In just three hours, Stonehill College Young Americans for Liberty (Stonehill YAL) had a good day. On September 2, 2011, from 11 am to 2 pm, Stonehill College student organizations graced the green square lawn (affectionately referred to as "the Quad") to attract new members. Stonehill YAL, a new club that was not well-received by other clubs, was able to go above and beyond its previous member numbers. In just three hours of tabling, Stonehill YAL managed to add 25 new members to its list. For a new and young club, we were happy with our success today!

Furthermore, Stonehill YAL added a current events writer to the Stonehill College student newspaper. We are already making noise on campus, and we're not even close to stopping it!

Here's a picture of our table:

After checking Monex once again today, I noticed that gold has dropped $53 and has lost its coveted summit as most expensive (per ounce) popularly-traded precious metal. The current ratio of gold to platinum is now (rounded to the nearest thousandth) 0.978 to 1. But why did gold all of a sudden drop so rapidly in price?

Whatever one's assumptions, we can say that confidence in our government is not one of them. After Standard & Poor's downgrading of the United States' credit rating last week, Wall Street and the New York Stock Exchange has seen historic lows in stock prices and market uncertainty. In this environment, people would normally turn to gold as a safe-haven asset for their portfolios, thus pushing up the price. However, this doesn't appear promising given the high price of gold. It was exactly this kind of demand for gold that pushed it above platinum in the first place earlier this week.

Rather, what we are seeing is the phenomenon of selling gold in exchange for paper dollars. In this bad economy, people have debts to pay off and prices are wildly fluctuating throughout the market. Given that it is difficult to transact in gold (since it is not legal tender), investors sell their gold for dollars in order to meet their financial obligations. In this case, there would be more seller than buyers. As a result, this market situation tends to push the price of gold down.

We might continue to see the rapid fluctuation of precious metals prices in the next few months. It is imperative that people watch these prices. The continued increase in prices since the beginning of the last decade should cause everyone concern about the state of our economy when government gets involved. Don't let that idea mask the perception that government involvement in the marketplace lowers prices. The market does what it can to correct the mistakes made by the government, but it is the government which is fundamentally at fault.

After checking Monex on Thursday, I noticed that the price of one ounce of platinum fell by $54. This is important, and it is also something to look at as we advance further into this economic crisis we are still enveloped in.What is the cause of this sudden downward spiral in platinum prices?

It could be a lessening of inflation. However, that analysis hardly seems likely. Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) has issued a press release in which he says that the debt ceiling increase "does nothing to fix the overreaches of both parties" and will only result in "trillions of dollars in new debt." This mechanism will only allow the federal government and the Federal Reserve to give itself the authority to increase our national debt, increase the money supply, and devalue our dollar.

In yesterday’s issue of The Wall Street Journal, there was an article regarding Google and its bowing down to competitors regarding its Google “Places” function. The competitors (TripAdvisor, Yelp, and Citysearch) have been hurt by this feature since Google holds its “Places” and the reviews it garners higher up on the search list than competitors' reviews (therefore, Google generally receives more hits than those companies). This has led to an antitrust investigation against Google and its practices. Googles’s competitors (surprise, surprise) support the investigation, which could ultimately injure a successful company like Google. This case proves the futility of antitrust law.

Dominick Armentano, professor emeritus at the University of Hartford, once said the following:

[A]ntitrust is special-interest law. Indeed, this was the intent of the law. The antitrust laws were created precisely to be used by smaller rivals to clobber more efficient competitors. Even today, ninety percent of the cases are one firm suing another.[i]

In the case with Google, this fact is completely out in the open. TripAdvisor, Yelp, and Citysearch, upset over Google’s popularity and thus greater ability to raise revenue, is supportive of the Federal Trade Commission’s investigation for what is deemed an “anticompetitive practice.” The FTC has yet to “accus[e Google] of wrongdoing,” but this idea that competitors even have the ability to use the law to inhibit competition is absurd. Copyright should not be an issue in this case either since many copyright lawyers believe that Google is permitted to use such reviews under the fair-use doctrine.