Articles & Op-eds

Dealing with the Threat of Global Recession

Fred L. Smith Jr. — Sun, 9 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Fred L. Smith Jr. and John Berlau on the upcoming Global Economic Summit: Governments should agree to a timetable to end the bailouts.

Sarbanes-Oxley Challenge Is Rooted in Law’s Flaw

John Berlau — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Poseur Shareholders

Steven J. Milloy — Thu, 29 May 2008 13:50:47 -0700

The green blitzkrieg hit the ExxonMobil annual shareholder meeting this week.

Bear Fire Sale Leaves Owners Without A Say

John Berlau — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Bear Stearns shareholders, the true owners, are being denied a voice in the fate of the firm.

Freedom and its Digital Discontents

John Berlau — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Read John Berlau's closing statement in the Economist.com debate "Proposition: By intervening to regulate business and financial risks, governments have made things worse."

Freedom and its Digital Discontents

John Berlau — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 00:00:00 -0700

John Berlau, director of CEI's Center for Entrepreneurship, debates Sarbanes-Oxley in the Economist

Bailout Blues

John Berlau — Sun, 16 Dec 2007 23:00:00 -0800

'Profit motive' can benefit everyone

Michelle Minton — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 23:00:00 -0800

If Thomas Robertson, the new dean of Wharton School, really wants his students to be a "force for good'"in the world, he ought to teach them the virtue of the profit motive, not altruism ("Wharton dean wants school seen as 'force for good,'" USATODAY.com, Saturday).

The selfish desire for long-term personal wealth is the best incentive for creating sound and effective businesses. While it's possible for a company to be both profitable and socially conscious, it is more likely to succeed when it bases its decisions on profit.

The Subprime FHA

John Berlau — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 00:00:00 -0700

After two months of economic jitters over bad lending decisions, it looks as if the credit markets may have turned a corner. The stock market has regained its ground, and repriced deals are moving through the business pipeline.

But just as financial players are applying more scrutiny to private-sector loans, the elected trustees of the taxpayers' piggy bank are looking to engage in some real estate speculation of their own by expanding a 73-year-old New Deal edifice: the Federal Housing Administration.

The Long Petard: The New York Times and Sarbox

John Berlau — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 00:00:00 -0700

Having dug itself into a hole with inept handling of the MoveOn.org ad and its aftermath, the New York Times Company may soon find itself unable to put down its shovel. Few ironies approach the richness of the mess the firm may face with the regulatory requirements of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (Sarbox).