Tom Woods steps in for Der SchiffMeister, on the Peter Schiff Radio Show, and interviews Bob Higgs, the splendid author of Crisis and Leviathan.

They walk through various malodorous poppy fields of Krugman-blended distortion, replanting them with seeds of truth instead.

They concentrate particularly on the history of U.S. government economic interventions during the Great Depression and World War II and how the lessons learned from that historical débâcle can be applied today, where a government tried to solve a credit boom correction by extending the necessary bust for over a decade by breaking the natural free market price system:

[audio http://radiofreemarket.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/tom-woods-interviews-robert-higgs.mp3]
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In our latest edition of Radio Free Market World Report, I talk to Roman Skaskiw about the global secession movement and particularly how this applies to the United States and the European Union. We examine why the world’s wealthiest countries, on a per capita basis, tend to be the smallest states, and why the major exception to this general rule, the United States, managed to avoid the trend.

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Andy Duncan, our Radio Free Market World Report broadcaster from London, England, conducts a very timely and * Urgently Important * interview with Mr. de Roeck, an internationally recognized Economic, Financial and Legal Consultant based in Brussels, Belgium.

Just how close is the Euro and the European Union to the brink of collapse?

What will be the short-run effects of the latest EU summit, and its long-run effects?

Are we seeing, before our eyes, the creation of the Fourth German Reich, under a Greater Deutschmark, or

Is this political and financial mess simply the result of endless government interventions which will later beget further government interventions and more centralization, as Ludwig von Mises long predicted?

What else about what is happening in Europe is vastly under-reported and under-appreciated – especially in America?

Andy and Vincent also turn their razor-like intellects on the following vital topics:

* The banking technocratic takeovers of Italy and Greece,

* The collapse of the Belgian bank, Dexia and it’s little understood and significant connection to the Public Sector, and

* The re-emergence of the Belgian government, after it ceased to exist for eighteen months.

In this Scintillating Interview Andy and Vincent talk about the political train wreck known as the European Union and its poster child, the EURO fiat currency.

Whether you live in Europe, North America, or indeed anywhere, you will want to listen to this brief and powerful podcast so you can know how you can preserve your liberty – and your wealth – in spite of these unfolding events. (21 minutes)

Comment from Andy Duncan regarding the above:

“This is my own photo of the hilarious thirty- foot blue plastic statue of the EURO symbol, mentioned in the interview, taken when I strolled through the Willy Brandt plaza, in downtown Frankfurt one morning.

I hope to be there again on the day this ridiculous emblem of socialism is pulled down by good German folk, like one of those statues of Saddam Hussein.”

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By Andy Duncan

We used to mock the Japanese for creating a plethora of Zombie Banks at the start of their two lost decades, but it appears that the American and European governments wish to walk down the same path of morbidity into the exact same fiduciary land of the living dead.

Rick Rule talks to Eric King about this situation, its significance, and how he thinks it will play out with the superior American technology of counterfeiting now ‘coming to the rescue’ of the ECB.

Obviously, Eric King brings his guest around to the gold and silver mining industry, but Mr Rule actually gives us some good advice on how to avoid being caught up the market frenzy that will take place, once gold really starts to take off, which you’ll know about when your taxi driver starts trying to take his fares in your gold jewellery:

• Rick Rule on King World News, The Coming Gold Mania, Where to Invest Now, Eric Sprott, Silver & More, Saturday, December 3, 2011

Continuing the Austrian Internet Vigilante theme, Nigel Farage then details the total loss of democracy in Italy and the similar situation in Greece, as the global kleptocratic elite execute their dictatorial business in these two countries in the full public view, with a virtual complete lack of comment by the government-licensed mainstream media on these former dictatorial homes of Mussolini and the Greek Colonels.

This might end less than well:

• Nigel Farage on King World News, Major Banks Teetering on the Edge of Collapse, Gold & Much More, Saturday, December 3, 2011

As Mr Farage states, it is amazing that the new Italian prime minister, Three-card Monti, is unelected. But to borrow the hyperbole schtick from the leader of the UK Independence party, it is absolutely flabbergasting that Mr Monti’s entire new cabinet of ministers is also completely unelected.

It would appear that the global kleptocratic elite agree with Professor Hoppe, in thinking that democracy truly is a god that has failed.

For completeness, and to add some dessert to your King World News Saturday feast, next up on the menu is Gerald Celente. This is an interesting interview, but if you heard Mr Celente’s earlier talk this week with Lew Rockwell, much of the same ground is re-covered:

• Gerald Celente on King World News, Back Door Deals, Gold Zoom, Silver Bam & More Coming Trends, Thursday, December 1, 2011

To finish off the cheese course, we head to the KWN weekly metals wrap, but this is perhaps more for the truly hardcore gold bugs out there. I loved it! 

This is mainly because they discuss Murray Rothbard and Ludwig von Mises, as well as the usual precious metals news:

• KWN Weekly Metals Wrap, Saturday, December 3, 2011

By Andy Duncan

Peter Schiff cuts through all the flim-flam of Kafkaesque Keynesian propaganda in his usual superb way:

• This Unstable House of Cards is Going to Implode, Gold, Silver & More, Peter Schiff interviewed by Eric King on King World News, Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Here’s the article mentioned in the interview above. Here’s the link to Mr Schiff’s goldscams.com web site.

[Yes, we do have to paper over Mr Schiff’s use of the term ‘intrinsic value’ when he talks about physical possession of gold, as for each human being alive there is only subjective value, which can change on a second-by-second basis.

(Hint: How much is your 1kg bar of gold worth on your lap on the plane, while you travel in comfortable business class from Riyadh to Paris. In the desert, after the plane crash, how much is it worth when the other big muscular man from economy has ten gallons of water? How much was gold worth to King Midas, when everything else he touched turned to gold, including food and wine? Etc.)

However, as Connecticut’s finest is the SchiffMeister, we’ll let him off. Plus, given a hard choice today between a thousand pounds worth of bottled spring water, a thousand pounds worth of UK government bonds, or a thousand pounds worth of gold, I’d bite your arm off for the gold every time. Just don’t ask me to take it to Riyadh.]

[We also have to ‘paper over’ my use of the term ‘paper over’ earlier, when speaking about Mr Schiff. But to avoid iterating that down into an infinite recursive loop, I’ll stop there.]

By Andy Duncan

November 28, 2011

With Dexia bank failing, MF Global failing, and German government bond auctions failing, Bad Ass Billionaire Eric Sprott thinks it’s time for even the non-Austrians out there to start connecting the dots.

He predicts that we will either head into global hyperinflation (if governments put their printing presses into permanent infinity mode) or hyperdeflation (if governments can bring themselves to hit the off switch at some point).

Sprott is starting to come down on the side of deflation, rather than inflation, but in either case he thinks (and explains why) gold and silver prices will start to rise exponentially.

Eric King interviews Eric Sprott about such matters, for the ‘listeners globally’:

• Financial Crisis Worse than 2008, Gold, Silver, & More, Eric Sprott, King World News Interview, Sunday, November 27, 2011

Personally, I think Mr Sprott is giving democratic governments too much benefit of the doubt. I think they’ll simply be unable to resist the printing press button, and will be unable to turn the damn things off.

You can wire up a mouse’s brain such that if it presses a small button, it can stimulate its own neural pleasure centres in the septal nuclei (think ‘The Orgasmitron Machine’ in the Woody Allen movie, Sleeper). Such a mouse will starve to death, even if offered food within a few inches of the button, if going for the food means it has to stop pressing the button.

As mice are much more intelligent than typical government ministers in a democracy, and as printing presses brings governments intoxicating temporary pleasures (as evidenced in a recent Newsnight phrase of some BBC idiot, ‘The Bank of England will support British business with more injections of currency’), then I’m sticking to the hyperinflationary story.

However, as Mr Sprott is a billionaire, and as I am not yet a billionaire, I must listen to his argument. In either case, whether we go into hyperdeflation or hyperinflation, gold and silver save the day, so whether I am right or Mr Sprott is right is merely an interesting academic exercise.

Whatever the case, when it comes to gold and silver, Mr Sprott’s advice is to get some.

Obviously, if you think the Keynesian economists know what they’re doing, know what is causing these problems, and know what the solutions are, and if you think that the democratically-elected government politicians that they advise can be trusted to be honest, wise, and correct, then you can safely ignore him.

UPDATE: On the German bond failure, take a look at this, by Robert Wenzel, about why it failed. Curiouser and curiouser…

By Andy Duncan

November 28, 2011

Here is Detlev Schlichter with his take on the German bond auction failure:

• The short of the century – The bubble in government bonds is finally bursting

Here’s a quote to tempt you:

“While the math seems to be clear, the desire to believe in the infallibility and omnipotence of the state, which in our secular age has become the new deity, is powerful and may keep those government bonds bid for a while longer. Who knows? But when the ice breaks, this is surely one of the major trading opportunities in this unspeakable financial mess, maybe the short of the century. In this context, the events of last week were meaningful. Reality has finally caught up with German Bunds. The poor price action in Bund futures is indication that German government debt is losing its safe haven status. Fiscal concerns are now engulfing ‘the core’ of Europe. Again, investors desperately hold on to their belief that ‘safe havens’ exist somewhere out there, so they are stupidly piling into Gilts and Treasuries. Soon these will make an excellent short as well.”

You might also want to read these two articles for an interesting ‘conspiratorial’ background to the excellent piece above:

• Former US Treasury Official: German Bond Auction Failure Likely Orchestrated by US and EU
 
• The Roads to War and Economic Collapse