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Articles by Lee Friday

Canada’s Legal Counterfeiting Ring Is a Product of Progressive Democracy

May 10, 2023

Canada created its central bank during the Great Depression, ostensibly to stabilize the currency and protect the banking system. Today, that system is falling apart, thanks to inflationary central bank policies.

Original Article: "Canada’s Legal Counterfeiting Ring Is a Product of Progressive Democracy"

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Canada’s Legal Counterfeiting Ring Is a Product of Progressive Democracy

April 25, 2023

In 1934, at the behest of Prime Minister R.B. Bennett and with the approval of Parliament, Canada’s central bank, the Bank of Canada (BOC), was founded. It began operations in 1935. Its job is “to promote the economic and financial welfare of Canada.” It is now 2023, and more than half of Canadians are living hand to mouth, a trend that has been well established for many years. How much longer do we have to wait for the BOC to do its job?
The BOC continues to operate because its real purpose is not to promote the economic and financial welfare of Canada, but rather to promote the economic and financial welfare of Canada’s political class, including bankers, at the expense of regular citizens. The BOC is able to do this because equality under the law does not exist

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Democracy Created Canada’s Lethal Healthcare System

March 29, 2023

Canadian politicians tout their healthcare system as morally superior to private medicine. There is nothing moral about relegating thousands of people to death each year for lack of medical care.

Original Article: "Democracy Created Canada’s Lethal Healthcare System"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. 

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Democracy Created Canada’s Lethal Healthcare System

March 25, 2023

The provision of private healthcare in Canada is contingent on the ability of private actors to satisfy all of the conditions embedded within government legislation. However, the severity of these conditions means that most aspects of private healthcare are essentially outlawed, as they have been for many decades.
Perhaps that wouldn’t matter if the government kept the promise it made to Canadians when it arbitrarily imposed universal healthcare (Medicare) on the country. The government promised “to make sure that people could get care when it was needed without regard to other considerations” (emphasis added).
The government breaks this promise on a daily basis. Currently, there are approximately 1.2 million Canadians stuck on a government waiting list for

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Is Democracy under Attack in Canada? No, but It Should Be

March 6, 2023

Canadian political, academic, and media elites "worry" that democracy in that country may be under attack. Actually, democracy works all too well there.

Original Article: "Is Democracy under Attack in Canada? No, but It Should Be"
This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. 

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Is Democracy under Attack in Canada? No, but It Should Be

February 27, 2023

When the legacy media tells you that democracy is under attack in Canada, don’t believe it. Democracy is alive and well, working exactly as it was designed to work, which is to benefit the political class and their friends at the expense of average citizens who still believe that their vote actually means something. This is consistent with how democracy works in most democratic countries. Professors Martin Gilens and Benjamin Page tell us:
The central point that emerges from our research is that economic elites and organized groups representing business interests have substantial independent impacts on U.S. government policy, while mass-based interest groups and average citizens have little or no independent influence. . . .
Clearly the median citizen or “median

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The Bank of Canada’s Failed Mission to “Preserve the Value of Money”

December 3, 2021

In Canada, inflation hit 4.7 percent in October, and is expected to go even higher. According to a recent survey, 46 percent of Canadians are struggling to feed their families because of the rising cost of living. Perhaps they are also struggling to understand the logic of the Bank of Canada’s (BOC) mission statement: “We work to preserve the value of money by keeping inflation low and stable.”
That’s the BOC’s objective, but it’s impossible to achieve.
Preserve means to maintain something in its original state, and the only way to preserve the value of money is to keep inflation at 0 percent, not low and stable, as the BOC illogically claims. According to the BOC’s own inflation calculator, the Canadian dollar has lost 22 percent of its value since 2010, and 81

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Most Everything Governments Do Should Be Regarded as “Corrupt”

October 9, 2020

Governments that redistribute wealth and regulate our daily lives are inherently corrupt. We cheapen the word “corruption” when we reserve it for just a few politicians who break the arbitrary rules.

This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon. Narrated by Millian Quinteros.
Original Article: “Most Everything Governments Do Should Be Regarded as ‘Corrupt’“.

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The “Old” vs. the “New” Liberalism
It is not disputed that the popular meaning of liberal has changed drastically over time. It is a well-known story how, around 1900, in English-speaking countries and elsewhere, the term was captured by writers who were essentially social democrats.

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Rent Control Is Bad for Renters, but Good for Politicians

September 28, 2020

Ontario’s ever-changing rent control policies prove that politicians are just as committed to flip-flopping as the Minnesota Vikings are to not winning the Super Bowl.
Rent Control as a Means of Buying Votes
Ontario’s modern history of rent control legislation began during the 1975 election campaign, when it was actively promoted by the New Democratic Party (NDP). This was the stagflation era, and the NDP conveniently ignored Canadian monetary policy as a major contributing factor to price inflation—7.8 percent in 1973, 11 percent in 1974, 10.7 percent in 1975—including higher rents, preferring instead to talk about “horror stories of individuals and bad landlords who imposed exorbitant rent increases.”

However, as William Watson wrote in the Financial

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“Heritage” Designation of Old Buildings Is Both Wasteful and Arbitrary

March 5, 2020

An old red barn in London, Ontario was recently given heritage protection by City Council. Two days later, after dark, the barn was demolished.
Owner John McLeod, citing legal advice, wouldn’t comment when asked if he’d demolished the barn but said, “I’m delighted that it’s down.”
McLeod had fought the heritage designation for the Byron barn, calling the push for it at city hall “complete stupidity.”
City Hall responded to the demolition by issuing a stop work order requiring the owner to “immediately cease the removal” of the barn “or any material part thereof.”
Councillor Anna Hopkins said she was in total shock, while Councillor Stephen Turner said, “I’m appalled that the barn was so brazenly demolished a mere 48 hours after the property was

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Why the Courts Aren’t All They’re Supposed to Be

December 15, 2019

In the United States, law courts routinely hand out court order mandating payments to victims. And then do little to enforce them.
For example, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, in 2015 only 43.5 percent of custodial parents received the full amount of court-ordered child support payments. 25.8 percent received partial payment while 30.7 percent — a figure which is trending higher — received no payments. I live in Canada, where the situation is equally, if not more, depressing, with nearly two-thirds of all support orders in arrears in 2014.
The government is huge, so the problem isn’t that the government lacks sufficient resources, but that it can arbitrarily decide how to allocate those resources. Meanwhile, ordinary people who depend on the courts to

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The Fight Against “Home Sharing” Drives up the Price of Short-Term Housing

November 5, 2019

City Council in London, Ontario recently decided to explore their options for regulating “short-term rentals” arranged through companies such as Airbnb, HomeAway, etc. The motion was brought forward by Councillor Anna Hopkins, who is concerned about (a) complaints from residents about short-term-renters’ noisy parties, and (b) “the role those short-term rentals have on taking potential long-term housing options out of the market.” Hopkins is concerned (video 1:31:27) that non-owner-occupied residences are being “used as hotels.”
This is a strange action for Council to take because (a) the city already has a noise by-law, and (b) Council itself is guilty of prohibiting numerous long-term affordable housing options, and (c) short-term rentals include hotels, but

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