Freedom Line Blog

Paul Krugman, the political left’s favorite economist, claims quite a record for faceplant predictions.  Readers will recall his prediction on election night in November 2016 that markets would “never” recover from the ensuing crash that Donald Trump’s upset victory would trigger.

Here’s another timeless Krugman gem from 1998:

The Left's Favorite Economist

Join CFIF Corporate Counsel and Senior Vice President Renee Giachino today from 4:00 p.m. CDT to 6:00 p.m. CDT (that’s 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. EDT) on Northwest Florida’s 1330 AM WEBY, as she hosts her radio show, “Your Turn: Meeting Nonsense with Commonsense.”  Today’s guest lineup includes:

4:00 CDT/5:00 pm EDT:  Steve Bucci, Visiting Fellow, Douglas and Sarah Allison Center for Foreign and National Security Policy at The Heritage Foundation – Better School Security;

4:15 CDT/5:15 pm EDT:  Nicholas Eberstadt, Henry Wendt Chair in Political Economy at the American Enterprise Institute – North Korea;

4:30 CDT/5:30 pm EDT:  Michelle Minton, Senior Fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute – Sports Gambling;

4:45 CDT/5:45 pm EDT:  Michael Cannon, Cato Institute’s Director of Health Policy Studies – The Fate of ObamaCare;

5:00 CDT/6:00 pm EDT:  Commissioners Brecht Heuchan and Fred Karlinsky, Florida Constitution Revision Commission – Proposed Constitutional Provisions; and

5:30 CDT/6:30 pm EDT:  William J. Conti, Partner at Baker & Hostetler – NFL Anthem Policy, John McCain, Recent Primaries and more.

Listen live on the Internet here. Call in to share your comments or ask questions of today’s guests at (850) 623-1330.

CFIF recently highlighted the importance of strengthening intellectual property rights as part of ongoing trade negotiations in a piece entitled “Intellectual Property:  NAFTA Renegotiation Priority #1.” Days later, Senator Pat Toomey (R – Pennsylvania) echoed that call in his Wall Street Journal commentary.

This week, celebrated economist Stephen Moore added his voice in a brilliant commentary entitled “Trade Deals Must Protect Intellectual Property Rights”:

American investments, ingenuity and entrepreneurship have made intellectual property one of our nation’s most important assets.  IP-intensive industries, including software, biotechnology and entertainment, now support nearly one-third of all U.S. jobs.  But too often, our foreign trading partners take unfair advantage of our IP innovations to enrich themselves at our expense.”

Moore proceeds to highlight the pharmaceutical sector as one particularly abused by foreign governments, and notes the enormous cost of IP theft to the U.S. economy by nations like China, then stresses the ominous danger if we fail to act:

Intellectual property is every bit as vital to our economy – if not more so – than steel or aluminum.    America leads the world in computer software;  drugs;  artificial intelligence;  patents;  trademarks;  and music, entertainment and other creative industries.  But how long can that last when competitor nations are ripping off our entrepreneurial companies to the tune of half a trillion dollars a year?”

It’s an excellent piece worth the read, and a welcome call from someone to whom the White House listens.

Inexplicably, the U.S. Senate this week narrowly moved to restore 2015 Obama Administration Federal Communications Commission (FCC) crony capitalist internet regulations.  Here’s the effect that Obama FCC regulation immediately had on mobile broadband investment.  It’s now the duty of the House of Representatives and the Trump Administration to kill this mindless Obama-era attempt to regulate the internet, and we encourage everyone to contact their Representatives and the White House to demand that action.

Neutering the Net

The Center for Individual Freedom applauds Senator Mike Lee on the introduction of the SMARTER Act of 2018.  Among other improvements, this bill includes key reforms to the flawed Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC’s) merger review process, including:  1) establishing a reasonable time limit for agency review to ensure fairer, more transparent and timely decisions, and 2) ending the ability to effectively kill transactions by designating them for hearing before Administrative Law Judges, instead requiring such cases to be litigated in federal court just as the Justice Department must when contesting proposed transactions.

CFIF urges quick Senate passage of the commonsense legislation.

Join CFIF Corporate Counsel and Senior Vice President Renee Giachino today from 4:00 p.m. CDT to 6:00 p.m. CDT (that’s 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. EDT) on Northwest Florida’s 1330 AM WEBY, as she hosts her radio show, “Your Turn: Meeting Nonsense with Commonsense.” Today’s guest lineup includes:

4:00 CDT/5:00 pm EDT:  Jonathan Williams, Chief Economist and Vice President, Center for State Fiscal Reform at the American Legislative Exchange Council – Rich States, Poor States;

4:15 CDT/5:15 pm EDT:  Pete Sepp, President of National Taxpayers Union – Unemployment Report;

4:30 CDT/5:30 pm EDT:  Phil Kerpen, President of American Commitment – New NAFTA;

4:45 CDT/5:45 pm EDT:  Karen Kerrigan, President and CEO of the Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council – Sugar Subsidies;

5:00 CDT/6:00 pm EDT:   Fred Lucas, White House Correspondent at the Daily Signal at The Heritage Foundation – Judicial Nominees and Schneiderman;

5:15 CDT/6:15 pm EDT:  Richard Samp, Chief Counsel, Washington Legal Foundation – Drug Innovators and Liability; and

5:30 CDT/6:30 pm EDT:  Timothy Lee, CFIF’s Senior Vice President of Legal and Public Affairs – Intellectual Property and More.

Listen live on the Internet here. Call in to share your comments or ask questions of today’s guests at (850) 623-1330.

In this week’s Liberty Update, we emphasize how intellectual property (IP) protection should be priority number one for the Trump Administration as it renegotiates the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) this month.

In that vein, we’re pleased to see Senator Pat Toomey (R – Pennsylvania) echo that point in his commentary in today’s Wall Street Journal:

[T]he administration can accept the advice from many members of Congress and others to modernize Nafta in ways that expand trade opportunities without curtailing American consumers’ freedom…  Nafta’s pre-internet intellectual property rules could be strengthened.”

Well said, and hopefully the message resonates within the Trump Administration to continue its remarkable recent string of economic and international successes.

Something that should’ve happened long ago, but that all Americans should be grateful to have been accomplished in swift order by President Trump – new street signs pointing to U.S. embassy in Jerusalem:

At Long Last - U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem

From the always-insightful Holman Jenkins of The Wall Street Journal in his latest “Business World” commentary:

Mr. Pai, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, cares about good policy.  That hasn’t been the rule for years.  During the Obama era, tech and telecom policy were driven by White House interest in whipping up millennials and exploiting public hostility to cable providers.”