Yesterday, Senator Jim DeMint (R-SC) spoke at The Heritage Foundation as part of National School Choice Week and to mark the release of the American Legislative Exchange Council’s (ALEC) Report Card on American Education. The report ranks America’s K-12 schools in terms of performance and progress over the past year, as well as reforms and education policies. Senator DeMint says that in seeking to improve education, policymakers could take some lessons from the free market — a system that has served America well: “We were the only country that was …
IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde has been talking up the need for greatly expanded resources to bail out ailing European economies. European nations have offered to channel about $200 billion of their own funds to themselves through the IMF (a kind of gentleman’s money-laundering to avoid restrictions in their own treaties). Lagarde wants others to add $300 billion to that kitty. The U.S. Treasury has said no, and rightly so. Replacing current euro-debt with IMF loans, no matter how rigorously structured, will only prolong the agony. The failing euro-zone economies …
“If you build it, they will come,” an ominous voice called out to Kevin Costner’s character, Ray Kinsella, in the movie Field of Dreams. For Kinsella, the “it” was a baseball field in the middle of a farm in Iowa—and despite all the naysayers, the starry-eyed young father put his family’s fortunes on the line in pursuit of his crazy dream. Eventually, “they” came—the ghosts of the disgraced 1919 Chicago White Sox team and carloads of fans from miles away—and Kinsella’s “knight of faith” reliance on the mysterious voice paid …
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. …
Yesterday, Heritage’s 2012 Index of Economic Freedom was released, and Africa features prominently. With an average score gain of 0.2 points, reflecting a net gain of economic freedom in 22 countries, sub-Saharan Africa is once again the most improved region. While scores of Western nations have seen their ratings plummet (including the United States), Africa has made noticeable progress. The small island nation of Mauritius (#8) is the first African country to break into the top 10 rankings. Botswana (#33), Rwanda (#59) and Cape Verde (#66) have also made substantial …
How’s this for a nicely polished gem of irony? Liberal blogger Matthew Yglesias today authored a piece poking fun at Barnes & Noble for attempting to diversify its bookstore model by venturing into the world of digital with its “Nook” e-reader. (Stay tuned for the irony, below.) For Yglesias, the notion that a corporation wants to innovate and change in order to survive is a laughable one: Barnes & Noble the organism doesn’t want to die, so it makes a desperate effort to launch a new book-related businesses (sic) —the design and …
In his recent speech in Kansas, President Obama accused Republicans of advocating “you’re on your own economics”—a philosophy that supposedly holds that “we are better off when everyone is left to fend for themselves and play by their own rules.” The implication is that unless you favor raising taxes and levying stricter economic regulations, Obama assumes you want to leave poor people out in the cold. In contrast, the President promotes his own economic ethic in the following terms: “We are greater together than we are on our own.” While …
Another day, another new subsidy for renewable energy. This time it’s a feed-in tariff, as Senator Dianne Feinstein (D–CA) recently inserted language supporting feed-in tariffs into the 2012 Energy and Water Appropriations bill. Feed-in tariffs subsidize renewable energy by forcing utilities to purchase renewable energy at fixed, above-market prices. The extra cost is then passed to the consumers. Feed-in tariffs are simply another subsidy that props up a selected industry and damages the economy, industry, and consumers. As of 2010, more than two dozen European countries had implemented feed-in tariffs, …
As environmentalism has become more trendy, the value of appearing green is now more important than helping the environment, argues Todd Myers in a new book called “Eco-Fads.” He spoke at Heritage this week and joined us for Scribecast. Myers cited the Obama administration’s $535 million Solyndra scandal as a high-profile example of how environmentalism is actually harming the environment. Myers noted that solar panels are among the worst performing as far as reducing carbon dioxide emissions. “Waste of money is waste of resources,” Myers said. “And anybody who believes …
Google is growing up. That was the message company representatives shared at Heritage this week on the Silicon Valley behemoth’s 13th birthday. (Click here to watch video of the event.) Google is making the case for the free market — and taking its message to conservatives. The Heritage Foundation hosted representatives from Google at Tuesday’s Bloggers Briefing. The meeting came just a few days after a Senate hearing in which Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt was grilled by lawmakers over the company’s search engine ranking practices. The search engine giant recently added …
