By
Tom Barksdale
In October, the United States and 10 other Pacific rim countries, after five years of secret negotiations, reached an agreement on the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the largest free-trade agreement ever concluded. President Obama must wait 90 days after the formal announcement of the final TPP agreement before signing the pact and sending it to Congress; that could happen by Feb. 4. Lawmakers would then work with the administration … Read more...
By Bradley Opitz
Each year, Earth Day is celebrated by many people all around the world. It is a day that is set aside for a time of reflection on the physical state of the earth, and to celebrate the planet that humanity has always called home. Coincidentally, the day that has been set aside to celebrate earth coincides with the date of birth of a man named Vladimir Lenin. … Read more...
(Please note that Michael Anderson is a respected MD practicing as a pediatrician and constitutional attorney who clerked for a Federal Appeals Court Judge. He, as all our writers, is a Madison Forum Member.)
By
Michael Anderson
Reconsidering the Sirens’ song from Ayn Rand’s (aka “Ian Ruined”), that oddly influential book that may have been originally titled as “I at Least SHAGGED”. Perhaps publishers believed US readers would miss the … Read more...
Excellent speech by MEP Daniel Hannan at the Oxford Univeristy Union on the financial bailouts and capitalism.
… Read more...By: Les Dunaway
How long will it be before the US can no longer pay it’s debts? This is, how long before we become Greece? The following chart shows projections out through 2017 – based on current policies.
… Read more...Just The Numbers, Mam
By: Les Dunaway
As regular readers know, I’ve been less than optimistic about the prospects for recovery in the EU. I don’t believe that Greece, Portugal, Italy or, for that matter, France, will wean themselves from the socialist trough.
Sunday night, the most clueless of the clueless “mainstream media”, 60 Minutes, led with An Imperfect Union: Europe’s debt crisis [story] . Steve Kroft deserves … Read more...
Just The Numbers, Mam
By: Les Dunaway
An article by Alberto Mingardi was published in the Friday 23 March 2012 Wall Street Journal titled The European Union According to Hayek. It is an impressive, short summary of key ideas from Friedrich Hayek and an explanation of how Hayek predicted the collapse of the EU, which we are now witnessing. Notice that Mingardi refers to the breakdown of the European … Read more...
By: J. Randolph Evans
ONE BILLION DOLLARS. That is how much the State of Georgia spends every year on corrections. According to the Report of the Special Council on Criminal Justice Reform for Georgians, “[d]uring the past two decades, the prison population in Georgia has more than doubled to nearly 56,000. …If current policies remain in place, analysis indicates that Georgia’s prison population will rise by another 8 percent to … Read more...
By: Les Dunaway
Today’s excellent Forbes article “Tim Geithner Covers for Corruption On Pennsylvania Avenue” by Charles Kadlec inspired me to dig into my pile of “Why the Crash?” writings. Mr Kradlec does an excellent job of summarizing the various crimes that led to the crash, so what I’ve collected here is, mostly, for detail and a clearer look at the perpetrators.
The top line summary of the … Read more...
Just The Numbers, Mam
By: Les Dunaway
This past week, the 18th Annual Index of Economic Freedom was published. It shows that our country has slipped to 10th in this critical ranking. The 15th Index published in January of 2009 ranked the US at 6th. So, in the three years since, we’ve dropped 4 places.
If you haven’t been following this Index, I suggest you watch the short video at … Read more...
Just The Numbers, Mam
By: Les Dunaway
In Nov 2011 I wrote about the DOL jobs report and discussed how those numbers had been cooked to make the job situation look better. Well, as has been said “You ain’t seen nothin yet”. We can expect bogus numbers month by month leading up to November.
Last weeks report has an even more tenuous relation to reality. First, let’s talk about what … Read more...