Gary North Tears Apart the Idea that Independence Day Was A Day for Libertarians, Zandi Thinks Jamie Dimon Would Be a Good Replacement for Geithner, and DSK Accuser Turning Tricks on NY Dime!

Though it would initially seem that July 4th should be a day celebrated by libertarians, Gary North puts that notion to rest today in his fantastic LewRockwell.com article:

I do not celebrate the fourth of July. This goes back to a term paper I wrote in graduate school. It was on colonial taxation in the British North American colonies in 1775. Not counting local taxation, I discovered that the total burden of British imperial taxation was about 1% of national income. It may have been as high as 2.5% in the southern colonies.

The colonists had a sweet deal in 1775. Great Britain was the second freest nation on earth. Switzerland was probably the most free nation, but I would be hard-pressed to identify any other nation in 1775 that was ahead of Great Britain. And in Great Britain's Empire, the colonists were by far the freest.
I will say it, loud and clear: the freest society on earth in 1775 was British North America, with the exception of the slave system. Anyone who was not a slave had incomparable freedom.

Jefferson wrote these words in the Declaration of Independence:

The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States.

I can think of no more misleading political assessment uttered by any leader in the history of the United States. No words having such great impact historically in this nation were less true. No political bogeymen invoked by any political sect as "the liar of the century" ever said anything as verifiably false as these words.
The Continental Congress declared independence on July 2, 1776. Some members signed the Declaration on July 4. The public in general believed the leaders at the Continental Congress. They did not understand what they were about to give up. They could not see what price in blood and treasure and debt they would soon pay. And they did not foresee the tax burden in the new nation after 1783.

Wow,  I thought James Altucher's "July 4th is a Scam" was great but North takes it to another level.  Now unlike many libertarians who saw the "founding" (how imposing a centralized government counts as a founding is beyond me) of the country as a victory against oppressive government, I have recently come to realize that isn't the case.  But does that mean it shouldn't have happened?  Would we be better off still under the rule of England?  My b/s detector says no.  Once capital accumulation and technological innovation drove much of the rise of living standards in the 19th century, you bet King George would have come calling.  So the choice seems to be whether we be governed by a domestic state or a foreign one.  As America grew economically, the British government would surely have devoted more resources to taxing us, why would they let us get to enjoy the wealth we created?  It is a government after all.  Like the Civil War, America would have been like the South and may have been taxed even heavier to fund growth the U.K.  Therefore, it may have ultimately done more good to replace the British monarchy for the aristocrats and wealthy land owners who wrote the Constitution.  Another great part of North's article is dismantling the notion that the Boston Tea Party was about protesting taxation without representation:

That the largest signature on the Declaration of Independence was signed by the richest smuggler in North America was no coincidence. He was hopping mad. Parliament in 1773 had cut the tax on tea imported by the British East India Company, so the cost of British tea went lower than the smugglers' cost on non-British tea. This had cost Hancock a pretty penny. The Tea Party had stopped the unloading of the tea by throwing privately owned tea off a privately owned ship – a ship in competition with Hancock's ships. The Boston Tea Party was in fact a well-organized protest against lower prices stemming from lower taxes.

I don't blame libertarians for wanting to celebrate the 4th of July (including a certain someone...), even the very very best of us are not always 100% correct.  I certainly wasn't at first on this.  But I guess that's why we have to teach and educate each other.  For instance, see this beautiful libertarian scholar teaching a wonderful group of young intellectuals the value of free markets and liberty:

Their passion for learning is clearly evident from the facial expressions.

Enough of my speculation, see Bloomberg chief economist Mark Zandi, who failed to see the financial crisis coming mind you, speculate on who would be a great replacement for Geithner at the Treasury:

Zandi is in the pockets of Wall Street and D.C.  Only a complete crony would say Geithner has done a good job so far.  Even better is Zandi's call for Jamie Dimon to replace him.  I was expecting a Goldman Sachs dude to replace him, but a JP Morgan guy who is a professed Democrat would be terrific for preserving the status quo.  Way to go Zandi, don't ruffle too many feathers.

Even more evidence is showing that DSK was set up by his call-girl accuser.  It turns out the infamous hotel maid was seeing "clients" while being housed by New York taxpayer dollars:

She was turning tricks on the taxpayers' dime!

The Sofitel maid who accused Dominique Strauss-Kahn of a sex attack in his suite wasn't just a hotel hooker -- she continued to work as a prostitute in a Brooklyn hotel where she was stashed by prosecutors, The Post has learned.

Hmmm, I wonder if she knows Elliot Spitzer.