United Liberty
Business
Libertarianism and the Center: The Appeal
Sun, 11/16/2008 - 6:08am | posted by Paige Michael-Shetley
I have previously argued that we as libertarians should target our appeal to centrists. Libertarians and centrists share many characteristics, mainly the common value of independence and the rejection of the Republican and Democratic ideological orthodoxies as presented. Furthermore, the center has quite clearly been the electoral kingmaker in recent history, so the political advancement of libertarians depends significantly on their success in winning centrist votes.
Obama Mocks Plumbers
Fri, 10/17/2008 - 2:37am | posted by Austin Wilkes
Obama has run and, surprisingly, sustained one of the best managed campaigns since at least Reagan ‘84, but I believe he made a significant mistake by going after McCain with recent “Joe Plumber” attack lines. “A plumber is the guy he is fighting for”, Obama said sarcastically to a revved up crowd Thursday. Ironically, if Obama truly convinces the median voter that McCain is “fighting for plumbers”, then he will likely lose Ohio and Pennslyvania.
Unprecedented New FED Tactics
Tue, 10/07/2008 - 3:23pm | posted by Austin Wilkes
Today the Federal Reserve invoked “Emergency Powers” in order to further expand its reach into the economy. There are many inherent problems with central banking. There are even more problems with central management of the day to day workings of the economy. Seeing the recent devastation in the credit markets - which was mostly created by the FED - the FED has been trying desperately to contain the situation, but its traditional policies are just showing little to no results.
Investors skeptical of Obama
Sat, 01/23/2010 - 4:37pm | posted by Jason Pye
A new Bloomberg survey shows that 77% of investors believe that Barack Obama is anti-business:
The global quarterly poll of investors and analysts who are Bloomberg subscribers finds that 77 percent of U.S. respondents believe Obama is too anti-business and four-out-of-five are only somewhat confident or not confident of his ability to handle a financial emergency.
The poll also finds a decline in Obama’s overall favorability rating one year after taking office. He is viewed favorably by 27 percent of U.S. investors. In an October poll, 32 percent in the U.S. held a positive impression.
Ironically, this survey comes the week President Obama unveiled his financial sector overhaul, which was met with skepticism by investors as stocks fell to the lowest point of the year.
Devolution of the U.S. Businessman?
Thu, 12/17/2009 - 3:26pm | posted by Katy Delay
While reading a most interesting piece in the Financial Times called “Who won the revolution?” I was struck by a paradox of human economic behavior.
The article’s author, Alec Russell, just revisited Romania twenty years after having first reported on the situation during the ousting of Ceausescu. The revolution was an apparent success; but according to Russell, the same power structure that existed back then remains in place today. 
Instead of welcoming capitalism with open arms and starting afresh, the people somehow allowed the same corrupt elite to stay in power. During the transition these individuals were astute enough to keep their government connections alive and profit from them when the time was ripe.
Today, according to Romanian writer Stelian Tanase, who had dared to challenge the communist system under Ceausescu:
“‘The best question to ask is who won the revolution: for Romania, the winner is the former nomenclatura [the high officials in Ceausescu’s government]. They lost the revolution but won the power. The former promoters of communism simply became the promoters of capitalism.’ He reaches for a copy of the Romanian edition of Forbes’ Rich List, which details the country’s richest people. ‘Eighty-five per cent of the first 100 are former nomenclatura.’”
