The Founding Fathers of Insider Trading (The GOP, Lincoln & Co.)

LewRockwell.com ^ | 30.08.03 | Thomas J. DiLorenzo

[Ronly Bonly Jones]

Lew Rockwell's just mad that every time he calls for one of his slaves to bring him a julep, nobody comes. Hell, that's enough to drive a man to naked treason, it is.

[u-89]

Should I take your comments as an endorsement of political corruption, graft, bribery, kickbacks and fleecing taxpayers?

To recycle your words "Hell, that's enough to drive a man to naked treason, it is."

[steve50]

Give em a break. They learned all they need to know about the issue in seventh grade.

[Ronly Bonly Jones]

You can take my words as calling Lew Rockwell a racist traitor. Not that my labeling him as such makes him one, his own words do that well enough on his own.

[Ronly Bonly Jones]

Which is better than learning all one needs to know on the subject from one's klansman's grandfather when three years old.

[Huck]

You can take my words as calling Lew Rockwell a racist traitor.

Give credit where credit is due. Thomas J. DiLorenzo wrote the article. He is trying to make a career out of attacking Lincoln. Beats attacking someone who can fight back, I suppose. I think this Lorenzo guy is hilarious. His single-minded Lincoln obsession is absolutely hysterically funny. There is no need to refute it. Anyone who can be duped by DiLOrenzo is just a dupe anyway. Who cares?

[steve50]

Not really. The trick is life is an ongoing learning process. It's much easier to just pick a set of facts you like and close your mind.

[sharktrager]

Would you agree that the greater industrial base and population density of the north made a northern route more reasonable for the trans-continental railroad?

[Mind-numbed Robot]

I know this still goes on in my area - Dallas/Ft. Worth. When the new DFW International Airport was built years ago, all the rich and well connected people owned all the cheap farm land on which it was sited. Ross Perot Jr. bought lots of cheap farm land north of Ft. Worth and then the fed, local, and state governments helped him build a large private airport, Alliance Airport, basically paying for it. The City of Ft. Worth than had the audacity to want to manage it and all hell broke loose. When the smoke cleared, Perot ran the airport and the Ft. Worth upstart politicians were licking their wounds.

[u-89]

Could you please link to some Lew quotes to prove your case? I've never seen anything racist on his site.

So in your opinion fidelity to maximum personal liberty, limited government and governing by strict adherence to the constitution i.e. the principles on which this country was founded equals treason? Well I admit it does go against the modern state of affairs - but then if you are all for a strong, centralized, intrusive, meddling, high taxing, socialist government and nanny state why are you on FR? This site's purpose was to roll back years of government growth.

[u-89]

The question is not which route was better but what was the federal government doing subsidizing it?

The left loves to rail against capitalism and the robber barons but what one doesn't hear about is that government corruption made it all possible. Politicians, judges and law enforcement officials were bought and paid for and aided and abetted in the troubles of the period like governors sending in the national guard to fight strikers for example. The left wants more government so they will not criticize it and the wealthy and politically connected use it to their own profit. So both sides (if there really is two sides) love big government.

The problem is when one realizes that the government has been the tool of the wealthy and powerful for their own benefit then one starts questioning all the maneuverings of the State and then the facade of purity and nobility begins to crumble. That is why articles like this are valuable and that is why this information is not main stream. It is a shame that sentimentalism and willful blindness prevents a lot of people from truly critiquing their government's policies. If they had or would we could prevent a lot of the messes we are in.

[vbmoneyspender]

describes the historical origins of political insider trading in her book,

This is ridiculous. Does the author really believe that the concept of individuals benefitting from political contacts was invented by the Lincoln administration? Corruption of this sort has existed as long as governments have existed. Before this author writes silly things like the above statement, he might want to actually do research on such topics by reading historical works by Suetonius or Tacitus or even more recent history from countries other than the United States.

[u-89]

Wasn't there a land grab by the government of Texas - eminent domain - to build a baseball stadium? And while they were at it they claimed land across the highway which was later commercially developed in a way that had nothing to do with the ball field but very porfitable to the political cronnies. I remember reading something about that before the 2000 election. And why do governments (taxpayers) have to build ball fields for private corporations anyway?

[u-89]

I believe scope of the topic is US corporate welfare and cronyism - not the history of the world.

[Fraulein]

This powerful clique of New England/New York/Chicago business interests "aroused the suspicions of the South," says Brown, since they were so vigorously lobbying Congress to allocate huge sums of money for a transcontinental railroad across the Northern states. Southern politicians wanted the route to pass through their states, naturally, but they knew they were outgunned politically by the political clique from "the Yankee belt"

history ping

[rdb3]

Could you please link to some Lew quotes to prove your case? I've never seen anything racist on his site.

"[Clarence] Thomas calls the segregation of the Old South, where he grew up, 'totalitarian.' But that's liberal nonsense. Whatever its faults, and it certainly had them, that system was far more localized, decent, and humane than the really totalitarian social engineering now wrecking the country."
— LLEWELLYN H. ROCKWELL

[vbmoneyspender]

bump. BTW, if you get the Rockwell people discussing the Civil War, they'll tell you that the slaves would have been better off if the Civil War had never occurred.

[Mind-numbed Robot]

Wasn't there a land grab by the government of Texas - eminent domain - to build a baseball stadium?

No, I don't think so. You must be thinking of the left's attempt to smear Bush by claiming, as Managing Partner of the Rangers, he had the city of Arlington build him a baseball stadium. Not so. The Rangers were already in Arlington and the city wanted to keep them there so they took the initiative in buiding the new stadium. Incidentally, it was ex-Mayor of Arlington, now judge, Tom Vadergriff, who almost single handedly brought major league baseball to North Texas. Staying in Arlington was fitting.

The most recent deal was Maverick and Stars owners getting the city of Dallas to sell bonds to build a new basketball/hockey arena when they already had a relatively new and perfectly good arena. Ironically, Ross Perot, Jr. was owner of the Mavericks at the time so, once again, he was feeding at the public trough. (Those who believed Ross Perot wanted clean government and therefore voted for him back in 2000 were played for fools. He was just gunning for G.H.W. Bush for some imagined sleight in the past. He succeeded in giving us Clinton.)

However, nearly all sports team owners try to get the taxpayers to foot the bill for their playpens. The Cowboys are presently shopping for a new place. What is wrong with Texas Stadium? Nothing.

And, yes, it is always the rich insiders who get things cheaper and at someone else's expense. As unfair as it seems, I don't know how it can be prevented. The only way to stop the pain is to become a rich insider, so work hard.

[rdb3]

BTW, if you get the Rockwell people discussing the Civil War, they'll tell you that the slaves would have been better off if the Civil War had never occurred.

I'm well aware of that. It's an indefensible, idiotic thing to say as well.

And, BTW, what else do they talk about but the civil war?