Free Republic

If State of the Union speech leaks are any indication, the president wants his re-election campaign to be about fairness.... But Obama has miserably failed even by his own definition of fairness. Under his administration, the only ones winning are the rich and well connected. Everyone else continues to suffer.

Just days after his 2002 election, Mr. Romney hired Douglas Foy, one of the state’s most prominent environmental activists, and put him in charge of supervising four state agencies. Gov. Mitt Romney and Douglas Foy at a March 2006 event. Mr. Foy had initiated a lawsuit that led to the cleanup of Boston Harbor and had worked to protect fishing grounds and seashores. Once in the Romney administration, he served as the governor’s negotiator on a regional climate-change initiative and put emissions caps in place for coal-fired power plants. With Mr. Foy by his side, Mr. Romney joined activists outside...

With Newt Gingrich breaking out of the pack as the conservative alternative to front-runner Mitt Romney in South Carolina, he came under attack Friday from an old friend and colleague in Congress, former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania. Santorum had largely avoided political attacks against Gingrich, whom he once considered a political mentor. But on Friday, the glove came off as Santorum took the former House speaker to task for being insufficiently conservative on climate change, free markets and health care. "Conservative alternatives don't go out and attack the capitalist system as he has done. Conservative alternatives don't promote...

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...

Over the Past few days a few stories arriving on the internet have combined to give us a look at the “ghost of socialist America future.” A Rasmussen poll told us that 26% of adults in this country believe the government, (read Obama Administration) should manage our economy. Surprisingly just 23% say government should stay away from our economy and let it run itself. A story from Norway connects to this sad state of affairs. It tells of how the European Union which runs EVERYTHING in Europe not just the economy, with its centrally planned economy, has strangled the farming...

For most of his time as a national political figure, Barack Obama has been careful to cloak his core socialist leanings behind a veil of pro-capitalist rhetoric. This makes strategic sense, as Americans still largely identify as pro-capitalist. However, based on his recent speech in Osawatomie, Kansas, the President appears to have reassessed the political landscape in advance of the 2012 elections. Based on the growth of the Occupy Wall Street movement, and the recent defeat of Republicans in special elections, he has perhaps sensed a surge of left-leaning sentiment; and, as a result, he finally dropped the pretense. According...

The title character of Horatio Alger’s 1867 novel Ragged Dick is an illiterate New York bootblack who, bolstered by his optimism, honesty, industriousness, and desire to “grow up ’spectable,” raises himself into the middle class. Alger’s novels are frequently misunderstood as mere rags-to-riches tales. In fact, they recount their protagonists’ journeys from rags to respectability, celebrating American capitalism and suggesting that the American dream is within everyone’s reach. The novels were idealized, of course; even in America, virtue alone never guaranteed success, and American capitalism during Alger’s time was far from perfect. Nevertheless, the stories were close enough to the...

ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. -- Sean May has been wearing an American flag pin to work every day for the last two years. "In this day, I kind of feel like it has a little bit more of a powerful meaning than just a pin on somebody's jacket, and I wear it with pride because I like where I live and I love this country," May said. The 26-year-old front desk supervisor at Casa Monica Hotel in the heart of downtown St. Augustine was told to take the pin off Thursday because it violates company policy. "I've actually gotten probably more...

In his speech before a joint session of Congress on Sept. 8, President Obama said, "Ultimately, our recovery will be driven not by Washington, but by our businesses and our workers." He is right. We can spark an economic recovery by unleashing the job-creating power of business, especially small entrepreneurial businesses, which fuel economic and job growth quickly and efficiently. Indeed, it is the only way to pull ourselves out of this economic funk. But doing so will require a consistent voice about confidence in businesses—small, large and in between. We cannot spend our way out of this. We cannot...

In Haiti, a lack of markets means little profit and virtually no wealth, no progress, no resilience against uncertainty, and thus no hope. Haiti is the second oldest autonomous state in the Western Hemisphere. It was a French colony, her richest, but the Haitians overthrew the French in a bloody revolution. In the 1790′s, led by such fascinating characters as Toussaint L’Ouverture, a free black slave owner, Haiti seized independence. Then Toussaint’s successors systematically slaughtered the French minority in what today would be termed genocide. Haiti’s wealth was quickly squandered as a national slave state. She remains mired in hopelessness...

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

A senior Obama Administration official said recently that the private sector will have to lead this economic recovery. He's right! But the private sector cannot do it unless government gets out of the way. The Obama Administration's policies have increased the size of the federal government, increased regulatory barriers and dramatically increased the national debt. Most Americans sitting around the kitchen table knew that we could not spend and regulate our way to prosperity. But the president and the Democrat-controlled Congress at the time did it anyway. And now, after nearly $1 trillion in government spending, the economy is still...

This Earth Day, we celebrate not the public acts of environmental symbolism, but the quiet, everyday acts that have made the real difference in environmental sustainability. Here are five of countless examples that come to mind...

Economy: President Obama had nothing but praise for Chile's democracy and economic miracle, declaring it a model "for the region and world." So why is he obstructing the same reforms in the U.S. that gave Chile its success? Arriving Monday in Santiago on the second leg of his Latin American tour, the president told El Mercurio he picked Chile as one of his three stops because: "The Chilean experience, and more particularly its successful democratic transition and sustained economic growth, is a model for the region and the world. ... It is also a powerful example of how the opportunities...

Palm Springs, California -At the front gates of the Rancho Las Palmas resort, a few hundred liberals rallied Sunday against "corporate greed" and polluters. They chanted for the arrest of billionaires Charles and David Koch, and their ire was also directed at the other free market-oriented businessmen invited here by the Koch brothers to discuss free markets and electoral strategies. Billionaires poisoning our politics was the central theme of the protests. But nothing is quite as it seems in modern politics: The protest's organizer, the nonprofit Common Cause, is funded by billionaire George Soros. Common Cause has received $2 million...

Guess who's been channeling Adam Smith: President Obama -- about as an unlikely a convert to free-market economics as has ever sat in the Oval Office. And yet, there he was yesterday morning, sitting down with 20 of the most powerful captains of commerce in America: "I want to dispel any notion we want to inhibit your success," Obama said. "We want to be boosters, because when you do well, America does well." Hey, good for him. If he means it. For if he's truly sincere about bolstering -- instead of slowly strangling -- business, it's great news for the...

People are losing faith in capitalism. Even in America, only 53% of people believe that capitalism is better than socialism. For under-30s, that number is only 37%. Despite the incredible gains in health, wealth and happiness that have been correlated with the free-market system, compared with the relative failures of planned economies, many people are turning away from capitalism and embracing the security blanket of big government control. The free market has an image problem. While the government has representatives who can get in front of a camera and with a solemn face tell you how much they care about...

School choice, lower taxes, job creation: These, and not welfare payments, are what would really help the poor. In his autobiography, former British prime minister Tony Blair recounts the political epiphany that caused him to break with the old-style class-warfare–based Labour Party that he had grown up with. “In a sense they wanted to celebrate the working class,� he writes, “not make them middle class.� In many ways, the Obama administration and congressional Democrats appear to have the same attitude about the American poor. They talk frequently about the poor. They lavish programs upon them. (Last year the Obama administration...

It’s odd but no so odd at the same time. By now, many people expect to walk into a beauty supply store and see a Korean store owner manning the register. Whether you’re in the suburbs of Houston or on MLK Blvd in Anytown, USA, you know what to expect. And yet, walking down a street in a Black neighborhood with Black residents and Black customers buzzing about the retail shops, that image of the few Koreans in the neighborhood only existing behind the cash register of liquor, beauty supply and other retail shops is still perplexing. But what can...

The Tea Party movement scares the establishment, including country club Republicans and big business But if you look at the past half century or so you have to think: How come even when Republicans are in charge, even when they're dominant, government has always gotten larger and more expensive? It's always grown! It's as if something inexorable in our political reality—with those who think in liberal terms dominating the establishment, the media, the academy—has always tilted the starting point...  (WSJ - Peggy Noonan)The 1900's:  A Progressive Century The 20th century saw the founders' constitutional republic grow into a monster, gobbling...

It is impossible to be charitable with other people’s money. "Social justice", "fairness", and "equality", can never be obtained by forcibly taking money from the person who earned it and giving it to someone who didn't. This is the fundamental lie of socialism...

It is impossible to be charitable with other people’s money. "Social justice", "fairness", and "equality", can never be obtained by forcibly taking money from the person who earned it and giving it to someone who didn't. This is the fundamental lie of socialism...

The main stream media have been in an uproar over the poll results suggesting that approximately one in five Americans believe President Obama is a Muslim. Their incredulity stems from the fact that Obama professes to be a Christian. Therefore, the respondents who believe otherwise must be a bunch of ninnyhammers. Actually, the one in five figure may be a small number. Suppose another famous claim by Obama is polled. In February he claimed to be, "an ardent believer in free markets." What percent of Americans believe that?

Pento: “The government can have only a negative effect on the economy. Government is vacuous entity...We should cut taxes aggressively and cut spending aggressively. To make impotent the government and give the private sector and the free market as much power as possible so we can grow our way to of this fiscal mess as soon as possible while we strengthen our currency.” (SNIP) Pento: The economy needs to go through a “severe, hopefully truncated, depression. Have it now, have it in the safest and quickest fashion so you can get onto a real and viable recovery.””

Meet Joe King is Part 2 in our series from Harding College. Take 10 minutes out of your day and watch this video with your kids I guarantee most of them are not learning this in school.

This past week, President Obama called on former President Clinton for his help on the struggling U.S. economy. It appears Obama is starting to feel the heat from his failed economic policies as more and more people express concerns over his ability to address the nation’s economic woes. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce issued a scathing critique of the administration’s policies. The leading business group issued a rebuke of Obama’s economic agenda, accusing him and his Democrats in Congress of neglecting job creation and hampering growth with burdensome regulatory and tax policies. This is all happening as the Senate prepares...

Today, the White House is launching its second annual SAVE Award, which encourages federal employees to submit ideas on how to save taxpayer dollars. Federal employees will be able to rank the submissions submitted by colleagues, and then the general public will be able to vote on the top submissions later this year. Last year’s contest generated more than 38,000 submissions from government employees and more than 84,000 votes. Last year’s winner? A Department of Veterans Affairs employee from Colorado who suggested that VA medical centers should permit patients to take home extra bandages and medication when they are discharged....

Let's imagine you and I have an extremely poorly managed lemonade stand. Sales over the years have been protected from competition by a government-mandated monopoly in the lemonade market...

Obama has once again created jobs - not real jobs, of course - but then none of the jobs the government creates are real. It is not the government, any government's stated, allowed or intended purpose to create jobs. The only meaningful (real) jobs are ones created by the private sector, because those are the only ones that generate revenue, build the economy and do not suck up tax money

Head to the local big-box electronics store and buy yourself: a Panasonic home-theater system ($500), an In signia 50-inch plasma HDTV ($700), an Apple 8GB iPod Touch ($175), a Sony 3-D Blu-ray disc player ($219), a Sony 300-CD changer ($209), a Garmin portable GPS ($139), a Sony 14.1-megapixel digital camera ($200), a Dell Inspiron laptop computer ($450) and a TiVo high-definition digital-video recorder ($300). This is not an endorsement of any of these products. I don't own any of them (though if the manufacturers are keen to find out my opinion, they can send me some non-returnable demos). But you...

America's current struggles notwithstanding, life here is pretty good. We have a standard of living that's the envy of most of the world. Why did that happen? Prosperity isn't the norm. Throughout history and throughout the world, poverty has been the norm. Most of the world still lives in dire poverty. Of the 6 billion people on earth, perhaps 1 billion have something close to our standard of living. Why did America prosper when most of the people of the world are still poor? Milton Friedman taught me the answer. More than any other American, Friedman, who won the Nobel...

"Andy Stern, A Member of Obama’s Fiscal Responsibility Commission, Says ‘Worshipping the Market’ Has Failed America" PHOTO CAPTION: "Andy Stern, former head of Services Employees International Union (SEIU) and a President Barack Obama appointee to the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, said on Monday that the free market has failed the country and American workers. He made his remarks at a conference of the Campaign for America's Future in Washington, D.C., on Monday. (CNSNews.com/Penny Starr)" SNIPPET: "(CNSNews.com) – Andy Stern, the former head of the Service Employees International Union who now sits on President Obama's National Commission on...

You think Tony Stark is a bad-a$$ capitalist? Milton Friedman would kick his butt. Bill Whittle tells you why. VIDEO

Listening to America’s liberals, who now prefer to call themselves progressives, one would think that free markets benefit the rich and harm the poor, but little can be further from the truth. First, let’s first say what free markets are. Free markets, or laissez-faire capitalism, refer to an economic system where there is no government interference except to outlaw and prosecute fraud and coercion. It ought to be apparent that our economy cannot be described as free market because there is extensive government interference. We have what might be called a mixed economy, one with both free market and socialistic...

Wall Street is more than a little suspicious of today’s charges by the Securities and Exchange Commission, which has accused Goldman Sachs of lying to investors about who was really behind junk mortgages securities it sold to clients. Barclays banking analyst Roger Freeman comes right out and blasts the SEC effort as “a well-timed, and perhaps not coincidental, effort to sway some on-the-fence Republicans” to get tough on financial reform. ....He says Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chris Dodd has targeted a vote on the Senate bill for April 26, “and given the short span of time between now and the...

What is corporatism? In a (somewhat inaccurate) phrase, socialism for the bourgeois. It has the outward form of capitalism in that it preserves private ownership & private management but with a crucial difference: as under socialism, government guarantees the flow of material goods which under true capitalism it does not. In classical capitalism...government's role in the economy is simply to prevent force or fraud from disrupting the autonomous operation of the free market...Under corporatism, it is not, instead being systematically manipulated to deliver goods to political constituencies... Unlike socialism, corporatism understands that direct government ownership of the means of production...

Companies Push to Repeal Provision of Health Law By STEVEN GREENHOUSE March 29, 2010 An association representing 300 large corporations urged President Obama and Congress on Monday to repeal a provision of the health care overhaul that prompted AT&T, Caterpillar and other companies to announce substantial charges for the current quarter. The association, the American Benefits Council, said the provision — which reduces the tax deductions for companies with drug coverage for their retired employees — would deal a significant blow to corporate profits and would discourage companies from hiring more workers. AT&T announced last week that it was taking...

Last Saturday, we did something that was only a small step up from mindless, unskilled labor. I’m glad we did it. We recommend it to everyone else. An enthusiastic lady came to our Rotary meeting a week before. She was a teacher, acting as a volunteer for her church. She asked us to join with people from another half dozen other Rotary Clubs to pack 100,000 meals for starving people in Haiti. We decided it was a good cause, and we went. There were two shifts requested at the National Guard Armory in the County Seat of Franklin, North Carolina....

Haiti’s humanitarian disaster has rightfully elicited an outpouring of support from around the world. But the tragedy should also elicit outrage because the massive destruction, suffering and loss of life were largely avoidable. Natural disasters, such as hurricanes and floods that have regularly afflicted Haiti, have plagued mankind throughout history. As the world has become wealthier, the ability to cope with such calamities has grown; annual deaths due to such disasters have declined by 96 percent since the 1920s. Economic growth has made it possible for countries around the world, increasingly including developing nations, to mitigate damage done by “acts...

John Stossel has broadcast the following email: It’s finally here – my new Fox Business show! Fox fittingly has titled it, Stossel. It premieres Thursday at 8 p.m. It will repeat Fridays at 10 p.m., where I’ll be up against my old program, 20/20. FBN has given me an opportunity to do 44 TV shows on what I am passionate about: economic liberty. For my first shows, at least, I will experiment with a studio audience. I’m inviting both friends, and people who will scream at me and tell me free markets are evil. If you are in the New...

EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT HEALTH CARE IN UNDER NINE MINUTES (See: Video Below from Reason.tv) Do you really think that any of the Obamacare supporters want health care to work? Do you really think they are concerned about rising costs or lowering them? Has the government ever lowered the price and improved the service and quality of anything? If the Obamacare supporters were concerned about those things, the LAST thing they'd do is get the government involved. The first thing they should be studying is why have costs declined dramatically in these three areas of health care: Lasik...

American homes on the fourth Thursday in November will waft with more than the aroma of turkey and pumpkin pie. Also in the air will be the joy at the start of the holiday season running from Thanksgiving to Christmas through New Years. As temperatures turn cold outdoors, we'll warm ourselves inside and out with gatherings of friends and family, festivities, parties and presents. Inevitably this season also gives rise to queries about the "true meaning" of this or that holiday, usually with complaints about the superficiality of the season. To these critics I say, "Stop being an ugly hair...

Former President George W. Bush said America must resist the "temptation" to allow the government to take over the private sector. Do you think the government is too involved now? http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/nov/12/bush-warns-threats-freedom-economic-growth/

It has always been understood, sometimes whispered, that Geroge Soros, the great beneficiary of markets, hates them. The truth is now out in the open. John Stossel reports, via FT, that Soros will give $50 million to start a new think-tank to counter "the unwavering belief in unchecked free markets, which remains pervasive in universities." Soros says: "The ideologists in the free markets are still in command and I think they'll be very difficult to remove because they have tenure." If anything proves that one has to question Soros' analytical ability, it is this statement. The leading economic textbook in...

“Free markets have failed us, and there’s no place else to turn other than the federal government,” seems to about sum up Washington’s approach over the past year.

At the time of writing, when practically every country is inflating, though most of them are at peace, price controls are always hinted at, even when they are not imposed. Though they are always economically harmful, if not destructive, they have at least a political advantage from the standpoint of the officeholders.By implication they put the blame for higher prices on the greed and rapacity of businessmen, instead of on the inflationary monetary policies of the officeholders themselves. Let us first see what happens when the government tries to keep the price of a single commodity, or a small group...

Living in Fort Collins, Colo., provides quick access to some of the best trout fishing in Colorado. A few nights ago I made my first outing to the Big Thompson River. I found a stretch of river with pools and pockets of easy-flowing water. After 20 minutes, I felt a strike on my line, and a brown trout surfaced in his struggle to free himself from the hook. I nearly had the trout to shore, but with one last thrash he freed himself and slipped back into the river. If you’re an angler, you know the deep disappointment that grips...

Left or right, we can all agree that our health insurance industry is in serious need of treatment, as we live in a time when a small number of companies make record profits while they cut costs by rejecting the claims of thousands of sick and desperate people. The obvious question is: What can Americans do to get out of this seemingly self-perpetuating rut? The answer is anything but obvious and might surprise you. To illustrate it, you need look no further than your local beer aisle. Today we can go into any supermarket or liquor store and find dozens...

Political analysts frequently consider what it means to be a libertarian. In fact, in 1997, Charles Murray published a short book entitled "What It Means to Be a Libertarian" that does an excellent job of presenting the core principles of libertarian political philosophy. But almost no one ever discusses what it feels like to be a libertarian. How does it actually feel to be someone who holds the principles described in Murray’s book? I’ll tell you. It feels bad. Being a libertarian means living with an almost unendurable level of frustration. It means being subject to unending scorn and derision...

Are you optimistic about the next 25 years? Milton Friedman: I have great difficulty not being optimistic about it. All the evidence would seem to be optimistic. On the other hand, I can't hold back a doubt. Governments want to spend money and sooner or later, governments are going to want to spend money without taxing it and the only way to do that is to print money—to create inflation. Inflation is a form of taxation. How long will governments be able to resist the temptation? And particularly as people become adjusted to being in a world of stable inflation....