Reports of the demise of #liberalism are greatly exaggerated

Los Angeles, 1952. Photo by J R Eyerman/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty

Critics...all seem to agree that liberalism can no longer solve our deep social, cultural, political and economic problems, and that it has become 'unsustainable'.

Not coincidentally, all of these critics are living, writing and publishing in liberal countries. 

The many deaths of liberalism

More than a century of death notices have not diminished the achievements and the necessity of liberalism

Daniel H Cole is professor of law and public and environmental affairs at Indiana University in Bloomington. He is a founding member of both the Midwest Law and Economics Association and the Society for Environmental Law and Economics. He is the author of seven books.

Aurelian Craiutu is professor of political science and adjunct professor of American studies at Indiana University in Bloomington. His most recent book is Faces of Moderation: The Art of Balance in an Age of Extremes (2016). He lives in Bloomington.

Modern democratic governments are founded on liberal principles meant to create the basis of a fair and just society. Liberalism emerged as a reaction against absolute power, in favour of individual autonomy protected by freedom of conscience and the rule of law. As the political theorist Judith Shklar put it in Political Thought and Political Thinkers (1998): 'Liberalism's deepest grounding is … in the conviction of the earliest defenders of toleration, born in horror, that cruelty is an absolute evil, an offence against God or humanity.' That is why liberal principles include, among others, limited government under the rule of law, with individual rights enforceable against the government. 

Liberal societies have not always lived up to these principles, which in some respects are always aspirational. But it cannot be denied that political societies based on liberal principles have been more successful, on almost any measure, than regimes that are more authoritarian, communitarian or sectarian.

So why do we read so often today that liberalism is in crisis, failing or already dead?

#WallStreet’s Need for Weed

Hedge funds, investors and mutual funds are piling in after Canada allowed recreational usage

The need for weed: why Wall Street is getting hooked on cannabis

Nicole Bullock in New YorkMarch 15, 2019 11:30 pm

In 2018, some Canadian groups started trading on the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq © AFP

Wall Street is developing a bit of a drug habit.

Nelson Peltz, the veteran activist investor, signed on this week as a strategic adviser to Aurora, a Canadian cannabis producer, picking up a load of stock options in the process. News of the appointment sent Aurora's New York-listed shares up 14 per cent, bringing gains for the year to more than 80 per cent.

…

The challenge now for investors is how to see through the haze to sort winners from losers. 

Plenty of start-ups will founder, said Bruce Linton, chief executive at Canopy Growth, a Canadian cannabis producer. His company — stock ticker WEED, and based in an old Hershey chocolate factory in the small town of Smiths Falls, Ontario — has a market capitalisation of C$21bn (US$15.7bn), on sales of C$147m over the nine months to December.

"Google came out of [the dotcom boom], but so did a bunch of other companies that disappeared," said Mr Linton.

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Insiders point to cannabis as having a multitude of untapped applications across several industries including pharmaceuticals, packaged foods and beverages as well as cosmetics and beauty.

Nelson Peltz and Bruce Linton © Bloomberg

Last year Altria, the tobacco company, took a stake in Canada's Cronos Group, and Corona beer maker Constellation Brands invested in Canopy. Vancouver-based Tilray, meanwhile, formed partnerships with AB InBev and pharmaceuticals group Novartis.

…

Still, many are optimistic. Cowen, one of the few US-based investment banks doing cannabis research, says CBD can "conservatively" generate sales in the US of $16bn by 2025

"You don't get an opportunity every day to participate in the very early stages of the creation of a large global industry and that is what is happening now," 

See the full article online here: https://amp.ft.com/content/433db5f8-4663-11e9-b168-96a37d002cd3?__twitter_impression=true

US #Cannabis Sales Figures are Staggering- and it’s just getting started $MJ $HMMJ

The High Sales Figures, no pun intended, are just the beginning. 

Attachment 1 shows sales figures for North America. The figures are already nearing the sales of the U.S. beer market-and the cannabis industry is just getting started…

 

 

Attachment 2 displays the potential spending for legalized cannabis in North America, simply staggering. 

Below are the Cannabis ETF's:

 $MJ (US)

 $HMMJ (CAN)

Niall Ferguson @NFergus on the state of Western Civilization in Conversation with @JohnAndersonAO

Don't miss this excellent interview with Niall Ferguson by Former Deputy Prime Minister of Australia John Anderson on the state of Western Civilisation, its history and current trajectory, the evils of Totalitarianism, the takeover of Western universities & colleges by the Left, Social Media and much more.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Re0Mu8Tq4fE&feature=share