From Reason TV: “School choice is winning in America, folks,” says Reason Foundation’s Director of Education Lisa Snell.

At Reason Foundation’s annual Reason Weekend, Snell discussed the great progress that’s been made in the school choice movement, with charter schools and voucher programs already making incredible improvements in the quality of American education. Clare Mullin, project manager for the Gleason Family Foundation, was also on the panel and talked about the spike in public interest in school choice and the great success of National School Choice Week.
About 24 minutes. Shot by Alex Manning and Paul Detrick; edited by Zach Weissmueller.

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An analysis of the political spectrum by Walter Block from the Ludwig von Mises Institute

(Actually, Al Gore refuses to debate this topic, so this video presents both sides of the issue and let’s you decide.)

The complete transcript of the video is available here: Money, Banking, and the Federal Reserve: the Complete Transcript

Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson understood “The Monster”. But to most Americans today, Federal Reserve is just a name on the dollar bill. They have no idea of what the central bank does to the economy, or to their own economic lives; of how and why it was founded and operates; or of the sound money and banking that could end the statism, inflation, and business cycles that the Fed generates.

Dedicated to Murray N. Rothbard, steeped in American history and Austrian economics, and featuring Ron Paul, Joseph Salerno, Hans Hoppe, and Lew Rockwell, this extraordinary new film is the clearest, most compelling explanation ever offered of the Fed, and why curbing it must be our first priority.

Alan Greenspan is not, we’re told, happy about this 42-minute blockbuster. Watch it, and you’ll understand why. This is economics and history as they are meant to be: fascinating, informative, and motivating. This movie could change America.

The Clinton administration has turned the Community Reinvestment Act, a once-obscure and lightly enforced banking regulation law, into one of the most powerful mandates shaping American cities—and, as Senate Banking Committee chairman Phil Gramm memorably put it, a vast extortion scheme against the nation’s banks. Under its provisions, U.S. banks have committed nearly $1 trillion for inner-city and low-income mortgages and real estate development projects, most of it funneled through a nationwide network of left-wing community groups, intent, in some cases, on teaching their low-income clients that the financial system is their enemy and, implicitly, that government, rather than their own striving, is the key to their well-being.

The CRA’s premise sounds unassailable: helping the poor buy and keep homes will stabilize and rebuild city neighborhoods. As enforced today, though, the law portends just the opposite, threatening to undermine the efforts of the upwardly mobile poor by saddling them with neighbors more than usually likely to depress property values by not maintaining their homes adequately or by losing them to foreclosure. The CRA’s logic also helps to ensure that inner-city neighborhoods stay poor by discouraging the kinds of investment that might make them better off.

Read more here: “The Trillion-Dollar Bank Shakedown That Bodes Ill for Cities”

Ruth is the proprietor of a bar in Chicago. In order to increase sales, she decides to allow her loyal customers – most of whom are unemployed alcoholics – to drink now but pay later.

She has the good sense to keep track of the drinks consumed, with the help of an expensive point-sale-software program paid for by an SBA loan. These are carried on the books as “customer loans”.

Word gets around, and new customers flood into Ruth’s bar.

Taking advantage of her customers’ freedom from immediate payment constraints, Ruth increases her prices for wine and beer, the most-consumed beverages. Her sales volume increases massively.

A young and dynamic customer service consultant at the local bank recognizes these customer debts as valuable future assets and increases Ruth’s credit limit.He sees no reason for undue concern since he has taken an assignment of the debts of the alcoholics as collateral.

At the bank’s corporate headquarters, expert bankers transform these “customer assets” into DRINKBONDS, ALKBONDS and PUKEBONDS. These securities are then traded on markets worldwide. No one really understands what these abbreviations mean and how the securities are guaranteed. Nevertheless, as their prices continuously climb, the securities become top-selling items.

Read the rest of “The Bartender”