Will Generation “Gimme” Work for the American Dream?

The short answer: No. The propaganda is succeeding. The Enlightenment notion of Life, liberty, and Property laid out in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution has given way to the entitlement society.

Michael O'Leary: EU Gadfly and Low Cost Innovator of Ryan Air

Michael O'Leary is a man to be emulated. If more CEO types spoke out about regulatory burdens and corporate taxes, we might start to see a popular revolution. O'Leary's frustration is not unique to the airline industry, either. The frustration with regulatory zeal goes across a great swath of industries.

Let's be honest. Some CEOs love regulations. The biggest industry players know that regulations are barriers to their industry. Regs become a cost of doing anti-competitive business. But there are still a lot of CEOs out there who get it. They are tired of trying to make life better for customers wearing straightjackets. They are tired of being tax collectors for bureaucrats -- and passing the costs onto their customers.

Via Ideas Matter

JIB JAB Year in Review

The Legacy of North Korean Communism

While many in the OWS crowd are longing for a Communist takeover of the United States so all the nation's wealth can be distributed equally among the comrades, they would be well instructed to look economic legacy of the two Koreas. The chart above shows another comparison of the economies of North and South Korea, based on data from Angus Maddison. Between 1950 and the early 1970s, real GDP per capita in South Korea was exactly the same as in North Korea. As South Korea implemented market reforms, its economy and output per person started consistently rising while economic conditions to the north stagnated. After forty years of market-based growth, real GDP per capita is now about 17.5 times higher in South Korea compared its norther neighbor.

Night on the Korean Peninsula

Grouch: So shouldn't the OWS crowd be protesting against crony capitalism and excessive government intervention in the economy in favor of more free market reforms for their own future prosperity and success?

Cartoon of the Day: Corzine

Chris Davis and David Winters on Wealthtrack

Two investors from the Ben Graham and Warren Buffett school of value investing appear on WealthTrack this week. Chris Davis shares three generations of investment lessons he is applying at the Davis Funds. Wintergreen Fund’s David Winters explains his market and peer beating global strategies.

Forget College? Become an Entrepreneur?

Do you agree with Peter Thiel? I do for those handful of people who have the drive, confidence and genius to make their visions a reality, but I think these types of people are few and far between, and the right path for most people is to go to college and take the "safer" road to prosperity.

Kurt Vonnegut: On The Shape of the Story