Bob Hoye

Duplicity Rests Upon Apparent Frankness

The line about duplicity resting upon apparent frankness could be from the 1600s. Which was also a time of a seemingly endless experiment in authoritarian government. Eventually, arbitrary intrusion backed by force was seen as stupid. The term “Tyrannical Duncery” was crafted and well understood. However, this article reviews that today’s experiment is fronted by a number of slogans, many false. Resulting in justifiably scornful descriptions.

Greater Fool Theory: Financial and Political Markets

Along-standing observation in wild stock markets is the “Greater Fool Theory”, which is a practical explanation of compulsively buying a soaring market. At excessive valuations, buying the hot stock today assumes that another fool will bid it higher tomorrow. And beyond. Such recklessness typically marks the buying climax that completes a bull market.

Riot du Nord – Eh?

Of course, most will appreciate that this is a variation on the late 1960s “What if they had a war and no one came?”. Well, America’s rage for an internal war against orderly society has not been happening in Canada. Despite Prime Minister Trudeau and his media going on about racial dissension, Canada has been spared the riots and property destruction seen in U.S. Democrat cities. Unable or unwilling to protect citizens, even police have been forced out of their premises. While the scorn for orderly society prevails, that there have been no riots is not due to Canada’s habits of politeness. It is due the fact that Canada is already a fellow traveler on the global advance of authoritarian government.

Country Musician Charlie Daniels Passes

Charlie Daniels, 'Devil Went Down to Georgia' singer, famed fiddler and outspoken star, dies at 83 Tennessean Star -- Charlie Daniels, a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame who sang “The Devil Went Down to Georgia”, recorded with Bob Dylan and was a vocal supporter of U.S. veterans, died Monday morning after suffering a hemorrhagic stroke. He was 83.

Racism: American Democrats and Canadian Liberals in WW II

This writer had long thought that FDR’s 1942 atrocity of destroying the well-being of certain Americans and shipping them to the equivalent of concentration camps began in the US. No, authorities in Canada had acted faster in imposing the same atrocities. In both cases driven by racism against their own citizens.  The American and Canadian citizens who suffered the shocking offense were of Japanese heritage. In both the province of British Columbia and the state of California their prosperity in agriculture and commercial fishing prompted envy and, sadly, predation.

‘Bureaucratic Despotism’: A Scam Perpetuated By Control Freaks

"A great civilization is not conquered from without, until it has destroyed itself from within. The essential causes of Rome's decline lay in her people, her morals, her class struggle, her failing trade, her bureaucratic despotism, her stifling taxes, her consuming wars."

– Will Durant, The Story Of Civilization III, Epilogue, 1944. The above quote circulates as such, but it is a synthesis from his Epilogue Why Rome Fell?. Based upon this writer’s independent review of the collapse, it is an accurate summary. And the collapse was due to the bureaucracy intruding and spending money until, literally, it was all gone. As with today’s great experiment in authoritarian government, it began with immense wealth. In Rome’s case accumulated through conquest.

Destructive Upside Down Politics 
And How Common Sense Returns

Throughout history, prosperity has been built upon individual freedom and limited government. And now, the global economy has suffered the fastest setback – ever – the first caused by monstrous bureaucratic intrusions. The record includes many economic busts, but the only comparable collapse occurred in London in 1665. Shockingly, the important trade center suffered the Bubonic Plague with some 25 percent of the population dying. Naturally, finance and business collapsed, but not by destructive government restrictions. Diarist Samuel Pepys, recorded on October 16, 1665:

Authoritarian Control Knobs Are Failing

The imposition of authoritarian politics upon supposedly the freest country in the world has now become unprecedentedly intense. The stories used to force control have also been extraordinary. Each ploy is approaching madness, and each can be seen as vulnerable under practical adjudication.  The oldest promotion has been that the Federal Reserve System is needed to prevent recessions. For some 30 years the climate pitch has been that freedom needs to be replaced by a one-world-government under the United Nations. The Earth needs to be prevented from "Frying". The latest fear used to extend control has been another influenza. And riots are approaching insurrection. 

Political Contrasts

The obviously extreme positions of authoritarians prompted the creation of this satirical list. The following quotation is the real thing:

“Both political racism and environmental racism are drivers of … climate denialism.” – The New York Times, June 3.

CO2 Is Plant Food Not Pollution

When the establishment can't, or refuses, to understand the difference between plant food and pollution ordinary folk have a big problem. Despite the fear that CO2 generates, it is plant food that all of life depends upon.

Inflation – Deflation

The government world of policymakers is confident that massive reflation by central bankers will restore the economy. Financial history says it may not work and the problem is that interventionist theories have not fully understood financial history. In the jargon of economics, perhaps the most misunderstood term is "inflation". Indeed, it has been so chronically misunderstood that "they" must be paying people to deliberately not understand it. In one decade, such as the 1970s, when the cost of living was rising faster than take-home pay there was considerable social distress.

Wuhan Flu: Not a Calculated Plot: A Statist Opportunity

Some think that the astounding reduction in freedom and jobs is an intentional attempt by the "socialists in all parties" to bury us all in a Communist plot. Of course, the quote is from Hayek's The Road to Serfdom whereby control freaks intend to command everything from the cradle to the grave. History suggests this hysteria is more opportunistic than calculated. And is a byproduct of the always threatening Communist ambition to create the perfect society. Being omniscient and omnipotent Beijing could not allow a pandemic to occur and the result has been an unprecedented global collapse in business and freedom. The two vanished together and the good news is that both can come back. Freedom first. 

“Tunes” For Comfort or Distraction When Isolated.

With the Wuhan Flu keeping so many people isolated, there is need for distraction. As we are seeing, there has been a considerable reduction in commuting, including the frustrations. The following “tunes” include sad and bluesy songs in keeping with today’s moods. There are some “remedy” songs as well.  Also, there is a selection from an album called Vintage Songs of Sex, Drugs & Cigarettes.

Carbon Emission Futures Have Tanked And What Does It Mean?

With all the excitement about controlling the climate, Carbon Emission Futures rallied strongly to $27 in December. And have dropped to $15. Obviously, the peak and plunge has been tied to the dramatic collapse of the "Everything Bubble". Stocks, bonds and commodities have seriously slumped in what could be a weakening global economy. Should this continue, there will not be enough money to fund bureaucratic ambition such as "managing" the temperature of the nearest planet.

Natural Forces Could Overwhelm Control Freaks

Coronavirus commands the news and is blamed for the financial slump. While devastating to those afflicted by the disease,  it has only been a catalyst in a natural collapse of speculation. A contraction is always consequent to the raptures of a great financial bubble. What's more, on five previous examples since 1720, the transition from boom to bust has been methodical. In so many words, if you have seen one shocking reversal you've seen them all.  

Financial and Disease Panics: Black Swans?

Some financial writers have claimed that stock market crashes such as followed the 2007 Bubble are unpredictable and rare. Calling them “Black Swan” events. More recently, the Covid-19 health threat has been described as a “Black Swan” event. Making the two together about as “Black Swanny” as it gets. However, a review of history suggests that severe financial crashes have always followed great financial bubbles. The transitions to busts have had much in common and the methodical pattern strongly suggests that even the greatest of crashes since the first in 1720 have predictable characteristics.  Therefore, severe financial panics cannot be considered as “Black Swan” events.

The End of Authoritarianism

So that there is no confusion about terms, there is a description from physics of an authoritarian system: “That which is not compulsory is prohibited”. Wonderfully elegant and it covers everything right down to school boards. From communism to today’s corruption of liberalism, socialists in all parties have trended authoritarian.

Show Pieces: Swing-Jazz-Rock

Listening pleasure in popular music has been widely available for generations. And within this there are some special arrangements and recordings. Initially of modest length some became extended pieces. One feature has been a recurring phrase building excitement into the close. Sometimes the mounting intensity was called a “ride-out”, sometimes a “coda”. Historically, these range from Glen Gray in 1935 to Ellington at the 1956 Newport Jazz Festival to the Beetles and Rolling Stones in the late 1960s. Also, there is a Roy Orbison from 1989.

Judicial and Sanctuary Abuse

The Western World, which unprecedented prosperity is the natural result of individual freedom and limited government, is suffering remarkable political turmoil. On their long-running experiment authoritarians in all parties have become too strident, prompting popular uprisings. And to extend arbitrary control, an independent judiciary has been corrupted. Individuals such as General Flynn are threatened in a manner seen in Medieval Times.  And what San Francisco, for example, has been doing to the medieval concept of sanctuary has been astonishing. Political turmoil, even hysteria, began when ordinary folk finally woke up saying "No!" to unrelenting bureaucratic intrusion.  Regrettably, our governing classes have become, well, ungovernable. 

Princely Finance and Taxation

One would have hoped that financial rip-offs committed by medieval princes would have been permanently shelved when liberal enlightenment ended the divine right of kings. Instead some kind of divine right of bureaucrats has forced too much in-your-face and in-your-wallet government. Today’s version of greedy royalty. And the remedy lies in the eruptions of popular uprisings against intrusive government.