Free Market // Current TV

Bush: “I’ve abandoned free market principles to save the free market system”

It was quite simple. All that was needed was an unending series of victories over your... more

unitedliberty
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3 years ago
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21 comments

The Myth that Laissez Faire is Responsible for the Financial Crisis.

The myth that laissez faire exists in the present-day United States and is responsible... more

Hawkmang
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3 years ago
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7 comments

Ron Paul: Leaders 'don't understand markets'

While running for the Republican presidential nomination, Rep. Ron Paul of Texas... more

Hawkmang
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3 years ago
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7 comments

Chomsky on the economy

Noam Chomsky: Current crisis demonstrates anti-democratic nature of financial system. Part 2

In part two of their interview, Paul Jay asks Prof. Noam Chomsky to weigh-in on the dominant subject of the day, the economic crisis. While Prof. Chomsky agrees that the current crisis is a very serious one that will have broad implications for the broader society, he points out that the foreseeable Medicare-induced economic crisis will "dwarf" the current one in magnitude. Furthermore, Prof. Chomsky develops his contention that democracy is hindered by unrestrained free markets. While on the other hand, state-restricted markets are democratic by design in that they allow people take control--through their government--of financial institutions to force them to include externalities and risks to the broader population in their decision-making. These factors are such that profit-seeking enterprises will not accommodate them when left to their own volition, given that free markets do not put a price on these externalities.

Noam Chomsky has written and lectured widely on linguistics, philosophy, intellectual history, contemporary issues, international affairs and U.S. foreign policy. His works include: Aspects of the Theory of Syntax; Cartesian Linguistics; Sound Pattern of English (with Morris Halle); Language and Mind; American Power and the New Mandarins; At War with Asia; For Reasons of State; Peace in the Middle East?; Reflections on Language; The Political Economy of Human Rights, Vol. I and II (with E.S. Herman); Rules and Representations; Lectures on Government and Binding; Towards a New Cold War; Radical Priorities; Fateful Triangle; Knowledge of Language; Turning the Tide; Pirates and Emperors; On Power and Ideology; Language and Problems of Knowledge; The Culture of Terrorism; Manufacturing Consent (with E.S. Herman); Necessary Illusions; Deterring Democracy; Year 501; Rethinking Camelot: JFK, the Vietnam War and US Political Culture; Letters from Lexington; World Orders, Old and New; The Minimalist Program; Powers and Prospects; The Common Good; Profit Over People; The New Military Humanism; New Horizons in the Study of Language and Mind; Rogue States; A New Generation Draws the Line; 9-11; and Understanding Power.

See Part 1 at: http://current.com/items/89430804_chomsky_says_pick_the_lesser_of_two_evils

Noam Chomsky: Current crisis demonstrates anti-democratic nature of financial system.... more

Vierotchka
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3 years ago
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10 comments

Free marketeers rally on Capitol Hill

ANP: Hundreds rallied at the US Capitol to support free markets. On October 10th,... more

Vierotchka
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3 years ago
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19 comments

US Ranks One of the Highest in Corporate Taxes

Currently, the average combined federal and state corporate tax rate in the U.S. is... more

Stevox
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3 years ago
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2 comments

America pays the piper, big time (Part 2)

Robert Parry: Reagan told the American people the magic of the market will work.... more

Vierotchka
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3 years ago
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2 comments

The end of free-market fundamentalism

ANP: But is it really? And where is American capitalism headed? Amid the chaos and... more

Vierotchka
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3 years ago
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10 comments

ANP: A market-based mindset

Underpinnings of the current economic meltdown and the future. On Saturday, the... more

Vierotchka
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3 years ago
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3 comments

The Unfortunate Case of Herbert Spencer

How a libertarian individualist was recast as a social Darwinist.

Libertas
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3 years ago
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1 comment

IdeaChannel.tv

Milton Friedman's famous series: Free to Choose. Although it was made in 1980,... more

Libertas
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3 years ago
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0 comments

"The Dangers of Neo-Conservative Economic Policies" by Ron Paul

"The dangers inherent in the foreign policy advocated by the neo-conservatives... more

Hawkmang
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3 years ago
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Economic Nonadvisers

Do you think the economic, energy and environmental policies of the presidential... more

Libertas
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3 years ago
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2 comments

Peruvian workers, farmers march against President

Thousands of Peruvians protested on Wednesday to denounce President Alan Garcia's... more

merasyad
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3 years ago
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Corporate taxes suffocate growth

The historical and current belief is that taxes in America are low, compared to the world in general. America is the model of free markets, low regulation, and economic freedom. Right? This is simply not the case. The United States has high taxes in general and higher corporate taxes in particular.

In the 2008 Index of Economic Freedom, assembled by the Heritage Foundation, personal income taxes and corporate tax rates are compared across the globe — along with many other economic measures. In regard to personal income taxes, the United States ranks 87th out of 156 nations. And in corporate rates, it ranks 125th out of 156. In other words, 86 nations have lower tax rates on personal income than the United States, and 124 nations have lower corporate tax rates...[2]

Lower corporate taxes are associated with economic growth. This can be shown a priori and empirically... [please see main article]

[B]y definition, corporations do not pay taxes — people pay taxes. A corporate tax is either a tax on shareholders of the firm, customers of the firm, or employees of the firm. Less corporate tax means more innovation, capital savings, and spending by these groups — also known as economic growth...

A corporate tax is really a tax on shareholders, customers, or employees of the firm.
Life Savers moved production to Canada. Nabor Industries and Tyco International moved to Bermuda. Halliburton has announced a move to Dubai. In a globalizing economy, is it really a puzzle that firms prefer to operate in lower-taxing, less-regulated environments?

These are examples of what can be seen. As Frédéric Bastiat reminds us, however, it is imperative to also account for what cannot be seen. What would the wealth of our nation be today if the corporate tax rate had always been 10% or less? What creature comforts would have been innovated? What new technologies brought to market? What diseases cured?

Due to a history of high corporate taxes these answers are not known, and we are worse off because of it.
(End of excerpt)

Full article at link by Sterling T. Terrell// Ludwig von Mises Institute (Mises.org)The historical and current belief is that taxes in America are low, compared to the... more

Hawkmang
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3 years ago
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13 comments

E.U. Agriculture Commissioner proposes some deregulation

[T]he European Commission's agriculture commissioner, Mariann Fischer Boel of... more

Hawkmang
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3 years ago
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0 comments

Who are these Libertarians, and why should we care?

[U]nderstanding libertarianism is vital if the United States is ever to reverse the current 100-year trend away from freedom. What most Americans don’t know is that libertarianism is simply the modern political label given to the philosophy that the United States was founded upon. It is the philosophy of individual liberty. Without rediscovering what that means, the United States may soon be a glorious experiment with self governance by a free people that ultimately devolved into just one more socialist mediocrity or authoritarian nightmare...

... While most Americans still consider the United States the “land of the free,” few probably understand that “free” means individual liberty. Most Americans in 2008 have either never heard of individual liberty, or haven’t heard about it in so long that they have forgotten what it means. After decades of immersion in collectivist ideology, most Americans have been led to believe that freedom is “democracy.” Most Americans are content to be told that they are free, so long as the evening news explains why the most recent decisions made about their lives are really in their best interests. They are content to derive their “freedom” from government.

Imagine the presidential campaign of 1796 with today’s political frontrunners and today’s American psyche. John McCain is promising a generous helping of warfare, without neglecting essential welfare. Barack Obama is promising a generous helping of welfare, without neglecting essential warfare (at least on behalf of Israel). As these two titans battle for the prize, Thomas Jefferson, the Libertarian candidate, and John Adams, the Constitution Party candidate, answer the occasional question from the debate moderator in those states where they are able to get onto the ballot and into the debates at all. What might our country have become if this had been reality in 1796? What is it becoming now?

Certainly there will not be a Libertarian Party candidate elected president in 2008, nor likely in 2012 or 2016. The most successful LP candidate for president was Ed Clark in the 1980 election, with a whopping 1% of the vote. While it would be wonderful to see the Libertarian political party gain prominence and power, this is not the essential priority. What is much more important is that the American people start rediscovering libertarianism, the philosophy of individual liberty, and once again start demanding to be free. Libertarianism must again dominate the platforms of all political parties, as it once did, if the present trends toward socialism and authoritarianism are to reverse. Only when a libertarian Republican runs against a libertarian Democrat, with perhaps even a libertarian third party candidate in contention, will we have a chance to restore the freedom that fueled America’s mercurial rise to greatness. Only by restoring individual liberty will America return to prosperity, and once again become the land of the free.
(End of excerpt)

Full article at link by theskeptic// BREAK THE MATRIX[U]nderstanding libertarianism is vital if the United States is ever to reverse the... more

Hawkmang
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3 years ago
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26 comments

Does Being An "Ethical" Corporation Pay? MIT Study Says YES.

For corporations, social responsibility has become a big business. Companies spend... more

edmubnd
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3 years ago
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0 comments

Tisk, Tisk, Tisk! What The FCC Is Doing Wrong Now

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is holding an open meeting today, giving... more

edmubnd
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3 years ago
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0 comments

The conditioned insanity of corporations

I think the danger of corporate structures is that too many of them shut out criticism from the people who do the actual work, many are organized as a series of mini-dictatorships. As an interactive designer/programmer in the advertising industry, I’ve been mostly tertiary to this decision making process, but I have on occasion seen how the authoritarian nature of corporate hierarchies can be harmful on a number of levels.

First and foremost, I’m quite simply someone who hates to do something that I find to be illogical or pointless, or the worst reason of all “because I say so”. Over the years, though, I’ve conditioned myself to know what battles to fight in order to maintain a career and “go along to get along”, but my battles usually consisted of merely having to “make the logo bigger”, change this button from blue to red, etc–nothing I’ve ever “gone to the mat” over.

But now that I’ve been on my own freelancing for the past year, this self-conditioning process looks more and more like collective insanity to me.

For instance, a old college friend of mine is now a data-analyst for a major pharmaceutical company. On many occasions he has casually explained how his job is essentially to participate in a highly sophisticated system of targeted payola aimed at getting doctors to prescribe his company’s drug. Never once does it occur to him that his drug may be less effective than his competitors and that it is (in my opinion, at least) fairly amoral for such an aggressive system of coercion of professional medical opinions to be implemented at all. Unfortunately, it’s all about his “team”, not the positive or negative effects of his job upon society.

Of course, I’ve been acutely aware of my personal relationship to authority figures and a keen observer others' ever since reading Bob Altemeyer’s long-term psychological study of authoritarian tendencies, The Authoritarians (link to a free pdf copy of the book in the comments). In a super-small nutshell, we all must struggle against our desire to grant certain authorities unquestionable fealty. Authority can be defined as just about anything, a parent, an idea, a religious leader, hell a can of soup. It’s been one of the most enlightening reads I’ve had in my ongoing struggle to understand our ongoing struggles, and everyone I’ve recommended to has tended to agree that the book changed the way they see their enemies and allegiances. Ironically, the book has become my authority on the value of questioning authority, especially of my own in-group and finding the most effective means of communicating with "outsiders".

So while I do agree with the fundamental critiques of the film “The Corporation”, I would not necessarily personify them as BEING insane, but rather they condition people to working against their own interest, often without ever realizing it. This is largely accomplished by the mere fact that most large corporations prevent honest and pointed criticism at the bottom from rising to the failing leadership at the top (something that most people would call democracy).

They seem to forget that unions exist merely to get the bosses to sit at a table listen. It's only their fevered egos that require us to amass such great numbers just to attain their presence, but usually not their respect. I don't know why this is, other than some people just didn't have the experiences necessary to understand the value of and invite criticism. When someone says you suck, just see it as an opportunity to either improve, or justify your actions when questioned. Don't just tell them to shut up.

Perhaps a good regulation would simply be for every employee to be required by law to read independent analysis of their corporation's behavior. I do believe that we can all only be expected rise to the level of our awareness. Unfortunately, many corporations take an active roll in propagandizing from within and to without.I think the danger of corporate structures is that too many of them shut out criticism... more

beedee
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3 years ago
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11 comments

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