This week the U.S. State Department announced the launch of the Stakeholder Advisory Board for the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises. Nanny-state scolds on the left have increasingly called for more corporate social responsibility (CSR). Their mantra is “doing well by doing good,” and they have enshrined CSR principles not only at the OECD but in such vehicles as the U.N. Global Compact and the International Organization for Standardization’s ISO 26000 International Standard: Guidance on Social Responsibility. Membership on the advisory board is weighted …
Air Force One winged its way to another exotic destination last night. When President Obama arrives at the posh seaside resort in Cannes, France, for the latest meeting of the G-20 today, he should ignore all the fluff put forth by French President and G-20 host Nicolas Sarkozy—a prescription of higher taxes, expanded regulation, and more statism (especially for developing countries) will not solve the EU debt crisis. As Heritage’s Nile Gardiner writes in an op-ed, and as many others have written, the U.S. and European debt crises cannot be …
In recent months, the U.S. government has dispatched heavily armed federal law enforcement officers to raid Gibson Guitar factories—American guitar factories!—in Tennessee for violations of the Lacey Act, a federal statute that makes it a crime to import some tropical hardwoods in violation of foreign laws. Condemning this “overreach” by the feds, Gibson chairman and CEO Henry Juszkiewicz, reported that “armed people came in our factory…evacuated our employees, then seized half a million dollars of our goods without any charges having been filed.” In total, U.S. government agents have seized …
People have been shocked by the images of destruction and violence coming out of Great Britain in the past few days. But if they tracked the steady loss of freedom and the simultaneous rise in the number of Britons dependent on the largesse of the state over the past few years, they should not be surprised. The Heritage Foundation’s annual Index of Economic Freedom documents a steady decline in U.K. scores since 2006. British freedom has been dragged down by heavy government spending. Former Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s deficits to …
Recently, radical environmentalists have waged a campaign to stifle free enterprise and economic freedom. Here are some of their recent skirmishes, ranging from crop destruction in Australia to attacks on toy companies like Lego and Disney: Photos of Greenpeace activists destroying an experimental crop of genetically modified (GM) wheat earlier this month in Australia. They apparently decided that they have the right to act lawlessly and destroy work by scientists designed to feed a hungry world. Even The New York Times rebuked Greenpeace’s actions and argued that the GM wheat …
Senator Tom Coburn’s (R–OK) plan to reduce the federal deficit by $9 trillion over the next 10 years includes cuts to the State Department and Foreign Affairs budget of nearly $190 billion. Part of that calculus, in turn, adopts a strategy advocated by The Heritage Foundation to move away from the traditional development assistance model long used by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). In place of USAID’s tired and failing programs, Coburn urges a new approach that emphasizes a developing country’s commitment to good governance (as measured by …
Wrongheaded environmental policies and “green” protectionism are endangering millions of jobs and costing consumers in both developing and developed countries. A new report about the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), a global forest certification organization, entitled “Stop the War on the Poor—FSC and NGOs: Environmental Mythology,” highlights one aspect of the problem. The report, by the storied Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) that led the civil rights battles of the 1960s, details how green nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) such as the FSC threaten companies and consumers into using more expensive FSC-certified paper …
On June 20, the government of Belize expropriated the 70 percent ownership interest in the Belize Electric Company (BEL) held by the shareholder-owned, Canada-based energy giant Fortis. Belize Electric Company Limited (BECOL), a hydroelectric business that Fortis also owns, has not been expropriated—yet. Fortis has invested more than $400 million in Belize. BEL is insolvent and $27 million in debt. BEL officials blame the insolvency on the government of Prime Minister Dean Barrow, saying they were forced to sell electricity in Belize at rates lower than the cost to acquire …
While the world was watching the news coming out of Pakistan about Osama bin Laden, closer to home voters in Canada went to the polls on May 2 and gave Tory Prime Minister Stephen Harper a solid majority in Parliament. Conservatives have won or are ahead in 167 of the country’s 308 electoral districts. Harper will head the first conservative majority government in Canada since 1988. The Christian Science Monitor is calling it a “political earthquake” for Canada, noting that the traditional center-left Liberal Party finished a distant third with …
“Entrepreneurs embody the promise of America: the idea that if you have a good idea and are willing to work hard and see it through, you can succeed in this country. And in fulfilling this promise, entrepreneurs also play a critical role in expanding our economy and creating jobs.” – President Barack Obama, January 31, 2011 The recent White House announcement of a new government program to promote entrepreneurship must signify that the Obama Administration finally “gets it” about job creation and economic recovery, right? Certainly free-market conservatives can agree …
