Tag: Capitalism

Guest Post by Jeff Thomas

Capitalism, whether praised or derided, is an economic system and ideology based on private ownership of the means of production and operation for profit.

Classical economics recognises capitalism as the most effective means by which an economy can thrive. Certainly, in 1776, Adam Smith made one of the best cases for capitalism in his book, An Inquiry Into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (known more commonly as The Wealth of Nations). But the term “capitalism” actually was first used to deride the ideology, by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, in The Communist Manifesto, in 1848.

Continue reading “Capitalism—A New Idea”

Guest Post by Jeff Thomas via International Man

Capitalism, whether praised or derided, is an economic system and ideology based on private ownership of the means of production and operation for profit.

Classical economics recognises capitalism as the most effective means by which an economy can thrive. Certainly, in 1776, Adam Smith made one of the best cases for capitalism in his book, An Inquiry Into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (known more commonly as The Wealth of Nations). But the term “capitalism” actually was first used to deride the ideology, by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, in The Communist Manifesto, in 1848.

Of course, whether Mister Marx was correct in his criticisms or not, he lived in an age when capitalism and a free market were essentially one and the same. Today, this is not the case. The capitalist system has been under attack for roughly 100 years, particularly in North America and the EU.

Continue reading “Capitalism—A New Idea”

Guest Post by Jeff Thomas via International Man

In 1759, Scotsman Adam Smith, who is widely regarded as the world’s first true economist, published his first great work, The Theory of Moral Sentiments. In it, he postulated that all social evolution can be attributed to “individual human action,” as opposed to “individual human design.”

By this, he meant that whatever understanding worked well between any two people was likely to lead to progress. The reason for this was that such agreements would, of necessity, be based upon “trust and empathy.”

He believed that, if mankind were left alone to sort out all commerce and other interaction on their own, using truth and empathy, they’d succeed at moving the society forward.

Continue reading “The Misconception of the “Man of System””

Guest Post by John Stossel

Last week, I debunked three myths about capitalism. Here are four more:

Myth No. 4: Capitalism creates unsafe workspaces.

“Greedy capitalists” will risk workers’ lives to increase production if government, through agencies such as the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, or OSHA, doesn’t stop that.

It’s logical to assume that government regulation saves lives. Workplace deaths dropped after the OSHA was created. Government officials like showing a graph of the decline.

But if you bother to also look at data from (SET ITAL)before(END ITAL) the OSHA’s creation, you see that deaths fell at the same rate before regulation began! Why?

“As we become richer, we become safer,” says Dan Mitchell of the Center for Freedom and Prosperity.

Continue reading “Capitalism Makes Us Better Off”

Guest Post by John Stossel

Everywhere, people trash capitalism.

But what they think they know about capitalism is usually wrong.

My new video debunks some myths about capitalism.

“No one ever makes a billion dollars,” complains Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. “You take a billion dollars.” In other words, capitalists get rich by taking money from others.

That’s nonsense, and Myth No. 1.

Continue reading “The Poor Get Richer”

Guest Post by Pat Buchanan

Today’s billionaires’ boys club has come to understand how to make its astonishing wealth acceptable… Set up a tax-exempt foundation, fund it with billions of dollars, invite in liberals to sit on the board, and, at munificent salaries, to run it and distribute its income to liberal causes.

“There are few ways in which a man can be more innocently employed than in getting money,” is an insight the famed biographer James Boswell attributed to Samuel Johnson.

Clients of the late Bernie Madoff, however, might take issue.

Over four decades, Madoff, acclaimed as the greatest fraudster of them all, ran a Ponzi scheme that swindled 40,000 people, including his closest friends, out of $65 billion.

But if “getting money” is among the most innocent of callings, America has more than its fair share of the goodly people who excel at it.

According to Forbes’s 35th annual ranking of billionaires, last year witnessed a population explosion. Some 660 new billionaires were added to the number for a total of 2,755.

Continue reading “Where Did All Those ‘Capitalist Pigs’ Go?”

“Why does the Air Force need expensive new bombers? Have the people we’ve been bombing over the years been complaining?”

George Wallace

“Why doesn’t everybody just leave everybody else the hell alone?”

Jimmy Durante

“Capitalism gave the world what it needed, a higher standard of living for a steadily increasing number of people.”

Ludwig von Mises

“I am convinced that the minimum-wage law is the most anti-Negro law on our statute books—in its effect, not its intent.”

Milton Friedman

Guest Post by Martin Armstrong

People confuse capitalism with corruption. Capitalism is your freedom to choose. Corruption is when republics are available for sale to the highest bidder.

Unfortunately, the founding fathers believed the propaganda of Cicero who painted Julius Caesar as a dictator when he was a populares. The people supported Caesar against the corrupt senate of Rome which sold itself to the highest bidder.

Continue reading “Capitalism v Hybrid Capitalism”

Guest Post by Doug Casey

Stocks, bonds, and urban property—conventional investments—aren’t cheap in today’s investment world.

Because of the trillions of currency units that governments all over the world have created since the start of the crisis in 2007 financial assets are grossly overpriced. Stocks, bonds and property are no bargains. Meanwhile, real wages are slipping rapidly among those who are working, and—regardless of what official figures say—a large portion of the population is unemployed or underemployed. The next chapter in this sad drama will include a rapid rise in consumer prices.

Continue reading “Doug Casey on Keeping Capital in a Depression”

Guest Post by Bill Bonner

YOUGHAL, IRELAND – World stock markets are already down more than $2 trillion – supposedly on “trade war worries.”

And now, Friday has come. Tariffs have gone up. $200 billion worth of Chinese imports now face levies of 25%, up from 10%.

And the trade negotiations with China continue. Foreign markets are selling off a bit more, but not catastrophically.

These negotiations are a big waste of time, from an economic point of view. But they seem to have helped Donald Trump’s approval ratings. There’s nothing like a war – even a loopy trade war – to rally the masses.

What won’t help his ratings is a big, premature market selloff. Trump wants to blame the coming recession/bear market on the Fed. He can’t afford to trigger it now…

Our guess is that investors still expect a deal with China. And a further guess is that The Donald will make sure they get one.

But we’ll wait and see…

Continue reading “The Only Real Way to “Fix” Capitalism”