From the category archives:

Free markets

From the Lucy Burns Institute.

The Lucy Burns Institute is delighted to announce that effective July 1, 2009, it became the official sponsor of Ballotpedia and Judgepedia.

Since the Sam Adams Alliance was established in 2006, it has organized, nurtured and spun-off several important projects, including Common Sense with Paul Jacob, American Majority, and Texas Watchdog.

For the entire press release, click on Lucy Burns Institute is the new sponsor of Ballotpedia and Judgepedia.

{ 0 comments }

A column by economist Walter E. Williams (Why we’re a divided nation) strongly makes the case for more decision-making by free markets rather than by the government through the political process.

When decisions are made through free markets, Williams says, both parties win, because in a free market, parties enter into only those transactions that benefit them.

When decisions are made for us by the government, however, it is almost always the case that one party’s gain is someone else’s loss. Therefore, there is conflict. The more decisions made through politics, the more potential for conflict. Coalitions arise in order to try to get more from the government, and the most effective coalitions “are those with a proven record of being the most divisive — those based on race, ethnicity, religion and region.”

The column concludes with this: “The best thing the president and Congress can do to heal our country is to reduce the impact of government on our lives. Doing so will not only produce a less divided country and greater economic efficiency but bear greater faith and allegiance to the vision of America held by our founders — a country of limited government.”

I’ve mentioned many columns by Walter Williams that I thought were important. This column is certainly one of his best, as it very simply, in one short page, shows us a major fault in our current system of making decisions through politics rather than through markets.

{ 0 comments }

The Foundation for Economic Education has released a new audio version of the booklet I, Pencil. Written by FEE’s founder Leonard E. Read and first published in 1958, its message proclaiming the importance of freedom has not diminished with the passage of time.

This audio recording, which you can listen to on your computer or Ipod, is just just short of 15 minutes in length. But it this short span it makes a compelling case for freedom instead of government control and planning.

In Wichita, we have a mayor, city council, and business leaders that are steering us down the path of government control instead of freedom. We locally — and nationally too — need to heed the lesson of I, Pencil:

I, Pencil, am a complex combination of miracles: a tree, zinc, copper, graphite, and so on. But to these miracles which manifest themselves in Nature an even more extraordinary miracle has been added: the configuration of creative human energies — millions of tiny know-hows configurating naturally and spontaneously in response to human necessity and desire and in the absence of any human master-minding! Since only God can make a tree, I insist that only God could make me. Man can no more direct these millions of know-hows to bring me into being than he can put molecules together to create a tree.

The above is what I meant when writing, “If you can become aware of the miraculousness which I symbolize, you can help save the freedom mankind is so unhappily losing.” For, if one is aware that these know-hows will naturally, yes, automatically, arrange themselves into creative and productive patterns in response to human necessity and demand — that is, in the absence of governmental or any other coercive master-minding — then one will possess an absolutely essential ingredient for freedom: a faith in free people. Freedom is impossible without this faith.

Listen to the recording by clicking on I, Pencil. Or, read it by clicking on I, Pencil.

{ 0 comments }

Hartman Arena ribbon cutting today

by Bob Weeks on March 25, 2009

in Free markets

Today was the ribbon cutting ceremony for Hartman Arena in Park City, just north of Wichita. This privately-owned arena should provide some competition to the Intrust Bank Arena in downtown Wichita.

Note the wind turbine to the right (north) of the building.

Normally the announcement of a facility like this would be welcomed by government officials. That wasn’t the case two years ago when this arena was announced. At that time Sedgwick County Commissioner Dave Unruh said he would prefer that this arena not be built. Assistant Sedgwick County Manager Ron Holt said “overall, it would not be in the best interest of the community.”

See Government vs. Private Investment and the Downtown Wichita Arena.

Hartman Arena 2009-03-25 27

Hartman Arena 2009-03-25 07

{ 1 comment }

Some misunderstand what they criticize …

by Bob Weeks on February 17, 2009

in Free markets

But it doesn’t stop them.

Over at the Kansas Jackass blog, it appears there’s been a discussion about libertarianism and how it doesn’t work. I think however, that the Jackass and some of his sycophants are misinformed about a few things.

Here’s something the Jackass wrote: “The Libertarian views the world like nature. If a lion eats a zebra, we shouldn’t interfere because that’s the way of nature.”

This illustrates the Jackass’s lack of knowledge about being a libertarian, for one of the most important things about libertarianism is the nonaggression axiom. Quoting from Rothbard in chapter 2 of For a New Liberty: The Libertarian Manifesto

The libertarian creed rests upon one central axiom: that no man or group of men may aggress against the person or property of anyone else. This may be called the “nonaggression axiom.” “Aggression” is defined as the initiation of the use or threat of physical violence against the person or property of anyone else.

I would suggest that a lion eating a zebra is an act of aggression. Libertarians are opposed to violence like this.

The Jackass also said, referring to libertarians, that he’s concerned about “the human affects of their philosophy.” But what is less human than government? As Rothbard says, from the same chapter:

While opposing any and all private or group aggression against the rights of person and property, the libertarian sees that throughout history and into the present day, there has been one central, dominant, and overriding aggressor upon all of these rights: the State. In contrast to all other thinkers, left, right, or in-between, the libertarian refuses to give the State the moral sanction to commit actions that almost everyone agrees would be immoral, illegal, and criminal if committed by any person or group in society. The libertarian, in short, insists on applying the general moral law to everyone, and makes no special exemptions for any person or group.

For good measure, the Jackass throws in the “we’re in this together” argument. He asks “What affect would the application of my theory have on the average person?”

The answer is we wouldn’t be suffering under an oppressive government using paternalistic arguments to maintain its sense of necessity. Rothbard again:

In recent decades, as the divine sanction has worn a bit threadbare, the emperor’s “court intellectuals” have spun ever more sophisticated apologia: informing the public that what the government does is for the “common good” and the “public welfare,” that the process of taxation-and-spending works through the mysterious process of the “multiplier” to keep the economy on an even keel, and that, in any case, a wide variety of governmental “services” could not possibly be performed by citizens acting voluntarily on the market or in society. All of this the libertarian denies: he sees the various apologia as fraudulent means of obtaining public support for the State’s rule, and he insists that whatever services the government actually performs could be supplied far more efficiently and far more morally by private and cooperative enterprise.

How, may I ask, is reliance on the coercive force of government “human?”

{ 0 comments }

Activist Training to be Held in Wichita

by Bob Weeks on February 12, 2009

in Free markets

On Saturday February 28, American Majority and Americans For Prosperity will hold Special Joint Activist Training In Wichita, KS. Here’s more information from American Majority:

The training will be hosted by American Majority and AFP — Kansas, who will be presenting exclusive training to enable common citizens to make a difference in their communities by using tools of information, resources, and by networking with other like-minded individuals and organizations.

The training will be hosted at the Wichita AFP office at 800 E. 1st Street, Ste. 401 in historic Old Town in Wichita, KS.

Presentations that will be offered include:

  • Building Coalitions, Reaching Your Community, and Organizing Meaningful Events

  • Holding Your Elected Officials Accountable
  • Getting Involved in State and Local Political Campaigns
  • New Media: Op-Eds, Blogs, Wikipedia Projects and more

Breakfast and lunch will be served and the cost for each attendee is $10.00.

Learn more about this event and register at this link: Special Joint Activist Training In Wichita, KS

{ 1 comment }

Activist Training to be Held in Wichita

by Bob Weeks on February 7, 2009

in Free markets

On Saturday February 28, American Majority and Americans For Prosperity will hold Special Joint Activist Training In Wichita, KS. Here’s more information from American Majority:

The training will be hosted by American Majority and AFP — Kansas, who will be presenting exclusive training to enable common citizens to make a difference in their communities by using tools of information, resources, and by networking with other like-minded individuals and organizations.

The training will be hosted at the Wichita AFP office at 800 E. 1st Street, Ste. 401 in historic Old Town in Wichita, KS.

Presentations that will be offered include:

  • Building Coalitions, Reaching Your Community, and Organizing Meaningful Events

  • Holding Your Elected Officials Accountable
  • Getting Involved in State and Local Political Campaigns
  • New Media: Op-Eds, Blogs, Wikipedia Projects and more

Breakfast and lunch will be served and the cost for each attendee is $10.00.

Learn more about this event and register at this link: Special Joint Activist Training In Wichita, KS

{ 0 comments }

AFP Defending the American Dream Summit in Wichita 2009-10-10

Yesterday (January 10, 2009) Americans For Prosperity held a Defending the American Dream Summit in Wichita. After the event I spoke to Alan Cobb, who just stepped down as AFP’s Kansas state director to become AFP’s national director of state operations.

I asked Cobb how many people attend this event. “We had over 300. It’s the largest event we’ve had.” He added that everyone seemed to love the event.

I mentioned to Cobb about how the national press portrays the current financial crisis as a failure of capitalism and free markets. In fact, Jonah Goldberg, one of the speakers, said he feels a little weird be at a free market forum with what’s going in in Washington now. Was it a failure of free markets that caused the current crisis?

“No, of course not. It seems ironic when they talk about the banking industry failing, as it is one of the most regulated industries of all. It was government policies that partly caused at least part of the problem with sub-prime mortgages. It’s a constant theme, and it leads to the New New Deal, which was discussed several times today.”

I mentioned how lawmakers tell us that they’re often surprised at how little personal communication they receive from citizens in their districts. (They get a lot of communication from lobbyists and interested parties outside their districts.) What does this mean about the impact the average person can have on the legislative process?

“It means they obviously can have a tremendous impact, when sometimes five or six phone calls is an avalanche.” He went on to remark that people enjoy coming to grassroots meetings like the one today, but they wonder what they can really do, as they believe that politicians never listen to them. But there are many examples, he said, of where the voices of citizen activists have made a difference.

I asked what are some of the most important local-level grassroots activists can do to advance the cause of liberty and free markets?

“Two primary things: One is to recruit. Get other people involved, whether it’s in AFP or another free market group. The second is to stay engaged and don’t give up.”

{ 3 comments }

Stephen Moore at AFP Summit in Wichita

by Bob Weeks on January 10, 2009

in Free markets

A few remarks from the Wall street Journal’s Stephen Moore, speaking at the Americans For Prosperity Defending the American Dream summit in Wichita, Kansas:

Let’s get rid of the federal income tax, he said. It would turn the country around in a month. Or a flat tax. These are the remedies that we need.

You have to be a total dingbat to believe that the problem is that the federal government isn’t spending enough money. Over the last eight years, the U.S. Federal budget has climbed from 2 to 3.5 trillion dollars. The deficit in 2009 is going to be $1.2 trillion. That doesn’t include the economic stimulus plan. With all included, $2.1 trillion. It’s fiscal child abuse.

We do not need a new New Deal. We’ve let the Left write the history books.

FDR was elected in 1932, on a platform of balancing the budget. Over first 8 years, average unemployment rate was 16%. In 1934, 25%. Even after 8 years after spending binge, by 1941, it was 15.5%. How can anyone conclude the New Deal worked?

We are in the fight of our lifetimes. We can’t allow them to destroy our economy with government programs. From Ronald Reagan’s 1980 inauguration: “All of our economic problems today in America are in direct proportion to the overspending in Washington.”

Our spending is completely out of control.

Ireland became a magnet for capital by reducing tax rates.

Can we agree: “No more federal bailouts.”

With one trillion dollars, we could suspend the federal income tax for a year.

Who is most responsible for the crisis today: Alan Greenspan. We printed so much money in the mid 2000s. We were subsidizing banks to make loans. Lead to subprime lending problem.

What’s been happening to the money supply? Over the last 6 months, the supply has increased by 60%. Friend at the Treasury: “We are printing money so rapidly, that the only thing that can slow us down is if we run out of ink.” This causes inflation.

“We should go back to the gold standard, so that the politicians can’t control our currency.”

{ 3 comments }

Markets are the best regulators

by Bob Weeks on January 6, 2009

in Free markets

Since the start of the current financial crises, we’re told that markets are at fault. The most common diagnosis is that there’s not enough regulation in place, and only a move away from reliance on markets and toward more laws and regulations will save the economy.

One thing that did happen is that someone misjudged the risk that was present in the mortgage-backed securities that led to the downfall of several investment banks. A recent article in the Wall Street Journal does the best job I’ve seen of explaining how this mistake, made by credit rating agencies, was responsible for this crisis. The article, written by Robert Rosenckanz, is Let’s Write the Rating Agencies Out of Our Law. Here’s a summary, as best as I can produce, of this article:

Rating agencies can make mistakes.

Regulatory agencies used these ratings in formulating their regulations. “Most importantly, bond ratings determine — as a matter of law — how much capital regulated institutions need in order to own the bonds.”

“Since the ratings determine required capital, they have a profound influence on how financial institutions invest their assets — in effect, the regulatory reliance on ratings makes the rating agencies the de facto allocators of capital in our system. And every actor in the financial system has every incentive to group and slice assets in ways that maximize not their fundamental soundness but their rating.”

“The problem was not the erroneous ratings per se; everyone misgauges risk and ratings agencies are no different. The problem is that these erroneous ratings were incorporated into law. Regulators should not have relied on ratings agencies to asses the risk of bond holdings. Instead, they should have relied on markets.”

Markets are superior to small groups of people — the credit rating agencies in this case — in making decisions. Because of regulation, however, the financial system was forced to accept and rely on these ratings. That, in turn, led to disaster.

{ 0 comments }

Do We Have Too Little Regulation?

by Bob Weeks on December 11, 2008

in Free markets

One of the things we’re being told by the mainstream media is that deregulation is the cause of our current economic crisis. If only Bush hadn’t torn up so many regulations, we wouldn’t be in this trouble. Only adding more regulation will save the economy. Free markets — as if our economy is based on anything like that concept — are also blamed.

The most recent Cato Policy Report has an article Are We Ailing from Too Much Deregulation? that shows why these beliefs are incorrect.

{ 0 comments }

I, Pencil is one of the most important and influential writings that explain the necessity for limited government. A simple object that we may not give much thought to, the story of the pencil illustrates the importance of markets and the impossibility of centralized economic planning.

The size and scope of government, both at the national and local level, has been growing. Now our country is entering a period where the possibility of even larger and more intrusive government, growing faster than it has been, is very real. Those who love liberty must keep principles like those illuminated in I, Pencil at the forefront of debate.

From the afterword to I, Pencil by Milton Friedman:

Leonard E. Read’s delightful story, “I, Pencil,” has become a classic, and deservedly so. I know of no other piece of literature that so succinctly, persuasively, and effectively illustrates the meaning of both Adam Smith’s invisible hand — the possibility of cooperation without coercion — and Friedrich Hayek’s emphasis on the importance of dispersed knowledge and the role of the price system in communicating information that “will make the individuals do the desirable things without anyone having to tell them what to do.”

Link to a pdf of I, Pencil: http://www.fee.org/pdf/books/I,%20Pencil%202006.pdf

Link to Leonard E. Read reading I, Pencil: http://www.fee.org/events/detail.asp?id=6239

{ 0 comments }

The conflict view creates barriers

by Bob Weeks on November 6, 2008

in Free markets

In Barriers Broken?, Lew Rockwell takes a look at what barriers have been broken with the election of Barack Obama.

Conflict is the critical word here, for the conflict view of society is what is really behind the hysterical claims that Obama’s real contribution is to have broken through barriers. … What is the alternative to the conflict view? It is the old liberal view of how the social order works. There is a harmony of interests in society in which people cooperate and exchange without the aid of an outside, all-controlling, leviathan state. Society contains within itself the capacity for self-management. Another way to put this view is that the free society works. Sadly, this view is not held by either the right or the left in our political culture.

{ 1 comment }

Steve Moore, The Wall Street Journal:

Washington created this crisis!

We can move towards capitalism or socialism. … Lefties want to socialize this economy. …

Liberals love jobs but they hate employers.

We’re redefining welfare benefits as tax cuts. …

You can not create jobs by taxing small business! …

No more bailouts!

What harms prosperity: higher taxes, moving away from free trade, corrupting our money, and out-of-control government spending.

{ 2 comments }

Herman Cain:

Prosperity is less taxes, less spending, and less government. Nancy Pelosi believes that property is a “new direction.” …

I have a message for all the liberal kool-aid drinkers: There is no Department of Happy in Washington DC!

Prosperity equals the pursuit of happiness, not a guarantee.

allenfuller tweeted: “He [Cain's father] achieved the American Dream the old-fashioned way. He worked for it.”

{ 0 comments }

Fred Barnes at AFP Defending the American Dream Summit

October 11, 2008

Fred Barnes remarks:
The election is not over. Sarah Palin knows this, but I wish someone would tell John McCain. We need to prepare for the worst. We may face liberal majorities in congress and a liberal president. …
The crisis may not ease. …
There may be no veto of liberal legislation.
A great threat is card check. [...]

Read the full article →

Bloggers Row Video from Defending the American Dream

October 11, 2008

Video from bloggers row at Americans For Prosperity Defending the American Dream Summit:

Read the full article →

AFP Defending the American Dream Summit 2008-10-11

October 11, 2008

Mayor Steve Lonegan, State Director, AFP-New Jersey, who is an inspirational speaker:
The greedy businessman? But what about those who represent us in Washington?
The central planners attack productivity and call it greed.

Read the full article →

Photos from AFP Defending the American Dream Summit

October 10, 2008

Photographs taken today at the Americans For Prosperity Defending the American Dream Summit in Washington, DC. I am the photographer, except for one photo in which I am the subject.
Click here for the photos at Picasa Web Albums.

Read the full article →

Our Economic Past — Equality, Markets, and Morality

September 30, 2008

Free markets may yield odd results and certainly unequal outcomes, but the greater opportunities and prosperity have made the tradeoff worthwhile for American society.
From Our Economic Past ~ Equality, Markets, and Morality by Burton Folsom, Jr., posted at the Foundation for Economic Education.

Read the full article →

Wichita School District: TIF Action Tests Accountability and Ethics

September 8, 2008

The real problem with this TIF district, however, is the conduct of the applicant, who is a member of this board.

At a meeting of the Wichita City Council, Reverend Harding told the council that he had informed his fellow school board members of what he was doing. But two members of this board have told me personally that he did not do that. So there’s a discrepancy somewhere.

Then, I am Reverend Harding’s constituent. He has not responded to my several email and telephone messages with questions about this project.

Read the full article →

Diversity Is What Starbucks Decides It Is

April 25, 2008

Paul Jacob, in a Common Sense commentary writes about David Boaz’s article in the Wall Street Journal (available at the Cato Institute) which describes the effort to obtain a customized Starbucks card with the phrase “laissez-faire” printed on it.

Read the full article →

Government makes things worse, not better

July 10, 2007

John Stossel eviscerates David Brooks, the ostensibly conservative columnist for the New York Times. Brooks has argued for big new government initiatives to boost human capital. Stossel correctly notes, though, that Brooks wants to expand failed government programs when the right approach is to move in the other direction:

Read the full article →

Political Decision Making Leads To Conflict

July 6, 2007

Writing from Davenport, Iowa

A column by economist Walter E. Williams (Why we’re a divided nation) strongly makes the case for more decision making by free markets rather than by the government through the political process.

When decisions are made through free markets, Dr. Williams says, both parties win, because in a free market, parties voluntarily enter into only those transactions that benefit them.

When decisions are made for us by the government, however, it is almost always the case that one party’s gain is someone else’s loss. Therefore, there is conflict. The more decisions made through politics, the more potential for conflict. Coalitions arise in order to try to get more from the government, and the most effective coalitions “are those with a proven record of being the most divisive — those based on race, ethnicity, religion and region.”

The final paragraph of the column is this:

The best thing the president and Congress can do to heal our country is to reduce the impact of government on our lives. Doing so will not only produce a less divided country and greater economic efficiency but bear greater faith and allegiance to the vision of America held by our founders — a country of limited government.”

In an earlier post, I mentioned some columns by Dr. Williams that I thought were important. This column is certainly one of his best, as it very simply, in one short page, shows us a major fault in our current political landscape.

Read the full article →

Michael Moore Confirms that Government Health Care is Sicko

June 21, 2007

This is an excellent article that exposes how little some people like Michael Moore think about the systems they consider corrupt and unworkable. It appears that Mr. Moore is so consumed with an anti-market bias that he hasn’t really considered the true causes of the problem with healthcare in America. He isn’t the first person to have problems with an anti-market bias, nor do I suspect he’ll be the last.

Michael Moore Confirms that Government Health Care is Sicko
by Diana M. Ernst, Pacific Reserach Institute

Michael Moore showed up in Sacramento last week to promote his film Sicko. Senator Sheila Kuehl hailed Moore as a prophet of truth to the American people but the filmmaker is so mired in his own health hysterics that he regularly contradicts himself .

He rails against “for-profit” health care, but 85 percent of U.S. hospitals are non-profit, and almost half of privately insured Americans have polices from non-profit health insurers.

Moore referred to the Martin Luther King Jr.-Harbor hospital in Los Angeles, where a patient died of a perforated bowel after lying on the emergency room floor for 45 minutes. Since 2004, the hospital has received more than a dozen state and federal safety citations. Hospital errors included leaving sick patients unattended which resulted in death for three of them, giving patients the wrong medications, and using Taser stun guns to restrain psychiatric patients.

This hospital is not private, however. It is owned by the County of Los Angeles. So much for reliable government care. And the private insurers Moore rails against are currently selling health policies laden with government mandates and regulations.

The Council for Affordable Health Insurance (CAHI) has reported that mandated benefits have increased to the more than 1,800 today. In some states, mandated benefits have raised the cost of individual health insurance by 45 percent. Government solutions that create more government amount to nothing but expensive salt in the wound. Such is Governor Schwarzenegger’s plan to tax hospitals and physicians for mandated health coverage, and such is Senator Kuehl’s government monopoly plan, promoted as a “single payer” system.

We need to help insurers to be more competitive, not scrap them for big-government bureaucracy. Mr. Moore’s foolish preference of abolishing private insurance in favor of government-run, single-payer health care will not create universal care, only a government monopoly. In other words, Moore thinks the government should provide “free” health care that isn’t required to meet any standards.

Mr. Moore also thinks Canada is a good role model, but two years ago the Canadian Supreme Court found that government monopoly health care violates basic human rights. The winning plaintiff in this case, Mr. Zeliotis, needed hip surgery. When he tried to pay privately for his operation rather than wait in the public line (which takes two to four years) the Canadian government stopped him. Mr. Zeliotis argued against government interference with his freedom to choose private medical care. The denial of such a choice prolonged his pain and threatened his safety.

Mr. Moore also likes the single-payer system in Cuba, a one-party communist state. Some 11 million Cubans attend run-down facilities, receive dated prescription drugs, and are even required to bring their own sheets, food and soap to the hospital. Communist Party bosses get better treatment but when it came time for the great dictator Fidel Castro to go under the knife, he flew in a specialist from Spain. To adopt the health-care system of a totalitarian dictatorship like Cuba would be kind of, well, sicko. But government-run health care also presents problems right here at home.

Medicaid was instituted in the 1960s under President Johnson for the poor, but it has grown far beyond its capacity, putting its financial capabilities under great strain. In order to keep costs down, Medicaid underpays physicians, who have increasingly stopped accepting Medicaid beneficiaries as a result. Government restrictions on physicians also make it challenging to get prescription drugs for Medicaid patients.

Mr. Moore’s remedies fail as heath-care reform and do not even amount to effective propaganda. He needs less rhetoric and more direct experience. He should get on a Canadian waiting list for treatment, try the “second” system that serves most Cubans, or follow a Medicaid patient’s struggle to get health care from the government.

Meanwhile, union nurses and hospital employees were among 1,000 people who must have taken sick time to cheer Michael Moore Tuesday. Perhaps Speaker Nuñez and Senator Kuehl will investigate how patient care suffered while their caregivers took to the streets.

Read the full article →

The Shine Is Off Corn Ethanol

June 18, 2007

Our economy is so intertwined and interdependent that it is impossible for the government to guide it in any direction without setting off a long chain of consequences. This is another example of the folly of centralized economic planning.

Read the full article →

I, Pencil: A Most Important Story

June 15, 2007

I, Pencil is one of the most important and influential writings that explain the necessity for limited government. A simple object that we may not give much throught to, the story of the pencil illustrates the importance of markets, and the impossibility of centralized economic planning.

Read the full article →

Why Subsidy is Bad Policy

June 14, 2007

From an article by Kenneth P. Green on energy policy. It explains why subsidy in any form is bad policy.

First, subsidies breed corruption. They don’t create incentives for honest people that already have a market-worthy product — such people can already sell their goods into the market easily. Rather, subsidies create a fertile garden for rentseekers who are unable to sell their goods competitively in a free-market, and prefer to tap the coercive and redistributionist force of government to lever their uncompetitive good into the market at the public’s expense. Rather than contribute to overall social welfare by giving consumers the best goods at the least cost, or even maximizing the efficient use of people’s taxes, rent-seekers undermine social welfare by foisting inferior or over-priced goods onto the market while taking money from people that could be used for other important purposes. This is a particular problem in countries with relatively weak property rights regimes, and countries with legal institutions insufficient to prevent it.

Full article at http://www.aei.org/publications/filter.all,pubID.26353/pub_detail.asp.

Read the full article →

Urban Renewal: A Flawed Idea That Failed 50 Years Ago

June 12, 2007

Urban renewal failed across the United States in the 20th century. The urban renewal efforts from the 20th century that are the foundation for the newly proposed redevelopment agency in Wichita rely upon these old Kansas laws that require an increase in local government’s powers. There are no clearly defined steps that will avoid repeating these past mistakes in the public hearing discussions so far.

Read the full article →

Bureaucratic Incentives Create Deadly Consequences

June 12, 2007

Walter Williams summarizes why the Food and Drug Administration is likely to delay the approval of drugs that benefit people. Simply stated, they adopt a risk-averse strategy to avoid being criticized for allowing a dangerous drug on the market, even though almost all drugs can be dangerous.

Read the full article →

The miracle and morality of the market

April 30, 2007

In this short article we learn the simple mechanism that makes our economy work so well. Interfering with that mechanism is not only harmful, it is immoral.

Read the full article →

Hillary Clinton and Milton Friedman: The Contrast

April 22, 2007

“The unfettered free market has been the most radically destructive force in American life in the last generation.”
– First Lady Hillary Clinton on C-Span in 1996 stating her troubles with the free market

“What most people really object to when they object to a free market is that it is so hard for them to shape it to their own will. The market gives people what the people want instead of what other people think they ought to want. At the bottom of many criticisms of the market economy is really lack of belief in freedom itself.”
– Milton Friedman, Wall Street Journal, May 18, 1961

Read the full article →

Williams’ law: the vital role of profits

April 21, 2007

Here’s Williams’ law: Whenever the profit incentive is missing, the probability that people’s wants can be safely ignored is the greatest. If a poll were taken asking people which services they are most satisfied with and which they are most dissatisfied with, for-profit organizations (supermarkets, computer companies and video stores) would dominate the first list while non-profit organizations (schools, offices of motor vehicle registration) would dominate the latter. In a free economy, the pursuit of profits and serving people are one and the same. No one argues that the free enterprise system is perfect, but it’s the closest we’ll come here on Earth.

Read the full article →

The Decline of Local Chambers of Commerce

February 12, 2007

The Chamber of Commerce, long a supporter of limited government and low taxes, was part of the coalition backing the Reagan revolution in the 1980s. On the national level, the organization still follows a pro-growth agenda — but thanks to an astonishing political transformation, many chambers of commerce on the state and local level have been abandoning these goals. They’re becoming, in effect, lobbyists for big government.

In as many as half the states, state taxpayer organizations, free market think tanks and small business leaders now complain bitterly that, on a wide range of issues, chambers of commerce deploy their financial resources and lobbying clout to expand the taxing, spending and regulatory authorities of government. This behavior, they note, erodes the very pro-growth climate necessary for businesses — at least those not connected at the hip with government — to prosper. Journalist Tim Carney agrees: All too often, he notes in his recent book, “Rip-Off,” “state and local chambers have become corrupted by the lure of big dollar corporate welfare schemes.”

“I used to think that public employee unions like the NEA were the main enemy in the struggle for limited government, competition and private sector solutions,” says Mr. Caldera of the Independence Institute. “I was wrong. Our biggest adversary is the special interest business cartel that labels itself ‘the business community’ and its political machine run by chambers and other industry associations.”

From Stephen Moore in the article “Tax Chambers” published in The Wall Street Journal February 10, 2007

Read the full article →

How To Judge the Worth of Ethanol

February 4, 2007

From The Wall Street Journal, January 27, 2007: “Ethanol gets a 51-cent a gallon domestic subsidy, and there’s another 54-cent a gallon tariff applied at the border against imported ethanol. Without those subsidies, hardly anyone would make the stuff, much less buy it — despite recent high oil prices.”

Remove this subsidy and the tariff. Remove the subsidy paid to farmers who grow the corn that is used to make ethanol. Then, the free market will rapidly tell us the true value of ethanol.

Read the full article →

Denouncing “Greed”

January 30, 2007

Today there are adults — including educated adults — who explain multimillion-dollar corporate executives’ salaries as being due to “greed.” Think about it: I could become so greedy that I wanted a fortune twice the size of Bill Gates’ — but this greed would not increase my income by one cent. …One of the reasons why central planning sounds so good, but has failed so badly that even socialist and communist governments finally abandoned the idea by the end of the 20th century, is that nobody knows enough to second guess everybody else. Every time oil prices shoot up, there are cries of “greed” and demands by politicians for an investigation of collusion by Big Oil. There have been more than a dozen investigations of oil companies over the years, and none of them has turned up the collusion that is supposed to be responsible for high gas prices. Now that oil prices have dropped big time, does that mean that oil companies have lost their “greed”? Or could it all be supply and demand — a cause and effect explanation that seems to be harder for some people to understand than emotions like “greed”?

– Thomas Sowell

Read the full article →

Remarks to Wichita City Council Regarding the AirTran Subsidy on July 11, 2006

July 11, 2006

You may recall that I have spoken to this body in years past expressing my opposition to the AirTran subsidy. At that time we were told that the subsidy was intended to be a short-tem measure. Today, four years after the start of the subsidy, with state funding planned for the next five years, it looks as though it is a permanent fixture.

Read the full article →

The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century

April 15, 2006

This interesting book explains in detail what many people already know: that advances in technology — and in politics to some degree — have made the world a smaller place. Not only have manufacturing jobs been moved overseas, but white-collar jobs such as accountant, computer programmer, radiologist, and many others can be done from anywhere in the world. Even a McDonald’s restaurant is not immune. At a McDonald’s drive-through in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, the person you speak to when ordering is not present in the restaurant you’re visiting. Instead, the person you’re speaking to is in Colorado, a long way from Missouri. But when considering telecommunications India, as a practical matter, is no farther away.

Read the full article →

Let markets fund arts and culture

March 20, 2006

Former Wichita City Council member and present Arts Council chairwoman Joan Cole wrote an article titled “City needs dedicated arts funding” that appeared in the March 16, 2006 Wichita Eagle. This article advocates continued and increased government funding for arts in Wichita.

In her article Mrs. Cole mentions a policy that she seems to approve of: “Moreover, for the first time, performance measures and desired outcomes will be used to assess the progress that these organizations demonstrate.” The organizations are the various groups that will receive funding from the City of Wichita.

Read the full article →

air subsidies

February 17, 2006

Yup…subsidies for AirTran pick a winner, and the losers. But consider the alternative. 400 dollar flights to anywhere. Do any free marketeers really prefer driving to Tulsa to fly to Austin? Wichita would shrivel up and blow away without economic development incentives. This one is not perfect. And, Delta has a gripe. But check prices ALL OVER THE COUNTRY sometime. Yes the market is changing, in a manner that offers NO benefits for the passengers they so blithely isolate in middle America. By the way, concerning Mr. Weeks’ column in the Eagle today: I admire this man a great deal but he mis-states free market forces just a wee bit when he says “when price is lowered, less is supplied.” Competition lowers prices…thus prices go down as MORE is offered. THAT is the free market at work. One has only to look at the diminishing price of internet subscriptions, computers, watches (I saw one for a quarter today). Lots and lots of availability…ever-dwindling prices. Keep this blog flying. there is much I admire about the libertarian movement…it sure beats the pants-load out of the alternatives today…conservatives who are not conservative, liberals who are just plain

Read the full article →

Wal-Mart. More hypocrisy.

December 8, 2005

Currently it is quite fashionable to criticize Wal-Mart as the starting point for everything evil about American business. Critics allege that Wal-Mart earns too much profit, pays its employees too little, doesn’t provide its employees health insurance so they have to rely on the government, it exploits low-paid workers in China, and might even be responsible for avian flu, for all I know.

Read the full article →