Free Republic

Western governments have compounded the economic crisis by rejecting the one force that can end it.In the years leading up to 2007, the rules necessary to govern a flourishing market economy broke down, producing a financial and economic crisis. Rather than responding to the crisis by fixing those rules, the West aggressively repudiated market economics, and the repudiation continues to this day. Through their actions, which have lately involved everything from European debt to the American financial system to house prices in Britain, government officials around the world have revealed a disturbing assumption: that they can decide how to allocate...

The news that Eastman Kodak is preparing to file for bankruptcy, after being the leading photographic company in the world for more than a hundred years, truly marks the end of an era. The skills required to use the cameras and chemicals required by the photography of the mid-19th century were far beyond those of most people — until a man named George Eastman created a company called Kodak, which made cameras that ordinary people could use. It was Kodak's humble and affordable box Brownie that put photography on the map for millions of people, who just wanted to...

In this age of mainstream news reporters ignorant of economics, the media rarely trumpets the power and truth of free markets and the laws of Supply and Demand, very real forces in our daily lives that confound, embarrass and reject socialist politics. The free market communicates important information. This is why socialist and left-leaning politicians, who hate free markets, operate in economic illiteracy. The free market places no real importance on government contrived social measures that lack real-world value. When the free market speaks, socialist economic theories tremble. An example of the free market correcting economic nonsense is the “socially...

Erik Prince built and developed Blackwater Worldwide into a major private military company, starting with an idea to improve national security in the United States, his education from Hillsdale College and training as a SEAL. Blackwater Worldwide was renamed Xe Services, which he sold in 2010 to USTC Holdings. He is planning on starting a private equity firm to deliver necessary commodities to countries in need. Erik Prince built and developed Blackwater Worldwide into a major private military company, starting with an idea to improve national security in the United States, his education from Hillsdale College and training as a...

(CNSNews.com) - In a speech delivered at Osawatomie High School in Osawatomie, Kansas, on Tuesday, President Barack Obama argued that while a limited government that preserves free markets "speaks to our rugged individualism" as Americans, such a system "doesn't work" and "has never worked" and that Americans must look to a more activist government that taxes more, spends more and regulates more if they want to preserve the middle class. "'[T]here is a certain crowd in Washington who, for the last few decades, have said, let’s respond to this economic challenge with the same old tune. 'The market will take...

RUSH: We're starting in Johnstown, Colorado. This is David, and thank you for waiting, sir. I appreciate it. CALLER: Thank you, Rush. It's an honor and a privilege to be on your program. RUSH: Thank you very much, sir. CALLER: I am responsible for three factories in China and have been for the last year and a half and so I've spent about two-thirds of my time in China, and what you see in China is a veneer of prosperity over really a mountain of poverty. RUSH: Prosperity over a mountain of poverty. CALLER: Because once you get outside of...

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has settled with Lafarge North America Inc., a large construction materials supplier in the United States and Canada, as well as four of its U.S. subsidiaries, to resolve alleged Clean Water Act violations. The settlement includes a fine and the creation, within the company, of the positions of environmental vice president and ...

When the Pilgrims arrived on the Mayflower, they set up a society in which no one could own property and everyone shared equally, no matter how much work they did. The result was misery and hunger. But when the governor allowed each man to plant and raise crops for his own household, something amazing happened. William Bradford recorded the experiences of the Separatists who came to the New World on the Mayflower and later voyages some years after the events actually occurred. His memory was evidently aided by personal letters that had been retained as well as his own contemporary...

NewsHour anchor Jeffrey Brown explained that in the segment correspondent Paul Solman "gets a contrarian view, suggesting inequality in a free market system may not be as bad as advertised." The guest was New York University law school professor Richard Epstein.

If you enjoy a little Jack in your Coke, you may be paying more for it soon. The tax man and the "fair share" screamers have a new target: Jack Daniel’s and Lynchburg have been inseparable since a young man named Jack Daniel came there more than a century ago to learn the art of distilling corn mash into whiskey. He set up shop on the northeastern end of town and the company has never looked to go anywhere else. It produces 23 million gallons of amber gold – about a billion dollars worth, every year.

"I'm the only problem-solver in the group," Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain told Mike Huckabee in an August Fox News appearance. Well, many candidates bill themselves as problem-solvers. In fact, if we asked any candidate running for any office in the entire country, practically every one would likely define him- or herself as able to solve problems. Yet we know that politicians, as a rule, create and worsen problems rather than fix them. .....Overconfidence turns the hopeful campaign pronouncements of otherwise successful people into dismal policy. In the end, Americans usually end up with more laws, less freedom, and no...

House Budget Committee chairman Paul Ryan says he “loves” presidential candidate Herman Cain’s signature “9-9-9″ tax plan. Ryan told The Daily Caller in an exclusive interview that Cain’s plan shows the GOP presidential campaign season has entered into a more advanced stage where ideas — not just personalities — have come to the forefront. “We need more bold ideas like this because it is specific and credible,” Ryan said. “I’m more of a flat-tax kind of a guy.” The budget chairman went on to say that ideas like Cain’s plan could help shape the debate over tax reform moving into...

Let's get real... America can't wait until 2012, you need a vacation now! With our 9-9-9 Vacation Plan, we have real solutions to reduce spending

This is a true story about a young woman of Asian origin, who is a first generation immigrant to the United States. She has learned very well how to manipulate the system to her advantage. She has three children, no husband, and no job. She is on government welfare and the Oregon Health Plan. Every time she has a headache in the middle of the night, she runs to the emergency room of the local hospital, where they provide her with the best care that your money can provide. One of her three children was born about twelve weeks premature,...

A source on the Rick Perry campaign tells Hot Air that the Texas governor conducted some Texas-size fundraising in the third quarter. Coming in just a little over halfway through, Perry raised $17.1 million. That number would put Perry somewhere between $4-6 million ahead of Mitt Romney’s rumored total for Q3, according to this report last week from the Boston Globe. It’s also likely to far outpace Herman Cain’s fundraising or that of the other Republicans currently in the race. The pace is even more impressive. Perry had 49 days in which to raise funds, rather than the full 92...

Total Bus Anarchy: It’s a Beautiful Thing Posted on September 26, 2011 by methylethyl A lot of expats complain about the buses in Lima. They drive too fast. They are dangerous. They seem to be totally unregulated. But I love them. This might warrant a word of explanation. I don’t love that the bus drivers seem reckless, that the bus I am riding could break down at any time, or that there are no emissions standards, so on any busy street I eventually find myself holding my breath through a cloud of black bus exhaust, from some huge retired Bluebird...

Media headlines about General Motors trumpet events that would lead one to believe that the company has successfully transformed itself into a self-sustaining, profitable American corporation. Readers are to believe that thousands of jobs are now being created at GM and the taxpayers are on their way to reaping the rewards of their so-called "investment" of $50 billion in an ownership stake of the company, even as Wall Street pricing of GM shares indicates otherwise. However, there is a portion of Americans who do not buy into the GM success story and now refuse to purchase vehicles from the...

It's a Jetsons World: Private Miracles and Public Crimes from Mises Media on Vimeo. We are surrounded by miracles created in the private sector, particularly in the digital universe, and yet we don't appreciate them enough. Meanwhile, the public sector is systematically wrecking the physical world in sneaky and petty ways that really do matter. Jeffrey Tucker, in this follow-up to his Bourbon for Breakfast, draws detailed attention to both. He points out that the products of digital capitalism are amazing, astounding, beyond belief—more outrageously advanced than anything the makers of the Jetsons could even imagine. With this tiny box...

NEW DELHI — Two decades ago, India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh unleashed radical free-market reforms that were a watershed moment in the transformation and rise of the South Asian giant. "We shall make the future happen," declared Singh, who was then finance minister, in presenting his landmark budget on July 24, 1991, that opened up India's markets and cut through the country's infamous red tape. "Let the whole world hear it loud and clear -- India is now wide awake." Singh, a former World Bank economist, switched the country's course from inward-looking socialist policies to a more market-friendly approach in...

I am a lead pencil—the ordinary wooden pencil familiar to all boys and girls and adults who can read and write. Writing is both my vocation and my avocation; that’s all I do. You may wonder why I should write a genealogy. Well, to begin with, my story is interesting. And, next, I am a mystery —more so than a tree or a sunset or even a flash of lightning. But, sadly, I am taken for granted by those who use me, as if I were a mere incident and without background. This supercilious attitude relegates me to the level...

Debt Crises: What a sorry spectacle to watch Greeks rioting in the streets in reaction to austerity measures. As if tantrums can change reality. It's Exhibit A of how socialism infantilizes citizens. The only cure is free markets. As Greece's legislature heads for a vote Wednesday to cut the size of its government by $40 billion in exchange for the last $17 billion of a $156 billion International Monetary Fund bailout on July 3, the world's television screens are flooded with images of young "indignantes" calling a riotous 48 hour-strike in Athens. Steeped in socialism for decades, these Greeks see...

Belgium has now gone for more than a year without a government and, you know what? Life is carrying on as normal. The crops are growing, the wheels are turning in the factories, the civil servants (there are lots of these) are lingering over their coffee and speculoos biscuits. A lighter than normal legislative agenda has given the country something of a boost: growth forecasts keep being upwardly revised, and the economy is expected to expand by 2.3 per cent this year. ---- Snip ---- We sometimes talk as if, left to itself, the state will grow. And, in some...

There would be no draft. Incoming players would sell their services to the richest teams. Late Monday afternoon, U.S. District Court Judge Susan Richard Nelson issued a ruling that may significantly alter professional football as we know it. For six weeks, there has been a work stoppage in the National Football League as the league has sought to negotiate a new collective-bargaining agreement with the players. But Judge Nelson ordered the end of the stoppage and recognized the players' right to dissolve their union. By blessing this negotiating tactic, the decision may endanger one of the most popular and successful...

Last in a series from a Middle East observer who just returned from the region and whose January report for IBD was "A Restive Egypt Faces Succession," nearly two weeks before the revolt began in that country that toppled President Hosni Mubarak.Israel, a New Jersey-sized nation of 7.5 million people (1.7 million of whom are Arab) filed 7,082 international patents in the five years ending in 2007. By contrast, 28 majority-Muslim nations with almost 1.2 billion people — 155 times the population of Israel — were granted 2,071 patents in the same period. Narrowing the comparison to the 17 Muslim...

Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli has won an award from a national conservative group, the Sam Adams Alliance. Here’s a release from Cuccinelli’s office: Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli received the Public Servant of the Year Award this evening. He was not at the Chicago ceremony, but offered these remarks: I am grateful to receive the Public Servant of the Year Award from the Sam Adams Alliance. It was an honor to be considered, and it is an even greater honor to be the recipient of an award named for a patriot known for his ability to organize citizens at the...

Bureaucrats can’t run a car company, let alone the whole country Ford Motor Co. beat General Motors in March sales, another small but significant victory of private enterprise over government micromanagement. Since the 2009 government takeover of GM, competition between the two leading domestic auto manufacturers has taken on strong ideological overtones. It serves as an ideal test case, a microcosm of the competition between two worldviews, the automotive equivalent of North vs. South Korea. Right now, the good guys are winning. Ford has been giving GM a run for its money since the competition began. In October, Ford recorded...

Hey Freepers, On the subject of free trade, unions and patriotism. Earlier this morning I was thinking about the goings on in Wisconsin, and about a purchase I wanted to make later today, and I started thinking. All my life I have been told to buy things "Made in America." I have done so as much as was possible, and buy locally, if I can, but I was recently thinking about the union goings on in Wisconsin. I have been spending money on "American" tools, vehicles, clothing, foods, etc. as much as I can find, but I recently have though,...

Evo Morales, Bolivia’s president, has claimed a reinvigorated mandate for constitutional reform after a partial count of Sunday’s recall referendum showed he had won more than 60 per cent of a national vote of confidence in his government. The president is expected to move swiftly to seek approval for a draft constitution that would redistribute wealth from the hydrocarbons industry, intro­duce land reform and open his way to run for a second term. Addressing supporters from the balcony of the presidential palace on Sunday, Mr Morales said the vote had “deepened democracy”. “We are convinced that it is important to...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Months after they hammered Democrats for cutting Medicare, House Republicans are debating whether to relaunch their quest to privatize the health program for seniors. House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis., is testing support for his idea to replace Medicare with a fixed payment to buy a private medical plan from a menu of coverage options.

While you may need a forklift to get it on your nightstand, Thomas Sowell’s most recent edition of his popular guide to economics, “Basic Economics: A Common Sense Guide to Economics,” will aptly navigate all — from laymen to experts — through the treacherous subject that has seemingly stumped many as of late. Dr. Sowell recently spoke about his book with The Daily Caller and offered his insight on some of today’s most vexing problems: TheDC: Why did you decide to write the initial “Basic Economics” and how does this, the Fourth Edition, differ from the earlier versions? Thomas Sowell...

Who here loves freedom? Everyone raised their hands, I see. Well, you’re all liars! Here in America, we’re trained from birth to say we love freedom, but is freedom really what we’re all about? What do you like about freedom, anyway? That you can do whatever you want? Well, what do you want to do? You want to go out to eat? Well, whatever you eat is regulated by the FDA, health inspectors make sure you won’t get sick, and everyone working at the restaurant falls under various laws protecting their jobs and wages. Do you want to drive? Well,...

Kigali, Rwanda — It must puzzle Rwandans to watch the loud squabbling between and within America’s political parties over keeping old tax cuts for just two more years. President Obama on Tuesday defended his tax-cut deal with Republican lawmakers by calling them “hostage takers.” Obama’s fellow Democrat, New York congressman Anthony Weiner, complained that the president “seems to go from zero to compromise in 3.5 seconds.” The Washington Wrestling Federation is a world away in style and substance from today’s Rwanda. During a four-day visit here, I found that the enthusiastic consensus for pursuing the free-market path out of poverty...

From the days of the original Greek Olympics and earlier, to John Maynard Keynes' writing about economic man's "animal spirits," to the latest corporate rivalry between Apple and Google, competition has been in our collective DNA. Competitiveness expressed in a financial context sadly becomes "greed" when combined with character defects that disregard the law, and/or the well-being of one's trading partner: "only when they are both made better off" goes awry. We need to have impartial third parties that will referee our transactions--this is the essence of government protecting property rights--but ultimately the most effective judge will be the collective...

David Schwartz has a story in today's LV Sun that attempts to tug at your heart strings and make you feel guilty for not supporting tax increases in the next session. He details how eliminating personal-care attendants would negatively impact some disabled Nevadans. Meanwhile, Hawley, who is paralyzed from the chest down since a 2008 motorcycle accident, is clear about what the loss of his personal-care attendant would mean for him — a nursing home. He prizes his independence and time he spends on the Internet connected to the outside world, his nightly dinner of rice, beans and exactly 20...

The sudden and systemic collapse from every market booming to the Al Goresque hockey stick fall off into a precipice in the single month of December 2007 precipitated the Bush Recession, and there are now 3 triggers in place: Time Bomb | Three Triggers, Called Levels 1, 2, and 3 Will Collapse Private Sector Assetts of Unmitigated Proportions Built into FASB 157e regulatory refinancing reprieve is a mechanism for collapsing Private Sector assets based on what’s called Level 1, Level 2 and Level 3 revaluation trigger. These 3 triggers are now in the process of being pulled, the result of...

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 43% of Adults agree that free-market capitalism is the best anti-poverty program in the world. Thirty percent (30%) disagree, but another 27% aren't sure. Seventy-five percent (75%) of all Likely Voters prefer free markets over a government managed economy, though

Free-market power is heading to Congress, and that’s great news for stocks and the economy... This past week I gave a speech to a group of investors. The organizer of the event e-mailed me the night before, asking that I please try to be optimistic. But following the tea-party primary victories in Delaware, New York, and New Hampshire this week, I’m once again getting energized. Free-market capitalism is on the comeback trail. That’s one of the key tea-party messages. And make no mistake about it: The free-market power of the tea-party political revolt is totally bullish for stocks and the...

Paul Ryan has responded to a David Brooks column that had in turn took issue with an op-ed co-written by Ryan and AEI president Arthur Brooks on the decision facing America “between an opportunity society, where the government promotes a vibrant free enterprise system and sturdy safety net v. an expanding social welfare state – one where the government assumes greater control of more sectors of the economy and more aspects of our lives.” -snip- Ryan’s response — a concise defense of his Roadmap for America’s Future — is excellent, as you’d expect. Here’s a taste: The challenge goes beyond...

I am the result of a privatized education. I never spent one day in public school from preschool through high school and three years of that I spent being home-schooled. I’m sure having three children at home all day and being solely responsible for their educations drove my mother crazy but she did a great job. We didn’t come out of it with stunted educations or social lives. We thrived actually. Between friends in the neighborhood and being very active in our church and youth groups we were quite busy, our social lives were full and we ended up pretty...

Mainstream America is finally getting to know the billionaire brothers backing the libertarian movement, thanks to a pair of dueling profiles in New York and The New Yorker. Now that we've heard about their charitable giving, David's 240-foot mega-yacht and role as patrons of the Tea Party movement, it's time to ask a more serious question: How libertarian are they? The short answer...not very.Charles and David Koch, the secretive billionaire brothers who own Koch Industries, the largest private oil company in America, have spent millions bankrolling free-market think tanks and pro-business politicians in order, as David Koch has put it,...

Illustrated version of an 8.17.09 audio broadcast by America's "leader of the opposition" Ron Paul. Find more of his "Texas Straight Talk" at http://house.gov/paul/ Video from htttp://Archive.org/details/prelinger http://nhunderground.com/forum/index.php?topic=17486.0

No less than 93% of Chinese businessmen say the main reason for their spectacular success is network connections (guangxi), especially with government officials. Indian businessmen, however, have succeeded despite the government: 81% say the main reason for their success is jugaad, the ability to find innovative way round prohibitive rules and institutions. This is the key finding of a survey of 4,000 businessmen in the two countries by YouGov, a top online survey organisation, and the Legatum Institute, an independent think tank. The survey represents the subjective view of Indian and Chinese entrepreneurs, but has a ring of truth. China...

One of the benefits of studying history is that we can see what worked and what didn’t work in the past. That helps us put the present in perspective. My larger point is that many ideas that are fashionable today will be discarded and in the dumpster thirty years from now. In fact, my task as a teacher is often to explain to students how it is possible that so many people in a given generation could have believed something that today is obviously so silly. Let’s look at some examples.

Jesus replied, “If anyone LOVES me, he will obey my teaching, My Father will Love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. John 14:23 For the past 50 yrs one of the main wars between America and eco-facism has been on the farm. The eco-commies have used every tactic under the sun to hobble the Ag industry. The libs have done everything they could through the courts to shut down farmers and make farming in America next to impossible. They use the same tactics that have been used to fight every other profitable business....

“Republics they say are ungrateful. . . . The people that create or build to make victory possible . . . are war profiteers to be subjected to suspicion, to be investigated, to be harassed.” Thus spoke Andrew Higgins, the inventor of the Higgins boats that were so essential to the U. S. D-Day landings in WWII. Eisenhower called Higgins “the man who won the war for us.” But when the war was won, Higgins was socked with an IRS investigation and then was largely forgotten. I grew up in Nebraska, where Higgins was born and raised, but I never...

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Part 2 of our continuing series of classic animated video is up and ready for your enjoyment.

We continue our animated video series. For those that watch Glenn Beck, we dug up some Air Force video that must have been produced in conjunction with the AF manual he was reading from last week. Enjoy!

The tea party movement shouldn't deviate from their original ideology of free markets and re-birth of the Constitution.

If you want to know how the bureaucracy works this video is for you. We should be discussing the contents of this video. No it's not another Ron Paul video but it does bring up unknown facts about the FED.