Nathaniel Ward » Free Enterprise

Wednesday Links: Playoff Hockey

Nathaniel Ward — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 13:07:58 +0000

Photo: Flickr/clydeorama

Which Alex Semin will show up in the playoffs? I hope it’s this one.
Hard work is passe, Hamilton Nolan writes. He suggests Americans not work one minute over eight hours a day. I can’t express how much I disagree.
Ronald Bailey suggests that even the wisest bureaucrats might not be able to resist the human temptation to overreact to perceived risks.
Brian Clark argues that concise writing and effective writing may be at odds.
Is there really a wage gap between men and women?
Last but not least, the District of Columbia is taking land from private landowners and giving it to a private developer who will use it for politically-approved purposes.

Monday Links: Free Enterprise vs. Statism, Beautiful Transit, and Changing Cities

Nathaniel Ward — Mon, 24 May 2010 19:49:46 +0000

Will Adam Smith’s principles prevail? Photo: Wikimedia

The new culture war “is not a fight over guns, gays or abortion,” Arthur Brooks argues, but a battle between free enterprise and statism. Supporters of free enterprise need to make a moral case for their system, he writes, to demonstrate that “earned success” is superior to dependence on government, and not simply hold that free enterprise delivers better material results.

Speaking of dependence on government, the New York Times claims that the insufficiency of one government subsidy, for child care, is driving families onto another government subsidy, welfare. However did people cope before government provided everything?

Renderings of the proposed Purple Line in Maryland show there’s no reason transit has to be ugly (link in PDF). While landscaping may add to the project’s cost, it’s worth remembering that aesthetics matter and that there’s a difference between lowering costs and cutting corners.

The Atlantic is running a special report on the changing American city. Every article is worth a read. Progressives have for too long dominated debates over urban policy; it behooves conservatives to engage this debate head-on and offer real solutions to problems facing cities.

And last but not least, Google has announced it will make its Pac-Man doodle permanently available.

‘Capitalism Is Freedom’

Nathaniel Ward — Wed, 19 May 2010 13:42:20 +0000

Kentucky Senate candidate Rand Paul eloquently defends capitalism and free enterprise in his Republican primary victory speech:

Thursday Links

Nathaniel Ward — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 16:54:36 +0000

Good news: The Supreme Court has struck down government restrictions on free speech. Here’s a quick history of such restrictions and why they haven’t worked.

Bad news: America’s economy is less free now than it was a year ago.

The Agitator makes the case that donations in response to disaster don’t constitute fundraising as such.

Daniel Larison asks a good question: are illiberal governments necessarily a threat to free governments?

What I’m Reading — October 5th

Nathaniel Ward — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 15:00:00 +0000

Fixing ‘Too Big to Fail.’ “During the crisis it was often said that officials at the Federal Reserve and Treasury would do ‘whatever it takes’ to avoid a Great Depression. Now they must do whatever it takes to address one of the key causes of the financial crisis: the existence of financial institutions that consider themselves too big to fail – but which are run in such a way that they are bound to do so.”
Why the Left Won’t Really Tackle Inequality.
Crowds Are Really Individuals. “What really happens in crowdsourcing as it is practiced in wide variety of contexts, from Wikipedia to open source to scientific research, is that a problem is broadcast to a large number of people with varying forms of expertise. Then individuals motivated by obsession, competition, money or all three apply their individual talent to creating a solution.”
John Thune: Time for a TARP Exit Strategy. “It is time to bring an end to the TARP emergency measures and come up with an exit strategy to get government out of the business of running businesses. The administration owes the American people a timeline for how it will do this.”
Nile Gariner on the Great Irish Surrender. “The Irish ratification of the Treaty of Lisbon will pave the way for the biggest erosion of national sovereignty in Europe since the Second World War.”

What I’m Reading — September 16th

Nathaniel Ward — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 05:04:02 +0000

Updated Book Titles.
Washington’s Most Expensive Bike Rack. It features all kinds of amenities and cost $4 million. And it was paid for with your tax dollars, of course.
The Unintended Consequences of Protectionism. “Mr. Obama may not intend to start a trade war, but then Hoover didn’t set out to pick one either. His political abdication is what made it possible, however, and trade passions once unleashed can be impossible to control. On his present course, President Obama is giving the world every reason to conclude he is a protectionist.”

What I’m Reading — May 30th

Nathaniel Ward — Sat, 30 May 2009 18:02:41 +0000

The Financial Crisis, Free Markets, and the Nirvana Fallacy. David Bernstein on whether it really was the absence of regulation that precipitated the financial crisis.
Tax ‘Loopholes.’ The idea that Delaware holding companies offer a “tax loophole” depriving states of tax revenues is premised on the dubious notion that a government has some “rightful” claim to part of a private firm’s earnings.
David Brooks on the New Public-Private Partnerships. “These events have heralded a new era of partnership between the White House and private companies, one that calls to mind the wonderful partnership Germany formed with France and the Low Countries at the start of World War II.”
NRSC Angering Online Base Work with your online supporters, don’t alienate them.