Over at my personal blog, I wrote earlier today about a Washington Post article about the rising number of foreclosures in the D.C. Metropolitan area. Along those same lines, Tim Cavanaugh writes in the July issue of Reason Magazine about the current focus on so-called predatory lending and its connection to the state of the […]
From The Liberty Papers
Tags: Libertarian, Politics, Liberty, Freedom
A return to the Baptists and Bootleggers proposition: the unholy alliances between prohibitionists and those who benefit financially from said prohibition.
Confirmation from the financial markets of the old saw: each crisis comes when the people who understood the last one retire.
Yes, it’s true, over a certain level Govt. spending does indeed reduce economic growth.
Anonymous on the internet? At least some people are trying to stamp that idea out.
Ain’t capitalism great?
Brown is the new Heath? Netsmith desperately hopes that we get better than that.
And finally, appropriate labels for the new signs and how unpopular are the Lib Dems?
From Adam Smith Institute
Tags: Libertarian, Politics, Liberty, Freedom
I just came across a story with a headline about “Hundreds” of new laws that will be taking effect in various states on July 1. Most of them are fairly innocuous attacks on liberty, that will stagnate economies and generally raise consumer prices, like most of government:
Among them are new efforts to encourage alternative […]
From The Liberty Papers
Tags: Libertarian, Politics, Liberty, Freedom
A woman had twins and gave them up for adoption. One of them went to a family in Egypt and was named “Ahmal.” The other went to a family in Spain; they named him “Juan.”
Years later, Juan sent a picture of himself to his birth mother. Upon receiving the picture, she told her husband that she wished she also had a picture of Ahmal. Her husband responded, “They’re twins! If you’ve seen Juan, you’ve seen Ahmal.”
From Adam Smith Institute
Tags: Libertarian, Politics, Liberty, Freedom
But he’ll need it. The public has been swept along in recent years by talk of helping the poorest people in the world. But as the UK’s spending on development climbs towards 0.7 percent of GDP the call for charity may not be enough. People will sooner or later will look for something more for their money.
People want to see a permanent end to poverty that will not require developed countries to sustain it. In the long-term, economic growth is the only sustainable way forward. The danger is that a focus on poverty reduction as a short term goal may interfere with this.
In large part because of the dedication and understanding of DFID ministers in the last 10 years, the UK government has avoided many of these pitfalls and kept its focus on more sensible goals which fight poverty and promote growth. The temptation for a new minister, and especially a careerist on the way up, must be to go for immediate prestige projects such as giving large amounts of direct budget support for education or health.
But this won’t help in the long run. So hopefully, Douglas Alexander will be able to keep his personal ambitions out of the equation and concentrate on maintaining the record of one of the best performing government departments.
From Adam Smith Institute
Tags: Libertarian, Politics, Liberty, Freedom
Of course the creation of a ministerial post requires solely a wave of the Prime Ministerial wand. But Sir Digby can’t have any real power since trade policy is now in the European Union’s hands, with investment policy seemingly heading in the same direction.
So Sir Digby will be called a minister but will essentially be a roving ambassador with a fancier title. Indeed he shall be working out of the new and simplistically titled Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform – which no controls trade policy anyway. Could his appointment just be an exercise in spin? Surely not!
The appointment will disappoint the Tories (Sir Digby has always seemed a natural conservative), and it won’t please the Americans either. Last year he apparently accused Washington of “protectionism and bullying” in its approach to British business. He is also famously Eurosceptic. Unfortunately, even as a minister of state he won’t be able to give these useful attitudes any policy relevance. What a shame.
From Adam Smith Institute
Tags: Libertarian, Politics, Liberty, Freedom
The attempted London bombings were, we will be told, a consequence of US/UK actions Iraq or Palestine or Afghanistan or something or other about George Dubya Bush or Halliburton or Global Capitalism or Social Injustice. You may be certain that all these bullshit excuses will be trotted out by the disingenuous left who crave the accusations or the deeply provincial Americocentric faction of libertarianism who pretend bad people will leave you alone if only you…
From Samizdata.net
Tags: Libertarian, Politics, Liberty, Freedom
Captain Ed is reporting that Congressman Mike Pence’s amendment blocking the FCC from reinstating the Fairness Doctrine will be introduced in the Senate by Senators Norm Coleman and John Thune:
In an effort to prevent Democrats from suppressing the right to free speech for talk radio and other broadcasters, Senators Norm Coleman (R-MN), Jim DeMint (R-SC) […]
From The Liberty Papers
Tags: Libertarian, Politics, Liberty, Freedom
This could potentially be a very significant legal development:
The Supreme Court said today that it would review the rights of Guantanamo Bay detainees to challenge their confinements in federal court, reversing a decision in April not to take up that issue.
(…)
The court will hear two cases that challenge the Bush administration’s position that the fates […]
From The Liberty Papers
Tags: Libertarian, Politics, Liberty, Freedom
A poem to explain the intricacies of US anti-trust law. Far easier to understand than any of the more formal treatises.
Is Connecting for Health actually the largest civilian IT project in the world? Or just the worst?
As Guido points out, not one single member of the new Cabinet has ever had a business career. So much for the understanding of wealth creation then.
It would appear that not all that many people are interested in saving the planet. An aternative and more charitable explanation would be that they are interested in good music and are thus going where they can find some.
Sean Gabb is, shall we say, vehement, in his opinion of the now departed Prime Minister.
The state of the press today: editors going google spoofing.
And finally, Linked-in is so last week and we are obviously a long way from a true global market in either cocaine or anvils (or both).
From Adam Smith Institute
Tags: Libertarian, Politics, Liberty, Freedom
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