Laigle’s Forum

The free market needs your help

 

(email Rush. See sample email and address at end)

                                                                       

by Donald Hank

Americans often think there is little we as individuals can do to change politics as usual in Washington. The $700 billion bailout, opposed by almost all of us, is a sad reminder of our limitations.

But let me suggest that we are like wedges used to split wood. Did you know, for example, that if a wedge is applied crosswise against the grain on the outside of a log, even a pressure of several tons will not drive it into the wood? Almost no pressure is enough if the wedge is at the wrong place.

Yet if the wedge is placed properly at the cut edge along the grain, even a child can split it with a well-placed blow from a sledge hammer!

There could be no more apt analogy for our present position.

And because Laigle’s Forum is here not just to report news and views, but also to help focus your activism, below are 2 things you can do to help save your country from the clutches of a man who seems poised to become what John McCain calls “Redistributor in Chief.” And like the wedge, you are in the proper position and ready to apply pressure at the place where it can do the most good with the least effort.

1-Help us get out the message that the financial crisis was caused not by free market forces but by Big Government. I can’t begin to tell you how important this is!

2-Help me enlist Vincent Benard as an expert witness in a new commission to be named by Representatives Brian Bilbray and Darrell Issa, both of California.

I wonder how many of us see the financial crisis as the key issue in the presidential campaign. Sean Hannity doesn’t. He is pounding on Obama’s associations with ACORN, unrepentant terrorist William Ayres and old statements showing that Obama is a socialist.

The trouble is, if capitalism caused the crash, then what’s wrong with socialism? The pundits don’t get it. You have to show how socialism caused the crash and how the free market could have prevented it – with a minimum of common-sense regulation of the kind that used to be in place before Clinton tampered with it.

If you don’t understand that the financial crash is the key issue, let me point out that McCain, who was winning by a small margin, started losing to Obama the moment the financial crisis hit. Does that tell you something?

That was no coincidence. The people didn’t suddenly think Palin was too negative or unqualified or that Biden was a genius or that McCain was too old to lead.

When the crash hit, swing voters heard Obama blame not only the Bush administration but in fact, free-market capitalism itself, indicting it as unregulated. Many believed Obama and Biden when they suggested that Bush had been too lax. Ironically, we find that Bush was actually following the lead of the Democrats when he had his HUD continue to liberalize Fanny Mae and Freddy Mac, and in this respect, because he departed from free market principles, he was partly to blame. The main damage, however, had been done by Clinton demanding $1 trillion in mortgages to the “underserved,” or in other words, groups that traditionally had had the worst credit ratings, as a way of strengthening Jimmy Carter’s Community Reinvestment Act (CRA). The chief culprits by far were the Democrats, working ever since 1977 to weaken the banks in the name of “helping the poor.” ACORN was involved by use of strong-arm tactics against the banks, and Obama’s involvement with ACORN is undeniable. (But the fact that ACORN is tied to voter fraud doesn’t seem to be changing voters’ minds, so let’s put it on the back burner for now).

The enforcement of risky lending policies against banks was the culprit, of course, or in other words, over-regulation. Ironically, while Bush went along somewhat with this over-regulation, this was clearly a radical departure from traditional Republican behavior.

Yet the Dems in the media and the campaign have convinced voters that it was the Bush administration that destroyed the economy with lack of regulation, and worse, that unregulated banking was the cause. We now know it was just the opposite, and this is precisely what the public needs to know to vote intelligently.

That is why I ran two articles on this by Vincent Benard, President of the Hayek Institute and expert on economics and finance, at Laigle’s Forum, which clearly show that it was the above-described over-regulation that caused the crash.

Instead of focusing on other issues, we should all be focusing on the issue that obviously caused the loss of votes for McCain. Note that despite the heroic efforts by talk radio and bloggers, McCain is still trailing dangerously. That should show us that our focus is wrong. We haven’t lacked strenght, we just didn’t apply the wedge at the weak point of the log.

It is tragic that McCain, while maintaining that he protested the “lack of regulation” of the banking system, never in any of his campaign speeches mentions that it was the above-described over-regulation that caused the crash! You see? He is refusing to fight, or perhaps he just doesn’t understand it himself.

Yet, everything else is irrelevant to most swing voters. If anyone can get thru to Rush or Sean Hannity or any other opinion shaper, this over-regulation as the cause of the crash will be the main issue for the remaining days, and unfortunately, we cannot rely on McCain or Palin to mention it. They may, but the chances are slim. Either they don’t understand it or McCain is ideologically sympathetic to the CRA (Community Reinvestment Act) that caused banks to sputter. The fact that he never really addresses the over-regulation (strong-arming) that forced banks to make shaky loans, as the cause of the crash suggests he may not by ideologically opposed to such over-regulation. Even so, he is not one of the main actors who caused the crash. Democrats Chris Dodd and Barney Frank were deeply involved and without their contribution, the banks may not have crashed.

Sean Hannity is pounding on Obama’s ties to terrorist Wm Ayers and to Planned Parenthood, but that is obviously beside the point for the swing voters.

If it were, there would have been no reversal toward Obama as soon as the bank crisis broke, and there would be a major upturn for McCain now that the stories about Obama’s socialism and terrorist ties are public.

Hence, activists must get the message out that it was the Big Government Democrats who caused the bank crisis. No other message is as important as this!

The only way this can be done is for the main talk show hosts to stop harping on secondary issues and pound on the issue that caused the swing away from McCain, showing that it was clearly the Democrat idea of wealth sharing in the form of the CRA that caused the bank crisis.

We are asking anyone close to the McCain campaign or to any opinion shaper to take this message to them.

What can you do? Glad you asked.

It is simple. Email Rush Limbaugh at the address listed below (or better, call his show-and any other talk shows). Tell him that the key issue in this campaign is: what and who caused the financial crash, because Obama is blaming it on the free market and voters are buying the lie.  And give Rush links to the articles by financial expert and Hayek Institute President Vincent Benard.

ElRushbo@eibnet.com ElRushbo@eibnet.com

Sample email:

Hello Rush,

The fact that McCain, who was winning in the polls, started trailing Obama immediately after the crash is proof that the financial crash is the key issue in this campaign.

Obama immediately started suggesting that Bush was to blame because he refused to regulate. Sadly, McCain bought the lie and immediately promised to start regulating Fanny and Freddy, simply assuming that, yes, the free market, which had never caused a major bank crash in over 100 years, suddenly needed government bureaucrats to control it — and thereby missing a golden opportunity to show that the Dems had trashed US finances!

It is incredible that almost no pundits have focused on the fact that it was not lack of control but rather heavy-handed government (under the CRA, for example) that crashed the banks.

If you want to stay on the air, you have to help defeat Obama. No question about it. To do this you absolutely must focus on the key issue, the cause of the financial crash.

Here is how:

I am linking to 2 articles by a French financial expert who really ought to be featured on your show before the elections. He shows that it was Big Government and not lack of regulation that caused the crash.

My translation of an article on this subject written by financial and economic expert Vincent Benard, the President of the Hayek Institute in Belgium (Vincent@benard.com) is featured first. Please contact him asap and see if you can arrange an interview, either in person or by phone. His testimony can literally change the course of history!

In his first article (http://laiglesforum.com/2008/10/20/a-modern-day-lafayette-rallies-the-troops/), Mr. Benard concludes from a study of literature on the subject that the crash was caused primarily by government involvement in several key areas, notably, mortgage giants Fanny Mae and Freddy Mac. 

Surprisingly, his second article (http://laiglesforum.com/2008/10/24/subprime-crisis-the-overal-picture/) shows that smart growth policies of local zoning boards (also a liberal idea) contributed equally to this crash by inflating land prices.

Please mention Laigle’s Forum (http://laiglesforum.com) if you talk about this, ok? They are the only ones who have brought Mr. Benard’s articles to the attention of the American public and they deserve some attention.

Thank you very much!

Best,

[your name]

Friend, in addition to this, please email each and every one of your friends and alert them to the causes of the crash, using the above links. Time is running out for America.

Finally, there is one more thing you can do, which may be less urgent. Send a letter to Rep. Brian Bilbray (or an email to Rep. Darryl Issa (http://issa.house.gov/index.cfm?FuseAction=Contact.ContactForm), who intends to name a commission to analyze the causes of the financial crisis. It can be something like this:

Hon. Representative Brian Bilbray

227 Cannon House Office Building

Washington, DC 20515

Good Morning Representative Bilbray:

I learned yesterday that, together with Representative Darrell Issa, you intend to name a commission to look into the causes of the recent financial crisis.

I am enclosing my translation of an article on this subject written by financial and economic expert Vincent Benard, the President of the Hayek Institute in Belgium (Vincent@benard.com).

I recommend Mr. Benard as a possible witness at any hearings you may eventually be holding on the reasons for the crisis, because

1-His credentials as a financial and economic expert are impeccable,

2-Being a French citizen He comes to the issue with no partisan bias.

3-As a European whose nation and region (EU) has been heavily hit by a crisis made in the USA, he is a good representative of a partner nation that has a legitimate right to voice an opinion and help us understand and solve this international crisis.

In the first article (http://laiglesforum.com/2008/10/20/a-modern-day-lafayette-rallies-the-troops/), Mr. Benard concludes from a study of literature on the subject that the crash was caused primarily by government involvement in several key areas, notably, mortgage giants Fanny Mae and Freddy Mac. 

Surprisingly, his second article (http://laiglesforum.com/2008/10/24/subprime-crisis-the-overal-picture/) shows that smart growth policies of local zoning boards contributed equally to this crash by inflating land prices.

This article was published at the popular web site Laigle’s Forum.

Sincerely,

[your name]

 

Thank you and God bless!

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