TRUTH AND TWO STAPLES
APRIL 2013
BINGHAMTON REVIEW
S.E. Cupp Speaks in LH 14 pg. 8 Tribute to the Late Margaret Thatcher pg. 10 Get Schooled by Ron Paul pg. 12
Binghamton Review
P.O. BOX 6000 BINGHAMTON, NY 13902-6000
EDITOR@BINGHAMTONREVIEW.COM
FOUNDED 1987 • VOLUME XXVII NUMBER 7 • APRIL 2013 EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Jacob L. Hayutin Managing Editor Daniel D. Milyavsky Treasurer Samuel P. Bondy Copy Desk Chief Larry P. Gerchikov Associate Editors Samuel P. Bondy Nicholas Fondacaro Editors Emeriti Aaron Ricks Mark Soriano Contributors Dina Truncali, Roy Kwak, Josh May, Sean Glendon Patriarchs of the Review Louis W. Leonini Adam Shamah Friends of the Review Dr. Aldo S. Bernardo The Leonini Family Mr. Bob Soltis WA2VCS The Shamah Family The Grynheim Family The Menje Family The Leeds Family The Lombardi Family The Packer Family Mr. Michael O’Connell Binghamton Review is printed by Our Press in Chenango Bridge, NY. We provide the truth; they provide the staples.
From the Editor...
S
pringhamton, is that you? After seven months of Winter you have finally arrived! Springhamton is the time of year that represents our school’s finest mood. It is different from the Spring enjoyed by most around the world. For one, it arrives erratically, fighting off the tumultuous convulsions of Winter that cling to the later months. Campus tours resume from hibernation and students can be seen happily strutting around campus, even smiling, as opposed to the normal student stature, crippled by nature and soul wrenching swaddling. On account of the passing of the great Margaret Thatcher, our visit from S.E. Cupp and the Review’s mistake in failing to address women’s history month at any length in our last issue, we have dedicated this one to all women. Conservative women of all varieties are an exceptional type of individual. From the sublime example of Thatcher, to the more ridiculous like Cupp, they all share the burden of compounded marginalization. Ben Carson recently made headlines
after addressing the nauseating political double standard that exists for black conservatives, where outstandingly brilliant individuals like Condoleezza Rice are savagely shamed by those who disagree with her politics for reasons only regarding race. This same argument is true for conservative women. It has become axiomatic for the average individual to associate certain identification groups with a particular party. Aside from this premise being utterly bigoted in itself, it represents a more pernicious flaw in our practice of politics. No matter how dramatic a trend, or slim a margin the practice of grouping is useful but dangerous. While group trends may offer interesting statistics that can help direct a campaign, groupthink has a tendency to subvert a more important and more powerful cognitive force, individual thought. From Seneca to Kierkegaard to Jefferson to Rand, many great philosophers have dedicated huge portions of their studies, to explaining how the individual human mind is the greatest source of progress.B
Our Mission Binghamton Review is a non-partisan, student-run periodical of conservative thought at Binghamton University. A true liberal arts education expands a student’s horizons and opens one’s mind to a vast array of divergent perspectives. In that spirit, we seek to promote the free exchange of ideas and offer an alternative viewpoint not normally found on our predominately liberal campus. It is our duty to expose the warped ideology of political correctness that dominates this university. We stand against tyranny in all its forms, both on campus and beyond. We believe in the principles set forth in this country’s Declaration of Independence and seek to preserve the fundamental tenets of Western civilization. Finally, we understand that a moral order is a necessary component of any civilized society. We strive to inform, engage, and perhaps even amuse our readers in carrying out this mission.
Contents
Press Watch........................................4 By the Editors
What You Missed...............................5 By the Editors
Student FreeLance.com......................6 By Dina Truncali
North Korea .....................................6 By Roy Kwak
Global Credit Market Losers..............7 By Jacob L. Hayutin
S.E. Cupp Addresses Media Bias in Lecture Hall 14.................................8 By Dan Milyavsky
Margaret Thatcher...........................10 By Josh May
Get Schooled by Ron Paul...............12 By Sean Glendon
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CPampus resswatch
(Article quotes in italics, our comments in bold)
by An Editor (Guess which one! Email editor@binghamtonreview.com if you think you know, and maybe you’ll win a prize!)
Do you have the right reasons for banging? By Jake Lewis
Pipe Dream publishes another idiotic article giving sex advice. Instead of trying to actually publish intelligently written opinion articles, Pipe Dream decides to appeal to the lowest common denominator. “Okay, people, it’s time for a little reality check. Sex is not like pizza. It is not always good.” Since when did pizza become always good? Has Mr. Lewis ever had a Sodexo slice? Or is he just astoundingly bad at thinking of metaphors? In fact, pizza is probably bad at least half the time. Anyway, onwards. Surely this article can’t get worse… “Having sex and ensuring it’s good sex isn’t always about skill levels; sometimes it goes a lot deeper. Actually, it often goes a lot deeper, and there’s an astounding number of people who don’t even realize that, especially in college.” So, after publishing countless lewd articles about sex, including a notorious one on how girls can best give blowjobs, Pipe Dream’s opinion page has suddenly discovered that, GASP!, emotion might actually matter when it comes to sex! What a shocker! The irony of this paragraph is that most people don’t even think that good sex is about “skill levels.” In fact, that’s not even a term I’ve ever heard before in regards to sex. Mr. Lewis seems to think that his depraved worldview is more common than it really is. “Despite all these seemingly negative aspects of sex, I don’t think that it’s a bad thing. Sex for the right reasons is great. Even mindless sex is great! Really, I just want to make at least some students think 4
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more carefully about sex.” Mr. Lewis says he wants us to think more carefully about sex, but judging by the columns he has written, it seems that he has never thought about anything seriously in his entire life. How’s that “for a little reality check?”
Racism isn’t dead, as postBoston reveals. By Nesh Pillay.
Great, another silly liberal antiracism piece. Look, we’re all against racism, it’s not fair to judge someone just on the color of their skin or their ethnicity. Everyone knows this. So since you’re writing about such an over-discussed topic, I really hope you have some sort of original insight on it… “In light of the horrible tragedy in Boston, the Twitterverse exploded with some of our nation’s most opinionated blabbermouths. I apologize in advance, because some of the following language is very offensive. Here’s a little taste of the literary gems that popped up on Twitter.” Apparently Ms. Pillay is surprised that not every post on Twitter is a “literary gem!” What a shocker! Now, I know what you’re thinking. There’s no way that she’s just gonna quote a bunch of scumbags on Twitter, and use that to generalize about racism in America as a whole, is there? Well, yes, there is. “Is Muslims bombed Boston. We as a planet need to wipe them the f—- off this world. Every one of them.” “Let’s go Dearborn and kill some of those towelheads!” “I seriously wanna fight in this war. I swear to god I’ll murder the Korean moms, kids, dads, elders, everyone.” The first one, oh, the first one. I would like to comment on your
impeccable use of grammar and spelling. If I am correct, you misspelled “If” and also mixed up the uses of a comma and period. Your parents must be very proud.” You’re making fun of someone on Twitter for spelling and grammar? Are you serious? And then you directly relate parental pride to said writing ability? If there’s any evidence that college students live in a bubble, this is most certainly it. And then she goes on to seriously address the Twitter user’s idiotic suggestion. As if such things were even worthy of a response. But look at what she says about the second one: I see what you did there. That was a jab at Muslims! LOL! But no, what you actually did there was target a completely different religious group. The men you may see wearing turbans are in fact Sikh, not Muslim. Sikhism is a cousin to Hinduism and actually promotes peace. Actually, although they aren’t the only religious group that does it, MUSLIMS WEAR TURBANS TOO! I know, I know, it’s a huge surprise. It’s not like there were any pictures of Osama bin laden wearing a turban… except almost every single one (seriously. Search his name on Google images. I can’t find a single picture of him without a turban). It’s really hard to argue with a stupid Twitter racist and lose, but if it’s at all possible, Ms. Pillay comes pretty damn close to it.B
DECEMBER 2012
What You Missed By the Same Editor that wrote Press Watch *The College Libertarians held a Smoke Out event on April 19th to protest the forthcoming smoking ban. Club President Ryan Cordova spent upwards of $200 on cigarettes and cigars, and gladly gave them away to the throngs of people who were willing to place their signature on a protest against the ban. The event was held by that weird sculpture thing in front of the Library Tower, and was a massive success. Good job guys! *Our hearts go out to the victims of the Boston marathon bombings, to the police officers who were shot in confrontation with the suspects, and to all those who died from the explosion at the fertilizer plant in Waco, Texas. In regards to the first situation, I’m glad that we got at least one of the suspects alive. It’s really a tragedy that seemingly normal people can be capable of such senseless atrocities. *The Senate failed to pass Obama’s gun control bill, and the President seems to have conceded defeat. Liberals are completely up in arms. I can’t see why, because first of all, it was a stupid bill anyway, and secondly, it would’ve never passed the house regardless. Enhanced background checks would not have stopped the mother of Adam Lanza from purchasing her firearms, and may www.binghamtonreview.com
well result in law abiding citizens having a harder time exercising their Second Amendment rights. We all agree that mass shootings are terrible, terrible tragedies, but it’s important to recognize that the solutions to them are complicated, and perhaps not even possible, since violence is innate in human nature. *Binghamton Crushes, a Facebook group where Binghamton students can post anonymously about their peers, has been gaining in popularity. The page is not really designed to actually start romantic relationships, but instead to both make people laugh and give props to the more attractive members of campus. I actually had a post written about me. Too bad it was just one of my friends being funny. I give him props though, it was good! *It turns out that the very conservative Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma is actually personal friends with Barack Obama. In Time’s 100 Most Influential People list, Obama wrote the entry on Coburn, saying: “The people of Oklahoma are lucky to have someone like Tom representing them in Washington — someone who speaks his mind, sticks to his principles and is committed to the people he was elected to serve. After I took office, Tom received dozens of letters from Oklahomans complaining that we looked too close
on TV. Tom’s response was “How better to influence somebody than to love them?” Each of us still hopes the other will see the light. But in the meantime, we’ll settle for being friends.” *A New Zealand court has sentenced a man named Ronald Clark for looking at hentai, which is Japanese cartoon porn. The cartoon apparently depicted young elves and pixies having sex, and the court thought that this was similar enough to child pornography for a conviction. That’s a discussion I don’t even feel like having. Well then, you might ask, why are you writing about this? Well, it’s fairly amusing, and something has to fill the space. *From the Associated Press: “A Texas judge on Friday ruled that a former district attorney acted improperly when he prosecuted an innocent man who spent nearly 25 years in prison for his wife’s slaying and ordered his arrest on criminal contempt and tampering charges.” Finally! A big problem with our legal system is that DA’s can do whatever they want to get a conviction, and the only way they could ever get punished for it is to get voted out of office. This Texas judge is right; District Attorneys should be bound by the same laws they used to lock up the rest of us.B 5
StudentFreelance.com/ North Korea
StudentFreelance Dina Truncali Freshmen Student of Political Science
With a toughening job market and the fear of unemployment constantly looming in the back of every college student’s mind, a website has emerged that could be a solution to the overwhelmingly high unemployment rates among recent graduates. StudentFreelance.com is an online site that connects students looking for work to businesses and employers on a freelance basis. Students and graduates can use the site to earn an income, develop employer relations, and gain experience doing what they love, which will give a competitive edge to any resume. On top of that, it gives students immense flexibility of working their own hours while they are in school. Boasting over 50,000 members, some of which are from Binghamton University, the success of the site is truly in the numbers. When entering the site, students are asked to create a profile for themselves which will be seen by future employers. The site then presents students with various lists of possible skills the student might possess, withwhich the student can sift through and select those they believe reflect on their personal strengths and abilities. These skills are then displayed as a part of the student’s profile. Employers, upon seeing the student profile, will send job offers and emails to the student via the website. This takes a lot of the work out of job hunting, and also helps employers recognize
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the importance of the student workforce and also keep jobs in America. Definitely a site worth checking out, StudentFreelance. com is here to stay. B
N.Korea Roy Kwak Freshmen Student of English Rhetoric
Recently North Korea has been making news headlines for a scary reason: Kim Jong Un, the third dictator of North Korea, is threatening to go to war with South Korea and their ally, the United States. It’s all very true. Under the leadership of the young Kim Jong Un, North Korea has conducted more nuclear weapon tests and is still using very antagonistic rhetoric in statements released to South Korea and the United States. Now one would think that the appropriate response would be to ask, “What can we do to appease the leaders of North Korea and how can ensure the safety of U.S. troops and South Korean citizens situated in South Korea?” The real question on everyone’s minds, however, is how seriously the dominant United States should be taking these threats. Are these merely the sounds of a temper tantrum being thrown by the young and naïve leader of North Korea? Or are they what they sound like; bold threats to bombard whoever falls in the range of North Korea’s missiles? It is painfully obvious the North Korean leaders are the bad guys here. In the past few weeks they have not only ruined their diplomatic relationship with South Korea, they have also driven much of
the world’s countries into states of fear. The tomfoolery began in December of 2012, when North Korea successfully launched a rocket and put a satellite in orbit. In doing so, however, North Korea violated the ban imposed on them by the United Nations. To further exacerbate the high-tension situation, North Korea approved and carried out a third nuclear test (two previous tests were performed in 2006 and 2009) in February of this year. The United Nations decided at this point that the North Koreans needed to be punished for violating the nuclear testing ban and imposed new sanctions limiting cash flow and the freedom of diplomats to travel. Since then, North Korea has threatened war a couple of times and has released poorly- crafted propaganda videos as a way of telling the rest of the world to stop meddling in their business. The question remains, however, are these threats credible and how should the world deal with them? North Korea is one of the worst places in the world. It is a backwards, totalitarian state where thousands of people are brainwashed to believe their suffering has a purpose behind it. As if to further tarnish their reputation, now North Korea is making headlines with their threats of nuclear strikes and another war with South Korea; though the Korean War ended with an armistice so the two countries are technically still at war. Their threats are intimidating but a little farfetched seeing as how their most advanced missile can’t actually reach the United States like they’ve said it could. Additionally, with China on the fence about whether or not they should be supporting North Korea, the United States would have no problem decimating the North Korean military. The North’s nuclear arsenal is indeed daunting, but it would appear their bark is much worse than their bite. B DECEMBER 2012
Global Credit Market Losers
Global Credit Market Losers Jacob L. Hayutin Senior Student of History & Philosophy, Politics and Law
Over the past ten years, global credit market debt has compounded at an annual rate of almost 11%, from $80 trillion to $200 trillion dollars. That’s roughly 250% of GDP. The consortium of spending-addicted governments and their printingprone central banks can explain this novel financial phenomenon. The biggest culprits include: the European Central Bank, the Federal Reserve, the Bank of England, and the Bank of Japan. The debt problem has boldly challenged the way many economists and investors examine markets. For example, the United States has experienced fourteen recessions since the Great Depression. In every case except the most recent, the economy as a whole has been intimately led out of recession by the real estate market. Although each case has its own idiosyncrasies, an examination of a few of the biggest losers can help explain the consequences of debt addition. The two most interesting of late are Cyprus and Japan.
Ironically, she had nothing to say about financial literacy. Social education is certainly important, but her audience may have benefited from a more relevant discussion about the lack of diversity in the Cypriot financial structure. The Republic of Cyprus is an island in the Mediterranean just south of Turkey and west of Syria, home to approximately 1.1 million. Cyprus joined the Euro Zone in 2008 and has been suffering from recession for about
a year. Over half of the Cypriot economy is made up of financial services that are attractive to foreign direct investment. Most depositors are Russian and use Cyprus as an offshore tax haven. This narrow structuring made Cyprus’s economy heavily reliant on those deposits-in fact, so much so that deposits peaked at about four times the size of Cyprus’s domestic economy. If Cyprus only accounts for about one-fifth of 1% of the Euro Zone, then why is this story making the front page of every major media outlet?... (continued on pag 14)
Euro Zone Begets a Piglet Here at Binghamton, in celebration of International Women’s Day, Dorm Room Diplomacy hosted counsel general Koula Sophianou of Cyprus. Her lecture consisted of anecdotal success stories about her family, attributed to ubiquitous platitudes about the value of education.
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S.E. Cupp
S.E. Cupp Comes to Binghamton, Talks About Media Bias, Gets Trolled by Leftist Dan Milyavsky Junior Student of Biology
Despite her supremely confident and borderline condescending tone, S.E. Cupp actually isn’t the most famous woman in the world. In fact, nobody who isn’t completely obsessed with politics or TV news has ever even heard of her. According to Wikipedia, she’s the co-host of some show on MSNBC called The Cycle, which means that along with Joe Scarborough, she’s MSNBC’s token conservative. In her favor, S.E. Cupp is a very talented speaker. She’s quick on
her feet, has good comedic timing, and is astoundingly good looking. She came to Binghamton, courtesy of the College Republicans, to talk about media bias. I’ll admit right off the bat that I don’t find this topic incredibly interesting, since I care more about discussing serious policy issues, such as radically reducing the size of the regulatory state, ending economically harmful rent seeking schemes like farm subsidies and sugar import quotas, ending the morally disgraceful War on Drugs, and cutting back on our global military presence. However, S.E. Cupp’s entire career has been with the media, so I suppose it interests her. Despite this, she had relatively
‘She’s quickon
her feet and has good comedic timing, and is astoundingly good looking’
few insights to offer about media bias. She seemed to view things from the lens of Left vs. Right, and the most nuanced thing she said was that media bias was difficult to define. However, lots of things are hard to define, so that’s not saying much. She complained about biases against religious people in America, claiming that 90% of people are religious. This statistics is probably nowhere near true; perhaps 90% of people claim to be affiliated with some religion, but I highly doubt that many are actually religious. Nevertheless, she was right that the condescension liberals feel towards their fellow Americans who happen to be Christian is rather annoying, and when it is juxtaposed with their complete refusal to talk honestly about Islam it is downright sickening. S.E. Cupp also got trolled by Tyler Albertario, a leftist student who identifies with communism and gets more emotional about political issues than anyone I’ve ever met. When it was Tyler’s turn to ask a question, he was so visibly disgusted and repulsed by Cupp, that he could hardly articulate himself. Finally, he made a legitimate point that when it comes to some Republican
S.E. Cupp policies, it’s not just the messaging that’s the problem, but the popularity of the policy itself. As Cupp was attempting to respond, Tyler kept interrupting her throughout the event, until she finally had to stop to ask for some civility, after which he seemed to calm down. All in all, Cupp’s talk was entertaining, although I had the same problem with her as I did with John Stossel when he came to campus (also courtesy of the College Republicans). It seems that no matter how hard they try, if they try at all, many of these famous people can’t help but feel vastly superior to the people asking them questions, and this inevitably becomes clear in the tone and words
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they use to answer audience questions. I haven’t met too many famous figures, but of the ones I have met, the most personally gracious were Senator Mike Lee of Utah and Congressman Ron Paul of Texas. Perhaps it’s because Cupp and Stossel both went to prestigious East Coast schools, whereas Paul and Lee went to more humble schools in the heartland. Maybe media types are naturally more arrogant than politicians. I’m not sure what it is. However, I do think we have a culture in which we admire, and even worship, famous personalities way too much. We should be more critical of people, even when they agree with us politically.
Of course, it doesn’t hurt to have a few people who you respect and admire immensely. Milton Friedman is definitely on the top of that list for me. But it’s always important to be honest with yourself and not view everything from a Left vs. Right spectrum. Anyone with strong political views is inevitably going to have some sort of a bias when they speak about politics, but the important thing is that they always strive to speak with honesty and make themselves open to new ideas, rather than turning into every single discussion into a conservative vs. liberal debate, that requires a victory for their team. B
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Thatcher
“The Lady’s Not For Turning: Margaret Thatcher, a Life Remembered”
Josh May Freshmen Student of Arabic & Political Science
In the world of armchair generals, my father is a field marshal. From childhood, I’ve sat listening in awe and wonder to his stories of battles and wars long gone. If there’s been a war, he’s heard of it- and he can tell you a story about it. But of all the conflicts he’s ever told me about, he held none in such fascination as the Falklands War. “It was just so improbable. Who could have seen that coming?” So improbablesuch is a fitting description of this and every other chapter in the life of the one, the only Margaret Thatcher. If one is to believe the chorus of voices on the political left, then nothing about Margaret Thatcher’s laundry list of accomplishments should have been possible. You can’t go after the Argentinians for those silly Falklands! Best to let it go. Let’s not suffer more embarrassment. Never mind cutting off government funding to those mines, ma’am; they may be running the taxpayer a huge loss, but they make the unions happy! But madam Prime Minister, you can’t challenge the Soviets so...
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one mustn’t upset them. Now listen here, you really shouldn’t associate with that cowboy, Mr. Reagan. You’ll just go about causing more trouble. Had Mrs. Thatcher listened to any of those voices at all, had she denied that same intrinsic character that earned her the fitting moniker Iron Lady and the first female premiership in British history, Margaret Thatcher would not have been Margaret Thatcher. Her character was the British spirit- the characteristically stoic, stiff-upper lip mixed with acerbic wit and boldness of charactertruly, an Iron Lady. Her greatest accomplishments- revitalizing the British economy by championing small-government, supply-side
‘If my critics saw me walking over the Thames, they would say it was because I couldn’t swim.’
economics, defending territorial integrity, restoring confidence in the British military, and standing strong as a force against tyranny in the world qualify her term as Prime Minister as a whirlwind tour de force. She was an inspiration to not only her beloved countrymen, but to liberty-loving people everywhere. Margaret Thatcher was not one to sit by quietly, defying expectations became her expectation, destruction of the status quo became her status quo. It is tempting to cast Margaret Thatcher into established archetypes- a Governor Coolidge on labor strikes, a Churchill on national defense, a Reagan on economics. The truth, however, is that she carved out a unique niche in history for which she will always be remembered. Her legacy is still felt to the present day. A look at recent news articles show that many of her longest-lasting triumphs still reverberate: not only have the British still refused to adopt the Euro, there is talk now of an EU pull-out referendum. Not only have the Falklands been liberated from Argentina, they have overwhelmingly chosen to
DECEMBER 2012
Thatcher remain a British territory. Not only has personal wealth in the UK risen 80%, but reforms like right-to-work, paths to council home ownership and tax cuts have ensured a prosperous England. Her distinct brand of governance, “Thatcherism” was not without its critics, however. As the Prime Minister once wryly remarked, “If my critics saw me walking over the Thames, they would say it was because I couldn’t swim.” Contemporary dissidents, succeeded by modern-day legacy-bashers, have done little to harm Thatcher’s image. She was always amused by such opposition, and would not be at all offset by the crowds of despicable liberals seen cheering and chanting upon news of her death. “I always cheer up immensely if an attack is particularly wounding because I think, well, if they attack one personally, it means they have not a single political argument left.” A far more fitting legacy for the late Prime Minister is to be found in the fantastic book, The President, the Pope, and the Prime Minister. Undoubtedly, Mrs. Thatcher is right at home amongst these two other supremely consequential Cold War figures. In the end, it is once again in her own words that we find the most apt summary of the Iron Lady’s governance: “Defeat- I do not recognise the meaning of the word!” So it always was with Margaret Thatcher, www.binghamtonreview.com
and so it will always be with her legacy. The indomitable British spirit, cheeky pluck, and uncompromising moral absolutism all intersected flawlessly to create the most powerful and influential woman of our lifetimes. Dignified in matters of principle and
indignant in the matters of evil, a warrior to her enemies, and a mother to her country, Margaret Thatcher’s complex and inspirational legacy will rightly endure through the ages. She will be missed by a nation and world forever grateful. Godspeed, ma’am, and God
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Get Schooled by Ron Paul
Get Schooled by Ron Paul
‘The Ron Paul Institute will provide the tools and the education to chart a new course with the understanding that only through a peaceful foreign policy can we hope for a prosperous tomorrow’ Sean Glendon Freshmen Student of Finance
If you follow politics, you should know who Ron Paul is. He’s a former Congressman from Texas, a strong constitutionalist libertarian, and the father of Kentucky Senator Rand Paul. He first held office in 1979 and has been in and out of office since then. After the end of his most recent term, during which he focused primarily on a presidential bid (for the third time), he left Congress for good. On November 14, 2012, Dr. Paul, who was a gynecologist before he became a politician (hence “Dr.”),
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gave a moving farewell address to Congress that summed up his ideology, the state of the nation, and recommendations moving forward. Although it is almost an hour long it is a must see. Dr. Paul’s Congressional career officially ended on January 13, 2013 with the swearing in of his successor Randy Weber and the rest of the 113th Congress. With talks of a college tour and promises to continue preaching his policies, Ron Paul was no longer a politician. Many wondered what would be next for Dr. Paul--and only four months later, answers have arrived. It’s evident that Ron Paul believes that our education system is flawed. He spoke out against the Department of Education and even planned to abolish it as part of a budget that would have cut $1 trillion in a single year. Unlike the majority of politicians, Ron Paul ideologically walks where most only talk. It should come as no surprise that his post-retirement plans focus on education. Within the last month, he launched ronpaulcurriculum.com, a website dedicated to home schooling. The curriculum is free to access from kindergarten through 5th grade, and then becomes $250 per year
and $50 per course. Beyond the curriculum offered by public institutions (science, math, etc.), the website claims that students will learn “liberty vs. coercion in Western history,” “how to defend the freedom philosophy...what it takes for success in college” and “how to start a home business.” With an increasing home school movement (1.5 million kids were home schooled in 2007, compared to 850,000 in 1999), it will be interesting to see how large of a base this website will capture. To go hand in hand with this, he will be releasing his tenth book, The School Revolution: A New Answer for Our Broken Education System, in September with a focus on education from a libertarian standpoint, with strong support for home schooling and applying free market principles to education. For a retired senior citizen, this would be more than enough, but Ron Paul has not stopped here. On April 12, Mr. Paul announced that he would lead a Washington D.C. think-tank called the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity, which he hopes will help his foreign policy carry on long after he’s gone. DECEMBER 2012
Get Schooled by Ron Paul The main focuses of his thinktank are coming generations, and once again, education. On the topic of this institute, Ron Paul’s office stated “The neoconservative era is dead. The ill-advised policies pushed by the neo-cons have everywhere led to chaos and destruction, and to a hatred of the United States and its people. Multitrillion dollar wars have not made the world a safer place; they have only bankrupted our economic future. The Ron Paul Institute will provide the tools and the education to chart a new course with the understanding that only through a peaceful
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foreign policy can we hope for a prosperous tomorrow.� The high-profile board of advisors for this Institute include Lew Rockwell, the CEO of the Ludwig von Mises Institute, Republican Representatives Walter Jones Jr., and John Duncan, Jr., former Democratic Representative Dennis Kucinich, and Libertarian Judge Andrew Napolitano. These recent announcements have made one thing clear. Going forward, Ron Paul plans to educate young Americans. When he ran for President, he garnered support primarily from college students. The irony here was that
the youngest demographic that could vote connected most with the oldest candidate running in the primaries. In the future, Ron Paul will be counting on an even younger demographic to carry on his ideologies. As the college students that supported him grow older and have kids, they may be the ones looking to his home schooling for their children. At the age of 77, Ron Paul is taking a unique approach to solidify his legacy and ensure that his impact is not soon forgotten. He is trying to educate youngsters way before they can even vote. Ron Paul is literally trying to make his ideology a school of thought. B
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Global Credit Market Losers ...(continued from page 7) On March 16th, the full service of the state’s two largest banks were closed by the European Union due to insolvent securitization of Cypriot banks, backed by Greek bonds and exacerbated by a deflating real estate bubble. The European Central Bank gave Cyprus until Monday, March 25th, to propose a plan for restructuring, under the threat of cutting off all liquidity. The initial plan called for Cyprus to raise 5.8 billion euros, in return for a 10 billion-euro joint bailout from the EU and IMF. The most recent projections estimate the bailout will need to be closer to 23 bn euros, calling on Cyprus to raise another 7 billion euros. The the first round of mandates shut down the state’s second largest bank, Cyprus Popular Bank, and aggressively downsized its largest, the Bank of Cyprus. The plan to pay for the debt imposed a levy on all depositors at a rate of 9.9% with over 100,000 Euros (their FDIC equivalent) and 6.75% for those with
less. CPB limited daily withdrawals to 100 euros and the Bank of Cyprus imposed a limit of 120 euros, for fear of cash hoarding. A similarly panicked strategy was used by FDR as proposed in his famous Fireside Chat in 1933. By Monday the multibillioneuro bailout was secured from international creditors, implementing strict controls and cutting Cyprus off from much of the Euro Zone. CPB has been closed and all uninsured depositors have been levied, as well as 40% of all depositors elsewhere. The tax on depositors with fewer than 100,000 euros was cut out in the eleventh hour of bargaining. Gabriel Sterne at Exotic, a hedge fund advisory, projected a 10% decline in GDP this year and 8% in the next. He also stated, “We think the peak to trough decline in annual real GDP will be in the order of 23%, similar to Greece.” This means skyrocketing unemployment, business bankruptcies, and slumping tax revenues, all under the greater pressure of the global credit market
squeeze. Dutch Deputy Finance Minister Frans Weekers said he, “wouldn’t be surprised if [Cyprus’s financial needs] will be more.” Despite the clear evidence that Cyprus will be struggling from this collapse for many years to come, Yiannakis Omirou, president of Cyprus’s Parliament, said, “the deal was a positive development, signaling it could enjoy broader political support. [emphasis mine]” Only a well-lettered politician could say something that absurd in midst of such crisis. It is true one of the jobs of politicians, especially in states of emergency, is to minimize panic, but notions this disingenuous look more like an inappropriate affect. For the Euro Zone, Cyprus is a forgotten cough in its sickly life. But for the people of Cyprus, this begins an era of economic servitude to the more solvent nations of the north. Mr. Omirou could have been more earnest by proposing legislation to rename the Euro Zone “Animal Farm,” change his own title to “Snowball,” and welcome his people to the ranks of the PIGS. Japan’s Printing Problem As the fourth largest economy in the world, Japan is a far more concerning and complicated case. The lost decade that began in the 90’s has now been stretched to almost a quarter century. At the end of 2012, the central government of Japan reached a debt level equivalent to more than 200% of its GDP, totaling 997 trillion yen or $80 thousand per capita. Compared to the US, at around 100% of GDP or $53,000 per capita. On top of this, the revolving door at the BOJ has chewed up and spit out ten ministers of finance in the last six
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BINGHAMTON REVIEW
DECEMBER 2012
Global Credit Market Losers years. The last minister to maintain position for more than a single year was Sadakazu Tanigaki, from 20032006. Under the intensified pressure of negotiating terms for the Trans Pacific Partnership Free Trade Agreement, Japan’s net exports are likely to continue to deteriorate along with the yen, which In the past few weeks the yen has depreciated by over 25%. Fleeing foreign investment demands domestic funding, but increased life expectancy is consuming what little is left. As opposed to younger workers, who save and invest for retirement, the elderly are more postured to spend. In 2008, USA Today reported, “Japan, [is] home to one of the world’s longest average lifespan. More than 20% of the population is over 65, and the country is forecast to have the globe’s largest number of centenarians — 1 million — by 2050,” under the headline, “Japan Holds Diaper Fashion Show for Adults.” More recent reports confirm this projection. Following the example of the Federal Reserve and the EU, Japan’s most recent restructuring involves a record breaking quantitative easing stimulus. “The Fed, the ECB and the BOJ, have more than doubled the combined size of their balance sheets since the global financial crisis broke out in 2007, expanding them by a total of $4.7 trillion. With the BOJ’s action, that amount could be increased by at least a further $1.3 trillion by the end of 2014.” J. Kyle Bass of Hayman Capital Management, (one of the few firms to predict and capitalize from the subprime mortgage crisis) compared Japan’s debt problem to www.binghamtonreview.com
Bernie Madoff’s ponzi scheme in an interview at the University of Virginia in 2011; “The reason Bernie Madoff’s failed, which probably has nothing to do with Japan other than that it’s a pretty good analogy, was he had more people leaving his scheme than entering and that’s typically what every ponzi scheme is.” With both foreign and domestic investment dwindling and the scarcity of available credit, it is hard to say if any fiscal policy or monetary stimulus can lead to long term solvency. At the Americatalyst conference in Austin 2012, Bass was given the keynote address. In which he explained, when central balance sheet debt gets to be 20-25% of tax revenues, an irreconcilable nonlinearity develops between the two. Japan is currently spending around 23% of tax revenues on interest each year. At the end of 2012, Japan’s debt was twenty-three times its tax revenues. That means a 1% rise in the average debt cost will increases the overall interest
expense by another 23% of tax revenues. So, the average debt cost is only about 3% away from the point where interest consumes all of tax revenues. If Japan can pursue a 2% rise in inflation without increasing their debt cost and while attracting foreign investment, then it may be able to avoid a tragic proverbial debt overdose, at least for the next few years. So What? Whether the intentions of these banks were more influenced by excessive optimism or panic is irrelevant. Over the last decade the debt problem phenomena has changed the parameters of international trade, in which these banks had become too comfortable. Now that the United States has lost confidence in its real estate recovery postulate, Cyprus has hardly any economic freedom left and no one wants to have anything to do with the yen, we can only hope each of these states beings to take their debt addiction more seriously. B
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