In the United States, periods of rapid economic growth, such as 1983-89 and 1992-99, have been associated with a reduction in the total size of government. During the 1970s and much of the last decade, total (federal, state and local) government spending grew to a post-World War II record (36 percent), and these periods were associated with lower economic growth. In recent decades, many European countries have greatly increased government spending as a percentage of GDP, and as a result most of them experienced lower growth rates and much higher rates of unemployment than the United States. Richard Rahn in The Optimum Government

* http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan

Obama’s initial cabinet nominations, involving economic policy and national security, demonstrated a healthy commitment to centrism and even bipartisanship. Then the president-elect seemed to lurch to the left with the so-called ‘Green Team’, whose members include Steven Chu as Secretary of Energy, Lisa Jackson as head of the Environmental Protection Agency, and Carol Browner and Nancy Sutley as top White House advisors.

Many farmers worry that the Green Team’s vision of “helping” agriculture includes burdensome regulations and sky-high gas and energy prices. As we confront the global recession and food crisis, farmers and consumers alike will need policies that boost productivity rather than depress it. -- Dean Kleckner

After having experienced sputtering reform and progress from the time of the fall of the Soviet Union, Georgians elected perhaps the freest market government in the world four years ago. The president, prime minister and state chancellor are all dedicated free marketeers who studied F.A. Hayek and Milton Friedman and have learned from the successes of Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan. Many, including former high-ranking Russian officials, have argued that part of Moscow's motive in invading Georgia was to punish this newly successful upstart that was formerly part of the old empire. While Russia was becoming less democratic, Georgia was becoming more democratic. While Russia has engaged in renationalization and re-regulation, Georgia has engaged in mass privatization and deregulation. -- Richard Rahn.

I oppose the ratification of the Law of the Sea Treaty at this time. The Treaty threatens U.S. sovereignty and gives a U.N.-affiliated organization far too much authority over U.S. interests in international waters. The American people also deserve ironclad assurances that the problems with the treaty highlighted by President Reagan more than two decades ago have been fixed.

- Thus states US presidential candidate Fred Thompson according to Newsmax.com. Other candidates have expressed more interest in the treaty but show similar concern over the increased powers of the UN that a raticification of the treaty will imply.

Fred Thompson website

Fred Thompson: No to Law of the Sea Treaty

Read more in:

The US should reject the UN Law of the Sea Treaty

The ‘LOST 45’ UN Environmental Restrictions on US Sovereignty

‘LOST’ reality

LOST and found

Vetting LOST

Myths and Realities Concerning UN Law of the Sea Treaty*

Visit also The Institute for Trade, Standards & Sustainable Development at www.itssd.org.

See also Accuracy in Medias Cliff Kincaid (oktober 29): Bush's Toilet Bowl Treaty.

It is an impressive testament to the abiding affection and political influence of former President Ronald Reagan that the fate of a controversial treaty now before the U.S. Senate may ultimately turn on a single question: What would Reagan do? - As we had the privilege of working closely with President Reagan in connection with the foreign policy, national security and domestic implications of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (better known as the Law of the Sea Treaty or LOST), there is no question about how our 40th president felt about this accord. He so strongly opposed it that he formally refused to sign the treaty. He even sent Donald Rumsfeld as a personal emissary to our key allies around the world to explain his opposition and encourage them to follow suit. All of them did so at the time. - Read more in Another U.N. Power Grab By William P. Clark and Edwin Meese in The Wall Street Journal today.

See also articles:

The ‘LOST 45’ UN Environmental Restrictions on US Sovereignty

‘LOST’ reality

LOST and found

Vetting LOST

Myths and Realities Concerning UN Law of the Sea Treaty by Lawrence Kogan, and the announcement Abuse of constitutional powers.

The U.S. and most other developed countries followed Keynesian economic prescriptions in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. However, it was increasingly apparent by the 1970s that the Keynesian model was not working in that "stagflation" had developed (i.e., a stagnant economy and high inflation). Two giants of the economics profession, Nobel Laureates Milton Friedman and F.A. Hayek, and their followers had long been critics of Keynesian economics, and their forecasts had come true. Professor Robert Mundell of Columbia University, who also won the Nobel prize, and his associate Professor Arthur Laffer of Chicago (following in Friedman's and Hayek's footsteps) argued that the solution was to reduce high marginal tax rates on work, saving and investment to revive economic growth and, at the same time, reduce the growth of the money supply to reduce inflation.

This was precisely what was done in the early 1980s, and it worked better than expected. Mr. Reagan brought in a world-class team of economists, including the late Norman Ture as undersecretary of the Treasury for tax. Paul Volcker (originally appointed by Jimmy Carter) and, subsequently, Alan Greenspan at the Fed carried out the new monetary policy.

- Richard Rahn in Revival of the tax hikers.

Libertas - magasinet er nu udkommet i en 2007-udgave, som man kan læse gratis på internettet i pdf-format. I det nye eksemplar findes blandt andet en boganmeldelse af undertegnede, samt en novelle af Steen Steensen, som Copenhagen Institute har bragt flere kommentarer af.

En god del af tidsskriftet er også tilegnet den amerikanske filosof samt skønlitterære forfatter Ayn Rand. Man kan endvidere læse om Milton Friedman og Ronald Reagan.

Det kan nævnes, at Libertas udkom første gang i 1987. Der er således tale om 20 års jubilæum. I alt er der udgivet 46 numre af magasinet.

Om tidsskriftet skriver den afgående redaktør Nikolaj Gammeltoft i øvrigt at: [Det] er i tidens løb udkommet med varierende regelmæssighed (alle udgivelserne har været baseret udelukkende på frivillig arbejdskraft), aldrig har det haft et oplag over 400 eksemplarer og sjældent har det vakt opmærksomhed uden for gruppen af kernelæsere. Men tyve år og næsten 50 udgivelser vidner om, at tidsskriftet er mere end et sekterisk og studentikost nichefænomen – ikke bare fordi tidsskriftet til alle tider har indeholdt værdifulde indlæg og originale artikler, men fordi tidsskriftet er det eneste af sin art i Danmark: et forum for grundig og seriøs behandling af idéer og diskussioner relateret til forsvaret for et åbent samfund baseret på den frie tanke og den frie markedsøkonomi samt troen på hvert enkelt menneskes værdighed og integritet som absolutte værdier (for at citere selskabets principdeklaration).

Men har det haft en effekt i praksis?

Her er vurderingen at: - modoffensiven til en vis grad [er] lykkedes. De borgerlige debattører, kommentatorer, analytikere og politikere har vundet på væsentlige områder i det ideologiske landskab. Danmark er på ingen måde et borgerligt land, den politiske konsensus er fortsat overvejende socialdemokratisk og de statsfikserende venstreorienterede intellektuelle nyder stadig en privilegeret tilværelse. Men der er ikke længere tale om et meningsmonopol, og der bliver sagt ting fra borgerlig side i dag med en selvtillid og en styrke, som vidner om eksistensen af en stærk intellektuel kultur på højrefløjen i Danmark.

Download: Libertas - August-september 2007 (pdf)

Besøg Libertas her.

Download Hymne - den danske oversættelse af Ayn Rands "Anthem" her.

... In the 1950s, Khrushchev predicted: "We will bury you." But in the West today, we see a free world that has achieved a level of prosperity and well-being unprecedented in all human history. In the Communist world, we see failure, technological backwardness, declining standards of health, even want of the most basic kind--too little food. Even today [1987], the Soviet Union still cannot feed itself. After these four decades, then, there stands before the entire world one great and inescapable conclusion: Freedom leads to prosperity. Freedom replaces the ancient hatreds among the nations with comity and peace. Freedom is the victor.

Læs mere fra Ronald Reagans tale i Berlin anno 1987 hos Punditokraterne.

Vi ved i dag, at Reagan havde læst det sovjetiske regime fuldkommen korrekt. NATOs opstilling af Pershing-II-raketter og krydsermissiler i Europa som svar på sovjetiske SS-20-raketter førte til en historisk nedrustningsaftale, der indebar afskaffelse af atombærende mellemdistanceraketter. Mikhail Gorbatjov og hans rådgivere har efter Den Kolde Krig erkendt, at Reagans klare udmeldinger fik dem til at indse, at de måtte opgive ekspansionen og koncentrere sig om reformer hjemme i Sovjetunionen. - Det skriver Flemming Rose i en længere artikel i om Ronald Reagan i dagens udgave af Jyllands-Posten.

Den amerikanske præsident Ronald Reagan har udtalt, at ingen har haft så stor betydning for den amerikanske selvforståelse som John Wayne. Han blev indbegrebet af den amerikanske cowboy, og det blev umuligt at nævne ordet western, uden at tænke på »the Duke«, som han blev kaldt. Han var i disse film i stand til at gengive noble idealer, såsom hårdfør individualistisk maskulinitet, standhaftigt mod, beslutsomhed og udholdenhed i forfølgelsen af, hvad der er rigtigt. Han kommunikerede abstrakte idealer mere effektivt end nogen politiker kunne ved at personificere og visualisere dem. Han symboliserede styrke og patriotisme.

Læs mere om John Wayne i Berlingske Tidende.