Happy Independence Day

'That capitalism is a prerequisite for freedom is neither a new idea nor one applicable only to America's. Nobel economist F. A. Hayek wrote in The Road to Serfdom in 1944: "It is now often said that democracy will not tolerate 'capitalism.' If 'capitalism' means here a competitive system based on free disposal over private property, it is far more important to realize that only within this system is democracy possible." As Milton Friedman echoed in the book's preface, "the free market is the only mechanism that has ever been discovered for achieving participatory democracy." Capitalism and democracy reinforce each other, but it is the former that is determinant.'

- J T Young, 'Free Men and Free Markets'.

'Independence Day has always been observed in the United States as a celebration of our freedom from rule of the United Kingdom.

Our Founding Fathers created a Constitution that insured that Americans would live freely, able to pursue their own happiness. They never could have imagined the realization that those freedoms would be threatened by the very government that their founding document created. In less than a year, we have witnessed a government takeover of banks and lending institutions, a presidential firing of an executive at a major corporation -- General Motors -- and the toppling of established U.S. bankruptcy laws to the benefit of the president's political allies.

But this breathtaking claim of power may pale in comparison to the impact Americans will feel from enactment of the so-called American Clean Energy and Security Law, which has been passed by the Democratic-controlled House.

The new bill -- ostensibly designed to save the planet from what alarmists claim is danger from the trace gas known as CO2 -- threatens the economy, jobs and American freedoms'.

- Frank Beckmann, 'Climate bill gives huge powers to government'.

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