There’s a new PBS documentary that you may have seen, called “The New Recruits,” about efforts of free-market advocates to bring capitalism to the developing world. It’s not easy, but the documentary shows how a few dedicated market proponents can make a difference even in dire conditions. No economic system has produced greater prosperity for…
Economy
City, Economy, Free Markets, Government Spending
Why is America So Successful?
by JOHN ADAMS •
John Stossel asks, “Why is America So Successful?” Stossel concludes, following Friedman, that it’s not natural resources that gave America “a standard of living that’s the envy of most of the world.” Instead, it’s limited government and free market choices that make America prosperous: More than any other American, Friedman, who won the Nobel Prize…
Economy
Robert Reich: Don’t Listen to the Cheerleaders, the Main Street Economy Isn’t Improving
by JOHN ADAMS •
Over at the Huffington Post, a left-of-center economist is tells the truth about America’s economy: it’s not getting better for most people. See, Robert Reich: Don’t Listen to the Cheerleaders, the Main Street Economy Isn’t Improving. Reich notes that Today’s most important economic news: U.S. household debt fell for the seventh straight quarter in the…
Economy, Free Markets
Tonight on Stossel: Milton Friedman and Prosperity (7 PM Central on Fox Business Channel)
by JOHN ADAMS •
Tonight is sure to be a great episode of John Stossel’s program on the Fox Business Channel. Stossel will discuss the contribution of the late Milton Friedman to prosperity. His lifelong study of markets and monetary policy helped countless people around the world to freer, more prosperous ways of living. Viewers can tune in tonight…
Economy, Government Spending
Laffer: “Tax Hikes and the 2011 Economic Collapse”
by JOHN ADAMS •
Arthur Laffer, of the Laffer Curve, writes in the Wall Street Journal of “Tax Hikes and the 2011 Economic Collapse.” It’s sobering, somber reading: Today’s corporate profits reflect an income shift into 2010. These profits will tumble next year, preceded most likely by the stock market…. People can change the volume, the location and the…
City, Economy, Free Markets, Government Spending, Planning, Uncategorized
America’s War Between Free Enterprise and Government Control
by JOHN ADAMS •
There’s an essay in the Washington Post, that wonders if we face America’s new culture war: Free enterprise vs. government control. Arthur Brooks, president of the American Enterprise Institute, considers the topic and concludes that we do face such a cultural clash. First, Brooks considers the irreconcilable systems of free enterprise and state control: This…
Economy
U.S. Economy: May Employment Gain Trails Forecast (Update1) – Bloomberg.com
by JOHN ADAMS •
I’ve contended that our economy, nationally and locally, remains week. The recent unemployment figures confirm that view. See, U.S. Economy: May Employment Gain Trails Forecast (Update1) – Bloomberg.com. The details of the latest report reveal a grim picture: American companies hired fewer workers in May than forecast and workers dropped out of the labor force,…
Economy
Tonight on Stossel: The Green Craze, 7 p.m. Central, on the Fox Business Channel
by JOHN ADAMS •
If you’ve not had a chance to catch John Stossel’s self-titled program, Stossel, on the Fox Business Channel, there’s a new program tonight, at 7 p.m. Central. On tonight’s show, Stossel discusses the green craze: ‘Going green’ – it sounds so good, so pure! Who wouldn’t want to save the planet? What can we do?…
Economy, Government Spending, Libertarians
Reason Magazine: Paul Ryan – Radical or Sellout?
by JOHN ADAMS •
It’s a common libertarian complaint that no major-party candidate was, is, or ever will be, libertarian enough. So, Goldwater wasn’t good enough, Reagan wasn’t good enough, and Paul Ryan’s not good enough. That’s to be expected — these men didn’t set out to be good enough for us. They weren’t running as libertarians, but as…
Charity, Development, Economy, Free Markets, Planning, Poverty, Press
Madison’s Isthmus: Janesville on the Brink
by JOHN ADAMS •
From Madison’s Isthmus, one reads a story about hardship in nearby Janesville, hardship that should be of concern to those in Whitewater, too. No matter how dire the conditions for Janesville now, I believe that an abandonment of virtually every aspect of commercial and business regulation, along with drastic reductions in government spending except principally…
Economy, Government Spending
Do Earmarks Crowd Out Local Private Investment?
by JOHN ADAMS •
Economy, Free Markets, Libertarians
Reason.tv: Gov. Gary Johnson on His Economic Vision for “Our America”
by JOHN ADAMS •
From Reason.tv, here’s a half-hour presentation from former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson on free market economic solutions for America. Here’s a description from Reason: On Tuesday, February 9, in the midst of one of the biggest snowstorms in recent Washington, D.C. memory, former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson and Harvard economist (and Reason contributor)…
Economy, Libertarians
From Cato@Liberty: “Six Reasons to Downsize the Federal Government”
by JOHN ADAMS •
Chris Edwards of the Cato Institute offers Six Reasons to Downsize the Federal Government, and by doing so, assure Americans more freedom and greater prosperity: 1. Additional federal spending transfers resources from the more productive private sector to the less productive public sector of the economy. 2. As federal spending rises, it creates pressure to…
Economy, Free Markets
Epoch Times — Capitalism: Passé or Neo-Classic?
by JOHN ADAMS •
Neo-Classic! From the story in the Epoch Times: The economy seems to be showing signs of recovery, but people’s faith in capitalism are being put to a test in face of tough challenges such as the current health care reform. Has capitalism stopped working for the U.S.? What is the cure for today’s troubled economy,…