Don't endanger free markets, Czech president warns

- Massive government spending and tighter regulation would prolong recession, Czech President Vaclav Klaus said on Monday, as he urged U.S. President Barack Obama not to endanger the free market economy in his response to the financial crisis.

In a speech at Columbia University in New York, Klaus, a former Czech prime minister who championed the free market after the fall of Communism 20 years ago, said he never expected to see such extensive government intervention again in his lifetime as he now sees around the world.

"I am therefore convinced that fighting for freedom and free markets, something we always appreciated here in this country (the United States), remains the task of the day,"

He cautioned against trying to solve economic problems by more government intervention.

"The best thing to do right now would be to temporarily weaken, if not repeal, business regulations on labor, the environment, social issues and health"

[This fellow really loses something in text form; I saw him on the Glenn Beck show some time ago and was impressed. He really leaves one with the sense that he's been there and done that - 'that' being experienced first-hand the inevitable degradation of livelihood and liberties that accompany socialism. Would that all Americans would speak of individual liberties with the same quite passion he does.]

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