Hawaii Liberty Chronicles

From Carroll4Senate.com

“The Pledge has become something of a rallying cry in conservative circles.” — National Journal

John Carroll has signed the Taxpayer Protection Pledge, known as the “no new taxes” pledge. Apparently he will be the only candidate running for the U.S. Senate who is signing the pledge this year. Lingle, Case and Hirono have all declined.

Politicians often run for office saying they won’t raise taxes, but then quickly turn their backs on the taxpayer. The idea of the Pledge is simple enough: Make them put their no-new-taxes rhetoric in writing.

In the Taxpayer Protection Pledge, candidates and incumbents solemnly bind themselves to oppose any and all tax increases. While ATR has the role of promoting and monitoring the Pledge, the Taxpayer Protection Pledge is actually made to a candidate’s constituents, who are entitled to know where candidates stand before sending them to the capitol. Since the Pledge is a prerequisite for many voters, it is considered binding as long as an individual holds the office for which he or she signed the Pledge.

A December 11, 2011 Honolulu Star Advertiser article clearly defines the candidates’ position on taxes:

Conservatives have been successful at pressuring Republicans in Congress — and a few Democrats — not to agree to any tax increases. Americans for Tax Reform, a Washington-based interest group founded by conservative activist Grover Norquist, has persuaded 238 members of the House — a majority — and 41 members of the Senate to sign a pledge promising not to raise taxes. The group offers the pledge to all new candidates.

Hirono and Case will not sign the pledge.

Lingle will not sign, either. As governor, Lingle opposed most new tax increases. She did support higher state taxes on tobacco products to curb smoking and allowed a bill that gave Oahu the right to impose a rail surcharge to become law without her signature.

According to a spokesman, Carroll would sign the Americans for Tax Reform pledge against new taxes.

Lingle had previously signed the Taxpayer Protection Pledge during her campaign for governor, but once elected reneged. As noted by the Star Advertiser, she supported higher taxes on a number of occasions.

Featuring Todd Myers, author or Eco-Fads: How the Rise of Trendy Environmentalism Is Hurting the Planet, and Patrick J. Michaels, Senior Fellow in Environmental Studies at the Cato Institute.

From LearnLiberty.org

Prof. Ben Powell discusses the importance of sweatshops in third world countries. Despite conventional views on the issue, sweatshops are actually the best alternative available to several third world workers. Further, sweatshops are part of an industrial development process that leads to higher wages and better working conditions. Heartfelt attempts to eliminate sweatshops actually reduce the choices, wages, and working conditions of workers in third world countries.

From LearnLiberty.org

Are women discriminated against in the workplace? Looking at the data, women on average earn an annual wage that is approximately 75% that of men, which many people believe is the result of discrimination. However, when Prof. Steve Horwitz analyzes the data more closely, he finds that women make certain choices, such as career selection and raising children, which tend to result in lower wages than men. These choices could be the result of personal preferences or sexist cultural expectations for women’s work, though the relative influence of these two factors remains unclear.

Hat tip to Judge Andrew Napolitano’s Facebook page.

This is not free market capitalism.  It is fixed market corporatism on the highest level.  If you’re a bank that has successfully infiltrated the federal government, why bother buying anymore banks?

From Learn Liberty

Prof. Antony Davies analyzes the fundamental differences between liberals and conservatives. He then proposes an alternative method of viewing political issues, which looks at policies and their respective impact on individual freedom. Prof. Antony Davies concludes that the conventional liberal/conservative dichotomy encourages us to ignore first principles, and hence, overlook contradictory views.

From Learn Liberty

According to Prof. Angela Dills, incentives are important and help economists predict individual behavior. Recognizing that incentives matter is fairly straightforward. What’s difficult is determining all the different ways a policy might affect people’s incentives and change people’s behavior. A good economist looks not only at the obvious incentives created by a particular policy, but also looks for the less obvious effects.

This video is part of a learning path, a structured series of lessons and questions:
The Economic Way of Thinking

From LearnLiberty.org

Prof. Ben Powell debunks the following three popular myths about immigration:

Immigrants are a net drag on our economy
Immigrants steal our jobs
Immigrants depress our wages
Additionally, Professor Ben Powell examines how immigration is related to foreign aid, prosperity, property rights, crime, welfare, voting, citizenship, and more.

Credits: This lecture was delivered in 2009 at the Metropolitan State College of Denver School of Business, as part of the Exploring Economic Freedom Lecture Series, directed by Prof. Alexandre Padilla. This video was produced and directed by Scott Houck, and edited by Adrienne Christy. Video production provided by the Educational Technology Center at Metropolitan State College of Denver. Video used by LearnLiberty.org with permission.

[An Austrian Perspective on the History of Economic Thought, vol. 2, Classical Economics (1995)]

The leadership of the French Smithians was quickly gained by Jean-Baptiste Say, when the first edition of his great Traité d’Économie Politique was published in 1803. Say was born in Lyons to a Huguenot family of textile merchants, and he spent most of his early life in Geneva, and then in London, where he became a commercial apprentice. Finally, he returned to Paris as an employee of a life insurance company, and the young Say quickly became a leader of the laissez-faire group ofphilosophes in France. In 1794, Say became the first editor of the major journal of this group, La Décade Philosophique. A champion not only of laissez-faire but also of the burgeoning industrielisme of the Industrial Revolution, Say was hostile to the absurdly proagricultural physiocracy.

Read the rest at Ludwig von Mises Institute.