Free Republic

“Fiscal crisis hits the states,” has become this year’s most boring and repetitive headline. But what is largely overlooked is that some states are doing relatively well - such as my home state of Virginia - and are, in fact, balancing their budgets without draconian budget cuts or tax increases. What are the well-managed states doing right and the others doing wrong? And what lessons could those running the federal government learn from the better managed states? The United States is a federal republic, wherein the Constitution gives most governing powers to the states, not Washington. The beauty of this...

Remember the German economic boom of 2010? Germany’s economic growth surged in the middle of last year, causing commentators both there and here to proclaim that American stimulus had failed and German austerity had worked. Germany’s announced budget cuts, the commentators said, had given private companies enough confidence in the government to begin spending their own money again. Well, it turns out the German boom didn’t last long. With its modest stimulus winding down, Germany’s growth slowed sharply late last year, and its economic output still has not recovered to its prerecession peak. Output in the United States — where...

One of the more satisfying conclusions I've reached as a participant in American life for nearly six decades is that we've grown into being a fairly kind, forgiving, and empathetic citizenry. Everywhere I travel, I find people striving to be helpful. I see complete strangers acknowledge each other walking down the street or standing in an elevator. Eating dinner out alone, as I often do when I travel, seems to bring about magically ephemeral friendships purchased with the currency of nothing more than the exchange of a first name. It's been a long time -- years, really -- since I've...

Educating America on the economic and moral dangers of equal wealth distribution promoted by the federal government creates “a terrific opportunity to help people understand what creates prosperity, and what kills it; what civil government, can and can’t, should and shouldn’t do about it,” Leslie Carbone, author of Slaying Leviathan: The Moral Case for Tax Reform said at The Heritage Foundation’s Bloggers Briefing, this week. Carbone is the former executive director of Accuracy in Academia. “We have the opportunity to re-take the moral high ground in a debate over wealth redistribution,” Carbone said at Heritage on Tuesday October 5, 2010....

According to numerous media sources and several highly esteemed philantropic organizations all over the World, Europe, Canada, NYC, LA, certain corners of South East Asia and Australia boast the best surroundings for eco-friendly prosperity and success found on this planet. Especially Europe does. If we are to trust the experts in this field, conditions for successful human life are better in Scandinavia and Central Europe than anywhere else on Earth. Being Scandinavian, I won't deny I enjoy reading about how foreigners praise my corner of the World and talk of our our nations as an enviable place in which to...

Subtitled: A Pro-Free Enterprise Tax & Law Structure & An Opportunity Presented by Existing Violations of US Constitution Art.I Sect.1 The power to tax is the power to destroy.. Seems like we want to be careful about what we let our government destroy. Sort of an enumerated powers applicable to all levels of government might be useful at least as a thinking tool. It seems that social engineering is always divisive, toxic and provides opportunities for corruption. Social engineering by taxes, tax breaks, and subsidy is no different but more so. The removal of that propensity towards corruption is worthy...

At a recent fundraising event, not only did President Obama state that prosperous Americans don’t “need” to keep so much of the money they earn, he also attacked the group Americans for Prosperity. It wasn’t just an off the cuff remark, either. He devoted several paragraphs of his speech to disparaging the group, trying to make them sound like the arm of shady foreign corporations out to destroy the American dream. He even threw in another dig at the Supreme Court. "Right now all around this country there are groups with harmless-sounding names like Americans for Prosperity, who are running...

Kris Marsh's household doesn't have two incomes. But in Prince George's County, she is increasingly becoming the face of the black middle class. Marsh, a sociologist at the University of Maryland, moved to Bowie last year from Los Angeles, determined to live in a place she had always heard was the promised land for educated, successful African Americans. She bought a large, single-family house in a development where many of her neighbors are also single women. Prince George's residents personify many demographic and socioeconomic trends playing out among African Americans on a national level. In 2008, about half of the...

With Hamas telling tales of deprivation and suffering in Gaza, Egyptian journalist Ashraf Abu al-Houl has added his report to others who were surprised to discover a “prosperous” Gaza in which prices are low and luxury businesses are booming. Al-Houl's story of his trip to Gaza and his realization that “in actual terms, Gaza is not under siege” was written up in the Egyptian daily Al-Ahram and translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI). "A sense of absolute prosperity prevails, as manifested by the grand resorts along and near Gaza's coast. Further, the site of the merchandise and...

We know, based on economic experience, theory, and logic, how to create another economic boom that will last 25 years, or a generation into the future. We achieved that in America from the end of 1982 to the end of 2007, with only two, short, shallow recessions that barely interrupted sustained, robust, economic growth. But that was not the only instance of success. Several times in the last 100 years, whenever the nation's economic policies adhered to the timeless principles of economic growth and prosperity, our economy has boomed. When it has departed from those policies, it has fallen into...

TORONTO (AFP) – Debt-ridden Americans can no longer "borrow and buy" the world's way toward prosperity, US President Barack Obama has said, warning new drivers of growth were needed to fuel global recovery. "After years of taking on too much debt, Americans cannot -- and will not -- borrow and buy the world's way to lasting prosperity," Obama said at the end of G20 talks focused on ending the lingering effects of the economic crisis. Instead the globe should look to consumers elsewhere to pick up the slack, Obama said as he tried to mark the end of an era...

(Link to clip below) I, personally find this lecture very boring, but I would say Sweden is worth some study. My country is one of the most well functioning on Earth. If not the most.

NOTE The following text is a quote: www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/remarks-president-obama-and-president-medvedev-russia-us-russia-business-summit Home • Briefing Room • Speeches & Remarks The White House Office of the Press Secretary For Immediate Release June 24, 2010 Remarks by President Obama and President Medvedev of Russia at the U.S.-Russia Business Summit U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Washington, D.C. 3:08 P.M. EDT PRESIDENT OBAMA: Well, good afternoon, everybody. It is a pleasure to be here with my friend and partner, President Medvedev, and I want to thank him again for his leadership, especially his vision for an innovative Russia that’s modernizing its economy, including deeper economic ties between our...

A chart in last Sunday's New York Post revealed that only 35% of Americans could name even one member of the U.S. Supreme Court, and only 1% could name all nine members. That night Baby Stewie on Fox's The Family Guy admonished viewers who in a mock poll failed to attribute a famous quote to Henry David Thoreau. Though Family Guy is merely a silly, often crude cartoon, Stewie's point about the clueless nature of most Americans, and his view that this speaks to our decline relative to other nations is a popular one, particularly among the political elite. For...

During the twenty or so years I invested money for large corporations and wealthy individuals, the pundits would frequently look at some piece of economic data or a particular company's earnings and declare doomsday claiming, "it's different this time." In the early 1990's, an influential economist friend of mine made a widely received and compelling argument that America's best days were behind it and the most we could expect was 1-2% growth in perpetuity. He was upbeat though his prognosis was glum. What more could we expect? We'd had a good run. A few short years later the economy re-accelerated...

Source of Gore’s prosperity ignored by federal authoritiesBy Gary Harmon Sunday, May 2, 2010 Former Vice President Al Gore, now a global carbon-credit trader, and his wife, Tipper, have acquired spiffy new West Coast digs. The Gores spent nearly $9 million for a house in the Montecito, Calif., area. The new place sits on 1.5 acres of property overlooking the Pacific Ocean and is tastefully appointed with a swimming pool, spa and fountains. Built in the Italian style, the Plaza Gore sports five bedrooms, nine bathrooms and six fireplaces. — News item. “Now, what we’re doing, I want to be...

The oil spill off the coast of Louisiana is an environmental tragedy that endangers the prosperity of coastal businesses that thrive on the natural environment, such as fishing and tourism. It is not a reason to permanently deny America the jobs and prosperity that come from a vibrant energy industry producing much needed, reliable, low cost energy from all sources. That would be a far bigger tragedy, even graver than the oil spill. A robust, booming, American energy industry would itself contribute directly to a booming American economy. If America was the world's number one oil producer, just think what...

The trouble with the current administration is that they believe their ideas are the solution to our problems; what they fail to realize is that the American people are the solution.After years of solutions from the left, too many Americans have lost the grit and determination of past generations. They have become a collection of "have nots". Some no longer feel the sting associated with dependency in adulthood and easily buy into the hope and change fraud of government solutions to their predicaments. Our recent financial woes have made productive people, the "haves", weary and worried about a future with...

Is there a problem with misguided, even deceived Christians who have taken prosperity to an extreme and gotten the focus off their first love and onto an imbalanced view of prosperity? Sure. But that doesn’t mean you throw the baby out with the bathwater and assume any discussion of prosperity is superficial and manipulative. Are there prosperity attackers who’s sole purpose is to follow in the footsteps of Judas of Iscariot and make everything that anyone says about money or prosperity, or healing and health for that matter, sound like heresy. Yes. But it doesn’t justify eliminating the investigation to...

SINGAPORE (Reuters Life!) – For those who value their freedom of expression as much as health, wealth, and prosperity, then Finland is the place to be, with an index ranking the Nordic nation the best in the world. The 2009 Legatum Prosperity Index, published on Tuesday and compiled by the Legatum Institute, an independent policy, advocacy and advisory organization, ranked 104 countries which are home to 90 percent of the world's population. The index is based on a definition of prosperity that combines economic growth with the level of personal freedoms and democracy in a country as well as measures...