Patrick R. Gibbons
Bailing them out...again
After the Big Three automakers received a $25 billion bailout in September, GM and Ford are now coming back to the federal trough to ask for another $50 billion. That is more money than the government spends on the national food stamp program.
Socialism in America
It's a bad idea, whatever we call it.
After more than 200 years, Americans still believe in individual freedom, and so socialism has remained a dirty word. The political Left has worked diligently to rebrand socialism in America, and thus it has gone by many names. Today, opportunistic politicians, illiberal academics and economically illiterate journalists are once again trotting out old myths to breathe new life into an idea that should be long dead.
Watch out for the robots
A recent Las Vegas Sun article noted something interesting about this past election: In previous elections, the teachers union relied on volunteer phone banks to spread the word on its endorsements. This time around, Executive Director John Jasonek invested in equipment that can make 75,000 "robo-calls" every 12 hours.
Conservatism alive and well
Following Barack Obama's election, there was total celebration on the Left. "The world will change," the "promise of America" will be fulfilled. Additional nonsensical rhetorical claims were made. On the Right, there seems to be gloom, as if the country will self-destruct and the world will end.
Jobs for the sake of jobs
Failing businesses must be allowed to fail.
Ropchai Premsrirut, former assistant professor of economics at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, explained recently in the Las Vegas Sun how he believes he is doing his part to prevent unemployment – namely, by not quickly ending the hemorrhaging of a money-losing restaurant he recently took over.
Citizen security force?
In English parliamentary elections just after World War II, Winston Churchill found himself on the defensive against a well mobilized Labour Party. The Labour Party had argued that "planning had won the war," so "planning would win the peace."
Socialism is nothing but a luxury for the rich
After World War II, there was an explosion of new democracies setting up around the world, in Latin America, Africa and Asia. Although poor, these countries were happy to throw off the yolk of colonialism only to submit to the self-destructive forces of socialism.
What will Republicans become?
In what is now a seemingly prophetic quip, political humorist P.J. O'Rourke once said, "The Democrats are the party that says government will make you smarter, taller, richer, and remove the crabgrass on your lawn. The Republicans are the party that says government doesn't work and then they get elected and prove it."
Old myths about the New Deal
We must reject the Hoover-Roosevelt approach to economic policy.
Las Vegas Sun publisher Brian Greenspun this week turned his normal column space over to a former assistant professor of economics at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Ropchai Premsrirut, who focused on creating jobs in a shrinking economy.
Laissez journalism
Deregulation, laissez-faire economy, free market failure – all myths, and here is why.
