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In 1776, an age when social media entailed spending a few hours in the evening in the local tavern listening to printed materials read aloud by those fortunate enough to be able to read, Thomas Paine was a blue checkmark account, a million follower maven who coalesced public sentiment for independence from Great Britain and then bucked up the troops for their crucial counterattack at Trenton. He was much more than a mere firebrand, though, expressing key notions of political economy before other American statesmen did.
Article by Thomas E. Wright from AIER.
One of the young rebels who risked his life for freedom by backing independence and crossing the icy Delaware with General George Washington on Christmas night 1776 was Alexander Hamilton. Later, as Treasury Secretary, Hamilton, backed by President Washington, implemented a series of controversial policies that jump started America’s economic miracle. I detail those policies in One Nation Under Debt (2008) and other books.
Hamilton was, in the terminology of public debt expert and author of The Political Economy of Public Debt Richard Salsman, a “debt realist.” Hamilton summarized his view of sovereign debt in an (in)famous 1781 letter to financier Robert Morris, in which he wrote that “A national debt, if it is not excessive, will be to us a national blessing; it will be a powerful cement of our union.”
Hamilton, like Morris and other debt realists, realized that government borrowing was rational if the benefits of borrowing, like winning independence, exceeded the costs, which would remain small so long as the debt remained easy to service. By cement of the union, Hamilton meant that bondholders would have a strong incentive to make the new nation work, if only so they would get paid as promised.
As Salsman shows, debt realism was a controversial view throughout history because most policymakers and political economists argued that all sovereign debt is economically and morally pernicious or, at the other extreme, that governments can and should borrow as much as they want, especially if they also print money, because it will have few untoward effects. Both extreme views remain silly but are still widely held to this day.
Interestingly, Hamilton closely paraphrased Paine, who wrote in 1776 that “No nation ought to be without a debt. A national debt is a national bond; and when it bears no interest, is in no case a grievance.” Paine later excoriated the leaders of his homeland, Great Britain, not for borrowing per se, but for borrowing too much. He accurately predicted that the Bank of England would have to stop specie payments, which held off only two months longer than Paine anticipated.
Paine shared with Hamilton a distrust of fiat paper money, suffering through painful hyperinflations in America and France during their revolutions. Like Hamilton, he espoused private bank money (notes and deposits) convertible into gold or silver at a known, fixed rate and backed by the bank’s entire portfolio of assets, which in addition to precious metals should primarily be composed of short-term discount loans and government bonds and other liquid securities.
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The author of Common Sense, like Hamilton and Chief Justice John Marshall, thought it common sense that governments should not renege on any of their contracts, including the promises they made in corporate charters. Paine excoriated Pennsylvania in 1786 for revoking the charter of the Bank of North America in terms that Marshall would use in his famous 1819 decision in the Dartmouth College case. If governments could abrogate charters, all three great statesmen knew, “It will lead us,” as Paine wrote in Dissertations on Government, “into a wilderness of endless confusion and insurmountable difficulties.” Nothing short of the “glory” of the Republic was at stake, because if the government could renege on its promises individuals could become “the prey of power” as “MIGHT” overcame “RIGHT.”
Paine and Hamilton also shared an affection for efficient government, one that concentrated on providing core public goods as inexpensively and unobtrusively as possible. Harvey Flaumenhaft has a lovely book about Hamilton’s administrative policies called The Effective Republic. Paine probably influenced Hamilton’s thinking here as well, by quoting in his widely read pamphlets a now too-little-known* Italian thinker named Giancinto Dragonetti to the effect that “The science of the politician consists in fixing the true point of happiness and freedom. Those men would deserve the gratitude of ages, who should discover a mode of government that contained the greatest sum of individual happiness, with the least national expense.”
Paine’s remarkably accurate and pithily expressed ideas about political economy can now be found in a convenient edition of his work, The Best of Thomas Paine, published by AIER and edited by yours truly.
*Dragonetti appears only in the Italian version of Wikipedia but some English-language scholarship on his ideas are available, as is an English translation of his book On Virtues and Awards.
Most “Conservative” News Outlets Are on the Big Tech Teat
Not long ago, conservative media was not beholden to anyone. Today, most sites are stuck on the Big Tech gravy train.
I’ll keep this short. The rise of Pandemic Panic Theater, massive voter fraud, and other “taboo” topics have neutered a majority of conservative news sites. You’ll notice they are very careful about what topics they tackle. Sure, they’ll attack Critical Race Theory, Antifa, and the Biden-Harris regime, but you won’t see them going after George Soros, Bill Gates, the World Economic Forum, or the Deep State, among others.
The reason is simple. They are beholden to Big Tech, and Big Tech doesn’t allow certain topics to be discussed or they’ll cut you off. Far too many conservative news outlets rely on Google, Facebook, and Twitter for the bulk of their traffic. They depend on big checks from Google ads to keep the sites running. I don’t necessarily hold it against them. We all do what we need to do to survive. I just wish more would do like we have, which is to cut out Big Tech altogether.
We don’t get Google checks. We don’t have Facebook or Twitter buttons on our stories. We don’t have a YouTube Channel (banned), an Instagram profile (never made one), or a TikTok (no thanks, CCP). We’re not perfect, but we’re doing everything we can to not owe anything to anyone… other than our readers. We owe YOU the truth. We owe YOU the facts that others won’t reveal about topics that others won’t tackle. And we owe America, this great land that allows us to take hold of these opportunities.
Like I said, I don’t hold other conservative sites under too much scrutiny over their choices. It’s easy for people to point fingers when we’re not the ones paying their bills or supporting their families. I just wish there were more who would make the bold move. Today, only a handful of other major conservative news outlets have broken free from the Big Tech teat. Of course, we need help.
The best way you can help us grow and continue to bring proper news and opinions to the people is by donating. We appreciate everything, whether a dollar or $10,000. Anything brings us closer to a point of stability when we can hire writers, editors, and support staff to make the America First message louder. Our Giving Fuel page makes it easy to donate one-time or monthly. Alternatively, you can donate through PayPal or Bitcoin as well. Bitcoin: 3A1ELVhGgrwrypwTJhPwnaTVGmuqyQrMB8
Our network is currently comprised of nine sites:
- NOQ Report
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- Freedom First Network
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- American Conservative Movement
- Conservative Playbook
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We are also building partnerships with great conservative sites like The Liberty Daily and The Epoch Times to advance the message as loudly as possible, and we’re always looking for others with which to partner.
Some of our content is spread across multiple sites. Other pieces of content are unique. We write most of what we post but we also draw from those willing to allow us to share their quality articles, videos, and podcasts. We collect the best content from fellow conservative sites that give us permission to republish them. We’re not ego-driven; I’d much rather post a properly attributed story written by experts like Dr. Joseph Mercola or Natural News than rewrite it like so many outlets like to do. We’re not here to take credit. We’re here to spread the truth.
While donations are the best way to help, you can also support us by buying through our sponsors:
- MyPillow: Use promo code “NOQ” to get up to 66% off AND you’ll be helping a patriotic, America First company.
- ZStack: Improve your immune system with the Z-Stack protocol or rejuvenate your body from vaccines or shedding with Z-DTox by Dr. Vladimir Zelenko.
- OurGoldGuy: Tell them JD sent you in your request to buy gold and it will help us… AND (wait for it) you’ll be helping a patriotic, America First company.
- MyPatriotSupply: Stock up on long-term food, survival gear, and other things that you’ll need just in case things don’t recover and we keep heading towards apocalypse.
We know we could make a lot more money if we sold out like so many “conservative” publications out there. You won’t find Google ads on our site for a reason. Yes, they’re lucrative, but I don’t like getting paid by minions of Satan (I don’t like Google very much if you couldn’t tell).
Time is short. As the world spirals towards The Great Reset, the need for truthful journalism has never been greater. But in these times, we need as many conservative media voices as possible. Please help keep NOQ Report and the other sites in the network going. Our promise is this: We will never sell out America. If that means we’re going to struggle for a while or even indefinitely, so be it. Integrity first. Truth first. America first.
Thank you and God Bless,
JD Rucker
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When preparing for societal collapse, don’t forget the water!