Free Republic

The free-enterprise system is under attack as government gets bigger and more intrusive, and the stakes never have been higher, speakers and panelists said yesterday at the Virginia Chamber of Commerce 2009 Conference on Virginia's Future. Capitalism, far from being the cause of today's crisis, is its only cure, said the lead speaker, BB&T Corp. Chairman John Allison.

In his weekly column and recent New York Times Magazine story, “How Did Economists Get It So Wrong?” Paul Krugman blasts economic theory, argues against free markets and says that the country needs more taxpayer-funded “stimulus,” not less. He also faults economists for not predicting the crisis. In an essay on his web site, John H. Cochrane, finance professor at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, wonders “How did Paul Krugman get it so wrong?” An excerpt: It’s fun to say we didn’t see the crisis coming, but the central prediction of the efficient markets hypothesis is precisely...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxnBSb4OKeU

Imagine a large city, such as my home town, Detroit used to be, before liberalism destroyed it. Imagine that, in this city, a developer offers to buy a plot of land on which to build a multi-story office building. The upper floors will provide space for visionary entrepreneurs to start new businesses and to expand existing ones, create new products, new services and above all, new jobs. The ground floor will be retail space, providing much-needed products and services to the people who work in the offices above and to the rest of the city, too. And of course, for...

Henry Hazlitt once said that good ideas have to be relearned every generation. Among the intellectuals of our time, capitalism is wildly unpopular. This in spite of the fact that it is the only social system that has permitted prosperity and flourishing. Why they continue to oppose the free market in the face of such evidence is a matter of debate. Some have argued that intellectuals dislike capitalism because they feel it doesn't offer them just rewards for their labors. Indeed, academic books do not sell particularly well, and it is easy for the dedicated scholar to feel a degree...

The people of the United States find themselves in the midst of a severe recession, with unemployment higher than it has been in many years, housing prices cratering, retirement plans collapsing, and their lifestyles constricting. The financial industry collapsed. We had to come to the rescue, pouring our own futures into saving the banks, brokerages, and insurance companies from their own greedy foolishness. The stagnant American automobile industry was imploding, and the people had to bail them out too, further mortgaging the future of their children. Our politicians responded to this catastrophe by spending our future for us, and then...

The congressional election in 2010 may become a battle between Democrats running for reelection and the organized business community.

"At the end of the twentieth century, as we look back over a seventy-year Socialist experiment and an equal period of capitalistic Western prosperity, one thing becomes clear. Economic freedom is not a superfluous footnote to to other freedoms, but a prerequisite to the existence of all other freedoms. Even liberal Sweden attests to this. As the years have gone by, Sweden's coercive Socialist economic policies have increasingly spilled over into other areas to the point that civil liberties of all kinds are threatened. Religious freedom, educational freedom, and the freedom to raise one's children according to one's own beliefs...

In Our Hands, Part 1: How We Got What We Have - Wilding Picture Productions, Inc. How economic progress comes from the accumulation of privately owned tools of production; demonstrates the need for tools by showing a young couple with their infant child in a wilderness with nothing but natural resources and their hands. Keywords: Cold War; Free enterprise; Anti-communism In Our Hands, Part 2: What We Have - Wilding Picture Productions, Inc. Strengths of the American free enterprise system and how it meets the needs of its citizens. Keywords: Cold War; Economics In Our Hands, Part 3: How To...

Take for example the cigar I happen to be puffing on while I write this wonderful article this beautiful evening. I freely exchanged a certain number of dollars, which I earned by the sweat of my brow, for this wonderfully made cigar. The manufacturer of the cigar, and the store in which I purchased it from, gladly exchanged their fine product for the certain number of dollars that I paid for it.

WASHINGTON, D.C.—The U.S. Chamber of Commerce today announced that it would develop a sweeping national advocacy campaign encompassing advertising, education, political activities, new media, and grassroots organizing to defend and advance America’s free enterprise values in the face of rapid government growth and attacks by anti-business activists. “Supporters and critics alike agree that capitalism is at a crossroads,” said U.S. Chamber President and CEO Thomas J. Donohue. “It’s time to remind all Americans that it was a free enterprise system based on the values of individual initiative, hard work, risk, innovation, and profit that built our great country. We must...

A battle royal is brewing on Capitol Hill for an already bruised business community. The Treasury Department this week is expected to unveil its plan for revamping the patchwork of agencies that oversee the financial industry. Judging from the talk of add-ons from Congress and even the White House, some business lobbyists figure the package might as well come with Santa wrapping, tinsel and lights. Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) has announced that he wants to attach a “shareholder bill of rights” to the package. And the White House is talking about adding a consumer board to the regulatory mix. Both...

To many in Old Town Alexandria, the sex shop that opened recently on King Street is nothing short of scandalous, a historical desecration just blocks from the boyhood home of Robert E. Lee. But to Michael Zarlenga, it's justice. Zarlenga spent $350,000 on plans to expand his hunting and fishing store, the Trophy Room. He worked with city officials for almost two years and thought he had their support -- until the architectural review board told him he couldn't alter the historic property. Furious and out of money, Zarlenga rented the space to its newest occupant, Le Tache. "I can't...

On February 16, the United States will celebrate the birth of one of its greatest—and least acknowledged—entrepreneurs: George Washington. Washington's political and military exploits are of course well-known: He was a member of colonial Virginia's House of Burgesses and a delegate to the Continental Congress; he led the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War and won a hard-fought victory for independence; and he served as the first president of these United States. Yet his business ventures are impressive in their own right. During America's time as an English colony, Washington ran a fishing operation that processed 1.5 million fish per...

The pound suffered its weakest annual performance for 15 years in 2007, as markets bet that 2008 will be a miserable one for the British economy. The sterling exchange rate index has weakened by 6.7pc in the past six months But despite the chaos caused by the credit squeeze, London's blue chip index the FTSE 100 has risen by 3.8pc since the start of 2007, along with a host of other equity markets around the world. Although sterling rose yesterday against other world currencies, it has fallen by 6.1pc in the past year, which is the biggest annual decline since...

Respect Blackwater The firm's operations in Iraq are not sordid -- they're just business Monday, November 5, 2007 By ROGER ROLAND The frenzied debate over the role of Blackwater USA in Iraq has resulted in more misconceptions than truths. The most common myth, propagated by the media and some politicians, is that Blackwater's private security contractors are mercenaries working for the United States military. This simply is not the case. Blackwater's contractors do not support U.S. armed forces in battle against terrorists and insurgents. They are not soldiers, but rather a corps of professionals who provide personal security to American...

The power of unions, however, is still entrenched by the closed shop policies in the majority of American states. Closed shop laws require that if workers are unionized at a company, then all new workers are forced to unionize as well. As a result of their gaining membership by coersion and state-sanctioned monopoly, unions' membership far exceeds their true popularity. As a result, well-meaning union-led efforts often end in strikes and lockouts that end up banning their own workers, without their consent, from actually working. As a result of their disproportionate monopoly power, unions remain (not surprisingly) formidable political machines....

Lock of Che Guevara's hair to be sold Mon Sep 3, 12:51 PM ET MIAMI - A former CIA operative and Cuban exile plans to auction what he says is a lock of Che Guevara's hair, snipped before the Argentinian revolutionary and friend of Fidel Castro was buried in 1967. Gustavo Villoldo, 71, was involved in Guevara's capture in the jungles of Bolivia, according to unclassified U.S. records and other documents. He plans to auction the hair and other items kept in a scrapbook since the joint CIA-Bolivian army mission 40 years ago. "It's time for me to put the...

<p>PARIS -- French libraries are said to file their nation's constitutions -- there have been more than a dozen since 1789; the current one is a relatively ancient 49 years old -- under periodicals. Now Nicolas Sarkozy, France's peripatetic new president, has created a commission on constitutional reform. The commission includes Jack Lang who, as minister of culture in 1983 under President Francois Mitterrand, staged a sublimely unserious conference on the (supposed) world economic crisis, featuring the likes of Sophia Loren, Susan Sontag and Norman Mailer.</p>

Gov. Romney Stops At Logan Lemonade Stand Way cute interview with little girl

Business execs arrested for refusing to cut prices By Angus Shaw ASSOCIATED PRESS July 9, 2007 HARARE, Zimbabwe – Police arrested 16 more business leaders in a crackdown on those suspected of violating the government's order to slash prices by 50 percent, the official media reported yesterday. The mandated price cuts ordered more than two weeks ago are a desperate attempt to confront inflation that has spun out of control during Zimbabwe's economic crisis. The falling prices have caused stampedes, panic buying and near-riots. Among those arrested in the latest sweep were the directors of Edgars, a leading clothing and...

Those of us in the conservative movement have always been friendly to the business community. We believe in low taxes, a light touch on regulation, and we're stalwart champions of the free market. When liberals start talking about limiting CEO pay, harassing Wal-Mart, beating up on oil companies, or generally trying to place new burdens on the businesses, it's always movement conservatives who rise to their defense, even though it's sometimes not in our best political interests. Yes, we probably do fight a little harder because we view businessmen as political allies, but we genuinely, in our hearts and souls,...

When a tanker-truck fire caused the Interstate 580 connector to collapse in early May, some transportation officials feared that it could take months to rebuild this key link of the Bay Area's freeway network. Yet, amazingly, the MacArthur Maze connector reopened at 8:40 p.m. Thursday after a mere 26 days. Motorists on Friday morning honked their horns in gratitude, apparently stunned -- along with the rest of California -- that a state-financed public works project could be completed in such quick time. For that, credit goes to a decision by Caltrans and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to provide a financial bonus...

Interstate 580 through the MacArthur Maze reopened at 8:40 p.m. Thursday -- just 26 days after a gasoline-fueled inferno caused it to collapse. The first vehicles rolled east on I-580 from the Bay Bridge toll plaza and passed over the 165-foot stretch of newly laid freeway. A short time earlier, workers ripped canvas and plastic blankets from the concrete roadway poured Sunday afternoon, spritzed the deck with curing compounds, applied lane stripes and gave it a good sweeping. "First of all we want to thank everyone for their patience,'' said Bob Haus, spokesman for Caltrans after the reopening. Asked why...

What would President Reagan do? JACK KEMP - COPLEY NEWS SERVICE May 2, 2007 As the Republican candidates all gather at the Reagan Library for their first debate of the presidential campaign, what follows is my advice on “what would Ronald Reagan do?” I'll start with the economy and follow later with foreign policy. In giving thought to what Reagan would do about tax and budget policy, we must never forget the times in which he led our nation. When he was first sworn in in 1981, Reagan faced a divided government, an economy in deep recession with rising prices...

Many French people say they are anti globalisation, but paradoxically France has launched dozens of world beating brands and grown rich on free trade. A poll recently conducted by an American university sent shock waves through the Finance Ministry in Paris. Researchers found that only just over a third of French people think a free market economy is the best system to develop the country. By way of contrast, the survey found that a majority of citizens in 19 other countries were in favour of the free market, including 65% of Germans, 59 % of Italians, 66% of the British...

Certificate of need bill to start journey By Travis Fain TELEGRAPH STAFF WRITER ATLANTA - Gov. Sonny Perdue waded deep into one of the most contentious issues of this General Assembly session Thursday - what to do about the state's certificate of need program, which governs hospital expansions. Perdue is backing a bill that would reform the process and ease requirements for surgery centers looking to offer one or a few specific types of surgery as opposed to a full range of procedures available from a hospital. Most legislators said Thursday that they haven't yet read House Bill 568, some...

For Immediate ReleaseOffice of the Press SecretaryMarch 10, 2007 President's Radio Address   President's Radio Address  Audio  En Español       In Focus: President's Trip to Latin America THE PRESIDENT: Good morning. Today, Laura and I are in Latin America, where we are visiting five countries: Brazil, Uruguay, Colombia, Guatemala, and Mexico. These countries are part of a region that has made great strides toward freedom and prosperity in the past three decades. They have raised up new democracies. And they have undertaken fiscal policies that have brought stability to their economies. Yet despite the progress we have seen, many citizens in...

Over the past decade, the expression public-private partnership has crept into our publiclexicon. What is a public-private partnership? What purposes were they supposedlycreated to serve? What, on the other hand, is free enterprise? Are the two compatible?In answering these questions we shall see that although advocates of public-privatepartnerships frequently speak of economic development, public-private partnershipsreally amount to economic control—they are just one of the key components of thecollectivist edifice being built up around the idea of sustainable development. Within theeconomic arena of sustainable development is the emergence of what we might call softfascism: a system that fits the dictionary definitions...

    Style sells An 11-year-old Minneapolis boy understands the meaning behind "dress for success." For the past three years, Ethan Esparza has run a lemonade stand from his grandmother's front yard, wearing a suit and tie almost daily. "When the people saw me, they just really thought it was cute," Esparza said. "I got a lot of money, so I thought, ‘Maybe I’ll wear a suit every time I do a lemonade stand.'" Charging a quarter a cup plus getting tips, a good day nets him $40, compared to the $5 he made the day he just wore a T-shirt....

Tonight I spoke at a city council meeting in my town regarding proposed changes that affect free enterprise for trash hauling services. Here is an outline of my speech: I. About myself a. My Name is Delbert Riley, I am a resident of Haysville at *** N. Jane Ave. (Address excluded for privacy on this forum) I have lived here for over a year. I, along with my family own and operate Lies Trash Service, LLC. We are locally owned and operated, we have been in business since my father started with 1 truck in 1961. We are licensed trash...

China's economic boom has dazzled investors and captivated the world. But beyond the new high-rises and churning factories lie rampant corruption, vast waste and an elite with little interest in making things better. Forget political reform. China's future will be decay, not democracy. The only thing rising faster than China is the hype about China. In January, the People's Republic's gross domestic product (GDP) exceeded Britain's and France's, making China the world's fourth-largest economy. In December, it was announced that China replaced the United States as the world's largest exporter of technology goods. Many experts predict that the Chinese economy...

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — The sales clerk at The Gap, the perfume lady at the department store and the Wal-Mart Stores Inc. cashier would all get health insurance from their employers under a bill announced Tuesday, shifting the cost of skyrocketing health care in many cases from taxpayers to big businesses. The bill would make New York one of the first states requiring companies to provide health insurance for full-time employees. The legislation, which has bipartisan support in the state Legislature, would apply to businesses with more than 100 employees and could affect 450,000 workers in the state. Scores of...

CONSERVATIVES in Texas are using liberal activist George Soros as a "boogeyman" to galvanize their base, with the Free Enterprise Committee featuring the Hungarian-born billionaire in television ads. Soros, who spent over $25 million trying to beat President Bush in 2004, has lately taken aim at disgraced, doubly indicted House Majority Leader Tom DeLay by funding a series of harsh attack ads in DeLay's home state of Texas. Yesterday, the Free Enterprise Committee - which calls itself the "leading voice in the public arena fighting for the American system of free enterprise" - counterattacked with a commercial running for the...

To begin at somewhere near the end, I am at a gas station in the small town of Calimesa in the high desert between Beverly Hills and Rancho Mirage. It's late at night, maybe 10 p.m., and it's cold. My wife and I are getting gasoline to put in our old Caddy and complete the drive home to make sure our son goes to school tomorrow. As I pay the kindly attendant, George, a man who actually greets me, checks the oil, and pats our dogs, my head is spinning and it's spitting out thoughts like a mad laser printer....

Warren Mundine believes it's time for his people to make it on their own. Michael Duffy reports. 'I ACTUALLY find it bizarre to be in this position. I never meant to be here." The speaker is Warren Mundine, and "here" is the position of national prominence he has recently acquired. "All I did," he continues, "was say what I thought." He thinks a lot, but the thought that's brought him a lot of new friends and enemies was his proposal earlier this year that it be made easier for individual Aborigines to own sections of their traditional land. They should...

Those of use who want to replace capitalism for something better have two possible motivations. One is that capitalism causes such human degradation, suffering and misery, it is virtually unbearable and we are compelled to act. The other reason is that for all the human lives which suffer pointlessly due to poverty, war, preventable illnesses, disease, etc., we are losing valuable contributors to the richness and quality of human life; scientists, artists, mothers, fathers, lovers, composers, writers, painters, physicists, poets, mechanics and more, are all left from fulfilling their human potential do to the vile institutional arrangement called capitalism.Numerous routs...

Less than a week after declaring an assault on Cuba's ''new rich,'' President Fidel Castro raised salaries Wednesday, bringing total wage hikes this year to 25 percent. Aimed largely at highly skilled professional workers, the raises appear designed to address the growing schism in Cuban society, where doctors often give up their government salaries in favor of more lucrative jobs driving taxis. Castro addressed the new measures on state television Wednesday night, The Associated Press reported, saying the raw salary figures don't take into account the broad range of free and heavily subsidized services that Cuban workers enjoy. ''If we...

Speaking to a bar association meeting in Las Vegas last week, United States Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens confessed that he thought one of his own recent opinions, though correct as a matter of law, was wrong as a matter of policy. Stevens authored the majority opinion in Kelo v. City of New London, which upheld the forced sale of private homes to a commercial real estate developer. Yet he commented at the meeting that his constitutional judgment in that case was "entirely divorced from my judgment concerning the wisdom of the program."It seems that no one has...

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - There is a striking difference between how members of certain nations, ethnic groups and religions behave in the Old World and in the New. They are mortal enemies in their native homes. The struggles between Muslims and Christians, Bosnians and Serbs and Hutus and Tutsis display a vicious stridency. The embers of their enduring hatred create conflagrations of violence again and again. By comparison with this fury, the relation in America of Old World antagonists is surprisingly tame. Traditional enemies live at peace with each other, in many cases in the same apartment buildings. Genocidal tendencies remain...

London: India and China are reportedly competing with each other to recruit qualified European pilots to counter a potential shortfall of pilots over the next ten years, with Beijing’s shortfall being pegged at about 8,000 trained personnel. India also been forced to hire foreign pilots. Air India is understood to have grounded aircraft because of a shortage of pilots. Experts expect India to need up to 4,000 more pilots over the next five years and that training them will cost about 200 million dollars, reports TimesOnline. India pays its commercial pilots about 8,000 dollars a month, whereas Chineses pilots are...

KIEV (AFP) - Controversy has enveloped the son of Ukraine President Viktor Yushchenko for a second time in a week, amid reports that the 19-year-old owned the copyright to the lucrative trademarks of last year's "orange revolution." ADVERTISEMENT The new scandal erupted as the legal chief of Yushchenko's campaign tried to put to rest a controversy that flared last week, after local media reported that Yushchenko's eldest son, Andriy, appeared to be living beyond his declared means. "Andriy Yushchenko has author's rights to all political brands that were used during the 'orange revolution,'" Mykola Katerynchuk was quoted as saying during...

Beverly Hills -- This is a story about setting PBS free, like a kitten held hostage at some freaky kid's house -- and yes, his parents are Republican -- but before we get there, first rub your chin philosophically and ponder this: Your job is to untie blimps. (Just go with it.) Goodyear, Fuji -- doesn't matter. There is a dirigible tied to the ground, and your job is to unhook it. Once you do, up it goes. Depending on wind conditions, sometimes it goes up shockingly fast. One day it sucks you up in the air -- first 3...

President Bush's fifth State of the Union address laid out an agenda that is perhaps the most ambitious domestic agenda of any second term President. The President's plan for an “ownership society” could go a long way in giving citizens more control over their own lives. Stephen Moore, president of the Free Enterprise Fund, has compiled a book that provides a short, easy-to-read defense of President Bush's policies entitled Bullish on Bush: How George W. Bush's Ownership Society Will Make America Stronger. Originally written before the 2004 election in order to persuade voters that President Bush's policies are better for...

Liberty, Up In Smoke by Reginald Firehammer A week ago, March 17, it was announced an "agreement" had been made between the ATF (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives), various State Officials, and the major credit card companies, including Visa, MasterCard, American Express and Discover. That agreement signals the beginning of an insidious evil, a merger between two opposite kinds of power, the power of coercive (read destructive) force, represented by government, and the power of economic creation represented by the credit card companies, The sole purpose of the merger is the limiting individual liberty. The major credit...

Rare indeed is the occasion when litigation even tangentially involving hot dogs reaches the level of the Pennsylvania Superior Court. In recognition of just such an infrequent event, I traveled to Oakland Monday to see Gene Scott. Better known as Scottie to his faithful clientele, he sells hot dogs, kielbasa and other grilled goodies from a large cart outside of the University of Pittsburgh's Hillman Library. Three years ago, Scott, a 50-something Homewood resident, filed a lawsuit in Allegheny County Common Pleas Court challenging the constitutionality of a 2000 city law regulating vendors. Scott sued after City Council failed to...

Lunch trades outlawed to protect kids with allergies ORMONDALE SCHOOL JOINS THOSE THAT HAVE APPLIED TIGHTER RULES By Kim Vo Mercury News In the underground economy of school lunches, third-grader Siobhan Rickert explained, the demands are straightforward: ``If you give me this cookie, I'll give you this pretzel.'' But no more. This month, Ormondale School in Portola Valley began cracking down on lunch swaps. No more trading mom's turkey sandwich for a peanut butter and jelly -- or exchanging chocolate chip cookies for, well, just about anything you want. Ormondale joins a smattering of Bay Area schools that have banned...

There’s a reason that our forefathers were wise enough to declare that this Republic’s future and fortune be decided by the majority of Americans rather than any of the individual groups of minorities. This was a new nation then, filled with the rejects, the hopeful, the wounded, the ambitious from many lands, and it was important that we come together and start thinking like a united and unique country. For anything to be accomplished in this great experiment called America, people were going to have to be capable of coming to a consensus, regardless of their roots, and voting accordingly....

If you consider yourself even remotely taken by capitalism, you've got to love online auction house eBay. It's a free market proponent's dream, placing every possible sort of item, from the ridiculous (like a vintage 1996 McDonald's Happy Meal Rapunzel Barbie) to the sublime (Waterford crystal toasting flutes), in the hands of the person (or should I say bidder) who values it most. I've always thought the Left must dislike eBay because it collapses so many of their myths. For example, the Left's (and particularly the Ralph Nader Left's) favorite chorus is that we need more laws to protect consumers...

Did you know that the first Thanksgiving was a celebration of the triumph of private property and individual initiative? William Bradford was the governor of the original Pilgrim colony, founded at Plymouth in 1621. The colony was first organized on a communal basis, as their financiers required. Land was owned in common. The Pilgrims farmed communally, too, following the "from each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs" precept. The results were disastrous. Communism didn't work any better 400 years ago than it does today. By 1623, the colony had suffered serious losses. Starvation was imminent. Bradford...