All right. If we can get our seats. Its kind of hard to break off the conversations. Its always so good to meet people. But weve got to get back to work. We hear a lot about how dangerous the u. S. Empire is. We learn about how were making enemies overseas. We learn about how immoral it is to bomb people overseas, but theres something that we also really need to, and this is a good argument to make by some people who arent swayed by the others and that is that the u. S. Empire is a big ripoff. It costs a lot of money and gives us very, very little in return and so thats why were really pleased to bring in someone who can speak to you, been reading and wright and lecturing for a while now and hes part of the next generation of intellectuals. He spoke yesterday at our student seminar and did a terrific job, and thats Nathan Goodman who is finishing his phd at George Mason University in economics, and he is a specialist in the economic of empire. Nathan, happy to have you join us. [ applause ]. Thank you so much, daniel. So in fiscal year 2019, the u. S. Department of defense has a budget of approximately 693 billion, and according to the costs of war project at Brown Universitys watson institute, the United States federal government has spent or obligated 5. 9 trillion on the wars in afghanistan, pakistan and iraq from their beginning to fiscal year 2019. Now in an important sense we need to remember that these are lower bound estimates. After all, american empire consists of more than the department of defense and the nsa, cia, department of homeland security, all of these are part of the National Security state. The dea isnt just enforcing a war on drugs at home. They are waging a war on drugs abroad throughout latin america and the world. The state department and usaid engage in foreign aid programs that large little serve pure till ambition so the costs are higher than the number gave you, but whenever names we put on the cost of american empire, its important to know that were not just talking about the Government Spending dollars. When they spend the dollars they will looking for alternative uses. When metal is used to build a fighter jet, thats being taken away from tractors, forks and knives or anything else that you can make with that same. They might develop a number of consumer approximate or medical devices or capital goods that could increase productivity, so we just think of military spending as moving money around. Were giving up goods and services which could enhance our lives. Is that cost worth it . To answer that question we need to consider two problems that playing the Central Planning. Economy don call this project the how do we know whether a particular use of resources makes peopleseveral resources makes People Better off or worse off . When an entrepreneur starts a business making, say, cell phones, theyre going to need to pay for various input. They need to buy materials like metals or minerals or plastics. They also need to hire engineers, factory workers, Sales Associates and countless other people. Both the materials and the people could be usefully employed elsewhere in the economy. And knowledge about what consumers value and what the alternative uses of these resources are, well, thats highly dispersed throughout the world. It cant be contained within a single mind. No single mind has all that knowledge. But, prices transmit that knowledge. If consumers become more interested in alternative products that use some of the inputs we are using to make that cell phone, the price of these inputs is going to rise. This encourages entrepreneurs to find ways to use less to economize on the resource, even if the entrepreneur does not know why the sites increase. Then profit and loss provides crucial signals. If the entrepreneur makes a profit, that indicate that people value the final product that they have made more than the values of the inputs or alternative uses of the inputs that go into it. On the other hand, making losses indicates that value is being destroyed. The input being used is, the inputs being used could be valued more on other alternative uses than the final output that the firm has made. So in a world where countless people cooperate all around the globe each with knowledge that they could not indicate directly, we have signals in the form of prices and profit and loss that encourage us to abandon projects that arent worth it. Does something analogous happen with state provided security and were . Unfortunately not. If a cell phone, burger, or cup of coffee isnt worth the price to me, i can choose not to buy the. Were you ever given an unsubscribe option from an empire . If i want to stop paying for the brutal saudi war in yemen, for instance, i have very few options. There is of course a tradition of vortex, with Henry David Thoreau you refusing to pay poll taxes that he believe funded the war, and noam chomsky and others refusing to pay taxes during the war. They risk garnishing of their wages. They risk having the property seized. And even moving out of the United States isnt enough to avoid paying for american empire. When you criticize u. S. Foreign policy you might get told, if you dont like it, you can leave. Even if you leave, you still are seen as owing taxes to the u. S. Government unless you go through the costly process of announcing your citizenship. And thats ignoring that there is also funds gained through inflation, through the printing of money. That is a tax on everyone that holds u. S. Dollars. Using the feedback provided by profit and loss. But, since empire rests on violations and private property rights, it lasts. Even if political leaders want to know what they are doing is worth it, they would lack the feedback necessary to know. The knowledge placed on all forms of Central Planning means even the best intentioned imperialists will squander scarce resources. In addition to the Knowledge Problem, the empire is subject to the power problem. That is, those with political power have incentive to act badly, to abuse their power. This takes various forms. Secrecy enables officials to conceal illegal and opportunistic activity. When he was director of national intelligence, James Clapper was asked whether the nsa collected data on millions of americans. He said, no, not wittingly. He committed perjury. We know he committed perjury because Edward Snowden heroically blew the whistle on the Prison Program and other programs of mass surveillance of americans. Snowden is essentially in exile and would be prosecuted if he returns home. Meanwhile, the statute of limitations has expired for clappers perjury. With great power comes great reduced account ability. Often, the perverse incentives of power come from opportunities to profit from government contracts. Individuals who work in the National Security state can often find lucrative jobs working for defense contractors were serving on the board. They then use the connections in government and their reputations for Public Service to direct taxpayer money to these businesses. This is called a revolving door. And, military leaders often walk through it repeatedly. Jim mad dogmatics recently resigned as Donald Trumps secretary of defense and really joined the board of directors which sells ammunition, weapons, and much more to the pentagon. He recently sat on General Dynamics board of directors before becoming secretary of defense. Until 2013, he had been commander of u. S. Central command. During his first stint at General Dynamics, mattis made almost 1 million. American empire can be quite lucrative. Former white house chief of staff john f kelly has also benefited from the revolving door. In 2016, he was or, rather, until 2016, he was commander of u. S. Southern command. He then worked at pfizer which contracts extensively with the pentagon. They paid him 166,666. And then later in 2016, he was nominated by trump to head the department of homeland security. Now, as secretary of homeland security, john kelly oversaw numerous Civil Liberties abuses including the detention of migrant children. He went on to work as white house chief of staff and now sits on the board of directors of caliber international, a company that runs federally funded detention camps for those migrant children. Given these lucrative opportunities, bureaucrats within the Security State have strong incentives to direct scarce resources towards funds in the military complex. Regardless of whether those projects serve the public interest. By elected officials, they face similar incentives. They can fund militarist projects that employ people in their district or home states. Meanwhile, most ordinary taxpayers have little incentive to monitor the spending. There is just too much of it and the costs are too dispersed on all of us but you know those jobs who are dependent on it will vote if their job is lost due to budget cuts. Even politicians who publicly criticize the military industrial complex, such as senator bernie sanders, will therefore tend to vote for wasteful military spending when the voters go to constituents. Standards often rally against the militaryindustrial complex and voted against more industrial bills than any 2020 democratic contender but has repeatedly voted for the wasteful f35 fighter jet program. And thats because it is being built by workers in his home state of vermont. Politically incentive concern even into imperialist, crony capitalists. Political power. [ applause ] thank you. Thank you. Political power does not create incentives for responsible foreignpolicy or responsible costbenefit analysis. Officials in the National Security state work under a shroud of secrecy which allows them to opportunistically abuse their power. They can find lucrative opportunities with their cronies and politicians have similar incentives to waste your money. But, even with the costs associated with the Knowledge Problem, and the power problem, some might argue that u. S. Empires is worth it. That its worth it to protect our freedom. After all, there are those who would use violence to threaten american liberties and who can put a price tag on liberty . But this argument misses that american empire it self is a threat to your liberty. As economists chris coyne and abigail hall document in their book, tierney comes home the domestic space of militarism, foreign dimensions often come back to undermine domestic liberty. Part of this is because war is made by the Central Government and therefore tend to promote an increased centralized power at home. In addition to the centralizing tendency, empire requires developing new social control techniques that are often brought home. For instance, drones were developed to surveil and bomb abroad, killing people on the president ial kill list, for example. Today, customs and Border Protection uses drones to surveil the southwest borderlands, and that invades the privacy not just of immigrants but of u. S. Citizens who live there. Individuals who intervene abroad often learn skills that they later use to undermine your liberties. So for instance, around the turn of the 20th century, 1899, 1900, around that time, the u. S. Was occupying the philippines. Now, the filipinos did not want us there and, they resisted u. S. Occupations. The u. S. Responded, killing those who resisted, torturing those who resisted. And relentlessly surveilling those who resisted. Ralph van demon headed up those surveillance issues. And once he develops those surveillance skills and intelligence, he did not just let those skills languish when he came home. No, he built the roots of the modern surveillance space that invades all of your privacy today. Similarly, john nelson served as an elite force recon unit during the war. These force recon units were aggressors in 95 of their operations. And they killed 34 vietnamese for every man on their team that they lost. Later when he came home, nelson worked at the lapd, rather. He worked at the Los Angeles Police department. And he built the first s. W. A. T. Team. Today, s. W. A. T. Teams will kick down the doors of americans, often not to go after anyone accused of a violent crime, but instead, simply to serve warrants for nonviolent drug offenses. John burris also served in the vietnam war. When he came home, he worked for the Chicago Police department. And he administered a torture program that tortured around 200 black men. That torture technique was called by officers on the team the vietnam special. The techniques of social control and violent coercion and monitoring that are learned through americans interventions abroad come home to undermine your liberty. American militarism does not protect your freedom. It jeopardizes it. And you need to add that loss of liberty to the costs of u. S. Empires. The Knowledge Problem and the power problem that i discussed today are institutional problems that inherently result from centralized political power. We cannot solve these problems, simply by placing the right people in charge of the american empire. Many antiwar analysts focus on how morally reprehensible, particularly people in power are, and theyre often correct to do so. But even if we oust your least favorite washington warmongers tomorrow, these problems will persist as long as we have an empire. The only way to get the costs of american empire under control is to abolish it. [ applause ] thank you very much. Thanks very much for that powerful presentation. You can see kind of where we are going with this. We are looking at the different aspects of washingtons addictions to war. Weve talked about economics, weve talked about nato, weve talked about a number of issues. But there is one, really important component that we absolutely cannot forget. And thats the role of the media in perpetuating, propagandizing, and turning this into kind of a mindless state of jelly brains in the u. S. And, when we were planning this conference, we could think of no one better who has seen the spectrum, who has seen the totality of the u. S. Mainstream media and its alternatives, then someone like rick sanchez who has a long and storied career in the u. S. Media. Everyone recognizes his face and has for a long time. But, he is also a brilliant analyst of the media and hes got a lot of very important things to say. Mr. Sanchez . [ applause ] so, yeah. I think what he was trying to say is that i have worked for nbc, and msnbc, and fox news. And here comes the applause line. I was fired by cnn. [ applause ] so its funny. Because when dr. Paul reached out to me and asked if i was willing to come here and speak, i couldnt help but wonder why they would want, you know, some of the cool kids, man. Listen, you could have anderson cooper, cuomo, rachel, the tuxter. And when i asked dan and doctor paul, they said no, we actually prefer you on this one. And i was like, why . And they said, well, you are telling the truth. And, its a shame that weve got to watch some dude, some cuban guy on Russian Television to get the truth about america. So, thank you. [ applause ] you know, it is true. It is true, that we end up on our primetime newscast every night calling a lot of things and sharing a lot of stories that youre not going to hear anywhere else. That sucks. I mean, think about it. Look, recent example. Last week, i interviewed some dude named manuel zandella. True story, the former president of honduras. He was removed from power by a cia back to. By the way, i should mention as an aside that americans like myself, who descend from other places or know a little bit about what happens in our country historically, know that its almost laughable to us when we hear these stories, that the Rachel Maddow of the world is telling us all the time. That we should be shocked, shocked, shocked. And that russia or any other country for that matter meddled or tried to influence in our elections using social media. I mean, its kind of hypocritical, right . And by the way, look, im not here to be a russia apologist by any stretch of the imagination. But whatever the russia seems to have done, as described as mr. Stockman noted a while ago by Robert Mueller in his report is about one onethousandth of the stuff weve done. I mean, its nuts. If you think intervening in elections is news in that sense, what weve done in central and south america and the caribbean, we are in the major leagues. The United States is the major leagues and everybody else is playing stickball. It could not be more clear. I mean, you can do, by the way, and this is maybe a message to those, you know, again, the guys on the other networks that i compete with every night. You could even just go to the associated press, they will even compile it for you. Cursory list. Ready . 1914, u. S. Troops occupy the Mexican Court of veracruz for months to influence the mexican revolution and elections there. 1954, guatemala elects this guy named jacabo. The guy comes out and promises land reforms for his people. The cia overthrows them with a u. S. Led coup , sparks a civil war, 100,000 people die. 100,000 people died because we did not like the guy that they democratically elected. By the way, at the time, and i think most of you guys know this, we had a guy in the cia named dulles. One guy ran the fruit company, the other guy ran the cia. He said, theres a guy out here, a politician who might hurt my business. He said, what do you need . The marines . And they sent them. This is crazy but its part of our history. The dr, dominican republic, we made sure that they won the civil war in 1965. Chile elects salvador who, the guy leans left, okay, fine. The cia, four months later in a coup, he was assassinated, and we replace them with augusto pinochet. In the 1980s, we know what happened there with the brutal wars in nicaragua and el salvador, in the political movements, that we are push