Posted on March 27th, 2009 by Timothy P. Carney
It’s a bit amazing in these days of burgeoning state control of the economy, but you still hear politicians–the same ones who foisted corporate-welfare stimulus and bailout plans on us–cursing protectionism and singing odes to free trade.
To be fair, many free-trade defenders these days are real laissez-faire types fighting to prevent yet another assault on [...]
Filed under: Conservatism, Economics, Trade, libertarianism
Posted on March 26th, 2009 by Freddy Gray
The video of Dan Hannan verbally assaulting Gordon Brown at the European Parliament is still whistling around the Internet. Indeed, the clip is currently one of YouTube’s most popular posts (more than 700, 000 viewings in just over a day). And Fox News has even described Hannan, a Member of the European Parliament and a [...]
Filed under: Iraq, media
Posted on March 26th, 2009 by Philip Giraldi
A headline in today’s Washington Post appeared to provide confirmation of the suspicion that the economic-political oligarchy that controls the United States might actually regard the country as its personal property. It reads “On Mexico Trip, Clinton Criticizes US Drug Policy. She Says Her Country Shares Blame for Violence.”
Filed under: Uncategorized
Posted on March 25th, 2009 by Leon Hadar
The Likud’s Binyamin (”Bibi”) Netanyahu is expected to form a coalition government in Israel which will include both the ultra-nationalist Israel Beiteinu led by Avigdor Lieberman and — a last minute surprise — the Labor party led by Ehud Barak. You can read about what all this means for U.S. foreign policy in my A [...]
Filed under: Foreign policy
Posted on March 25th, 2009 by R.J. Stove
Rushing in where even a quarter-century’s worth of genocidal Indonesians feared to tread, comes East Timor’s über-babe Amivi Gama–new President for Life, C-in-C of the Armed Forces, and High Court Chief Justice–whose smack of firm government has been subjected to a misogynistic media embargo, breached only, of course, by the ever-indispensable Onion:
East Timor’s First Female Dictator Hailed As Step Forward [...]
Filed under: Satire
Posted on March 24th, 2009 by Kelley Vlahos
I’ve resisted until now much of the recent punditry that has centered around whether President Obama has been expressing the necessary passion, outrage and empathy that one had hoped for or even expected from their president throughout such jarring domestic turmoil. Among the magpies perched on the wire of passion patrol is one Michael Wolff, [...]
Filed under: Politics
Posted on March 23rd, 2009 by Patrick J. Buchanan
“The best way to destroy the capitalist system is to debauch the currency,” said Lord Keynes.
Ben Bernanke disagrees. A student of the Depression, the Fed chair appears far more fearful of deflation — a vicious cycle of falling prices, debt defaults, home foreclosures and rising unemployment.
Deflation is what America underwent in the 1930s. A Fed-created [...]
Filed under: Economics
Posted on March 23rd, 2009 by Freddy Gray
Follow this link for a video of John McCain speaking about Afghanistan to the Marshall Fund’s Brussels Forum on Saturday night.
It’s predictable stuff: Afghanistan is the vital battleground for human rights and democracy; we need more NATO/U.S. commitment; terrorists see negotiation as a sign weakness; we can only deal with the Taliban by winning; [...]
Filed under: War
Posted on March 22nd, 2009 by Clark Stooksbury
Writing in The Weekly Standard, Blake Hurst notes continuing problems with Cuban agriculture and criticizes those he sees as its American proponents:
Yet today people hold up the Cuban food system as a model for the rest of the world.
Sustainable, largely organic, community-based, and healthy food production in post-Soviet Cuba is offered by critics of “industrial [...]
Filed under: Conservatism, Magazines
Posted on March 22nd, 2009 by Daniel McCarthy
Though Michael is correct that the AIG bonuses pale next to the bailout itself, I’m inclined to applaud the House’s proposed 90 percent tax on the bonuses. Crucially, the legislature did not single out AIG: the tax applies to all companies that receive $5 billion or more in rescue money. Those are taxpayer dollars that [...]
Filed under: Economics
