Free Republic

Harvard economist Benjamin Friedman's book, 'Religion and the Rise of Capitalism,' provides an illuminating, if not always convincing, examination of how theology influenced modern economic thought.“One of the fundamental elements of the spirit of modern capitalism,” German sociologist Max Weber wrote in his landmark 1905 book, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, “of rational conduct on the basis of the idea of the calling, was born from the spirit of Christian asceticism.”Weber attributed the free-market success so prevalent amongst Protestant societies to its origins in Calvinist predestinarian theology: believers could never know for sure whether they had been...

US President Donald Trump on Saturday doubled down on the sweeping tariffs he unleashed on countries around the world, warning Americans of pain ahead, but promising historic investment and prosperity.The comments came as Trump's widest-ranging tariffs took effect in a move that could trigger retaliation and escalating trade tensions that could upset the global economy."We have been the dumb and helpless 'whipping post,' but not any longer. We are bringing back jobs and businesses like never before," Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform."This is an economic revolution, and we will win," he added. "Hang tough, it won't be easy,...

Let’s clear something up right away—tariffs aren’t just about economics. They’re not some wonky tax on imported widgets that only policy nerds care about. They’re a statement. They are an attempt to change bad behavior. A line in the sand. Tariffs are about protecting a nation’s backbone—its ability to stand on its own two feet. In a world that’s grown dangerously dependent on global supply chains, the idea of sovereignty is starting to hit home. National security begins with self-reliance. Think about it: how secure are we, really, if we’re relying on adversaries for essentials like steel, aluminum, pharmaceuticals—even ships...

Peace in Ukraine...could be part of a larger package between China and America...Ms. Yellen “offered détente with China in order to address the world’s problems together,” an Atlantic Council senior fellow, Diane Francis, writes in an essay titled “Ukraine’s Korea Solution.” Ms. Yellen’s speech...“contained an unspoken quid pro quo which is that if China helps terminate Russia’s war against Ukraine, protectionist measures against its economy will be lifted and trade will once more grow.”

The first to call the presidential election for Joe Biden was AT&T. AT&T, through its subsidiary CNN, one of the largest conglomerates in the world with a market cap of over $200 billion, billions of which come from lucrative federal contracts, was the first to claim that Biden was the winner. Beyond government contracts, AT&T has a major stake in the 5G wars and has spent a lot of money investing in the Biden campaign. AT&T employees were the tenth largest source of contributions to the Biden campaign. Biden had attended fundraisers at the homes of two AT&T lobbyists, but...

President Trump and other mercantilists are hoping that his tariffs will drive U.S companies out of China, perhaps even back to the United States. They can keep hoping. It’s not likely to happen. In a further escalation of his trade war, on August 23 Trump “ordered” U.S companies to leave China, or even return to the United States. This prompted a debate among legal scholars as to whether he even has the authority to do that. Regardless of whether he does or doesn’t, it is unlikely to have any impact. A proviso is called for here. Some U.S companies are...

H.E. Ambassador Yang Yanyi is head of the Chinese Mission to the EU.(The Belt and Road Forum) has attracted broad participation of some 1,500 officials, scholars, entrepreneurs and people from financial institutions and media from more than 130 countries, principals and representatives from over 70 international organizations. […] At a time when the foundation for global economic recovery is not solid, trade investment remains weak, and growth impetus unstable, this Forum, with “Strengthening International Cooperation and Co-building the ‘Belt and Road’ for Win-win Development” as its central theme, will offer an excellent opportunity to take stock of what has been...

I wrote about this in a letter late last year, but now here we are more than halfway through the year and it’s only getting worse. So much worse that the Chinese property bubble is now the catalyst that will reset markets – and will likely be one large event that cascades across the globe.- snip - I’m convinced that what finally puts an end to central banker madness and the incessant stream of QE will be the Chinese real estate bubble.- snip - China is going down. The China Beige Book (which is much more accurate) recently showed that,...

The UK would be better off staying in the EU, the country's foremost euroskeptic think tank says, amid a growing debate among Conservatives on the merits of a British exit from the European Union. "From purely a trade perspective, EU membership remains the best option for the UK," Open Europe argues in a report published Monday (11 June). "All the alternatives come with major drawbacks and would all … require negotiation with and the agreement of the other member states, which would come with unpredictable political and economic risks," it continues. The report examines the idea—gaining traction among some euroskeptic...

China is an important trading partner of America. But it may also be a mortal threat. And not for the conventional reasons usually cited in the press. Ironically, it is a threat because China is in fact a financial colony of the United States, a colony subsidized and sustained by the pegged, undervalued, yuan-dollar exchange rate. Neither the United States nor its economic colony seems to understand the long-term destructive consequences of the dollarization not only of the Chinese economy but also of the world monetary system. While the Chinese financial system has been corrupted primarily by tyranny, deceit, and...

How whole industries disappear Take the story of Dell Computer [DELL] and its Taiwanese electronics manufacturer. The story is told in the brilliant book by Clayton Christensen, Jerome Grossman and Jason Hwang, The Innovator’s Prescription : ASUSTeK started out making the simple circuit boards within a Dell computer. Then ASUSTeK came to Dell with an interesting value proposition: “We’ve been doing a good job making these little boards. Why don’t you let us make the motherboard for you? Circuit manufacturing isn’t your core competence anyway and we could do it for 20% less.” Dell accepted the proposal because from a...

China Squeezes Foreigners for Share of Global Riches By SHAI OSTER, NORIHIKO SHIROUZU And PAUL GLADER BEIJING—Foreign companies have been teaming up with Chinese ones for years to gain access to the giant Chinese market. Now some of the world's biggest companies are taking a risky but potentially rewarding second step—folding pieces of their world-wide operations into partnerships with Chinese companies to do business around the globe. General Electric Co. is finalizing plans for a 50-50 joint venture with a Chinese military-jet maker to produce avionics, the electronic brains of aircraft. The deal with Aviation Industry Corp. of China would...

You think Tony Stark is a bad-a$$ capitalist? Milton Friedman would kick his butt. Bill Whittle tells you why. VIDEO

Financial fraud drove the U. S. and global economic collapses of 2008, and continues unabated. A U. S. Senate sub-committee heard testimony May 5 titled “The Role of Fraud in the Financial Crisis” by a notable Keynesian, James K. Galbraith. Galbraith called economics “a disgraced profession” for failing to study financial fraud. He said the heart of the U. S. financial crisis was “a breakdown in the rule of law in America.” However, there is a catch.

China has had an extraordinary run since 1980. But like Japan and Southeast Asia before it, dramatic growth rates cannot maintain themselves in perpetuity. Japan and non-Chinese East Asia didn’t collapse and disappear, but the crises of the 1990s did change the way the region worked. The driving force behind both the 1990 Japanese Crisis and the 1997 East Asian Crisis was that the countries involved did not maintain free capital markets. Those states managed capital to keep costs artificially low, giving them tremendous advantages over countries where capital was rationally priced. Of course, one cannot maintain irrational capital prices...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama, anxious to spur growth and tackle unemployment, will name two top executives from Boeing and Xerox on Thursday to spearhead his drive to boost U.S. exports, the White House said. Obama, who pledged in his State of the Union address to double U.S. exports over five years to support 2 million jobs, will make the announcement in Washington when he speaks to the Export-Import Bank's annual conference on his trade strategy. A White House official said Obama would name Boeing Co president and chief executive Jim McNerney and Xerox Co chief executive Ursula Burns...

Resurgence of mercantilist influence is neither coincidental nor recent. Eighty years ago, mercantilists stuck their noses back into the Republican political tent and imposed the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act on the U. S. and the world. Franklin Roosevelt then delivered the Democratic Party to them, turning previously free-trading farmers into government-subsidized champions of trade barriers. Mercantilists won control of the Federal Reserve in 1971 after years of Keynesian whittling at the Bretton Woods pledge to keep the dollar’s value stable relative to gold.

I hate to hear about "partnerships" between government and business, or between government and other organizations. When there is a partnership between an ant and an elephant, who do you suppose makes the decisions? - Thomas Sowell We'll be hearing a lot about state-business "partnerships" over the months to come. Much of Obama's "stimulus" plan, and virtually the whole of the bank-bailout plan (if I'm deciphering Secretary Geithner's obscure and confusing outline correctly) are based on the concept. In fact, most of the country's financial establishment is already operating under such a compact. That being the case, a close examination...

When globalisation goes into reverse By Gideon Rachman Published: February 2 2009 19:10 | Last updated: February 2 2009 19:10 There are rock festivals and book festivals – and then there is the annual globalisation festival, otherwise known as the World Economic Forum in Davos. For the past decade, the Davos meeting has brought together big business, high finance and top politics to promote and celebrate the integration of the global economy. Whatever their business rivalries or political differences, the Davos delegates all agreed that the road to peace and prosperity lay through more international trade and investment – globalisation,...

Mercantilism [emphasis added]: An economic doctrine that flourished in Europe from the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries. Mercantilists held that a nation's wealth consisted primarily in the amount of gold and silver in its treasury. Accordingly, mercantilist governments imposed extensive restrictions on their economies to ensure a surplus of exports over imports. In the eighteenth century, mercantilism was challenged by the doctrine of laissez-faire. When Barack Obama talks—and talks—about the future, does he really mean "back to the future"? You have to wonder after reading the column by one of his economic advisors in today's LA Times. In Renewing America's...