In the mean time, please note the link to the main NARN podcast page is on the right hand side of Fraters Libertas, labeled: NARN Podcast Archives. Both the First Team and Headliners editions are available there.
Here are some helpful links to this week's First Team shows, in case you missed out on Saturday.
Hour 1 - Apologia for missing the last 3 weeks and for probably missing the next 2 weeks. And interview with Rep. Elect King Banaian. Hear what is was like to sweat out his 10 vote margin and what his experience has been like so far as an incoming freshman legislator. Also, his thoughts on voting for a Mark Dayton demanded tax increase and public subsidy for a new Vikings Stadium.
Hour 2 - interview with Kevin Williamson, author of the Politically Incorrect Guide to Socialism
Williamson proved to be a provocative analyst of our nation's economic woes. Below is an excerpt of the interview. A listener called in to observe that it seems like socialism, in the American context, always wins in the end. We've been on a gradual slide for decades and even if Republicans or conservatives win some elections, the trend doesn't reverse itself. It seems that creeping socialism can't be beat. Williamson responded with:
Not only can we beat them, we are going to beat them. And it's inevitable that we're going to beat them. And here's why. We don't have the money. The money is gone. When they passed ObamaCare, they said it's going to cost a trillion dollars and all this stuff is going to happen. I didn't worry about it for a second. No it's not. Because we're not going to spend the money. Because we don't have it.
The bad news is, we're about to go through a fiscal and financial crisis that's going to make 2008 look like a cakewalk. We've got $130 trillion in national debt, state and local debt, municipal debt and unfunded liabilities.
Now $130 trillion is two times the GDP of planet Earth. It's two times the global money supply. It's twice all the money in the world. Which means we are not going to pay those bills. So even the level of socialism we have right now, the level of big government we have right now is going away, because there's just not the money to pay for it.
The question is, are we going to build good, cooperative, free market institutions to replace this stuff and have a peaceable, orderly transition that leaves us more free and more prosperous and happier or are we going to try and keep doing things the same old, dumb way and impoverish ourselves and cause chaos and catastrophe.
The good news is, the welfare state is a thing of the past, it's dead, it just doesn't know it yet, it's a zombie and the bond markets are going to be the one to catch up with us. Here's where reform comes from, it doesn't come from politics, it doesn't come from winning elections. I wish it did, I wish I could say vote for this guy, go vote for Rick Perry my favorite politician in America, and he'll take care of things. It's not going to happen that way. What's going to happen is the markets are going to stop loaning government money. And when that happens, it's game over, we win.
