In his two terms in office, President Ronald Reagan gave America a powerful transfusion of his own optimism and hope. He rekindled a sense of the possible, rescuing America from defeatism and restoring our confidence and pride in this great nation. That transformation of America was possible chiefly because of Reagan’s unshakable faith in the power of ideas. Reflecting his strong conviction in freedom, Reagan pointed out in his address to students at Moscow State University in May 1988: Freedom is the right to question and change the established way …
In his recent commentary in the Financial Times, Kenneth Rogoff, a professor of economics at Harvard, made a strong case for the importance of education in heading off future crises in capitalism: Societies need to find ways to make adult education, including economic and financial literacy, far more available and far more compelling. If voters are uninformed and easily swayed towards demagogues peddling short-term ill-considered policies, there is little hope for righting the course of capitalist economies. As someone who has spoken to all kinds of people in the wake …
Economic freedom, enhanced by limited government, is critical to economic dynamism and job creation, as documented in the Index of Economic Freedom, an annual cross-country policy analysis by The Heritage Foundation. The individual economies of our 50 states are no exception to that. The strongly positive linkage between economic freedom and economic dynamism holds true for states as well as nations. High-stakes policy battles are going on in all 50 states about whether to move toward more limited government and greater economic freedom. According to a 2011 state-level study by …
In his much-hyped speech on the Middle East and North Africa, President Obama made the case that “a moment of opportunity” in the region should not be lost. “Sometimes, in the course of history,” the President remarked, “the actions of ordinary citizens spark movements for change because they speak to a longing for freedom that has built up for years.” If the cause of freedom is sweeping around the world—and all Americans can hope that it is—then history tells us that more often than not it has been the quest …
By further cementing the positive relationship between South Korea and the United States, the pending South Korea–United States (KORUS) free trade agreement will further weaken the oppressive North Korean regime’s strategic position and help disabuse the regime’s leaders of any hopes they might have had of flagging U.S. support for the South. Ironically, opponents of KORUS have hyped the possibility of economic benefits to North Korea as a reason to oppose or delay the pact. The Kaesong Industrial Complex, a rather dormant and ill-fated economic development zone between South and …
This time about three years ago, a California Democrat exercised legislative power to do something unprecedented in America’s international trade policymaking. Effectively ending more than five decades of bipartisan consensus on trade policy, on April 10, 2008, then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her like-minded colleagues unilaterally and irresponsibly amended House rules to circumvent the 90-day timetable for taking up the Colombia Free Trade Agreement (FTA) that President Bush had submitted to Congress—thereby dooming it.
Ireland’s general election last Friday demonstrated, among other things, that Irish voters have been frustrated by the partial takeover of the country’s economic sovereignty by the European Union and the International Monetary Fund, and by calls to unwind some of the positive economic reforms of the past. Rejecting a major change of course, the Irish people, anxious to get their Celtic tiger back on its feet, gave a surprising (to outsiders) election victory to the party (Fine Gael) that campaigned on a platform of low taxes, pro-business regulations, and a renegotiation …
A considerable volume of cross-country analysis has found no positive impact on economic growth from more government spending. Many studies (see here and here, for example) find that government spending actually hurts growth. A recent study by The Heritage Foundation and The Wall Street Journal of economic recovery following the 2008 financial crisis has also found countries with bigger governments growing more slowly. Would such adverse effects of spending on growth also be the case in our 50 states? An empirical study published in the journal Public Choice reported evidence …
The spread of economic freedom, reinforced by innovative ideas and entrepreneurial activities, has created forceful dynamics that generate greater economic opportunity and prosperity on an unprecedented scale in many parts of the globe. Unfortunately, the revolution has largely left the Middle East and North Africa behind. In the absence of economic dynamism, people in the region have long been confined to extreme concentrations of wealth and poverty, which have set time bombs of political and social instability. Too many people in the region, particularly the young, have been denied economic …
“Confronting Egypt is a festering economic crisis that threatens to shatter that nation’s [already] fragile social peace and alter political orientation. For too many years Cairo has postponed sorely needed structural economic reforms.” These words are a somber assessment given to Egypt’s lack of institutional reform by The Heritage Foundation 25 years ago. Echoing a similar message, Hernando De Soto, one of the furthermost authorities on analyzing the critical linkage between property rights and economic development, has compellingly articulated in his powerful op-ed: Bringing the majority of Egypt’s people into …
