New Social Networking Site

by Allison Kasic
October 6, 2008, 1:24pm

Our friends over at Bureaucrash recently launched a new social networking website -- Bureaucrash Social -- to connect freedom-oriented activists so they can share their ideas and best-practices and work together to introduce others to freedom. Check it out.

Global Reaction to America's Financial Crunch

by Allison Kasic
October 6, 2008, 12:40pm

Over at the Wall Street Journal, William Easterly worries about the international response to America's financial  woes:

Some countries are already taking the wrong prescriptions from recent events. Honduran President Manuel Zelaya told the U.N. General Assembly last month that the lesson of the crash was "the market's laws were demonic, satisfying only the few." Paraguayan President Fernando Lugo said the "market mechanism" and "immoral speculation" were a mistake. Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva Lula added that speculators have "spawned the anguish of entire peoples" and Brazilians needed "indispensable interventions by state authorities."

We have been here before. Development economics -- the study of how poor countries can become rich -- was forever cursed by the timing of its birth after the Great Depression. That gave development economics a bias toward relying on governments, rather than markets, to create growth. The early development economists ignored a century and a half of European and North American development through individual enterprise, remembering only that their governments forcefully intervened to stimulate output during the 1930s.

As Easterly points out, such an approach will stunt long-term growth:

Development economics still bears the scars of the Depression. A prominent World Bank Growth Commission concluded in May that "fast, sustained growth does not happen spontaneously. It requires a long-term commitment by a country's political leaders," and "each country has specific characteristics and historical experiences that must be reflected" in the leaders' "growth strategy." Some at the U.N. still recommend the discredited Big Push strategy of state-planned investment.

How much poverty has endured because individual entrepreneurs were shunned in favor of the likes of the $5 billion state-owned Ajaokuta Steel Mill in Nigeria, which never produced a bar of steel? Or because African governments spend their time preparing World Bank-required national Poverty Reduction Strategy Reports instead of freeing space for innovators?

We will never know. But we do know that the free market has a long-run track record of creating prosperity -- even with the occasional crash. The Depression's deceptive intellectual legacy is that development flows from all-knowing states rather than creative individuals. Here's hoping that the backlash to today's crash will not spawn another round of bad economics for the poor.

More here.

Casting An Absentee Ballot Could Save Your Life

by Amy Watson
October 3, 2008, 1:22pm

A recent study comparing traffic deaths on presidential election days, shows an increase of 24 deaths on average versus other Tuesdays in October and November!  Experts attribute this increase to several potential factors, and co-author Dr. Donald Redelmeier advises drivers there are a number of ways to protect their safety:

He said voters can easily avoid the risks by not speeding, wearing seat belts and avoiding alcohol use before driving to the polls and on the way home. Better traffic enforcement and setting up more polling places that voters can walk to are other solutions he suggested. 

For the full article, click here.  And drive safely on Election Day!

Podcast Alert

by Stacy Chin
October 3, 2008, 12:36pm

IWF Junior Fellow Anna Thiergartner and Allison Kasic discuss IWF's 2008-2009 College Essay Contest.

LISTEN HERE!

If it’s not one thing, it’s always another

by Halima Karzai
October 3, 2008, 12:32pm

The ludicrous restrictions Saudi women may have to worry about now is going out in public exposing only one eye for fear that their eye makeup will "seduce" men. 

The BBC reports:

A Muslim cleric in Saudi Arabia has called on women to wear a full veil, or niqab, that reveals only one eye.

Sheikh Muhammad al-Habadan said showing both eyes encouraged women to use eye make-up to look seductive.

The question of how much of her face a woman should cover is a controversial topic in many Muslim societies.

The niqab is more common in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf, but women in much of the Muslim Middle East wear a headscarf which covers only their hair.

Sheikh Habadan, an ultra-conservative cleric who is said to have wide influence among religious Saudis, was answering questions on the Muslim satellite channel al-Majd.

The Sheikh needs more than a lesson or two in Islam 101 - even God hasn't ordained women to cover their faces and actually prohibits it when Muslim women make their pilgrimage to the Kabba in Mecca.  It's unnerving to even ponder what other type of ignorance will be breed within such Wahabi misogynists.

Where in the world can we do the most good?

by Allison Kasic
October 3, 2008, 10:27am

That's the question at the heart of the Copenhagen Consensus.  Reason's Ronald Bailey got a chance to talk to Bjorn Lomborg about the CC recently about what our global priorities should be.  The interview is pretty interesting -- I recommend checking it out here.

Food for Thought

by Allison Kasic
October 3, 2008, 10:25am

The National Center for Policy Analysis has an interesting new policy brief examining the Environmental Protection Agency's proposed new regulations regarding emissions.  Check it out.

Don't Title IX the Sciences

by Allison Kasic
October 2, 2008, 10:06am

Over at the Teachers College Record, Christina Hoff Sommers has a good article arguing against the push to expand Title IX enforcement into academic science.  Title IX supporters point to the fact the fact that men outnumber women in the sciences, claim discrimination, and say Title IX is the answer. However, as Sommers points out, there are reasons to believe that factors other than bias are at play in causing this discrepancy, and if that is true, Title IX is not the answer:

The Title IX activists are persuaded that women are being held back because of bias and a "hostile environment." But there are other, more plausible, explanations. Perhaps the relative paucity of women in physics and engineering reflects women's preferences and aspirations. This is a controversial proposition, but the research on gender and vocation is robust and growing. In 2007, the American Psychological Association published a collection of papers by more than twenty scholars entitled, Why Aren't More Women in Science: Top Researchers Debate the Evidence. Several made a strong case for bias; but an equal number made an equally strong case that biologically based sex differences explained the math and science gap. Also in 2007, Joshua L. Rosenbloom of the University of Kansas and colleagues published a meticulous study demonstrating that men and women differ systematically in their interests and that these differences can account for a large share of the gender gap in information technology occupations.

More here.  IWF on the subject here and here.

Video of the Day

by Allison Kasic
October 2, 2008, 10:02am

Carbon Busters:

Update: Video seems to be down at the moment.  If it goes back up, I'll update the link so you all can watch.

Update: It's working again.

IWF on Title IX

by Amy Watson
October 1, 2008, 3:07pm

Allison Kasic and Kim Schuld provide an interesting primer of Title IX in a new policy paper for IWF.  Kim and Allison discuss many facets of Title IX, including the law's history, key court cases, athletic participate numbers, and IWF's platform for Title IX reform.

Click here to read their paper.

What Caused Our Current Financial Troubles?

by Allison Kasic
October 1, 2008, 10:28am

In the past few weeks many have pointed a finger at the "failure of capitalism and deregulation."  Economist Steven Horwitz of St. Lawrence University takes on that argument head on an open letter to his friends on the Left:

One of the biggest confusions in the current mess is the claim that it is the result of greed. The problem with that explanation is that greed is always a feature of human interaction. It always has been. Why, all of a sudden, has greed produced so much harm? And why only in one sector of the economy? After all, isn't there plenty of greed elsewhere? Firms are indeed profit seekers. And they will seek after profit where the institutional incentives are such that profit is available. In a free market, firms profit by providing the goods that consumers want at prices they are willing to pay. (My friends, don't stop reading there even if you disagree - now you know how I feel when you claim this mess is a failure of free markets - at least finish this paragraph.) However, regulations and policies and even the rhetoric of powerful political actors can change the incentives to profit. Regulations can make it harder for firms to minimize their risk by requiring that they make loans to marginal borrowers. Government institutions can encourage banks to take on extra risk by offering an implicit government guarantee if those risks fail. Policies can direct self-interest into activities that only serve corporate profits, not the public.

Many of you have rightly criticized the ethanol mandate, which made it profitable for corn growers to switch from growing corn for food to corn for fuel, leading to higher food prices worldwide. What's interesting is that you rightly blamed the policy and did not blame greed and the profit motive! The current financial mess is precisely analogous.

No free market economist thinks "greed is always good." What we think is good are institutions that play to the self-interest of private actors by rewarding them for serving the public, not just themselves. We believe that's what genuinely free markets do. Market exchanges are mutually beneficial. When the law messes up by either poorly defining the rules of the game or trying to override them through regulation, self-interested behavior is no longer economically mutually beneficial. The private sector then profits by serving narrow political ends rather than serving the public. In such cases, greed leads to bad consequences. But it's bad not because it's greed/self-interest rather because the institutional context within which it operates channels self-interest in socially unproductive ways.

This, my friends, is exactly what has brought us to the mess we are now in.

More here.

In Case You Missed It

by Allison Kasic
October 1, 2008, 10:25am

Check out the latest IWF commentaries:

-Visiting fellow Donna Wiesner Keene looks at the presidential debates
 
-I take a look at how school choice affects teachers.

Banning the ban on driving

by Halima Karzai
September 30, 2008, 3:20pm

Saudi women have again defied laws set by the Saudi authorities that oppress women and have no basis in Islam (like many of their laws) - a ban on driving.

AFP reports a 20 year old Saudi women and her friend were injured in a car crash while out for a joy ride. 

The driving ban was formally established in 1990.  Recently, Saudi women activists have lobbied for a lift on the ban while some activists have also challenged authorities by taking to city streets in their cars. 

Global Warming Alarmists Want to Ration Your Food Supply

by Amy Watson
September 30, 2008, 1:41pm

In an unbelievable study released by the Food Climate Research Network, author Tara Garnett advocates for the government to ration consumers' ability to purchase various products in an effort to limit the consumption of meat, milk, and foods with little nutritional value like alcohol or sweets.  Are we really ready to give up a freedom  so fundamental as what we choose to feed ourselves and our family for a scientific theory that may be proven to be nonsense in a few years?  Click here for the story.

Energy Freedom Day

by Allison Kasic
September 30, 2008, 9:46am

It's right around the corner.

Female Factor

by Allison Kasic
September 30, 2008, 9:45am

Is Sarah Palin a feminist?  Check out the latest installment of the Female Factor here.

Another One-Sided Global Warming "Documentary"

by Amy Watson
September 29, 2008, 2:08pm

While scientists continue to debate the various issues surrounding climate change, the rest of society is slowly being indoctrinated into the cult of man made global warming.  Rather than allow scientists to do their job and determine if global warming is in fact occurring, green activists spend as much time stifling debate as they do preaching to us about reducing our carbon footprint. 

Lord Monckton, a respected climate change skeptic and key player in getting the politically charged and factually incorrect movie "An Inconvenient Truth" removed from British public schools, is accusing the BBC of deliberately misrepresenting his views in a recent documentary.  Click here to read the full story.

Taliban Murder Prominent Afghan Policewoman

by Halima Karzai
September 29, 2008, 11:00am

The Taliban have targeted their usual barbaric actions against Malalai Kakar, Afghanistan's prominent policewoman.  Lt-Col Kakar was brutally murdered as she was heading to the Kandahar police department where she worked in the in the crimes against women unit.

IWF has been a proponent of women joining post-conflict reconstruction, which includes taking part in security forces within their nations.  While Kakar's murder is an ugly reminder of women's vulnerability in their role to rebuild and protect society, it also is a reminder of Afghan women's resilience and motivation to join forces against terrorists in protecting their homeland. 

News of Malalai Kakar's murder has been covered by the BBC.

Taleban rebels, who banned women from joining the police when they were in power, said they had carried out the shooting.

"We killed Malalai Kakar," a Taleban spokesman told AFP news agency.

"She was our target, and we successfully eliminated our target."

The BBC's Martin Patience in Kabul says Ms Kakar was one of only a few hundred female police officers in Afghanistan and that she had previously received death threats.

Ms Kakar, who was reported to be in her early 40s and had six children, was one of the most high-profile women in the country.

She has figured prominently in the national and international media, partly due to a famous episode in which she killed three would-be assassins in a shoot-out - although she said her everyday life involved tackling theft, fights and murders.

Ms Kakar joined Kandahar's police force in 1982, after her father and brothers were also police officers.

As Alanis would Say, "Isn't It Ironic?"

by Allison Kasic
September 29, 2008, 9:46am

Alex Adrianson at Heritage points to a study that says people who claim to lead eco-friendly lifestyles and who are more conscious of environmental issues take the longest flights.  Details here.

Quote of the Day

by Allison Kasic
September 29, 2008, 9:45am

Courtesy of Mark Sanford in the Washington Post:

An ever-expanding scope of federal commitment and power is not what made this country great. Expanded power in one place comes at a cost in other places. American cornerstones such as individual initiative and an entrepreneurial spirit -- born in free and open societies with private property rights and the rule of law -- have never fit particularly well within the context of an ever-growing federal government.

Because It's Friday

by Allison Kasic
September 26, 2008, 9:49am

I present Dilbert's take on companies going green.

Equal Pay and the Election

by Allison Kasic
September 26, 2008, 9:38am

Former IWF Women Who Make the World Better award recipient Karin Agness has a good piece over at Townhall.com looking at the push from the Obama camp to make equal pay a major issue in the 2008 election.  Karin points out the misdirection that is too often goes along with politicians talking about "equal pay":

The 1963 Equal Pay Act prohibits wage differentials based on sex. Obama, however, is still promoting the idea that women are not paid the same as men because of discrimination. What is he really talking about? While he prefers to talk in generalities instead of specifics as to how he will achieve equal pay, he seems to be advocating "comparable worth," a means to achieve pay equity by requiring employers to pay people in jobs "comparable" to each other the same. For example, a coal miner, a job traditionally fulfilled by men, might be judged "comparable" to a secretary, a job traditionally fulfilled by women, so employers would have to pay people in these jobs equal wages. Advocates for "comparable worth" lost the battle because of the feared consequences of trying to compare jobs. As a result, Obama is pursuing his quest for "comparable worth" under a different label, equal pay. He even cosponsored the Fair Pay Act, which refers to "equivalent jobs."

Read more here.  Check out the IWF Female Factor on this topic here.

Attention DC Residents: Films to Check Out

by Allison Kasic
September 25, 2008, 2:47pm

The 2008 American Film Renaissance film festival is hitting the nation's capital on Oct. 1st.  The event will include four fun days of liberty-loving feature films, documentaries, and shorts.  Highlights of the festival are sure to include:
 
-The world premiere of Do As I Say on Oct. 2nd
 
-The world premiere of U.N. Me on Oct. 4th
 
More information and tickets available here.  If you're in the area, I recommend checking the festival out.  Last year I went to a few films at the festival, including The Call of the Entrepreneur and Indoctrinate U, both of which were fabulous.

Free Markets Not to Blame for Current Meltdown

by Amy Watson
September 25, 2008, 2:08pm

We should not blame the free market on the current collapse in the financial market, but should instead contemplate the governmental demands and regulations that may have brought about the current situation.  Click here to read John Stossel's latest column discussing this issue.