In April, the Polish Academy of Sciences published a document challenging man-made global warming. In the Czech Republic, where President Vaclav Klaus remains a leading skeptic, today only 11% of the population believes humans play a role. In France, President Nicolas Sarkozy wants to tap Claude Allegre to lead the country's new ministry of industry and innovation. Twenty years ago Mr. Allegre was among the first to trill about man-made global warming, but the geochemist has since recanted. New Zealand last year elected a new government, which immediately suspended the country's weeks-old cap-and-trade program.

The number of skeptics, far from shrinking, is swelling. Oklahoma Sen. Jim Inhofe now counts more than 700 scientists who disagree with the U.N. -- 13 times the number who authored the U.N.'s 2007 climate summary for policymakers. Joanne Simpson, the world's first woman to receive a Ph.D. in meteorology, expressed relief upon her retirement last year that she was finally free to speak "frankly" of her nonbelief. Dr. Kiminori Itoh, a Japanese environmental physical chemist who contributed to a U.N. climate report, dubs man-made warming "the worst scientific scandal in history." Norway's Ivar Giaever, Nobel Prize winner for physics, decries it as the "new religion." A group of 54 noted physicists, led by Princeton's Will Happer, is demanding the American Physical Society revise its position that the science is settled. (Both Nature and Science magazines have refused to run the physicists' open letter.)

From: The Climate Change Climate Change
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124597505076157449.html
by Kimberly Strassel

Seen on: Time to re-engage debate on global warming science
http://www.cfact.org/a/1545/Time-to-reengage-debate-on-global-warming-science

Aftalefriheden og arbejdskraftens relativt fri bevægelighed betyder altså, at polsk arbejdskraft (samt dansk arbejdskraft og arbejdskraft andetsteds, der nyder godt af de samme betingelser) kan søge arbejde der, hvor de højeste lønninger gives for det, man kan tilbyde. Hvem er det så i sidste instans, der bestemmer, hvordan arbejdskraften placeres? Svaret er forbrugerne. Det er forbrugerne, der belønner nogle virksomheder ved at købe disse virksomheders varer og ydelser, og som tilsvarende undlader at gøre forretninger med andre virksomheder.

Er ovenstående så et problem for Polen? Det er det naturligvis ikke, eftersom markedsøkonomien som sådan fungerer lige så godt i Polen, som den gør i Danmark, i det omfang den får lov til at gøre det: Indenfor nogle områder er polske virksomheder så bedre end danske. Det er en anden måde at sige, at forbrugere foretrækker det, som den eller de pågældende polske virksomhed kan levere til prisen, end hvad en tilsvarende dansk ville gøre. Andre gange er det omvendt.

- Læs mere om aftalefrihed, arbejdskraft, forbrugermagt og jobsøgning i 180grader.dk.

The experience of hiding from the well-armed, murderous border guards was enough to encourage in me a life-long interest in the study of the difference between free and oppressed countries, between those that have been seriously influenced by individualism and classical liberalism and those that have followed the path of collectivism and the centrally-planned economy. And this, in turn, has led to my writing on the topic and to being invited to conferences, seminars and such to engage in debates and make presentations in economics, including in some of these countries (herunder Bulgarien, Polen og Armenien).

- Det skriver Tibor Machan, der er professor of business ethics and writer on general and political philosophy i Shadows of Stalin. Overskriften (Stalins skygger) henviser i øvrigt til hans venstreorienterede vestlige universitetskolleger.

Tibor Machan har også en blog. Adressen er: http://tiborrmachan.blogspot.com .

Ifølge Hans-Jørgen Pahlke fra fagforeningen 3F får jordbærplukkere i Danmark en uanstændig lav løn. Bærplukning er som bekendt blot ét af de steder, hvor Danmark har fået besøg udefra i form af tilrejsende arbejdskraft fra Østeuropa.

Med andre ord: købekraften er det centrale. Om man får halvt så meget som andre i Danmark er i praksis mindre vigtigt; ellers ville man simpelthen ikke rejse hertil.

- Læs mere i Jordbærplukning, købekraft og kapitalisme.

I år 2003 blev der oprettet et "Ludwig von Mises Institute Poland". Indholdet på hjemmesiden er i det store hele på polsk. - Men her er hvad man kan læse om det økonomiske institut under Our Values:

We respect natural human rights - freedom of the individual, private property rights and the right to live. We support natural, free-will based interpersonal relations and oppose the abnormal and antisocial relations based on coercion. We believe that free-market economy (based on private property, free competition, honesty and abiding by contracts) is an essential component in achieving permanent welfare and eliminating societal pathologies. We therefore resist all forms of government intervention - because they limit individual freedom and are the source of harmful distortions. We reject approaches which emotionalize science and use propaganda where reason and reliable scientific methods ought to be the norm.

Mere om instituttet på engelsk under About us.

Læs en kort introduktion til Ludwig von Mises og den østrigske økonomiske skole på dansk.

Alverdens frimarkedstænketanke hos Atlas Economic Research Foundation.