In his State of the Union address, President Obama emphasized, “We don’t begrudge financial success in this country. We admire it.” That may be the case if you make iPods, iPads, and iPhones, but when it is “big oil” (i.e., stockholders, pension funds, and IRAs investing in oil companies) that has a successful quarter, let the public onslaught commence. The most recent attack has been legislatively, when Representative Dennis Kucinich (D–OH) introduced “the Gas Price Spike Act.” The provisions in the bill threaten the entrepreneurial spirit and our system of …
“Economic fairness” is expected to be the topic of President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address on Tuesday night, during which he will likely sound the same populist notes of progressivism that America heard last month in his speech in Osawatomie, Kansas. Fairness, though, is in the eye of the beholder. And in the President’s eye, “fairness” means equality of outcomes, not of opportunity. He says he will “lay out a blueprint for an American economy that’s built to last,” but if his Kansas speech is any indication, that …
Free-market capitalism is losing supporters these days. Wall Street occupiers blame banks, financial firms, and Wall Street for the bad economy. President Obama derides free markets, in true straw-man fashion, as you’re-on-your-own economics with “a free license to take whatever you want from whoever you can.” Even some Republican presidential candidates have inveighed against capitalism. What about the Founders? What did they think about free-market capitalism? Although the term capitalism was scarcely in use at the time of the Founding, the Founders supported the principle of economic liberty underlying it. …
Venezuela’s authoritarian populist President Hugo Chávez announced that presidential elections will take place on October 7, 2012. Chávez, who continues to battle an unspecified cancer, is convinced he will win. In office since 1999, Chávez argues he must have another six years in order to install Socialism of the 21st Century, i.e. a slightly modernized version of Cuban communism. Chávez remains the Western Hemisphere’s most active backer of Iran, the world’s most dangerous sponsor of terrorism. As Muammar Qadhafi’s No. 1 friend in the Americas, Chávez continues to side with the …
Late last month, Smithsonian.com launched a “Department of Innovation” blog in hopes of reigniting President Barack Obama’s call for this generation’s “Sputnik moment”—in less glossy terms, that means taxpayer-funded corporate welfare to pursue the President’s pet projects. Fittingly enough, the “Department of Innovation” logo featured a series of cogs that, if put in motion, would grind to a halt. (We did our best to illustrate the likely results, above.) It seems that even when it comes to something as simple as putting together a logo depicting the gears of industry, government-funded …
The slow, painful end of Borders bookstores has finally arrived. After filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in February and taking actions to save the company, the 40-year-old chain with locations across the country will begin liquidation on Friday. All told, 399 stores will close, and 10,700 workers will lose their jobs. For those who enjoyed perusing Borders’s aisles of books, shopping its bargain bins, listening to music, or sipping coffee in its cafes, the company’s closing will come as a loss, but its end is a story of how …
Listening to some politicians recently, you’d think capitalism benefits only those on Wall Street, not Main Street. Yet the benefits of capitalism have proven over history to benefit all of society. The heart of capitalism is the private ownership of property. Without free enterprise, individuals would not be able to have the opportunity to own economic resources and compete in the marketplace. Capitalism provides valuable goods and services, rewards hardworking people and initiatives, creates a higher standard of living for all, narrows the gap between the common person and wealthy, …
Probably not permanently, but the economic policy excerpts from Rahm Emanuel’s stump speech last Saturday could lead one to believe that: . . . we cannot ask taxpayers for more when families are struggling to stay afloat in this economy. We cannot price Chicagoans out of their homes, their schools and communities. This is no time to even talk about raising taxes. Our first responsibility is to make the tough choices that have been avoided too long because of politics and inertia. Whether or not the call for austerity measures …
The news is out: the U.S. is falling behind on economic freedom. In the 2010 edition of the Index of Economic Freedom, the United States, for the first time, dropped out of the ranks of the free, and into those of the ‘mostly free,’ ranking eighth in the world and behind Canada in North America. The U.S. retreat was broad-based: it fell backward in seven of the ten areas measured. And while much of the U.S.’s decline stemmed from its response, under both President George W. Bush and President Obama, …
President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela Hugo Chavez received resounding cheers from the audience after saying, “Seven percent of the world population – some 500 million people – are responsible for half of contaminating emissions. Capitalism is to blame for this.” He also asserted, “our revolution seeks to help all people…socialism, the other ghost that is probably wandering around this room, that’s the way to save the planet, capitalism is the road to hell….let’s fight against capitalism and make it obey us.” If President Chavez means carbon dioxide emissions …
