Dash of Calabash

Duncan Currie at The Weekly Standard writes about the postponed free-trade pact between the U.S. and Columbia:

The House of Representatives voted to postpone consideration of the U.S.-Colombia free trade pact, which President Bush sent to Congress earlier this week. Both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama oppose the Colombia deal on the grounds that Bogotá has not done enough to curb violence against trade unionists. This is the same argument we hear from other top Democrats and from senior American labor leaders. Yet it reveals either a total lack of perspective or an indifference to the facts, or both.

Read more about Columbia’s progress here.

Free-market types have good reason to worry when they hear about pro-environment CEOs.  After all, the trend right now is for CEOs to compromise their own companies’ bottom lines by engaging in corporate philanthropy, especially questionable efforts to combat global warming.

That’s why this interview with T.J. Rodgers is so refreshing.  Rodgers is the CEO of the company which owns solar-power manufacturer SunPower, and he is proud to be considered “green.”  However, he despises corporate philanthropy, and agrees with Milton Friedman that charity should be an individual endeavor and not a corporate one.  He makes a great case that a company can be pro-environment without hurting its profits.  He also separates fact from fiction in the global warming debate; analyzes the greenhouse gas plans of McCain, Gore, and Obama; and compares different alternative energy sources (to quote Rodgers, “Ethanol?  Total waste.”).

From Roy Innis at TCS Daily:

Congress and the White House, Democrats and Republicans finally agree on something. We need a stimulus package, they intone. The economy is stagnating, unemployment is climbing, families can’t pay their bills. We have to prime the pump, reduce interest rates, increase unemployment benefits, provide temporary tax relief.

These unlicensed physicians are prescribing aspirin to counteract the poisons they routinely inject into our economy, while they prepare even bigger doses of arsenic.

Every one of these supposed shots of economic adrenaline is counteracted by policies that drive up prices.

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From The Economist:

Singapore is the second freest economy in the world, according to an American think-tank. In its 2008 Index of Economic Freedom the Heritage Foundation ranked the city-state a close second after Hong Kong, which topped the list of 157 countries for the 14th year running. Singapore’s efforts to cut taxes and attract foreign investment helped it increase its 2007 score by 0.2 points to 87.4. But the report also criticised Singapore’s financial and banking sector, which it claimed suffers from too much government intervention.

By Brian T. Schwartz at TCS Daily:

Remember how in grade school, the teacher would punish the whole class for the actions of just a few disruptive students? This is an early lesson in collective punishment, which is usually practiced during wartime or under martial law.Collective punishment has now arrived with compulsory medical insurance. Known as an “individual mandate,” politicians of both major parties have supported it. Compulsory politically-defined insurance is law in Massachusetts, is up for consideration in California and Colorado, and Democratic presidential candidates endorse it nationally.

Politicians peddle compulsory insurance under the guise of “personal responsibility.” The story is that the uninsured receive medical care without paying for it. Their freeloading passes costs onto the insured, which increases premium costs. Compulsory insurance, say its supporters, can remedy this problem by forcing both the insured and uninsured to purchase medical insurance - as defined by politicians.

This rationale is flawed. (more…)

Associate HPU Professor and GRIH Board of Scholars Member Ken Schoolland is a finalist in the Economic Communicators contest sponsored by the Market Based Management Institute.

Click here to see a 16-minute YouTube format video excerpt from his presentation.