Free Republic

Shares of Ford Motor Co. hit their highest price in more than four years as the broader market rose Tuesday. Shares of the Dearborn, Mich.-based automaker traded as high as $9.88 in Tuesday's session, their highest price since October 2005. Shares recently traded up 18 cents at $9.85. Ford shares have nearly quadrupled in value in the year to date as the company rolled out new products like the Ford Fusion midsize sedan, cut costs and managed to avoid government aid and bankruptcy protection unlike its crosstown rivals General Motors Co. and Chrysler Group LLC.

Canada’s Macleans news site recently published an article titled “Darwin movie too evolved for U.S. audiences”. The article refers to the decision of US film distributors to “pass” on the film “Creation”—the dramatized story of Charles Darwin’s struggle while writing the Origin of Species. The refusal to distribute a film premiered and acclaimed at the Toronto Film Festival seems to have again roused the Canadian media’s scorn of the “backward Americans” of which—according to Gallup—only 39% believe Darwin and his evolutionary theory. It is interesting how very differently the Canadian and world media treated America during WW II when far...

Here's one for those who believe that the tea-party movement is "astro-turf." Despite the long recession and a banking industry that teetered on the abyss last year, America still believes in the free market system. In fact it seems as if one of President Obama's unintended success stories is that he has driven more Americans to believe in the free market system. A new Rasmussen poll reports that 76% of voters say a free market economy is better than one managed by the government. Only 10% prefer an economy managed by the government. That is up from 70% a year...

When I linked to a USA Today story the other day about Americans elbowing illegals out of the way for day-labor jobs, under my headline of "And Yet, We Still Haven't Suspended Immigration," one reader replied, "Yah, because protectionism is clearly the answer for our economic woes." This betrayed a widespread misconception about immigration and trade, one that's important to keep in mind as the president unveils the political theater production called his "Jobs Summit." Restricting immigration is fundamentally different from restricting trade in two ways, one theoretical, one practical. First, people are not things — in addition to being...

Coase’s FCC Legacy Bethany Stotts, December 1, 2009 At first blush the Federal Communications Commission (FCC)—which regulates “interstate and international communications” using “radio, television, wire” and “satellite”—doesn’t seem like much of a free-market mecca. But panelists at a recent conference held at George Mason University (GMU) argued that the FCC was significantly affected 50 years ago by Ronald H. Coase’s noted article, “The Federal Communications Commission.” In this paper Coase argues that, with regard to broadcast radio, “the government and its historians based their regulatory views ‘on a misunderstanding of the nature of the problem’” and “goes on to present...

In business and in the free market, the only test for the validity of an idea or course of action is, “Does it work?” The only way that you can tell whether or not a theory or principle is true is by testing it in the real world. Does it work? Does it bring about positive results? Does it bring about better results than another other system or theory? The good news is that in the material world, all results are measurable. In the business world, all results are measurable in financial terms. You can tell if something works in...

The $116 billion business of selling cell phone calls in the U.S. faces a long, ugly decline. That petrifies just about everyone in the industry except Roger Linquist.With his gray hair and grandfatherly demeanor, Roger Linquist hardly seems like the kind of guy to kneecap a $116 billion industry. Yet the 71- year-old chief executive of MetroPCS cheerfully and brazenly promises to do just that. He aims to bring down the lucrative business of selling cellular phone calls, a business that for four decades has grown bigger and richer with every passing year. MetroPCS, which Linquist founded 15 years ago,...

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The 2008 financial crisis and subsequent bailout might have more to do with financial jihad and Shari’ah Financing than Americans would ever imagine or dare to suggest, and the 2009 Stimulus Plan may be a plan to keep American’s in dhimmitude for generations. Though it sounds very poignant, it is a possibility that should be explored because questions are still unanswered and Americans are still confused and bewildered over the astronomical amounts of money that they will owe for generations. This chapter takes the liberty of thinking outside the facade of unsatisfactory explanations that have been given.

President Barack Obama declined to participate in a celebration of the 20th anniversary of fall of Communism in Europe, saying he has “mixed feelings” about the event and “too little time to spare.” “On the one hand, Communism did some brutal things,” Obama acknowledged. “On the other hand, they had some noble goals and made some important progress toward achieving them.” Among the noble goals achieved according to the President were “the provision of universal health care, free college education, and the elimination of capitalistic greed. We can only hope to do as well in our country.” The president cited...

Well, not quite — but it got your attention. Recently, 7-11 delivered 1.6 million petitions to Congress demanding that 7-11 be allowed to charge extra to customers who use credit and debit cards. Never mind that this is asking Congress to rip up a contract 7-11 has signed agreeing not to do this to us. What’s the issue? Whenever we go to the store or online to make a purchase...

Inevitably, the crisis on Wall Street has revived the never-ending notion that markets undermine morality. Oliver Stone, ever restless to recapture the days of former glory, has begun production on a sequel to the 1987 movie Wall Street, which immortalized Gordon Gekko as the symbol of markets and greed. But the debate on how markets affect morality has not always been a slam dunk for capitalism's naysayers. Matthew Arnold, especially in his influential 1868 book, Culture and Anarchy, might have been spectacularly critical, but Voltaire's passionate defense of markets, most eloquently stated in his 1734 Philosophical Letters, made him the...

Peter Schiff's day job is running Euro Pacific Capital, a Connecticut-based investment fund. But he's better known as the guy who called the housing collapse and recession back in 2006. Schiff, a hard-core free-marketeer and an adviser to Rep. Ron Paul (R-Tex.) during his 2008 presidential run, now moonlights as a cable news analyst and has become a YouTube fixture, thanks to the "Peter Schiff Was Right" mashups of his predictions. His latest job: seeking the Republican nomination to run against Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.), chairman of the banking committee. Washington Post business reporter Frank Ahrens spoke with Schiff about...

Because of caring people and a caring company, a terminally ill little Green Forest girl was flown home Friday by air ambulance from M. D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, so she can spend her last days surrounded by the people who love her most. Jada Harper, who turned seven on Sept. 1, has an inoperable malignant tumor in her brain and is in a coma with a ventilator doing her breathing for her. She has been at the famous cancer center in Houston since July, but her situation is now at the point not much else can be done...

This week, Ford Motors announced that India would be a global manufacturing hub for its new small car, the Figo. This underlines a remarkable new development. India has overtaken China as a car exporter this year, exporting 201,138 cars in January-July against China’s 164,800. What’s more, Indian exports in this period went up 18%, while China’s fell by 60%. ............. What accounts for India’s success? Visionary planning? Long-term strategy? No, India’s triumph was completely unplanned. No planning document ever envisioned or planned for beating China. Analysts say China has become a great auto exporter because of huge subsidies, an undervalued...

As Iceland Goes... by: Allie Winegar Duzett, September 21, 2009 “The Icelandic Meltdown,” by Philipp Bagus and David Howden, published in the August 2009 edition of The Free Market newsletter, takes an in-depth look at Iceland’s current financial crisis. The thesis: that contrary to popular belief, the free market was not the cause of the financial meltdown—indeed, the free market may be the key to resurrecting Iceland’s economy. Is it possible that by looking at what went wrong there, we could get an idea of how larger country’s economies collapsed, such as America’s? Bagus and Howden begin by examining the...

Time: September 22, 2009 from 6pm to 7pm Location: Whole Foods Fig Garden Street: 650 W Shaw Ave City/Town: Fresno, CaliforniaWebsite or Map We will be having a BUY-Cott at our local Whole Foods Market to support their championing of a private health care system based on free-market principles. Come on down, there's a 5% discount waiting for you! Buy some great produce and meat, sample their awesome salad/soup/hot foods bar, with fresh sushi, pizza, sandwiches, a full-service deli, a cheese and olive bar, and even a seafood soup bar! We can carry our purchases outside and eat in the...

From a practical standpoint, however, as usual, free market ideology wins as well. As a typical American, who has a mortgage and pays taxes, I still want to end employer based health care. The reason is because I want more choice.

When the Rapture comes what's to become of your loving pets who are left behind? Eternal Earth-Bound Pets takes that burden off your mind. We are a group of dedicated animal lovers, and atheists. Each Eternal Earth-Bound Pet representative is a confirmed atheist, and as such will still be here on Earth after you've received your reward. Our network of animal activists are committed to step in when you step up to Jesus. Our service is plain and simple; our fee structure is reasonable. For $110.00 we will guarantee that should the Rapture occur within ten years of receipt...

As the health care debate rages, many conservatives have correctly argued that government-run “universal care” will lead to medical rationing. To control costs, the socialized health systems of Canada and Great Britain routinely restrict patients’ access to expensive services. A Canadian with a possible brain tumor might wait months for his government-approved MRI scan, whereas an American can receive one within days. Liberals will typically counter that a free market is just “another form of rationing” — but by price rather than government decree. It is unjust, they say, that patients with money (or good insurance) can receive MRI scans...

If you watch enough tv, you'll soon see this commercial.

Japan’s historic election Sunday gave the Democratic Party an overwhelming victory over the Liberal Democrats that have dominated Japan’s government for 55 years.  The Liberal Democrats oversaw Japan’s industrial policy that supported Japan’s dominant firms during Japan’s rise as a major economic power during the 1960s, 70s, and 80s.  Indeed, many American economists argued the U.S. should do more to emulate Japanese industrial policy and have the government actively involved in supporting dominant corporations to enhance their international competitiveness.American support for industrial policy, where the government actively picks the winners in economic competition, died off in the 1990s when the...

The reason the free market works, and why it’s worth fighting for, can be easily seen by simply looking at the car buying (free market) process. In America, the buyer has the freedom to ‘talk’ and the freedom to ‘walk.’ That is, you can always - and I repeat, always - ask questions and kick the tires. If, heaven forbid, the buyer smells the “scent of lemons” on the ‘gem’ of a product being offered, he or she can take his or her money on down the road. That’s called freedom, and it has been the catalyst of improvements and...

In this episode of the Conscience of Kansas radio program I talk to Ron and Kay Rivoli of Rivoli Revue and we hear their big hits "Bailout" and "U.S.S. of A." Next I speak to Kansas Attorney General candidate, Ralph De Zago and then Patriot Poet Roger Hancock. We invite to lsiten and comment on the show!

In an editorial published in the Wall Street Journal on August 11, Whole Foods CEO John Mackey outlined a seven-point plan for healthcare reform that sought to marginalize the role of government. Conservatives asked themselves: 'Why didn't Republicans think of that?' Mackey's editorial highlights a very disturbing question with the Republicans' "Road to Recovery:" Where are Republicans? It's one thing to take some time off from the political spotlight to get one's priorities in order, but to disappear completely during this perfect opportunity leaves one to question how serious Republicans are about coming back from the political wilderness. Read the...

Medical Overhaul: Whole Foods' CEO weighed in on health care, just as our president urged. But instead of engaging him in civil discussion, angry leftists boycotted his stores. They've succeeded only in chilling debate. John Mackey is a successful entrepreneur. Unlike many politicians, he has actual experience providing health care for private-sector workers. So as the debate over reform cranked up, he wrote an Aug. 12 op-ed for the Wall Street Journal describing "The Whole Foods Alternative to ObamaCare" and offering eight sensible free-market ideas that haven't been discussed on the news.Mackey didn't criticize other plans. He merely tossed a...

The darkest times in human history have all begun when someone decided "not to let a serious crisis go to waste". In fact, it is in times of economic crisis that folks are most susceptible to the ideas of tyrants. We look for an answer, any port in a storm that will shield us from the unknown. And in our desire to be safe, we open ourselves up to things that we would never have dreamed of allowing in normal times. Consider, my friends that Germany in the 1930's was suffering from massive unemployment and high inflation, mostly due to...

I have a question to you, my fellow freeper community: Fellow Patriots: Forgive the vanity, but I have a question, and would like a solid answer(s) becuase it is really the only way that we will continue to build the movement? WE ALL KNOW that the majority of the population is against Obamacare/Nationalized Healthcare, however eventually we will reach a plateau of support against the President/Congress Plans (eventually protests, media against this plan) will reach a point where the numbers probably will not change mucy (I'd say 65% Against 35% for), anyway my question is how do we reach those...

It is the new version of the school yard line "OH YEAH!" Whenever a Republican Pundit criticizes the Obamacare plan, there is usually a democrat there to answer, "you guys just want to stop any health care reform. Where is your plan?" Two weeks ago the Republicans introduced a plan. Short for a congressional bill (only 268 pages). this plan reforms health care by giving the patient more control. While not perfect this bill (the full text can be read here) grants access to affordable, quality health care for all Americans mostly through marketplace incentives. It addresses four main principals...

Here at Mises Daily, we often poke fun at left-liberal Democrats for their Keynesian ways. To prove that this is about ideas, not parties, today we'll focus on a recent blog post in which Republican economist Larry Kudlow came out in favor of extending the "cash-for-clunkers" program. As we'll see, Kudlow's arguments are pure Keynesian nonsense. Sadly, many of today's ostensibly radical, "free-market" economists basically look at the economy in the same way as Paul Krugman. They just have a slight technical disagreement over the best way to prod people to spend money. Only the Austrian approach offers a different...

The great lumbering health care reform gears are in motion in Washington D.C., and the Big Government machine is spitting out a new recipe for the bankruptcy of America: A "health care reform" bill that pleases all the special interest groups and pharmaceutical companies but does nothing to improve the health of ordinary Americans. Health care reform in Washington today isn't about health, or reform. It's about mandating monopoly-priced western medicine for the masses. It's about fining people who wisely opt out of the criminally-operated health insurance industry, and it's designed to keep the American people sick and diseased while...

Filling in for Keith Olbermann yesterday on MSNBC’s Countdown program, guest host David Shuster chastised Republicans for having no plan “to contain exploding healthcare costs.” So busy was Shuster smirking and sneering (like Olbermann) over the Republicans’ alleged indifference to those costs, that he neglected to mention Congressional Budget Office director Douglas Elmendorf’s recent assessment that the Democrat healthcare plan would increase federal costs “to a significant degree” – because it plainly “raises future federal outlays more than it reduces future federal outlays.” Neither did Shuster mention that Medicare, the federally funded insurance program for senior citizens, wastes as much...

U.S. President Barack Obama won praise on Saturday for reaching out to the Americas at a regional summit but Latin American and Caribbean leaders pressured him to end the long-standing U.S. embargo on Cuba. Obama, attending his first Summit of the Americas, has promised an era of better cooperation with the hemisphere and offered a new start to communist-ruled Cuba. He won early approval from left-wing Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. The warm reception for Obama from countries from Brazil to Venezuela contrasted with the last Americas Summit four years ago in Argentina, where leftists like Chavez attacked the "imperialist" policies...

"There ain't no such thing as a free lunch" (Tanstaafl, get it?) originated way back in the late 1800s, when saloons offered free lunches to the homeless. All they had to do was buy one drink. How could they do this? Well, the drinks were higher priced than other saloons, perhaps, or maybe rooms were more expensive. One way or the other, the cost of those free meals would have to be recouped. If they weren't they would have to eventually go out of business. Wikipedia actually has a great article on the history of the phrase, but TANSTAAFL is...

Today, the Senate is holding hearings about the college football Bowl Championship Series (BCS). Sen. Orrin Hatch, R- UT, is replicating a hearing about the BCS that was held earlier this year, in the House, by his fellow Republican, Texas Congressman Rep. Joe Barton. Hatch and Barton are not concerned with terrorism, war, famine, plague, unemployment, crime, the government usurpation of the automobile industry and the planned usurpation of the health field, as well as North Korea, etc. No, they want to enact laws forcing a playoff in college football. http://tremoglieteatime.blogspot.com/

No aspect of the American economy is so insignificant that Barack Obama won't try to control it. This became even more apparent today, when Obama announced that he will tell you what type of light bulb you can have, and what type of light bulb American businesses are allowed to make. Can anyone really continue to deny that Obama is a socialist? It should be abundantly clear by now that Obama lusts to socialize health care. While I believe great danger lies in government control of industry, it is at least understandable that many Americans think that the federal government...

Cap and trade and a finite number of other big tax increases, socialized health care, amnesty for illegal immigrants, much bigger government, more "red tape" and more government regulations, more failures of businesses big and small, more "activist judges", no more capitalism,...What's the point in even seriously running conservative candidates, at each and every political level, when all "leftist damage" on all issues really can't be successfully "fixed" and replaced by conservative, free market, capitalistic solutions and for as long as forever as humanly possible?

Atlas Shrieked by: Mytheos Holt, June 16, 2009 In recent weeks, former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan has found himself increasingly under public assault, both for his actions leading up to the current financial crisis, and for his attempts to defend these actions. In the April issue of the “Free Market” newsletter produced by the Ludwig von Mises Institute, economist Robert P. Murphy devotes an article to exploring what he sees as the failures of central banking systems generally, and Greenspan, specifically. Murphy’s article, entitled “Greenspan’s Bogus Defense,” argues that Greenspan’s rate-setting policies destabilized the relation between federal interest rates...

A shoe-maker and a technology company are teaming up to develop footwear with a built-in GPS device that could help track down "wandering" seniors suffering from Alzheimer's Disease. "The technology will provide the location of the individual wearing the shoes within 9m (30 feet), anywhere on the planet," said Andrew Carle, an assistant professor at George Mason University who served as an advisor on the project. "Sixty per cent of individuals afflicted with Alzheimer's Disease will be involved in a 'critical wandering incident' at least once during the progression of the disease - many more than once," he said. The...

From Harry Reid to Obama: Closing these dealerships will put over 100,000 jobs at risk at a time when our country is shedding jobs at an alarming rate. We also question the criteria being used to determine which dealerships should be closed and the fundamental fairness involved in this effort. It is our view that the market rather than leaving it up to the manufacturers whose poor leadership contributed to their demise. . . .

Recent White House-orchestrated deals illustrate just how the hidden finger of socialism works, say aides for President Barack Obama Bam-A-Lam.Adam Smith once referred to a hidden hand that guides the market. While socialism can't quite move the market with a whole hand, it can give taxpayers, workers, and entrepreneurs the finger. According to staffers, the GM deal is another way the taxpayer will back failed enterprises, sorta like Social Security, but with a better logo and an initial that isn't a reminder of the National Socialism movement. Aides are rejecting criticism from the right that these deals promote big government...

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL Why Government Can't Run a Business Politicians need headlines. Executives need profits. By JOHN STEELE GORDON The Obama administration is bent on becoming a major player in -- if not taking over entirely -- America's health-care, automobile and banking industries. Before that happens, it might be a good idea to look at the government's track record in running economic enterprises. It is terrible. In 1913, for instance, thinking it was being overcharged by the steel companies for armor plate for warships, the federal government decided to build its own plant. It estimated that a plant with...

Greed, we are agreed, is bad. It also is strange. It has long been included among the Seven Deadly Sins, which suggests that it is a universal and perennial facet of the human fabric. But the quantity of it, at least in America, responds to political cycles. Greed grows when Republicans hold the presidency. They did so throughout the 1980s, and no less an authority on probity than American journalism named it the Decade of Greed. Furthermore, everyone knows we are in our current economic pickle because greed, which slept through the Clinton administration, was awakened by the Bush administration's...

New Deal Fails Again by: Emily Kanyi, May 12, 2009 In his essay, Money and Our Future, Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr. begins with an ironic twist. He says, “We are fortunate to be living in these times….” To make sure that his sardonic meaning is not lost to the reader, he goes further to paint these “fortunate times” by asking, “What is fortunate about our times? The economy is tanking, stocks have been pummeled, unemployment is rising, and Washington is pursuing the worst combination of economic policies since Hoover and FDR….” Irony aside, Rockwell Jr. points out that despite the...

Both Robert Kuttner, a long-time critic of free markets, and Richard Posner, a long-time supporter of free markets, recently made the same argument. Kuttner said "markets are not self-correcting. If they were, [then] Wall Street would not be lined up for trillions of dollars in government handouts." Posner, in a recent Wall Street Journal editorial, said capitalism is "not inherently stable." He argued that the seriousness of the downturn--which he says it is the worst since the 1930s--is proved "by the dizzying array of programs the government is deploying and the staggering amounts of money it is spending." This if-then...

President Obama’s top antitrust official this week plans to restore an aggressive enforcement policy against corporations that use their market dominance to elbow out competitors or to keep them from gaining market share. The new enforcement policy would reverse the Bush administration’s approach, which strongly favored defendants against antitrust claims. It would restore a policy that led to the landmark antitrust lawsuits against Microsoft and Intel in the 1990s. The head of the Justice Department’s antitrust division, Christine A. Varney, is to announce the policy reversal in a speech she will give on Monday before the Center for American Progress,...

There were two big ideas that changed the world in the 1980s: Supply-side economics and a bold strategy for winning the Cold War. One was the handiwork of Jack Kemp, the other of Ronald Reagan. It’s important to understand that the first, introduced into American politics by a then-young Kemp in the 1970s, preceded the second. No look back on the life of Jack Kemp is complete without the recognition that, without Kemp’s success, the Reagan-led peaceful victory in the Cold War could never have happened. Restoration of strong economic growth while ending double-digit inflation was a vital political and...

Redefining Human Rights by: Bethany Stotts, May 04, 2009 When Nobel-prize winning economist Amartya Sen released his book Development as Freedom in 1999, his argument that democratic freedoms had an economic component in the developing world was greeted with acclaim. Now a World Bank employee building upon Sen’s conception of positive and negative freedoms is arguing that the twin discourses of human rights and development need to reach an accord. “In many instances when policy makers are producing policies in these countries, they pay only lip service to the role of economic freedom in their own development strategy,” said Jean-Pierre...

Before health insurance companies get too cozy with the idea of nationalizing healthcare with a so-called “public option,” i.e., government-run health insurance, they should play close attention to what a “public option” has meant for insurance companies selling lines of insurance that compete with AIG. The federal government used its bailout money to purchase 80 percent of AIG’s common stock, making AIG a government-owned and, for all intents and purposes, government-operated public-option insurance company. Not only does the federal government now tell AIG who it must fire and who it can hire at what salary, it also uses the $85...

President Obama's model for spending the nation out of recession is Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal. A better example is the Reaganite bearing of post-communist Poland. In the midst of the global financial crisis, Poland's economy is forecast to grow by almost 1 percent. According to business economists and the Economist magazine, Poland likely will be the only European country with a growing gross domestic product in 2009. Germany's GDP is expected to shrink by more then 5 percent, Britain's by almost 4 percent, France's by 3 percent and the Czech Republic's by 3 percent. With a projected GDP drop...