The Further Decline of the U.S. Market

The significant decline of sales in the U.S. market -- specifically the retail, energy, and housing sectors -- is seriously attributed to the government's unfettered and incessant coddling, control, regulation, and subsidization of those industries.

Incidentally, wasn't the recently-passed, recently-signed "economic stimulage" package (it's really a political stimulus package) supposed to seriously boost the economy? After all, the stimulus package originally was proposed to be at $145 billion, then $146 billion, and then it went up to $156 billion. But, as libertarian blogger and columnist Sheldon Richman correctly noted, the economy isn't some machine that the government can just tend to and "fix," what the social engineers, statists, and collectivists often say notwithstanding. That economic stimulus package is merely a welfare redistribution scheme that transfers money that's's already in the economy (steals your money, in other words) to those who don't have it, especially if they pay little or no federal income taxes.

Moreover, it perpetuates the mythical view that one must spend his way into prosperity when that is utter fantasy. Government, by its very nature, is not a progenitor of wealth, unlike the free market which is such by the way; it merely destroys your ability to create wealth via the various machinations imposed by the state. That's the unseen effect of which most Americans have no idea.

The best way to REALLY economically stimulate the economy is to repeal all regulations and taxes and slash spending to the bone, scrap the IRS code, transition our economy from a centrally-planned one to a free, self-regulated one, phase out the Federal Reserve, replace our monetary policy with one that allows the return of the gold and silver standards, a repeal of legal tender laws, and end our foreign policy of interventionism.

That's a real economic stimulus package right there.