1. America was created as a land focused on the protection of liberty and limited government. Known as the “land of the free”, the country has been a rare force in the history of the world in terms of creating and maintaining a free society. That being said, with individual freedom being a nearly limitless value, certainly a prime one, there remains the need to be diligent in the protection of freedom here at home. I am critical of a number of steps our government has taken in relation to stepping on the freedoms of its people. I believe the pendulum needs to swing back towards liberty, away from large and overzealous government. Given the historical stance of the U.S. as the land of the free, it is important to analyze some of the areas where we are coming up short. I do not believe this article is exhaustive, but I do believe it brings up some critical issues.

2. In relation to the above, I though it was very interesting to check out the Index of Economic Freedom as calculated by the Heritage Foundation. Click here to take a look. By their measures, the United States came in at #5, behind Hong Kong, Singapore, Ireland, and Australia. I personally call for an extension of economic freedom in the United States.

3. ABC appears set to produce a reality series chronicaling some of the actions of the U.S. federal government’s Homeland Security division. It will be very interesting to see how the big media, Disney-owned ABC will present the relatively young, and somewhat questionably named, agency. Check out the article here.

4. In 2005, bankruptcy laws were changed to make it much more difficult for borrowers to exit their debts via default. This action decreased bankruptcies for a couple years as more people tried to keep the black mark from hitting their credit, while still being required to labor under a significant portion of the debt. Mike Shedlock is reporting that the new rules are now starting to hit the fan. With food, fuel and other input prices rising substantially and no further access to equity from now falling home values, I see the trend of bankruptcies surging.

5. Bill Bonner reports further that Americans are getting poorer.

6. And finally, Rocky Mountain News is reporting that the Denver news media will be shown a video of a space alien this Friday. This will likely be yet another hoax, but it is interesting that a Pulitzer Prize winning news organization would print such an article. Check it out. It’s one of those things where, you never know…

PEACE!

Kemp

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