Tag: Free markets

  • Bryan Derreberry and the Chamber’s goals for Wichita

    When the head of a chamber of commerce speaks or writes, it pays to listen or read carefully. While chambers are nominally pro-business, that’s a long way from saying they’re pro-liberty. Instead, they increasingly exist to serve a narrow interest. Using words and language like “pride,” “community,” “investment,” and “economic development” — all words that…

  • Wichita Chamber of Commerce values

    Here’s a message that Bryan Derreberry, president of the Wichita Metro Chamber of Commerce, sent to Chamber members. Note that this message doesn’t mention the role its political action committee played in the third Sedgwick County Commission district. In that race, the PAC spent some $19,000 of its $48,000 in an effort to elect Goddard…

  • No Kansas subsidy to Northern Flyer

    When it comes to government money, there’s no shortage of people who have ideas on how to spend it. One group that has grand ideas of how government should spend your money is the Northern Flyer Alliance. This group promotes passenger train service in our area. Currently they’re promoting extension of rail service from Oklahoma…

  • Pragmatism must recognize reality

    Any editorial that starts with “Karl Marx was right about at least one thing …” deserves close examination, especially when it appears in Kansas’ largest newspaper and is written by that newspaper’s former editor. The thrust of Davis Merritt’s article is that the theory of free markets hasn’t worked: “We’re painfully experiencing right now the…

  • Joe Scarborough: Please Stop Saying Laissez-faire

    I’m listening to Joe Scarborough on MSNBC, and he says: “Laissez-faire capitalism is a wonderful thing except in this case …” I’ve heard stuff like this over and over the past few months: A politician says “I’m a big free-market guy, but …” What’s sad to realize is that these people think that what we…

  • Pencils Reveal the Impossibility of Government Planning

    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…

  • The conflict view creates barriers

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

  • Why Austrian Economics Matters More Than Ever

    Here’s a talk recently delivered by Lew Rockwell, president of the Ludwig von Mises Institute. This organization remains the best place to learn about why our economy is in such trouble. The full speech can be read at Why Austrian Economics Matters More Than Ever. An excerpt: I report on this not so that we…

  • Pat Buchanan: Comrade Obama?

    Pat Buchanan’s recent column Comrade Obama? contains much I agree with, keeping me liking and admiring him, even through I disagree with a few of his positions. This column accurately describes the current political landscape, and it’s not complimentary to Barack Obama, Democrats, or Republicans. A few excerpts: Indeed, how do Republicans who call Obama…