Does America Need Ayn Rand or Jesus? - FoxNews.com

Does America Need Ayn Rand or Jesus? - FoxNews.com:

"Ayn Rand is everywhere and her political opponents are growing nervous.

Rand of course is a champion of individual rights, including property rights, and an advocate of laissez-faire capitalism. Walk through any Tea Party gathering and you’ll see signs such as “Who is John Galt?,” “Rand was right” and “Read Atlas Shrugged.” Paul Ryan says of her, accurately in my view, that “Ayn Rand more than anyone else did a fantastic job of explaining the morality of capitalism, the morality of individualism.”"

Stop the Lying - Jim Lacey - National Review Online

Stop the Lying - Jim Lacey - National Review Online:

From the comments:

"How do you think we got all of this excessive regulation in the first place? The stories that Upton Sinclair published in the early 20th century was a bunch of lies, by his own admission. This led to increased regulation on the part of government.

The Tennessee Valley Authority was meant to promote access to electricity for rural folk, but in reality was a naked power grab by the government to increase regulation over the utilities.

The Cuyahoga River fire was put out before there was ever an Environmental Protection Agency, but we still got one.

Remember when the ozone was under assault by chloroflourocarbons? Yeah, me neither, but no one ever talks about that anymore. However, we still have a Clean Air Act the benefits of which are always dubious.

Everyone knows that Fannie and Freddie was at the center of the housing mess, but was curiously neglected as the Congress decided to ensure that greedy bankers don't take advantage of consumers 'again' (just like all the other times we've had a recession) with Dodd-Frank.

And don't even get me started on Obamacare.

In order for the government to grab more power, it must always position itself as the virtuous entity amongst a sea of rot, i.e., the rest of us. That itself is a lie."

Dangerous Disaffection - Henry Olsen - National Review Online

Dangerous Disaffection - Henry Olsen - National Review Online: "Reagan’s rhetoric always made the typical American feel valued and special. It did not emphasize the great entrepreneurs and captains of industry, although Reagan understood how setting them free would benefit America. Instead, he focused in speech after speech on ordinary people who did extraordinary things — the “boys of Pointe-du-Hoc,” the Lenny Skutnicks. It’s a rhetorical approach built on genuine sympathy for the average person.

His vision of a new Republican party included the educated and the uneducated, the working class as well as the upper class. He explained how working-class Democrats and independents could make common cause with traditional Republican supporters to forge a new majority founded on conservative principles, a strategy that carried him to a landslide.
That majority can be reconstructed. Blue-collar whites believe the president and the Democrats do not have their best interests at heart. They want to make common cause with conservatives to save our country. They just need to know that they will be safe on the Republican ship if they come aboard. "

Capitalism Magazine - Book Excerpt: I Am John Galt - Introduction

Capitalism Magazine - Book Excerpt: I Am John Galt - Introduction:

"Maybe when you think of a villain (and let’s leave out overt monsters like, say, Adolf Hitler) you think of a corrupt politician like Richard Nixon or a crook like Bernard Madoff. Who could disagree with that? Ayn Rand certainly demonstrated that evil could exist at the highest levels of government and in business as well. We’ll meet real-world villains of both types in this book. But Rand’s novels focused primarily on that special brand of evil that is carried out under the high-minded slogans of altruism. The real-world villains you’ll meet in this book all have one thing in common: No matter how rabid their lust for power, no matter how voracious their appetite for unearned wealth, and no matter how many lives they have to destroy in the process, their villainy is all carried out in the name of selfless service to others.

Real-life Randian heroes and villains are among us. If you so choose, you can live your life such that you can truly say, “I am John Galt.” This book shows you how."

Capitalism Magazine - Hard to Take a Bone from a Dog

Capitalism Magazine - Hard to Take a Bone from a Dog:

"Because the U.S. dollar is the international reserve currency, the Fed has been able to camouflage its debasement for decades. Given that many nations are obliged to buy dollars to manage their currency valuations, excess liquidity in the U.S. flows quickly offshore where it's pernicious effects fall on other nations. Recent news from China, where the government is struggling to contain inflation while civil unrest flares, confirms this hypothesis. Too much more of this and the dollar's reserve status will be placed in greater jeopardy.

Clearly something has to be done to cut government spending or America's debt crisis will result in a sudden collapse of the once mighty U.S. dollar. The key question, though, is how to persuade politicians to take the necessary actions when doing so could spell electoral defeat?"

Leather-Politics : Message: The Real Culprits

From the book review:

More recently we've witnessed the creation of a new historical narrative about the financial crisis of 2008. The perceived history, eagerly peddled by liberals and Democrats, is that the crash of 2008 was the result of Wall Street's greed. It was unregulated capitalism that brought us to the brink of financial meltdown, the Democrats insisted. And they codified their manufactured history into a law, the Dodd-Frank Act, that completely avoided the true problem.

It's both surprising and gratifying therefore to report that a great revisionist history has just been published by none other than a New York Timesreporter, Gretchen Morgenson, and a financial analyst, Joshua Rosner.

In Reckless Endangerment, Morgenson and Rosner offer considerable censure for reckless bankers, lax rating agencies, captured regulators, and unscrupulous businessmen. But the greatest responsibility for the collapse of the housing market and the near "Armageddon" of the American economy belongs to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and to the politicians who created and protected them. With a couple of prominent exceptions, the politicians were Democrats claiming to do good for the poor. Along the way, they enriched themselves and their friends, stuffed their campaign coffers, and resisted all attempts to enforce market discipline. When the inevitable collapse arrived, the entire economy suffered, but no one more than the poor.

http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/270366/real-culprits-mona-charen

Leather-Politics : Message: The Real Culprits

GOP eyes tax breaks, loopholes - Richard E. Cohen - POLITICO.com

Last week’s resounding votes on ethanol subsidies were just the start. Republicans are now starting to eye all sorts of tax breaks and special-interest loopholes once considered sacred cows as they seek ways to increase government revenue without actually raising tax rates.

The targeting of long-protected tax breaks — for ethanol, research and development, manufacturing and foreign company income — is a sign that key House Republicans are ready to break with the orthodoxy of past tax debates while ditching special interests that have long held sway in tax reform discussions.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0611/57382.html#ixzz1Pw7MGSiW

GOP eyes tax breaks, loopholes - Richard E. Cohen - POLITICO.com