The Story of the Recent Election, as told by David Warsh, a retired journalist who had a long and storied career covering economics and business for publications such as The Boston Globe, The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, and Newsweek. Mr. Warsh’s essay tells the story of the recent election within the context of the ebb and flow of American presidential politics dating all the way back to the 26th POTUS (Teddy Roosevelt, who held office from 1901-1909).
Category Archives: Politics
Milton Friedman on the economics of free enterprise
Economist Milton Friedman in “Capitalism and Freedom” (1962):
“So long as effective freedom of exchange is maintained, the central feature of the market organization of economic activity is that it prevents one person from interfering with another in respect of most of his activities. The consumer is protected from coercion by the seller because of the presence of other sellers with whom he can deal. The seller is protected from coercion by the consumer because of other consumers to whom he can sell. The employee is protected from coercion by the employer because of other employers for whom he can work, and so on. And the market does this impersonally and without centralized authority.”
“Indeed, a major source of objection to a free economy is precisely that it does this task so well. It gives people what they want instead of what a particular group thinks they ought to want. Underlying most arguments against the free market is a lack of belief in freedom itself.”
Barack Obama’s Persuasion Army
Henninger: Barack Obama’s Persuasion Army – WSJ.com
“The president has finally made the permanent campaign a reality. “
Barack Obama's Persuasion Army
How to Fix the Debt Ceiling (A Bigger Threat than the Fiscal Cliff)
How to Fix the Debt Ceiling (A Bigger Threat than the Fiscal Cliff)
Quoting from this article from the The American (the online magazine of the American Enterprise Institute), “A default by the U.S. government is more potentially damaging than the fiscal cliff — and more easily avoidable, if Congress modernizes the debt ceiling.”
Milton Friedman on JFK’s ‘Ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country.’
Economist Milton Friedman in “Capitalism and Freedom” (1962):
“The free man will ask neither what his country can do for him nor what he can do for his country. He will ask rather “What can I and my compatriots do through government” to help us discharge our individual responsibilities, to achieve our several goals and purposes, and above all, to protect our freedom? And he will accompany this question with another: How can we keep the government we create from becoming a Frankenstein that will destroy the very freedom we establish it to protect?
Freedom is a rare and delicate plant. Our minds tell us, and history confirms, that the great threat to freedom is the concentration of power. Government is necessary to preserve our freedom, it is an instrument through which we can exercise our freedom; yet by concentrating power in political hands, it is also a threat to freedom. Even though the men who wield this power initially be of good will and even though they be not corrupted by the power they exercise, the power will both attract and form men of a different stamp.”
Milton Friedman on JFK's 'Ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country.'
Economist Milton Friedman in “Capitalism and Freedom” (1962):
“The free man will ask neither what his country can do for him nor what he can do for his country. He will ask rather “What can I and my compatriots do through government” to help us discharge our individual responsibilities, to achieve our several goals and purposes, and above all, to protect our freedom? And he will accompany this question with another: How can we keep the government we create from becoming a Frankenstein that will destroy the very freedom we establish it to protect?
Freedom is a rare and delicate plant. Our minds tell us, and history confirms, that the great threat to freedom is the concentration of power. Government is necessary to preserve our freedom, it is an instrument through which we can exercise our freedom; yet by concentrating power in political hands, it is also a threat to freedom. Even though the men who wield this power initially be of good will and even though they be not corrupted by the power they exercise, the power will both attract and form men of a different stamp.”
]]>Big Labor’s Big Victories in State Elections
Big Labor’s Big Victories in State Elections
“How Citizens United allowed unions to spend heavily both for President Obama and against promising local reform efforts.”
Big Labor's Big Victories in State Elections
Big Labor’s Big Victories in State Elections “How Citizens United allowed unions to spend heavily both for President Obama and against promising local reform efforts.”]]>
The Conservative Mind
New York Times columnist David Brooks writes, “Conservatism has lost half of its intellectual firepower. Republicans need to recover traditional conservatism or risk becoming irrelevant.”