May 2010
The Chamber, Loaded Against the Free Market →
[O]n the whole, the major support for a regulatory regime, or for subsidies and tariffs, for almost any scheme of government control of business, is usually business itself.
April 2010
Everyone Prospers With Free Trade →
Trade is win-win. Two people trade only because each values what he gets more than what he gives up. That’s why in a store both customer and clerk say, “Thank you.”
The Left's Identity Politics →
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Smog Check: Government Sponsored Extortion
I received my renewal notice for my car’s registration a few weeks back. But new for this year was an order to run my vehicle through a smog check certification before being able to renew its registration.
My car is not an old car. In fact, I have under 35,000 miles on it. There’s no reason to suspect that this modern car made with modern emission considerations would now start...
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Five Myths of Green Energy →
The Rational Optimist →
Meddlers At the Gate →
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Earth Day 1970 = Earth Day 2010 →
The sky is falling!
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“Capitalism is so darn good at what it does that it can even bamboozle...”
– Jeffrey A. Tucker
Filtering History →
If the history of slavery ought to teach us anything, it is that human beings cannot be trusted with unbridled power over other human beings - no matter what color or creed any of them are. The history of ancient despotism and modern totalitarianism practically shouts that same message from the blood-stained pages of history.
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“When plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men living together in...”
– Frederic Bastiat
Is the Libertarian Case Against Income... →
No.
Just because something is done voluntarily doesn’t mean that objections to the state doing more of that something are without merit.
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The Ron Paul Moment →
Peace and Violence →
Government cloaks itself in magnificent titles, marble buildings, and majestic ceremonies. Behind this glorious façade, though, is a fusillade of brutal and deadly force, ready to be violently unleashed against anyone who disobeys the commands of ruling politicians.
SEC Incompetence →
There has been much speculation that the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) released its charges against Goldman Sachs on the eve of a Senate vote on new finance regulation in order to help Democrats win that vote. Perhaps that theory is wrong: It now looks more likely that the SEC timed its Goldman case in order to divert attention away from two SEC inspector general reports criticizing...
Obama's Fannie and Freddie Amnesia →
The president’s complicity in the housing collapse hasn’t stopped him from pinning the blame on Republicans, “special interests,” and Wall Street “fat cats.” As he does with other problems, the president blames everyone except himself and his party.
Watch
Let’s Keep Losing! →
The Problem with Socialism is Capitalists →
If by “capitalist” you mean someone who cares more about his own profit than yours; if you mean someone who cares more about providing for his family than providing for yours; if you mean someone who trusts that he is a better caretaker of his own interests and desires than a bureaucrat he’s never met, often in a city he’s never been to: then we are all capitalists....
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Countering Neo-Malthusianism →
Population, Consumption, Carbon Emissions, and Human Well-Being in the Age of Industrialization
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Elian: Ten Years Later →
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School Sucks: The Movie →
Who is the parent to the parent? →
Myths About Capitalism →
"Raise My Taxes! Raise My Taxes!" →
So chanted thousands of bused-in ACFSME union “grassroots” agitators to Illinois state congressmen, urging them to “raise [our] taxes!” so that their salaries and benefits wouldn’t be cut. But that sort of indicates right there that their taxes aren’t really being raised, doesn’t it? Their employer is the government. If the government raises their taxes a...
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Make state programs compete for funds →
Californians are sick of watching their leaders kick the state’s fiscal problems into the future. They are also tired of sterile debates about how much to spend on X vs. Y, with no attention to the results these expenditures produce or the long-term liabilities they create for the state.
Dodd's jobs-killer →
If the Dodd bill were to eliminate future financial crises and related bailouts, perhaps its high cost would be worth paying. But it instead ignores the causes of the crisis, in favor of an agenda that rewards the very regulators that failed us the last time. It’s a win for special interests, and a loss for job creation.
An Economy of Liars: Why Government Regulation... →
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Financial "Reform" Summary →
[J]ust as drug companies and insurers used Republicans to kill the public option before using Democrats to mandate insurance and subsidize drugs, big banks are using Republicans to kill a bank tax while using Democrats to erect barriers to entry, to institutionalize bailouts, and to restore confidence in Wall Street.
Banks, as with all big-money lobbies, are working both sides. Per usual, big...
Sinners in the Hands of an Angry Gaia →
I’m sorry to burst the eco-misanthropes’ bubble, but it wasn’t so much an awesome natural force that brought Europe’s skies to a standstill, as it was political cowardice—which is something we can predict, control, master, and change.
The Parable of the Sooty Window →
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Obama: Washington Needs to Be More Like California →
It’s the Barack comedy hour…
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Why California Will Get Even Sicker →
California’s problem is both structural and willful: The state has lung cancer and the doctors can only recommend a switch to filterless cigarettes.
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The Beholden State →
How public employees became members of the elite class in a declining California offers a cautionary tale to the rest of the country, where the same process is happening in slower motion. The story starts half a century ago, when California public workers won bargaining rights and quickly learned how to elect their own bosses—that is, sympathetic politicians who would grant them outsize pay and...
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Keith Olbermann’s Worst Nightmare →
Distrusting Government: As American as Apple Pie →
The new Slave Masters →
The perils of the value-added tax →
A VAT will be rationalized as necessary to restore fiscal equilibrium. But without ending the income tax, a VAT would be just a gargantuan instrument for further subjugating Americans to government.
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“The fact that you can still buy wooden wagon wheels and almanacs proves that the...”
– Jim Fedako
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The Permanent Bailout →
Obama said today in his weekly radio address:
Never again will taxpayers be on the hook because a financial company is deemed ‘too big to fail’.”
He also decried Republican “misinformation” about the bill.
Like the thousand-page healthcare reform bill, the President apparently hasn’t bothered to read the financial overhaul bill. Here’s a summary of...
Unfaithful Friend of Liberty →
A closer look at [Justice] Stevens’ record shows that he has been anything but consistent in his opposition to government excesses and that in some ways he has become less inclined to protect constitutional rights.
The Senate v. The Constitution →
[G]inning up anger about corporations is always a useful distraction, because what Leahy is really asking is this: Do you share our concern that the Constitution, too often interpreted as written, is holding back an empathetic and enlightened progressive agenda?
Protectionist Blather →
Anytime government obstructs trade with foreign producers, among the chief beneficiaries are always corporate interests.
Visualizing Obama's Budget Cutting →
Lower and Simplify Taxes! →
This is insane. How dare a government that supposedly serves the people impose on us this way? Politicians who pass these tax laws aren’t our representatives. They’re our rulers! They increase the tax burden and its complexity, and then demand we pay them homage to get exemptions for little pieces of our lives.
Tax Day arrives to rising discontent →
This year, April 15 comes in the middle of the biggest tax revolt in three decades.
