At Tuesday’s Common Council meeting, there was a brief presentation from two board members of Downtown Whitewater (DTWW), with others from that group also in attendance. In the life of a small town, success of merchants matters greatly. (I’m opposed to pitting local independent merchants against local chain stores, but I very much support local…
Free Markets
Business, Free Markets, Laws/Regulations, Liberty
Update: Victory for the Entrepreneurial Monks of Saint Joseph Abbey in Louisiana
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Over three years ago, I posted about Louisiana’s attempt to prevent the monks of Saint Joseph Abbey from making and selling handmade caskets. Their products were of fine craftsmanship and durability, and so sought-after. Despite the quality of their work, Louisiana insisted that only a state-licensed funeral director could sell caskets, and that it was a crime…
Business, City, Development, Free Markets, Hip & Prosperous, New Whitewater
Whitewater’s Common Council Meeting for 10.15.13 (Downtown Whitewater and Whitewater’s Merchant Class)
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Municipal funding for local business groups, including Downtown Whitewater, Inc., lies ahead. I’ll not discuss those line items today. Instead, I’ll offer a simple observation about local merchants. Whitewater has spent too much time and money on failed big-ticket, white-collar projects and too little time on her local, merchant class. I’ve no particular interest in favoring local retailers over national…
Free Markets, Politics, Weird Tales
Do Rally Monkeys Really Spark Market Rallies?
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Over at the Financial Times, there’s a post that has a video of a rally monkey, and the possibilty of a market rally if there’s a House-Obama compromise on the debt-ceiling (and perhaps on the shutdown, too.) Well, a political pact might spark a rally, but what role does the monkey, himself, play? Most likely none,…
Free Markets, Immigration, Labor, Law, New Whitewater
Who Should Live in Whitewater?
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
City, Food, Free Markets, Laws/Regulations, Liberty
Whitewater’s ‘Transient Merchant’ Ordinance is Only Half That
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Whitewater has a Transient Merchant Ordinance, at Chapter 5.28, et seq., of her Municipal Code, but the ordinance’s title is only half right. It’s not merely an ordinance that restricts food trucks’ sales, but also and necessarily consumers’ purchases. It’s part Transient Merchant Ordinance and part Consumer Restriction Ordinance. Each and every time a city…
Economy, Free Markets
Free markets as the secret to Sweden’s success?
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Yes, Sweden. And yes, they have been, as Stefan Karlsson observes: …Sweden during its most free market oriented era, from 1870 to 1950, had the highest rate of per capita economic growth in the world. After massive tax and spending increases during the 1950s and 1960s, Sweden stopped outperforming other countries….However, free market reforms implemented…
Economy, Free Markets, Labor
Immigration Myths
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Free Markets
Cabs and Free Markets
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Cabs are often hard to find, and they’re more expensive than they would be if they were more plentiful. Why is that? Jeanette Petersen of the Institute for Justice talks about the reasons it’s hard to get a cab: Cabs can also be greener than other forms of transportation. They take a specific number of…
Economy, Free Markets, Freedom of Speech, Libertarians, Liberty
Happy Birthday, Dr. Friedman
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Agriculture, Business, Food, Free Markets, Laws/Regulations
Boosting Big Farms at the Expense of Small Ones
by JOHN ADAMS • • 1 Comment
It’s about as hard as ever to be a small famer in America. Some difficulties are simply a consequence of competition, by which both farmers (compelled to be more innovative) and consumers (getting better goods at lower prices) benefit. Yet, when government, itself, becomes a burden and hardship for small famers, we have tolerated what…
Economy, Free Markets
Friedman on Leonard Read’s ‘I, Pencil’
by JOHN ADAMS • • 1 Comment
Economy, Foreign Affairs, Free Markets
Expanding Trade with Canada and Mexico
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
City, Free Markets, Immigration, Libertarians, Politics
The Right and Immigration
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Steve Chapman, writing in a reposted 2007 article at Reason, explains Why the Right Shifted on Immigration. Chapman thinks the shift began with the fall of the Berlin Wall, when many conservatives no longer saw immigrants trying to reach our shores as proof of America’s sound economy and society. If so, consider the cynicism of…