If a President Has a Power to AssassinateYou…

Michael S. RozeffLew Rockwell.comMonday, March 19, 2012

In this blog, I want to focus only on a few,not all, of its implications.

If a president of the U.S. has a power toassassinate American citizens, then,logically, this means that he also haspunitive powers that stop short of killing,since killing is for most of us just about theworst thing that can be done to us. Inparticular, if he has the assassinationpower, then he also has the power toimprison you indefinitely, to torture you,to starve you, to isolate you from thecompany of others, to take away all yourproperty, to prevent you from working, toremove your vital organs, and to mutilate you. If a president has a power to kill you, then he hasthe power to do anything he wishes with you and to you.

In addition, a presidential power to kill renders all laws or agreements, domestic and international,that forbid ill-treatment of prisoners inoperative, for if a president has a power to kill, then he hasa power to stop short of killing you. He has a power to capture you and then treat you any waythat he pleases.

I am using here only the notion of a fortiori. It isthat if a man can run a marathon of 26 miles, thenwith greater reason or more strongly, we concludethat he can run 1 mile.

Even prior to this power to kill comes the powerto designate someone as a terrorist or someorganization as a terrorist organization, therebyallowing powers to be pressed against them. Thispower to designate also runs right up against dueprocess.

5 Freedom-Killing Tactics Police Will Use toCrack Down on Protests in 2012

Steven Rosenfeldalternet.orgMarch 19, 2012

Across America many cities andpolice forces are eyeing newways to crack down onprotesters.

The First Amendment right toassemble and protest is going toget a black eye in 2012—as it hasevery time there has been anupsurge in America’s socialjustice movements.

Already in city after city,protesters and civil rights lawyersare troubled by

proposed and newly enacted anti-protest rules, many of which are likely to be foundunconstitutional if they have their day in court. In the meantime mayors, police and in some casesfederal agencies are making detailed plans to thwart protests at local and national events.

In many cities, ordinances aimed at Occupy protesters are emerging to restrict protests andanything resembling camping on sidewalks, streets and parks. New fees are being drawn up todiscourage large demonstrations. Anti-leafleting and postering rules are also muzzling peopletrying to spread the word about events. And all of that is being shepherded with a new pretext forusing paramilitary tactics, replacing last year’s "health and safety" excuse for sweeping awayOccupy sites with the rationale of protecting "national security" in a presidential election year.

“It looks to me like the lawenforcement preparations aresimilar to what we have seen atmost of the politicalconventions or other majorevents over the last dozen years,which is paramilitary policingagainst a civilian population,”said Mara Verheyden-Hilliard,executive director of thePartnership for Civil JusticeFund and

co-chair of the National Lawyers GuildMass Defense Committee. “This tends tobe different than the way Occupy actionshave been handed for the most part,although one can point to Oakland or theNew York Police Department [asexceptions]. But I would stress that it is notnew.”

Verheyden-Hilliard and her colleagues,including hundreds of volunteer attorneysacross America who helped defend Occupyprotests last fall, are not just continuing tolitigate numerous instances of abusivepolicing—such as the trap-and-detaintactics used in mass roundups in New York, Oakland and the use of excessive force onuniversity campuses. They are tracking the latest versions in a well-known policing playbook nowbeing fine-tuned for 2012’s big events, such as Chicago’s NATO summit in May, the nationalpolitical conventions in late summer, and the anticipated re-emergence of local Occupy protestswhen the weather warms.

“People do overcome,” Verheyden-Hilliard said. “But I think you have to have a fair and honestassessment of what the grounds are in front of you in order to be able to succeed. We think thatpeople should know the hurdles they are facing. Yet at

the same time, it is not all hand-wringing. There are a lot of people who go over the top and sayfascism is here. Fascism is not here. We are still out in the streets.

“We still have democratic abilities to be out in the streets. It’s just that there are real problemsthat people are facing. People have to know what they are, but they can fight them and they canovercome them.”

What follows are the main pages from the anti-protest playbook being fine-tuned by municipalofficials in advance of 2012 protests.

Tactic 1: Expanding Permit Requirements: Municipalities -- and not just Charlotte, SouthCarolina, where the DemocraticNational Convention will be held,and Tampa, Florida, where theRepublican National Conventionwill be held -- are adopting localordinances requiring protesters toapply for permits months or weeksin advance, even if they haven’tunveiled all of their rules for theevents. That idea is not only toprevent spontaneous assembly, but

also to create deterrents, leading to tactic two: charging protesters for exercising their rights.

Tactic 2: Charging Protesters for Municipal Costs: In supposedly liberal cities, such as SanFrancisco and Syracuse, New York, city halls have told protest groups they have to pay for thecosts of (unwanted) police escorts and other fees to discourage marches. The fees—which can bechallenged in court and thrown out if found to be selectively applied—are in Charlotte’s newrules for the Democratic Convention and include “hiring and paying off-duty law enforcementofficers, or reimbursing the city for costs of providing on-duty law enforcement officers, toappropriately police street closures.” In Tampa, the new rules require protesters apply 60 days inadvance for special permits and obtain insurance.

These fees are in addition to fines against groups if people put up their signs, posters or leafletsupporting their cause. New York City and Washington, DC, has versions of these anti-leafletingand poster rules. In Chattanooga, Tennessee, Public Citizen has sued over a new county ruleforcing protesters to pay for its legal costs. “There’s hundreds of different rules about it,”Verheyden-Hilliard said, saying these fees were one of the “under the radar” trends and obstaclesfacing protesters in 2012.

Tactic 3: Demonizing Protesters In Pre-Event Press Conferences: The track record of policesaying there are mounting public health emergencies was a central feature before Occupyevictions in New York’s Zuccotti Park, Oakland’s Oscar Grant Plaza, Washington’s McPhersonSquare and elsewhere. In Chicago, police officials looking ahead to May’s NATO summit havebegun to invoke the 2012 corollary: security concerns, saying downtown businesses areanticipating riots with police saying that they do not know how many protesters will show up,“some of whom could become violent.” These smear tactics not only justify spending vast sums ofpublic money on policing, but they also deter peaceful people from coming out to join the protest.

Tactic 4: Creating Exclusion Zones and Segregating Protesters: There have been many courtrulings asserting the First Amendment right of assembly in the street and on sidewalks. However,that has not stopped a range of municipalities and even state legislatures from eyeing or passinglaws that range from making protesting in the street in front of a private home illegal—such aslegislation passed by the Georgia Senate last week or Charlotte’s new protest rules—or that barcamping on city property. Charlotte’s anti-camping provisions were used to shut down the city’sOccupy protest.

The sidewalk and camping restrictions are part of a trend of declaring larger areas of cities off-limits to protesters. In Washington, DC, which has some of the most protest-friendly rules in thenation (after repeatedly being sued and losing in federal court), the city is eyeing a proposal toextend sidewalk restrictions to all parkland—targeting future Occupy encampments. This trendcontinues with more sweeping measures like declaring a large swath of a city a special securityzone, such as at the NATO summit and during the national political conventions, whereparamilitary forces will be deployed.

Some restrictions are reasonable, such as the U.S. Coast Guard closing and patrolling the LakeMichigan shore and Chicago River during the NATO summit. But others, such as Charlotte’s newrules, impose broad and likely unconstitutional restrictions. These start with banning any object or

activity that blocks roads, outlaws crossing police lines, bars possessing anything the police saycan conceal a weapon or person’s identity (backpacks and scarves), limits the hanging of bannerson private property without permission from property owners, and makes it illegal to use policescanners inside the security perimeter (but does not stop police from spying on protesters,including using helicopters).

The national political conventions each receive $50 million for security from the federalgovernment. In Tampa, Florida, where the Republican Convention will be held in late August, thedowntown will be sealed off from public access, roads closed, and the city will spend $30 millionhiring 4,000 additional law enforcement personnel, local papers report. Tampa police already havespent nearly $300,000 on an armored SWAT vehicle and $1.18 million on “video linkages”between ground police and helicopters, the news reports say. Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn alsohas been hostile to would-be protesters, telling local papers, “Just because they want to occupysomething doesn’t mean we are obligated to provide them with an opportunity to camp out in apublic park or on a sidewalk.” He has all but rejected the Florida ACLU’s efforts to negotiate.

In Charlotte, the police won’t “talk about $25 million in new equipment for the DNC,” theCharlotte Observer reported in a January article that talked about how the technology andequipment will affect how local policing is conducted for years. The ordinance upgrades inCharlotte and Tampa do not expire after the conventions. Civil libertarians expect both events tobe highly militarized with protesters treated poorly.

“Exclusion zones are appalling,” Verheyden-Hilliard said. “We completely oppose and do notnegotiate for any type of pens or pits in which people can stand. Our view is that people have theright to be on the streets and sidewalks and it is not a compromisable right. But that is definitelywhat you are going to see this year.”

Tactic 5: Mass Arrests, Punitive Detention: As many Occupy protesters learned last fall, thepolice have the bullhorns, handcuffs, pepper spray, waiting vans and jail cells at their disposal ifthey want to conduct sweeps, and use trap and detain tactics. Perhaps the best-known examplewas the mass arrest on the Brooklyn Bridge—which is being litigated to possibly impose rules onNew York police to prevent similar arrests and to clear the records of those arrested. However, itis an unfortunate reality that despite all the constitutional protections and subsequent courtvictories, including collecting damages, the police can and do overpower protesters.

Perhaps the best warning to protesters of impending police overreach can be found in the rulesthat Washington, DC was forced to adopt in 2005, after it lost a series of suits and a sympatheticcity council wanted to restrict police excesses. Washington’s revised standards include:restrictions on using police lines, restrictions on ordering an crowd to disperse or to end an event;a ban on arresting someone who is parading without a permit. It requires that protesters be giventime to comply with an order; restricts the use of riot gear; limits the period of arrest anddetention; restricts the use of pepper spray; prohibits inhumane use of handcuffs or physicalrestraints; requires food and water be given to anyone arrested; requires those arrested be given astatement on how to obtain a quick release; requires detailed arrest records be kept; and requirespolice to display badges.

Even with these standards in law—which are a list of tell-tale signs of police

excesses—Washington city officials this weekare eyeing legislation to ban "crowding" in cityparks, and an attorney representing the policedepartment was chastised by a federal judge thisweek for knowingly submitting false affidavits inan ongoing lawsuit over past protests.

Hope Not Fear

Despite these obstacles, civil rights lawyers arealready looking at ways to defend FirstAmendment rights at 2012’s largest events: theNATO summit and political conventions. Also,there is a large cadre of lawyers across thecountry who gained experience during last fall’sOccupy protests and can be deployed quickly asevents spiral.

“Nationally, what we were able to accomplishthis past fall in terms of legal support wasunprecedented,” Verheyden-Hilliard said. “I amthe co-chair of National Lawyers Guild massdefense committee, and as Occupy actions sprung up all over the country, we were able to pulltogether hundreds of volunteer attorneys, law students and legal workers in cities and townsthroughout the U.S. without notice.”

But looking toward the national political conventions, the hurdles are more formidable, she said,because the police and various federal agencies are not discussing their plans.

“We are working with legal teams in Tampa and Charlotte who are looking at ordinancechallenges, permitting issues, etc.,” Verheyden-Hilliard said. “As it unfolds I would expect thereto be legal challenges, but part of the initial hurdle is trying to pin down from law enforcementwhat the restrictions are going to be. One of the tactics that the government uses is to try to winddown the clock and not provide information on restrictions until the last minute so that you areonly able to go to court on a short time-frame and without opportunity to develop a record toovercome the pretextual and untested security claims that will be presented to the judge. The factis they know well in advance what they are planning to do.”

There are other major factors the police cannot control, however. The first is the number ofpeople who will protest—whether it is in local Occupy protests or national political events. Whenenough people take to the streets, police cannot arrest everyone. Nor can they control the mediafrom covering police overreach and excessive force. Together those factors can change thepolitical climate and force governments at the local, state and national level to adopt reforms—notbecause legislators are feeling benevolent, but because they are worried about what is happeningin the streets.

The U.S. Economy: Soul CrushingTotal System FailureThe Economic CollapseMarch 19, 2012

No matter how often the prettypeople on television tell us that theU.S. economy is getting better, itisn’t going to change the soulcrushing agony that millions ofAmerican families are going throughright now. The stock market mayhave gotten back to where it was in2008, but the job market surehasn’t. As I wrote about a few daysago, the percentage of working ageAmericans that are actuallyemployed has stayed very flat since late 2009, and the average duration of unemployment ishovering near an all-time high. Sadly, this is not just a temporary downturn. The U.S. economyhas been slowly declining for several decades and is nearing total system failure. Right now, manypoverty statistics are higher than they have ever been since the Great Depression. Manymeasurements of government dependence are the highest that we have ever seen in all of U.S.history. The emerging one world economic system (otherwise known as “free trade”) has cost theU.S. economy tens of thousands of businesses, millions of jobs and hundreds of billions ofdollars of our national wealth. The federal government is going into unprecedented amounts ofdebt in order to try to maintain our current standard of living, but there is no way that they will beable to sustain this kind of borrowing for too much longer. So enjoy this bubble of false prosperitywhile you can, because things will soon get significantly worse.

As the U.S. economy experiences total system failure, it will be imperative for all of us not to waitaround waiting for someone to rescue us.

And I am not just talking about the government.

Today, millions upon millions of Americans arewaiting around hoping that someone out therewill hire them.

Well, the truth is that our politicians have madeit so complicated and so expensive to hiresomeone that many small businesses try to avoidhiring as much as possible.

Businesses generally only want to hire people if they can make a profit by doing so. When ourpoliticians keep piling on the taxes and the regulations and the paperwork, that creates atremendous incentive not to hire workers.

Michael Fleischer, the President of Bogen Communications, once wrote an op-ed in the WallStreet Journal entitled “Why I’m Not Hiring”. The following is how Paul Hollrah of FamilySecurity Matters summarized the nightmarish taxes that are imposed on his company whenFleischer hires a new worker….

According to Fleischer, Sally grosses $59,000 a year, which shrinks to less than$44,000 after taxes and other payroll deductions. The $15,311 deducted from Sally’sgross pay is comprised of New Jersey state income tax: $1,893; Social Security taxes:$3,661; state unemployment insurance: $126; disability insurance: $149; Medicareinsurance: $856; federal withholding tax: $6,250; and her share of medical and dentalinsurance: $2,376. Roughly 25.9 percent of Sally’s income is siphoned off byWashington and Trenton before she receives her paychecks.

But then there are the additional costs of employing Sally. In addition to her grosssalary, her employer must pay the lion’s share of her healthcare insurance premiums:$9,561; life and other insurance premiums: $153; federal unemployment insurance:$56; disability insurance: $149; worker’s comp insurance: $300; New Jersey stateunemployment insurance: $505; Medicare insurance: $856; and the employer’s shareof Social Security taxes: $3,661.

Over and above her gross salary, Bogen Communications must pay an additional$15,241 in benefits and state and federal taxes, bringing the total cost of employingSally to approximately $74,241 per year. Sally gets to keep $43,689, or just 58.8% ofthat total.

Are you starting to understand why so many businesses are hesitant to hire new workers?

The big corporations can handle all of the paperwork and regulations that come with hiring a newworker fairly well, but for small businesses hiring a new worker can be a massive undertaking.That new worker is going to have to almost be a miracle worker in order to justify all of thehassle and expense.

But the federal government just keeps piling more burdens on to the backs of employers. That isone reason why there is such an uproar over Obamacare. It is going to make hiring workers evenless attractive.

These days, most small businesses are trying to get by with as few workers as possible, and manybig businesses are trying to ship as many jobs as they can overseas.

Sadly, even if you do find a good job it can disappear at any moment.

The following is from a comment that a reader named Jeff recently left on one of my articles….

It’s sad what’s happening here in this country. So many lucky ones defend it. In America

it’s not exactly about hard work anymore, it’s about who you know always. The abilityto keep people stupid as well as in debt was established here well by corporations also.You cannot start a solid hiring business like you could years ago.

I know many of folks who don’t break a sweat and earn more money than I ever willin a week. The system is getting crazy only creating two extremes. I fought for thiscountry right after 9/11 as a young naive person. Using my grandfather’s old stories tosee the dream that this country was always suppose to have.

The company I still unfortunately work for (cause other places are worse), 4 years agothey froze our salaries. No raises yet, this is when the company was bought by aninvestment group for 500 million.

Now we are getting sold to Japan for 1 billion. A 500 million dollar profit. Sorry if Imay be ignorant in this way of business. But it seems the only one who benefited fromthis is that group of investors. 400+ well skilled jobs lost, no raises or rewards, a wholelot more work and contract obligations to meet, and less contact with managementwhen problems surface.

I just think the United States of America is becoming the world’s poker table.

I want out of this country so bad. I don’t even know what happen to people here. Theyounger generation scares me how dumb they are and everyone seems so easily boughtwith eyecandy.

Can you imagine that?

Can you imagine your boss walking in one day and declaring that the business has just been soldto foreigners and that you are about to lose your job?

In America today, it can be absolutely soul crushing to lose a job. It isn’t as if you are going torun out and get another fantastic job in a week or two.

When you are unemployed, people look at your differently. It gets to the point where you don’teven want to interact with other people because you know that your unemployment is probablygoing to be the number one topic of conversation.

When you are out of work for six months or more, it is easy to feel like a failure – especially whenso many other people are looking at you as if you are a failure too.

But in most cases, individual Americans are not to blame for not being able to find work.

Rather it is the entire system that is failing all of us.

The U.S. economy is bleeding good jobs and the middle class in America has become a bizarregame of musical chairs. When the music stops each round you might lose your spot. You justnever know.

Looking for work in the United States in this economic environment can be a demoralizing

endeavor. For example, a recent Esquire article described what one unemployed man namedScott Annechino found when he attended a job fair in San Francisco….

A glass elevator carries him to the third floor, where the front-desk girl, who knows it’sher job to be cheerful, told him the job fair is supposed to be.

A pasty kid, maybe thirty, in a too-big shirt and a cheap tie, greets him and tells himthe companies are set up in rooms along the hall and that he should definitely visit allof them. Annechino, forty-four years old, wearing his best suit and shined black shoes,walks to the first exhibitor: Devcon, a home-security company. The door is closed, noone inside. Annechino looks around for an explanation. “Oh, I just got an e-mail frommy contact there saying they wouldn’t be able to make it today,” the pasty kid says,fingering his BlackBerry.

A couple of other potential employers who were supposed to be here didn’t make it,either — Konica Minolta, Santa Clara University. “Yeah …” the kid says. Annechinomoves to the next room. State Farm. They’re looking for people who can put up fiftygrand to start their own insurance agency. The Art Institute is next, mostly looking forpeople who might want to go to art school. New York Life. The U. S. Army, where menwearing fatigues and combat boots offer brochures.

That’s it.

If you want to check out the rest of the sad unemployment stories in that article, you can findthem right here.

But even if you do have a job, that doesn’t mean that everything is just fine. Average Americanfamilies are finding that the prices of the basic things that they need are rising much faster thantheir paychecks are.

According to one recent study, more than half of all Americans feel as though they are reallystruggling to afford just the basics at this point….

“Every retailer wants to think ‘Everything I sell is worth it! Shoppers will love it’, butthe hard reality is 52% Americans feel they barely have enough to afford the basics,”said Candace Corlett, president of WSL/Strategic Retail.

Just buying food and gas is a major financial ordeal for many families these days. On average, agallon of gasoline in the United States now costs $3.83. Many Americans burn up a huge chunkof their paychecks just going back and forth to work in their cars.

So what is the solution?

Well, according to the Obama administration the answer is even more government dependence.The federal government is now actually running ads encouraging even more people to go on foodstamps….

US Government Airs New Food Stamps Ad !! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9tb-nKjAflU

Can you believe that?

Apparently having 46.5 million Americans on food stamps is not enough. The federal governmentis spending our tax money on advertisements that try to convince even more Americans that theyneed to be on food stamps.

What the American people really need are good jobs, but those keep getting shipped out of thecountry.

Meanwhile, people are becoming increasingly desperate.

For example one Colorado man was recently caught stealing parts from toilets in publicrestrooms….

Donald Allen Citron, 48, faces 18 charges, including burglary and theft. He’s accusedof stealing toilet parts from several locations, including Southwest Plaza Mall,University of Denver, and Craig Hospital.

Most of the crimes happened in just a few minutes, but police Citron is a plumber andall he needed was a wrench and a screw driver to steal pipes and the plumbing intoilets. The items he’s accused of stealing are valued at around $6,400.

They are calling him “the crapper scrapper”.

Other Americans are not willing to stoop to crime and instead suffer quietly and anonymously.

A reader named Katie recently left the following heartbreaking comment on one of my articles….

I’m almost homeless. Through no fault of my own I’d like to point out. I don’t drink,smoke, or do drugs. I don’t even eat fast food unless I have too.

Four years ago I had a house, car, family, stuff, an IRA, and really everything thatpeople in this country aspire to. I had a great job that I enjoyed so did my boyfriend.Even our relationship was great.

We didn’t get hit by the economy right away. We were in Katrina damaged parts of thecountry and there was still a lot of construction going on and the economic boom thatcomes with it.

Then I got laid off. Doesn’t seem to matter that I go to interview after interview. I useindeed, monster, craigslist, and newspapers to search for jobs even outside my area.

Now my boyfriend has passed away suddenly, and his family got everything. Ipersonally have only a living father left, who hasn’t the room but I’m camping in hisyard. All my friends say they don’t have the room either. Which makes me wonder justhow much of friends they are. Considering if the situation was reversed I have in thepast and would open my home to anyone that needed help.

If something happens to him I really don’t know what I’m going to do. I need to get onmy feet and I know that jobs are hard to come by. I’m sick of the people who have jobs

saying ‘get a job you lazy bum’. I’m hardly lazy and I’m trying desperately to beemployed; not being homeless would be rather awesome in my opinion. I’m not picky,regardless of my degree I’ll pick up trash or clean toilets. McDonald’s, Taco Bell andthe other fast food places don’t even bother with a call back. And when I call toinquire about my application it’s always the same, ‘we will call you when we make adecision’. Such a cop-out.

So no. In my (granted meaningless opinion) the economy is not getting better. To evensuggest that when unemployment is so high or the rate of food stamps. Is utterludicrous at best. I notice that those talking heads on the cable news and radio neverseem to mention that the homeless shelters have a higher occupancy level than everbefore. Nor would they mention the fact that we have those shelters in abundance nowacross the country in comparison to the Great Depression.

I’m getting real tired of hearing how great the economy is doing. When obviously it’snot. All you have to do is open your eyes and see. Business are not coming back yetand foreclosed homes sit empty everywhere. The unemployment rate only counts thepeople who are getting unemployment benefits. So the people who fall off theunemployment benefits don’t get counted. Because the must have gotten a job, right?Hardly. In fact the homeless in this country are almost never counted correctly. It’s toohard to count them all, or at least that’s the excuse.

I know it’s meaningless, especially to those who see homeless and immediately have abias, but that’s my opinion on the current state of our economy. You can count me inthe 80%. Only a fool would see this as a recovery.

Please say a prayer for Katie and the millions of other Americans just like her. It can be absolutelysoul crushing to lose everything that you ever worked for and not see any light at the end of thetunnel.

Unfortunately, the U.S. economy is not going to be improving in the long run. What we areexperiencing right now is about as good as it is going to get. The truth is that it is pretty muchdownhill from here.

It is fairly simple to figure out what is happening to us as a nation.

You can’t keep buying far more than you sell.

You can’t keep spending far more than you bring in.

You can’t keep running up debt in larger and larger amounts indefinitely.

The U.S. economy is running on borrowed money and on borrowed time.

At some point, both are going to run out.

Are you ready for that?

The Truth About “Free Trade” David S. D’Amato Center for a Stateless SocietyMarch 19, 2012

On Thursday (March 15), CNNMoneyreports, “the long-awaited free-tradeagreement between the United States andSouth Korea … went into effect,”representing “the biggest U.S. trade dealsince the North American Free TradeAgreement began in 1994.” One mightassume that a libertarian, promotingindividual rights and free markets, would(or should) favor such a deal as thepractical implementation of libertarianprinciples.

And insofar as states’ free tradeagreements did reify what could beconsidered libertarian principles, I wouldsupport them in earnest. But, as the sayinggoes, the devil is in the details, and when the details are accounted for, we find the same story ofpowerful interest groups engaging the state to secure special advantages.

Market anarchists advocate for a society shaped by free associations, community, and mutuallybeneficial trade. Our “free market” is in no way similar to the version contrived by the spindoctors of corporate public relations departments, in no way supportive of the monopolies thattoday deprive and exploit the overwhelming majority of people.

The “free trade” agreements thatnow govern much of globalcommerce (the United State-South Korea treaty being arepresentative example) mockthe very idea and moraljustifications of laissez faire.Where market anarchistschampion freedom andindividual rights as a means to apeaceful and just society, so-called “free trade” accordsroutinely include all manner ofoutrages against those

principles. Notably, the Export-Import Bank of theU.S. figures prominently in “free trade” deals.Created in 1934, its primary function, defended byvirtually all members of Congress, is to act as astanchion to international big business. According toprofessors William M. Pride, Robert J. Hughes, andJack R. Kapoor, fiscal year 2008 saw the Ex-ImBank authorize “$14.4 billion in loans, guarantees,and credit insurance worldwide …. It alsocooperates with commercial banks in helpingAmerican exporters to offer credit to their overseascustomers.” In short, the state’s role in so-called“free trade” deals is to shift enormous risks to the unknowing and innocent taxpayer, to theworking men and women who haven’t spent billions on petitioning for favors and privileges.Parasitic handouts to and special perks for giant, multinational corporations at the expense ofproductive, working individuals are not a part of a genuine free market. In a genuine free market,absent coercive braces to established companies, companies would have to bear the heavy costs ofmanaging a business across thousands of miles. Without the unfair advantage of being able to passtheir financial risks onto taxpayers, corporations would be limited in size and in power.Commerce on the local, community level would likely see a resurgence, delivered from the burdenof the huge, state-supported monopolies that currently push everyone and everything else to themargins. Whatever international trade was leftover — able to go on without systematic coercionagainst innocent people — would necessarily be constituted by sustainable, socially beneficialcommerce of the kind market anarchists envisage.

The global capitalism epitomizedby the U.S.-South Korea deal isa distinctly and unmistakablystatist phenomenon. The roadaway from its endless output ofpoverty and inequity is the freemarket, the legitimate one whereevery individual has the same

rights as her neighbor. When that road is followed, we’ll be making real progress toward “freetrade.”

Citations to this article:

David D’Amato, Free Trade Agreements: The Truth — Libertarian Insights revealed,The Canadian, 03/18/12

C4SS News Analyst David S. D’Amato is a market anarchist and an attorney with an LL.M. inInternational Law and Business. His aversion to superstition and all permutations of politicalauthority manifests itself at firsttruths.org.