America's back in business

Submitted by Bill St. Clair on Sun, 30 Sep 2001 14:24:44 GMT

FROM MOUNTAIN MEDIA
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE DATED SEPT. 18, 2001
THE LIBERTARIAN, By Vin Suprynowicz
America's back in business

The Dow Jones Industrial Average plummeted 681 points Monday -- the first day of resumed trading at the New York Stock Exchange following last Tuesday's devastating terrorist attack on the neighboring World Trade Center.

The drop was about 7 percent, and exceeded the previous record one-day drop of 617.78 points, set on April 14, 2000.

The four-day market shutdown which ended Monday morning was the longest for the NYSE since March, 1933, when Franklin Roosevelt moved to halt a precipitous decline -- prompted in part by his own unprecedented interventions in the economy, including a ban on the private ownership of gold -- by declaring a "bank holiday" during the Great Depression.

The Dow closed at 8,924 Monday -- dropping below 9,000 for the first time in more than 2 1/2 years. The Nasdaq composite index fell 115 points; the broader Standard & Poor's 500 index was down 53.

Some had already begun moaning over the weekend that the market might "perform poorly" Monday, that "something should be done" to stop investors from "profiting from the misfortunes of others" by assuming massive short positions (attempting to make money on the market's fall.) There was even talk that there might be something "unpatriotic" about selling off existing holdings at a loss.

None of this is true, and those who had the resolve to allow uninterrupted trading to go forward on the world's greatest market showed considerable wisdom.

There has been much talk in the past week about how America is now "at war" with murderous, reactionary forces that hate capitalism, freedom, pluralism, and Western values.

It remains to be seen whether the American people still retain the virility and resolve to sustain any such war of survival over a long haul -- a war which, our leaders in Washington are now at pains to remind us, will not only involve American casualties, but will also have to be pursued no matter how the bleeding-heart commentators in Paris, Rome, Boston, and New York whimper that we're being "vindictive and overly harsh" in not giving quarter "when the other guy is down," failing to immediately minister to the needs of the widows and orphans of our bloody-handed assailants.

But if we are indeed at war, it is a war to defend precisely such engines of progress as the free market, of which the New York Stock Exchange is a prime example. (The targeting of lower Manhattan by Tuesday's terrorists was no accident, after all.)

The markets did not "perform poorly" Monday. They did just what they were supposed to do. With a far more sweeping efficiency than any bureaucratic central planners could ever hope to muster, they began the process of reallocating resources to fit the world's new economic and political realities.

There could have been no selling Monday without willing buyers. If buyers "speculated" that they could make money by buying stock on the downturn, does that mean those buyers have given up hope in America? Just the opposite -- they figure the emotionally driven downgrade has gone too far, that the underlying value of the firms in question is higher than is reflected in current prices. They are in fact "betting" on America, or there would have been no buying Monday at any price.

Meantime, what will happen to the cash now held by Monday's sellers? It's not in the nature of capitalism to let greenbacks sit around earning no return -- moneys gained by selling off "peacetime" holdings may well be quickly reinvested in various industries seeking private capital to fulfill new government arms contracts, or in oil exploration in anticipation of the need for new domestic supplies should production drop in the oil fields of Saudi Arabia or Iraq during some interim before their operation can be restored to the English and American oil companies that discovered and developed them in the first place. (Or was the plan to allow the families of Osama bin Laden and others like him to continue profiting from the unilateral abrogation of those contracts 50 years ago?)

Congratulated on what was previously the most damaging sneak attack on a sleeping America, almost 60 years ago, Isoroku Yamamoto sternly warned his compatriots, "I fear we have only succeeded in waking a sleeping giant, and filling him with a terrible resolve."

There is an old saying that if you strike at a king, you must kill him. Today, after less than a week, America is back in business. To certain parties, whether they shelter in Libyan palaces or Afghan hovels or amidst the giddy masses that stood and cheered in the streets of Nablus and East Jerusalem upon learning of the Trade Center attacks, this will not come as good news.

Vin Suprynowicz is assistant editorial page editor of the Las Vegas Review-Journal. To receive his longer, better stuff, subscribe to his monthly newsletter by sending $72 to Privacy Alert, 561 Keystone Ave., Suite 684, Reno, NV 89503 -- or dialing 775-348-8591. His book, "Send in the Waco Killers: Essays on the Freedom Movement, 1993-1998," is available at 1-800-244-2224, or via web site www.thespiritof76.com/wacokillers.html.

Vin Suprynowicz, vin@lvrj.com

"When great changes occur in history, when great principles are involved, as a rule the majority are wrong. The minority are right." -- Eugene V. Debs (1855-1926)

"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed -- and thus clamorous to be led to safety -- by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary." -- H.L. Mencken

"They that would give up essential liberty for a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." -- Benjamin Franklin 1759

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Government doesn't work. Never did. Never will. Can't. But there are lots of good people. Love them.

-- Bill St. Clair

The Atlanta Declaration

Every man, woman, and responsible child has an unalienable individual, civil, Constitutional, and human right to obtain, own, and carry, openly or concealed, any weapon -- rifle, shotgun, handgun, machinegun, anything -- any time, any place, without asking anyone's permission.

-- L. Neil Smith

Reread that pesky first clause of the Second Amendment. It doesn't say what any of us thought it said. What it says is that infringing the right of the people to keep and bear arms is treason. What else do you call an act that endangers "the security of a free state"? And if it's treason, then it's punishable by death. I suggest due process, speedy trials, and public hangings.

-- L. Neil Smith

A Penalty Clause for the Bill of Rights

Any official, appointed or elected, at any level of government, who attempts, through legislative act or other means, to nullify, evade, or avoid the provisions of the first ten amendments to this Constitution, or of the Thirteenth Amendment, shall be summarily removed from office, and, upon conviction, deprived of all pay and benefits including pension, and sentenced to imprisonment for life.

-- L. Neil Smith

Based on 253 journal articles, 99 books, 43 government publications, and some of its own empirical work, the panel couldn't identify a single gun control regulation that reduced violent crime, suicide or accidents.

-- John Lott, commenting on the National Academy of Sciences report on gun control laws.

Who is a libertarian?

Zero Aggression Principle ("Zap")

"A libertarian is a person who believes that no one has the right, under any circumstances, to initiate force against another human being, or to advocate or delegate its initiation. Those who act consistently with this principle are libertarians, whether they realize it or not. Those who fail to act consistently with it are not libertarians, regardless of what they may claim."

-- L. Neil Smith

(Formerly called the "Non-Aggression Principle", or "NAP")

Why Did It Have to be... Guns?

Make no mistake: all politicians -- even those ostensibly on the side of guns and gun ownership -- hate the issue and anyone, like me, who insists on bringing it up. They hate it because it's an X-ray machine. It's a Vulcan mind-meld. It's the ultimate test to which any politician -- or political philosophy -- can be put.

If a politician isn't perfectly comfortable with the idea of his average constituent, any man, woman, or responsible child, walking into a hardware store and paying cash -- for any rifle, shotgun, handgun, machinegun, anything -- without producing ID or signing one scrap of paper, he isn't your friend no matter what he tells you.

If he isn't genuinely enthusiastic about his average constituent stuffing that weapon into a purse or pocket or tucking it under a coat and walking home without asking anybody's permission, he's a four-flusher, no matter what he claims.

What his attitude -- toward your ownership and use of weapons -- conveys is his real attitude about you. And if he doesn't trust you, then why in the name of John Moses Browning should you trust him?

-- L. Neil Smith

Concise

"Tell me," I was once asked, "What do you think about gun control? Give me the short answer." To which I replied, "If you try to take our firearms we will kill you."

-- Mike Vanderboegh

Also from The Atlanta Declaration:

... like going to the bathroom, breathing, eating, sleeping, or making love, it turns out that self-defense is a bodily function one cannot safely or effectively delegate to a second party.

-- L. Neil Smith

This does not mean that "Marijuana should be available by prescription." It means that morphine sulfate should be available in five pound bags at the supermarket for a couple of bucks, like sugar... but probably in a different aisle, to avoid confusion.

-- Vin Suprynowicz

If you refuse to pay unjust taxes, your property will be confiscated. If you attempt to defend your property, you will be arrested. If you resist arrest, you will be clubbed. If you defend yourself against clubbing, you will be shot dead. These procedures are known as the Rule of Law.

-- Edward Abbey

The state can only survive as long as a majority is programmed to believe that theft isn't wrong if it's called taxation or asset forfeiture or eminent domain, that assault and kidnapping isn't wrong if it's called arrest, that mass murder isn't wrong if it's called war.

-- Bill St. Clair