Michael Dahlen has 3 audiobooks on Listento.it, narrated by 1 narrator, with an average listener rating of 4★ across 1 ratings. The most-rated is Bankrupting America.
Bankrupting America
Summary
Before we can fix our economic problems, we must first diagnose what is causing them. Many of our political and intellectual leaders call for more government intervention to fix the economy. They tell us that it creates jobs, corrects "market failures", and boosts economic growth. And they insist that we need such intervention to help the poor, to coddle the consumer, and to protect the worker. But they're dead wrong. Government intervention is not the solution to our economic problems; it's the cause. Bankrupting America: How Government Intervention Is Wrecking the Economy analyzes all the major categories of government intervention in the economy - from taxes, deficits, antitrust, and price controls to regulation, protectionism, central banking, and wealth redistribution. In this book, you'll find out: Why protectionist policies such as tariffs destroy more jobs than they save Why the antitrust laws penalize the most productive, successful companies Why price controls cause shortages Why the minimum wage increases unemployment Why regulation stifles productivity Why high taxes, chronic deficits, and excessive government debt hinder economic growth Why government-provided services cost twice as much as those provided by the private sector Why private charity is more effective than government welfare Why the Federal Reserve's manipulation of interest rates exacerbates the business cycle Why government "stimulus" spending during a recession does not accelerate a recovery And much more Backed by numerous academic studies and sound economic logic, the conclusion is incontestable: Government intervention simply doesn't work. It stifles saving, investment, and capital accumulation. All of this translates to higher unemployment, higher consumer prices, and lower economic growth. To fix the American economy, we need much less government intervention, not more.
©2016 Michael Dahlen (P)2016 Michael Dahlen
Liberty Lost: American Big Government and the Erosion of the U.S. Constitution
Summary
Find out the real history of how the US government dismantled the Constitution, thwarted our freedoms, and wrecked the economy. Nineteenth-century America was the closest thing to pure free-market capitalism that has ever existed. There was no welfare state, no central bank, no deficit spending to speak of, no fiat money, and no income tax for most of the century, and no antitrust laws or federal regulatory agencies until the end of the century. The US Constitution protected individual liberty (with the exception of slavery) and limited the power of government, giving rise to an economy in which people were free to pursue their interests, free to start new businesses, free to create as much wealth as their ability and ambition allowed. This near laissez-faire system led to the wealthiest, most innovative nation ever. During the 20th century, by contrast, American liberty declined as the size, scope, and power of government exploded. Federal spending, taxes, deficits, and debt have spiraled out of control. The dollar has lost most of its value due to the inflationary policies of the Federal Reserve. Entitlement programs now constitute the majority of the federal budget. And American businesses are hog-tied by mountains of red tape in the Code of Federal Regulations. Where in our history did we go wrong? How did the American system shift from capitalism to statism, from limited government to big government, from a near free-market economy to a heavily regulated mixed economy? What acts, programs, interventions, and Supreme Court rulings brought America to its present state? Liberty Lost answers these questions. It surveys the politico-economic history of the US from the founding to the present, showing how the erosion of the Constitution unleashed big government, undermining our liberties and hindering economic progress.
©2016 Michael Dahlen (P)2016 Michael Dahlen
Socialism, Fascism, and the Tyranny of Big Government
Summary
How do tyrants enslave entire nations? In popular political discourse, fascism and socialism are portrayed as polar opposites. The former is pegged on the far Right, the latter on the far Left. But this categorization is flat-out wrong. Despite their superficial differences, fascism and socialism - along with Nazism and theocracy - are fundamentally the same. They are all examples of statism and totalitarianism. These systems oppose freedom, liberty, and individual rights. They impose one-party rule, control or abolish private property, and censor or oppress racial, religious, political, and ideological enemies. They also seek to export their particular brand of tyranny throughout the world. Whether the goal of a tyrant is achieving utopia, enforcing God's will, or establishing a master Aryan race, the results are always the same: purges and show trials, man-made famines and concentration camps, war and mass murder. Socialism, Fascism, and the Tyranny of Big Government surveys the main statist politico-economic systems. And it concludes with a brilliant analysis of the nature and causes of tyranny.
©2017 Michael Dahlen (P)2017 Michael Dahlen