Acton Institute Powerblog Archives

Post Tagged 'government regulation'

New report: Verdict on the Crash

Much of the blame for the current financial crisis has been aimed at Wall Street and the bankers who, the story goes, created toxic debt instruments and then lined their own pockets with the proceeds. Continue Reading...

Fleeing the World’s Eighth Largest Economy

Lawrence J. McQuillan offers a less than surprising economic assessment for the Golden State in the City Journal, causing people to flee for better opportunities elsewhere. McQuillan states: California continues to be burdened with high taxes, punitive regulations, huge wealth-transfer programs, out-of-control spending, and lawsuit abuse. Continue Reading...

Who said it?

Surely these are the words of a disciple of Hayek or Friedman, right? Under the guise of protecting us from ourselves, the right and the left are becoming ever more aggressive in regulating behavior… …The real question for policy makers is how to protect those worthy borrowers who are struggling, without throwing out a system that works fine for the majority of its users (all of whom have freely chosen to use it). Continue Reading...

The cost of good intentions

Interesting: Backed by studies showing that middle-class Seattle residents can no longer afford the city’s middle-class homes, consensus is growing that prices are too darned high. But why are they so high? Continue Reading...

More freedom = Less corruption in Italy

Last week, Istituto Acton’s close Italian ally in defense of liberty, Istituto Bruno Leoni (IBL), presented the 2008 Index of Economic Freedom in Rome. The IBL invited speakers to discuss the decline of economic freedom in Italy over the last 12 months. Continue Reading...

Global Warming Consensus Alert: Points for Honesty

Normally, I’m not a huge fan of Congressman John Dingell. But on this issue, I have to at least give him points for honesty: Democrats took over Congress vowing to make global warming a top priority, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi planned to notch a quick victory with a bill that was long on political symbolism and cost, if short on actual emissions reductions. Continue Reading...

Abandon SCHIP: Big Government Returns

The mammoth Congressional expansion of SCHIP is such a bad idea, even the normally big spending President Bush vetoed the bill. I wrote a piece titled, “Abandon SCHIP: Big Government Returns,” which is now available on the Acton Website. Continue Reading...

Keep Cool with Coolidge

A new film titled “Things of the Spirit,” takes a fresh look at the life and presidency of Calvin Coolidge. Coolidge, understandably, received renewed interest during the Reagan era of American politics. Continue Reading...

An Even Greater Society?

John Edwards formally kicked off his poverty tour in New Orleans’s Lower Ninth Ward this week and of course blamed the president for the government’s mishandling of the Hurricane Katrina disaster. Continue Reading...