Name Your Enemy
“If you don’t call it something, you can’t connect the dots,” said Rudy Giuliani talking about ISIS.
Tagged: capitalism
The Morality of Capitalism: Liberty, Honesty, and Humility
In American culture there is one persistent villain portrayed as the enemy of humanity, the perpetrator of deception, and the agent for social corruption and human harm: the businessman.
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Heartland Daily Podcast – John Berlau: Taxpayers Lose Billions on Auto Bailout
Competitive Enterprise Institute senior fellow John Berlau joins The Heartland Institute’s Budget & Tax News managing editor Jesse Hathaway to talk about the U.S. Treasury Department’s recent announcement that the “auto bailout” portion of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) had officially ended with the final repayment of taxpayer-funded loans to Ally Financial, formerly known as GMAC.
Economics · Featured · Politics
John Stossel Discards Liberalism for Libertarianism
John Stossel spoke of being trained as a liberal consumer reporter. Believing rules were needed because life was complex, Stossel whole heartedly endorsed regulations, only to watch them fail. As to the The Department of Consumer Affairs, Stossel spoke about licensing requirement for repair shops. Licensing, however, didn’t protect customers. 30 years later repair shops, despite being licensed, were still fooling consumers and not giving consumers what they were promised to expect.
Winning Freedom Requires Radical Solutions
Suppose that there was a button in front of you that if you pushed it would, in one instant, abolish all the governmental controls and regulations on the U.S. economy. Would you push that button, and transform America into a society of free men associating with each other on the basis of voluntary exchange, with government limited to protection of life, liberty and honestly acquired property?
Ludwig von Mises and the Austrian Theory of Inflations and Recessions
Eighty years ago, in the autumn of 1934, there appeared in English one of the most important books on money and inflation penned in the twentieth century, The Theory of Money and Creditby the Austrian economist, Ludwig von Mises. Even eight decades later, it still offers the clearest analysis and understanding of booms and busts, inflations and depressions.
People’s Climate March Wants to Change the System, Not the Weather
“Extremist voices and groups have hijacked Islam and misappropriated the right to speak on its behalf,” Iyad Ameen Madani, secretary general of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, told the 25th Session of the Arab Summit earlier this year.
Economics · Featured · Government
The Miracle and Morality of the Market
One of the great fallacies arrogantly believed in by those in political power is the notion that they can know enough to manage and command the lives of everyone in society with better results than if people are left to live their own lives as they freely choose.
Forbes/Ames Talk Monetary Wisdom and Common Sense
One-hundred-twenty fellow lovers of liberty signed up to attend an evening with Steve Forbes and Elizabeth Ames at the historic Union League Club in Chicago on Wednesday, August 13, for a special edition of The Heartland Institute’s Author Series to hear Forbes and Ames discuss their new book, “Money: How the Destruction of the Dollar Threatens the Global Economy, and What We Can Do About It.”
Böhm-Bawerk: Austrian Economist Who Said “No” to Big Government
We live at a time when politicians and bureaucrats only know one public policy: more and bigger government. Yet, there was a time when even those who served in government defended limited and smaller government. One of the greatest of these died one hundred years ago on August 27, 1914, the Austrian economist Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk.
Economics · Featured · Government · Liberty
Iron Man: The Ultimate Capitalist Fantasy
It is a rare occurrence when Hollywood produces a film that neither glorifies the welfare-warfare state, nor vilifies capitalists and businessmen. Yet that is exactly what Marvel Studios has managed with the Iron Man series. In the character of Tony Stark we see the pinnacle of the capitalist fantasy: an ingenious businessman who values property rights and self-defense, and who does not compromise those fundamental rights in the face of government intimidation and force.
Economics · Featured · Government · Regulation
You Want More Jobs – And Freer and Fairer Global Trade?
We recently discussed a bipartisan group of Senators and House members who correctly identified a global trade problem and its negative domestic ramifications. 57 Senators and 152 House members…sign(ed) letters to Barack Obama Administration Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker. In which they expressed concern about inexpensive Korean steel being in mass quantities imported here….
Economics · Featured · Politics
Che Guevara Shirts: Proof of the Triumph of Capitalism
Want to know why capitalism will always triumph over collectivism? It responds to people’s desires, even those who would consider themselves enemies of capitalism. A case-in-point is the ubiquitous Che Guevara t-shirt. Anyone who has spent any time walking down a city street will have come across at least one young person wearing Che’s famous likeness. Some leftists have argued that the sheer pervasiveness and popularity of the image is proof of the enduring principles of which Che has sometimes been seen as a symbol. Yet that is not the case.
Area Lobbyist: Why Do Republicans Want To Kill My Job?
John Feehery’s piece here on the dangers of rising Republican skepticism for big business is an amusing read, not just because I’m pretty sure nearly every sentence of it can be debunked in whole or in part. The tone is one of desperate confusion: when did the Republican Party stop being knee-jerk pro-business in the subsidies and carveouts and bailouts sense? Why do they want to kill the jobs of hardworking K Street influence peddlers?
Economics · Featured · Liberty
Capitalists Shouldn’t Be Afraid of Pope Francis
All over the world, advocates of the free market are looking askance at Pope Francis. Since succeeding Benedict XVI in 2013, Pope Francis has mounted a vocal challenge to what he sees as the now dominant global ideology of capitalism.
Featured · Government · Regulation · Taxes
Is Tax Inversion Really Unpatriotic?
The subject of tax inversion, in which American firms avail of lower tax rates in foreign countries by merging companies in those countries, has become very topical in the last couple weeks thanks to a decision by Abbvie, a drug company, to merger with Shire, an Ireland-based firm and move its headquarters overseas. One of at least 47 tax inversions in the last decade, the Abbvie-Shire deal is the largest such action yet, worth $54 billion. Perhaps unsurprisingly, President Obama and Democrats in Congress have become apoplectic with rage at the audacity of a business making a prudent decision to escape bloodsucking taxes.
Featured · Government · Legal Affairs
All Presidents Should be One-Termers
The American presidency has grown in power almost continuously since the outbreak of World War II. The executive has risen from being simply the chief magistrate of the government to be being a quasi-legislative force, a leader who pushes an aggressive legislative agenda as well as enforcing the laws passed by the legislature. The president is frequently referred to as “the most powerful person in the world,” or “the leader of the free world.” Such appellations represent far more than good PR. They are statements of fact that the president of the United States has drastically more power and authority than any other individual on Earth. For that reason certainly, presidents should be restricted to a single term of office.
Free Market Capitalism vs. Crony Capitalism
In the minds of many people around the world, including in the United States, the term “capitalism” carries the idea of unfairness, exploitation, undeserved privilege and power, and immoral profit[…]
Featured · Internet/Telecom · Legal Affairs
The New Rent Seeking?
According to data released this week, Samsung and Apple make up the majority of the top 20 global smartphone models sold in the first quarter of 2014. While that success demonstrates the robust market prowess of these smartphone manufacturers, the real winners are the customers, getting more services, better products and lower prices. Almost the exact opposite happens when companies resort to lawsuits to gain market advantage, a sort of rent seeking via the courts.
Budgets/Taxes · Economics · Featured · Government
Why Countries Must Pay Their Debts
Debt is an issue that affects countries all over the world. Almost all countries are in debt as their governments take loans to cover for variations in their tax receipts. Yet while many developed countries such as Greece and Ireland are increasingly facing debt crises of their own, the effect of such debt is not nearly as crippling as it is for developing nations.
NEWS: The Heartlander- Low Oil Prices Boost Economy March 2, 2015
- Naomi Oreskes Warps Climate Skeptic History March 2, 2015
- Florida Liberals, Conservatives Team Up for Solar February 27, 2015
- Sierra Club Misrepresents Itself Before New Mexico Legislature February 27, 2015
- U.N. Climate Chief Resigns amid Sex Scandal February 27, 2015
Heartland on YouTube
The Climate Change Awards
- Readable Links
- Government Tells Gruber Lie to the Supreme Court
- From Internet to Obamanet
- NYT Smears Scientist Willie Soon for Telling the Truth About 'Global Warming' - Breitbart
- FCC's Net Neutrality Proposal Signals the End of an Open Internet - US News
- Update on the New York Times/Ron Fournier Epic Fail
- Jon Stewart Was Never A Newsman
- Here Are The 'Science' Questions Reporters Should Ask Politicians
