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Ray Lopez
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I live in Greece. I travel a lot. I sometimes handle large sums of money. No I don't launder money or deal in drugs. But if you do want to launder money, a legal way is (for US citizens) to declare it to the US Treasury, then buy real estate overseas. Once you have real estate overseas,... More
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  • Test post 2 comments
    Aug 7, 2009 12:08 PM
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    King Ferdinand of Spain said, “Get gold humanely if possible, but at all costs get gold!"

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    The growth in government worldwide is documented by economist Vito Tanzi. It started in the late 1950s and 1960s, worldwide. But it has not resulted in growth rates being any greater than in the days when government was less than 10% of GDP (total spending, including transfer payments which were lower years ago), see for example the graph here: tinyurl.com/32urgja

    Compare the late 19th century with the late 20th century for each country--which is more of an apples to apples comparison than the post WWII era, when economies were rebuilding from the ashes. If anything, the average growth back in 1870-1913 was greater (3.0%/yr) than in the period from 1986-1913 (2.4%) And in the USA, much greater: 4.7% vs. 2.5%.

    Lesson learned: government is bad. Big government is worse. Transfer payments are subject to hysteresis. On the last point, a cartoon in Reason magazine said it best: it showed a patient, the USA being given a blood transfusion by transferring blood from the left arm to the right arm. No matter how well intentioned, such transfer payments do nothing except placate the patent a bit (placebo effect). If we don't want social unrest, I say increase welfare payments to those truly needy (disabled, single mothers with kids, etc) but cut off all other social payments, including mandatory Social Security.
    11 Dec 2010, 03:13 AM Reply Like
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    Correction: "If anything, the average growth back in 1870-1913 was greater (3.0%/yr) than in the period from 1986-1913 (2.4%) And in the USA, much greater: 4.7% vs. 2.5%. " -- should read 1986 to 1994, as is clear from the graph.
    11 Dec 2010, 03:49 AM Reply Like
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