Anyone still pretending that China's authoritarians are committed to free-market principles?
Companies in two Chinese provinces, Shandong and Hubei, have been told they must seek official consent if they want to lay off more than 40 people. The order highlights the Chinese authorities' concern over mounting job losses.
…
The Chinese authorities are keen to avoid social instability, [...]
Entries Tagged as 'Capitalism'
Another "Market Communism" Anecdote
November 18th, 2008 · No Comments
Tags: Capitalism · Foreign Affairs · Freedom of Contract
We Killed Off Lochner for This?
November 8th, 2008 · 4 Comments
Another oblivious contribution from the increasingly silly New York Times "Ethicist" column. The question put to him:
I own a busy cafe-delicatessen with 25 employees. All the workers except two enjoy listening to background music from the radio while they work, as do I; those two say it irritates them, gives them headaches and makes it [...]
Tags: Capitalism · Freedom of Contract · Property Rights
Kip's Law Sighting: Are We at "Socialism" Yet?
October 22nd, 2008 · No Comments
Barney Frank calls for making Wall Street bonuses illegal:
"There should be a moratorium on bonuses," Frank, a Massachusetts Democrat, told reporters yesterday in Washington. "They have a negative incentive effect because they are the ones that say if you take a risk and it pays off you get a big bonus," and if it causes [...]
Tags: Capitalism · Freedom of Contract · Kip's Law · Politics
Defending Traditional Marriage From … Capitalism?
October 17th, 2008 · 2 Comments
We interrupt our regularly scheduled marriage blogging to bring you … marriage blogging:
Young people believe, according to the survey, that the main reason for marriage is "commitment". But Thatcherism drove the concept of commitment out of working-class lives: the commitment of employers to their workers, of workers to their unions, of skilled men and women [...]
Tags: Capitalism · Society, Religion, Culture Wars
When Did Luca Brasi Become Deputy Treasury Secretary?
October 15th, 2008 · No Comments
Several commentators (as well as one commenter here) duly noted how an early Associated Press account of Treasury Secretary Paulson's $250 billion partial nationalization of major banks quoted him as saying that the offer was "not voluntary."
Later versions of the report mysteriously purged those two words. As I noted previously, the Bank of Orwell seems [...]
Tags: Capitalism · Libertarianism
The Only Thing We Have to Fear is … Another FDR
October 10th, 2008 · 2 Comments
Talk about missing the point:
It would seem that Obama has been studying the 1932 campaign of Franklin D. Roosevelt. The key to Roosevelt's victory was not a big program but a jaunty sense of optimism in the midst of despair that led to his signature inaugural line — "the only thing we have to fear [...]
Tags: Capitalism · Constitutional Issues · Libertarianism · Politics
"Capitalism v. Collectivism" in Two Quotes
October 8th, 2008 · 3 Comments
At one end of the spectrum, we have the world's leading apologist for irrational primitivism (and earthly suffering), Pope Benedict XVI —
Pope Benedict XVI says the global financial crisis show the futility of money and ambition.
Benedict says that "now with the collapse of big banks we see that money disappears, is nothing and all [...]
Tags: Capitalism · Society, Religion, Culture Wars
A Modest "Commercial Speech" Victory
September 10th, 2008 · 1 Comment
Just a quick pass-along:
In 2005, Kentucky imposed a 1.3% tax on the gross revenues of telecommunications providers. In connection with the new tax, the legislature banned providers from "collect[ing] the tax directly" from consumers and from "separately stat[ing] the tax on the bill." The providers filed this lawsuit because they want to identify the new [...]
Tags: Activist Legislators & Nanny Statists · Capitalism · First Amendment - Speech · Law · Taxation & Fiscal Policy
Are Public Libraries Really Public Goods?
September 5th, 2008 · 2 Comments
One Florida municipality is forced to ponder the question:
Treasure Island residents might be paying $100 for library cards within the next few weeks.
City commissioners do not want to contribute more than $100,000 to the Gulf Beaches Public Library. Vice mayor Bob Minning says that is part of a shift in budget philosophies. [...]
Tags: Capitalism · Libertarianism · Taxation & Fiscal Policy
Kip's Law Sighting: Now Even "Self-Respect" is a Public Good?
September 4th, 2008 · No Comments
I was only semi-seriously skimming a blogpost about the purported "costs" of privatization when I stumbled upon this tidbit:
The privatization process also laid waste to jobs that, while low paid, provided good benefits, civil service protection, union representation, and self-respect. Those lost jobs represent costs, personal and public, tangible and intangible.
This gobbledygook mirrors the one [...]
Tags: Activist Legislators & Nanny Statists · Capitalism · Kip's Law · Taxation & Fiscal Policy

















