means to the end as long as the end is a good one. Even the means toward a good end must be good.' A just war, if we can use that phrase, must not only have a just cause, but a just conduct."

"It is our job, therefore, to distinguish between those parts of God’s Law that were given as special directive to Israel in the land of Canaan, and those parts which abide for all nations and times."

"In the end, Bahnsen turned to scripture for the laws of military and warfare. He found very specific Laws from God. These laws calls us to war only in just causes, for defensive wars only, with voluntary militias, only after every possible avenue of peace is exhausted, only in measured responses, only when feasible physically and financially, and only where we have legitimate jurisdiction to do so. These laws, according to Bahnsen, forbid standing armies, wars of aggression, and interventionism. Bahnsen’s non-interventionist principle would have us as a nation, most of the time, minding our own business, pursuing peace, and sending missionaries instead of soldiers."

- Dr. Joel McDurmon

On fiat money . . .

"Within the next twenty years, the most profound changes in all of economic history will sweep the globe. The economic chaos and turbulence we are now experiencing are merely the opening salvos in what will prove to be a long, disruptive period of adjustment. Our choices now are to either evolve a new economic model that is compatible with limited physical resources, or to risk a catastrophic failure of our monetary system, and with it the basis for civilization as we know it today."

"When we started our exponential monetary system, initiated by the Bank of England around 1700 but kicked into high gear in 1971 with the international abandonment of gold settlement, nobody ever thought that the day would come when we’d find our ball park filled nearly to the brim. . . ."

"We are leaving a legacy of debt to our children, born and unborn. Just as the direct printing of money favored by Wiemar Germany in the 1920s destroyed German’s purchasing power, so, too, does America’s debt accumulation promise to ruin our economy. . . ."

"Your job, your savings, your investments, and your future prospects and standard of living depend on the continuation of an unsustainable system now drawing to a close. You owe it to yourself to get ahead of the immense changes that are coming like water roiling up the steps towards the bleacher seat to which you are chained."

- Chris Martenson

On the decline of US dollar . . .

"In the most profound financial change in recent Middle East history, Gulf Arabs are planning – along with China, Russia, Japan and France – to end dollar dealings for oil, moving instead to a basket of currencies including the Japanese yen and Chinese yuan, the euro, gold and a new, unified currency planned for nations in the Gulf Co-operation Council, including Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi, Kuwait and Qatar."

"Secret meetings have already been held by finance ministers and central bank governors in Russia, China, Japan and Brazil to work on the scheme, which will mean that oil will no longer be priced in dollars."

"Chinese financial sources believe President Barack Obama is too busy fixing the US economy to concentrate on the extraordinary implications of the transition from the dollar in nine years' time. The current deadline for the currency transition is 2018."

"'These plans will change the face of international financial transactions," one Chinese banker said. "America and Britain must be very worried. You will know how worried by the thunder of denials this news will generate.'"

"Iran announced late last month that its foreign currency reserves would henceforth be held in euros rather than dollars. Bankers remember, of course, what happened to the last Middle East oil producer to sell its oil in euros rather than dollars. A few months after Saddam Hussein trumpeted his decision, the Americans and British invaded Iraq."

- Robert Fisk

"Big oil producing nations denied a British newspaper report on Tuesday that Gulf Arab states were in secret talks with Russia, China, Japan and France to replace the U.S. dollar with a basket of currencies in trading oil."

"The dollar eased in response to the report, which was written by The Independent's Middle East correspondent Robert Fisk and cited unidentified sources in Gulf Arab states and Chinese banking sources in Hong Kong."

- Simon Rabinotvitch and Wayne Cole

"The future of the dollar is very shaky indeed, and if history is any guide, the dollar has no where else to go but down from here on out. People talk about deflation pressures in the next year or so, and they are right to do so, but serious inflation, perhaps hyper-inflation, is the only possible outcome longer-term."

"Here’s one version of what may happen: As time goes on, it will become clearer to China, Japan and others that investing in the United States is a waste of time. Inflation will be eroding the value of their dollar reserves. . . . The demand for dollars will slow considerably, and there may even be a headlong flight from the dollar. . . ."

"No one can no how all this will play out, but I find little room for optimism regarding the dollar’s longer term future."

- Monty Pelerin's World

On inflation . . .

"With the massive increases in federal spending, inflation is one of the risks that awaits us. To protect us from the political demagoguery that will accompany that inflation, let's now decide what is and what is not inflation. One price or several prices rising is not inflation. Increases in money supply are what constitute inflation, and a general rise in prices is the symptom. As the late Nobel Laureate Professor Milton Friedman said, 'Inflation is always and everywhere a monetary phenomenon, in the sense that it cannot occur without a more rapid increase in the quantity of money than in output.'"

"Thinking of inflation as rising prices permits politicians to deceive us and escape culpability. They shift the blame saying that inflation is caused by greedy businessmen, rapacious unions or Arab sheiks. Instead, it is increases in the money supply that cause inflation, and who is in charge of the money supply? It's the government operating through the Federal Reserve Bank and the U.S. Treasury."

- Walter E. Williams

On American problem . . .

"The problem is not China. It is not India. It is not imports. The problem is the endless call from each special-interest group for the government to Do Something to Save America. The problem is that the government has done way to much for too long, all in the name of Doing Something to Save America." - Gary North

On reduction of bureaucracy . . .

" State and local governments all over the country are dead broke, and an atmosphere of austerity is sweeping the nation. Right now state and local governments are slashing jobs at an unprecedented rate."

"This is bad? The states are firing people? This means less bureaucracy. I see this as one of the greatest developments in my lifetime. The states' payrolls are shrinking."

"In the past, government jobs were considered to be very secure and they definitely paid a lot higher than average. But now that era is coming to an end, at least on the state and local government levels."

"According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, state and local governments have eliminated more than half a million jobs since August 2008. UBS Investment Research is projecting that state and local governments in the U.S. will cut 450,000 more jobs by the end of 2012." 

- Gary North