Down on the Farm in Cuba

Free Market or Bust


From the Economist Online Edition:

What has gone wrong? Cuba’s state-owned farms are massively inefficient, and rarely provide more than 20% of the country’s food needs. Three hurricanes in 2008 made matters worse. Raúl Castro has acknowledged the problem, and introduced some changes. Idle state land has been leased to private farmers. The government has raised the guaranteed prices it pays for produce. Farmers can now legally buy their own basic equipment such as shovels and boots, without having to wait for government handouts.



READ the entire story here

I.M.F. Warns Wealthy Nations on Debt

From the New York Times - March 21, 2010

The global economic crisis has left “deep scars” in the fiscal balances of the world’s advanced economies, which should begin to rein in spending next year as the recovery continues, the No.2 official at the International Monetary Fund said Sunday in Beijing.

In a speech at the China Development Forum in Beijing, the I.M.F. official, John Lipsky, who is the deputy managing director, offered a grim prognosis for the world’s wealthiest countries, which are at a level of indebtedness not seen since the aftermath of World War II.

The ratio is expected to be close to or to exceed 100 percent for five members of the Group of 7 countries — Britain, France, Italy, Japan and the United States — by 2014. Canada and Germany are the other G-7 members.

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Click here for our "Debt Clock" ... (Warning- This is scary)

John Stossel - March 25th

We will be partnering with the Initiative for Public Choice and Market Process (IPCMP) for our next meeting. As part of the IPCMP's Adam Smith week, we welcome John Stossel of the Fox Business Network to Charleston.

His lecture, "Freedom and its Enemies" will take place on March 25th at 7pm at the Physicians Auditorium.

For more information on this event, and to see the entire schedule for Adam Smith Week, click here.

All events are free and open to the public.

The Physicians Auditorium is located at the corner of Glebe St and George St on the College of Charleston's Campus.