Acton Institute Powerblog Archives

Post Tagged 'subsidies'

March 23, 2010

Stossel on Nuclear Corporate Welfare

Channeling his inner Ralph Nader, John Stossel calls shenanigans on the GOP talking points touting the viability of nuclear power. As I noted in the context of a recent commentary on Obama’s promise of a new generation of nuclear reactors, Ralph Nader has asked a prescient question: “If these nuclear power plants are so efficient, so safe, why can’t they be built with unguaranteed private risk capital?” Continue Reading...
December 07, 2007

Farm Subsidies Follow-up: Feed the Rich

In one of this week’s Acton Commentaries, Ray Nothstine and I juxtapose a static, sedentary dependence on government subsidies with a dynamic, entrepreneurial spirit of innovation. The impetus for this short piece was an article that originally appeared in the Grand Rapids Press (linked in the commentary). Continue Reading...
December 05, 2007

Farm Subsidies: Sustaining Dependency

Are farmers hooked on pork? Jordan Ballor and Ray Nothstine look at the current battle over farm subsidies. “By encouraging the production of overabundant commodities, the government is creating a cycle of dependency that undermines entrepreneurial initiative,” they write. Continue Reading...
August 20, 2007

The New (Green) Robber Barons

What do you call titans of industry who influence governmental regulation to provide them with tax and subsidy incentives to make a business venture profitable? They used to be called robber barons…now apparently they’re “eco-millionaires.” Continue Reading...
June 21, 2007

Subsidies at Home, Suffering Abroad

In today’s NYT: “Oxfam Suggests Benefit in Africa if U.S. Cuts Cotton Subsidies.” “Eliminating billions of dollars in federal subsidies to American cotton growers each year would reduce American cotton production and exports, raise world prices by about 10 percent and modestly improve the incomes of millions of poor cotton farmers in Africa, according to a new study by Oxfam, the aid group.” Continue Reading...
January 24, 2007

Negotiating entitlements

Last night the President spoke of “the challenge of entitlements” and said that “Social Security and Medicare and Medicaid are commitments of conscience — and so it is our duty to keep them permanently sound.” Continue Reading...
July 18, 2006

Money for Nothing, or So it Seems

These kinds of stories make me sick, and they are all too common. In today’s Washington Post, a lengthy article examines the Livestock Compensation Program, which ran from 2002-2003, and cost over $1.2 billion. Continue Reading...