Free Republic

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