(Science-AAAS)
David Brenner directs Columbia University's Center for Radiological Research, where he focuses on exactly how radiation damage leads to cancer. He's become one of the most insistent voices in an imbroglio that is roiling radiologists, medical physicists, and the general public over the rising and largely unregulated use of computed tomography (CT) scans, and whether the technology can, in some cases, cause more harm than good. The risks are surprisingly unclear, given how old and how commonly used the technology is. Brenner found that each CT scan gives a patient a very small chance of developing cancer, although many radiologists and medical physicists say that for a single CT scan, there's no hard evidence of any raised cancer risk. But even the skeptics favor managing potential CT risks, if for no other reason than to reassure patients. As the debate rages, the number of CT scans administered continues to soar and shows no sign of slowing down.
http://www.sciencemag.org/content/331/6020/1002.summary
The man who predicted the 1987 stock market crash and the fall of the Soviet Union is now forecasting revolution in America, food riots and tax rebellions – all within four years, while cautioning that putting food on the table will be a more pressing concern than buying Christmas gifts by 2012.
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In the absence of the gold standard, there is no way to protect savings from confiscation through inflation There is no safe store of value. If there were, the government would have to make its holding illegal, as was done in the case of gold. If everyone decided, for example, to convert all his bank deposits to silver or copper or any other good, and thereafter declined to accept checks as payment for goods, bank deposits would lose their purchasing power and government-created bank credit would be worthless as a claim on goods. The financial policy of the welfare state requires that there be no way for the owners of wealth to protect themselves. [1] - Alan Greenspan (1967)
Interview Part 1, Interview Part 2, Interview Part 3, Interview Part 4, Interview Part 5
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The author discusses
According to G. Edward Griffin, alternative markets ARE free markets. Alternative markets are an alternative to what? Controlled markets that prevent prosperity.
Free markets are ruled by consumer demand and producer supply. Major markets today are NOT free markets. They are ruled by small groups that have been given the power to intervene in the free exchange of supply and demand. Those who wield this power usually claim that they are acting on behalf of the greater good of society but, the reality is that, often, they serve hidden agendas that benefit themselves or those or those they covertly serve.
Monopolies exist because of governmental regulations and are characterized by a lack of competition in the marketplace. Monopolies can be broken by removing these regulations. Only then will upstart competitors be able to break the monopolies. This is simple, but not easy because most people still suffer under the illusion that government regulation is in the interest of the public.
