I spent a large number of hours in adolescence playing Rummikub with my family. We played the game according to our understanding of the printed rules that came with the game. Eventually we lost that piece of paper, but we kept playing and having fun.

As an adult I sometimes play this game with new groups of people with prior experience of the game. Sometimes they interpreted the rules differently. Generally we resolve these differences without calling the police or giving someone the right to beat up whoever disagrees. I would be very unhappy if the police threw my friend in jail because he wanted to play the game differently. I would be very unhappy if my friend had to pay a heavy fine because he understood the rules differently than a judge.

Do I really need a government forcing my friends to play Rummikub with a specific set of rules? Things seem to work pretty well without it. Maybe the same can be said of coercive government in other areas too.

A person may note the necessity of judges in any highly competitive game. The World Cup and World Series use judges to resolve inevitable disputes. Not all people agree with the results, but the process works pretty well.

Does this idea work as well in real life?

The nature of games and real life have a very importance difference: the goals of a game are predetermined. Everyone playing the game agreed to play by those rules beforehand. It is impossible to play outside the rules or invent new rules while still playing the game.

For example, a player cannot decide during a chess match that he wants to arrange his pawns in the shape of an S. His goal is predetermined: capture the other player’s king. The black and white teams cannot decide to work together to move all their pawns to the other side of the board.

Real life is more flexible. A baby is not born holding a piece of paper upon which a handy set of rules and goals are written.

In Human Action, Ludwig von Mises noted how man must discover his own goals:

man chooses not only between various material things and services. All human values are offered for option. All ends and all means, both material and ideal issues, the sublime and the base, the noble and the ignoble, are ranged in a single row and subjected to a decision which picks out one thing and sets aside another. Nothing that men aim at or want to avoid remains outside of this arrangement into a unique scale of gradation and preference.

And the best way to accomplish them:

Means are not in the given universe; in this universe there exist only things. A thing becomes a means when human reason plans to employ it for the attainment of some end and human action really employs it for this purpose. Thinking man sees the serviceableness of things, i.e., their ability to minister to his ends, and acting man makes them means. It is of primary importance to realize that parts of the external world become means only through the operation of the human mind and its offshoot, human action. External objects are as such only phenomena of the physical universe and the subject matter of the natural sciences. It is human meaning and action which transform them into means.

We will disagree on both goals and the means to achieve them: I want to code; you want to fish.

Daneil Lapin explains how these disagreements are what creates prosperity:

If we all agreed that fishing was better than sitting on a computer, none of us could be discussing such things on the internet.

It is strange to see Dave Reichert’s (WA-8) absence from the list of congressmen cosponsoring the Federal Reserve Transparency Act of 2009 (HR 1207). Based on his previous comments as a member of the Ways and Means Subcommittee on Oversight, one would expect to find him an energetic supporter of the bill.

What is causing the delay?

I have heard from many of his constituents in Bellevue, Mercer Island, Issaquah and the rest of the 8th congressional district. They want him to cosponsor the bill. They have been calling his office, reaching out to their neighbors and delivering petitions in an attempt to get it. Reichert’s response? Nothing. He has declined to make any statement: nothing in support, nothing in opposition to the bill.

This silence is very surprising. He is on the record voicing the importance of transparency and fact collection. In March he made opening relevant remarks to this bill during a hearing on TARP oversight. From Reichert’s official YouTube channel:

one particularly troubling change is the apparent transfer of authority from treasury to the federal reserve without any new congressional oversight

without transparency we are left with outrageous abuses like bailout bonuses for companies surviving on the backs of taxpayers alone.

we have an obligation to [taxpayers] to find answers, to collect facts and data and to hold accountable the policies and people that lead to the abuses like those at aig

He voices the right words. Consider contacting Reichert and reminding him of those words.

Let him know that The Federal Reserve Transparency Act of 2009 is a great opportunity for Reichert to join his colleagues and convert those words into action.

The latest Washington state congressman to announce his intention to cosponsor the Federal Reserve Transparency Act of 2009 (HR 1207) is Jay Inslee from Washington’s 1st congressional district.

Rep. Inslee Promises to Cosponsor HR-1207 by 5/12

Inslee held two town halls this weekend. The first town hall was in Shoreline. Numerous people wanted to know whether he intended to cosponsor HR 1207, but I heard that he made no commitment either way in Shoreline.

I attended the second town hall in Woodinville. A man representing a group of local Democrats expressed his anger about the banking oligarchy. This received a huge applause line, as well as a laugh when Inslee remarked that there must have been few oligarchs in attendance.

The next questioner reminded Inslee of the Democrat’s pledge of greater government transparency. The questioner said this should include the Federal Reserve, and suggested HR-1207 would be a great way to demonstrate his commitment to that pledge. Inslee agreed and promised that she would find his name on the list of cosponsors by 10am Tuesday morning.

The crowd erupted into applause. Watch the TheConcernedVoter’s movie and see it for yourself:

It was a great moment for Inslee, the Campaign for Liberty and the Democratic process.

I am looking forward to finding Inslee’s name on the list of HR 1207 cosponsors. He will be in good company.

It is official. Both Republicans and Democrats in Washington State are now cosponsors to the Federal Reserve Transparency Act of 2009.

Congratulations eastern Washington! Republican Congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers joins her peers from the Democrat caucus: Jim McDermott (WA-7, Seattle) and Adam Smith (WA-9, Renton to Olympia) as cosponsors of the bill.

As a “member of the Republican Leadership team” let us hope she can lead the rest of Washington’s congressional representatives to join her! That means you, Dave Reichert. They will be in like company: the bill has 134 cosponsors as of the time of this writing.

Do you want her to do this? Send her a line and your thanks for supporting the great Washington state.

Representative Jim McDermott was the only Democrat in the house to change his vote on the bailout from Yes to No. This made me optimistic that he would listen to his constituents again.

What risks does Bernanke take with our tax dollars? Which banks benefit from his credit programs? We deserve to know. In April we asked him for greater transparency into the Federal Reserve.

We received that support. Recently Congressman McDermott made the wonderful decision to join Ron Paul, Adam Smith (WA-9) and 120 of his congressional peers in cosponsoring the Federal Reserve Transparency Act of 2009 (HR-1207):

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

This Act may be cited as the `Federal Reserve Transparency Act of 2009′.
SEC. 2. AUDIT REFORM AND TRANSPARENCY FOR THE BOARD OF GOVERNORS OF THE FEDERAL RESERVE SYSTEM.

(a) In General- Subsection (b) of section 714 of title 31, United States Code, is amended by striking all after `shall audit an agency’ and inserting a period.
(b) Audit- Section 714 of title 31, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end the following new subsection:
`(e) Audit and Report of the Federal Reserve System-
`(1) IN GENERAL- The audit of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and the Federal reserve banks under subsection (b) shall be completed before the end of 2010.
`(2) REPORT-
`(A) REQUIRED- A report on the audit referred to in paragraph (1) shall be submitted by the Comptroller General to the Congress before the end of the 90-day period beginning on the date on which such audit is completed and made available to the Speaker of the House, the majority and minority leaders of the House of Representatives, the majority and minority leaders of the Senate, the Chairman and Ranking Member of the committee and each subcommittee of jurisdiction in the House of Representatives and the Senate, and any other Member of Congress who requests it.
`(B) CONTENTS- The report under subparagraph (A) shall include a detailed description of the findings and conclusion of the Comptroller General with respect to the audit that is the subject of the report, together with such recommendations for legislative or administrative action as the Comptroller General may determine to be appropriate.’.

I know the Campaign for Liberty members in the 8th congressional district delivered many petitions to Rep. Reichert. Why is his support still missing?

And what is preventing Inslee from joining his colleagues? Luckily he is holding townhalls in Shoreline and Woodinville this weekend. We intend to ask him.