I was surprised when the people of Oregon voted for a tax increase back in early 2010. Yes, I realize that the politicians and interest groups structured the measure so that the majority of voters would be unaffected. It was basically a class-warfare proposal, with a…
Daily Analysis
Will Natural Gas Cronyism Lead to a Post-Election Regulatory Deluge?
Veronique de Rugy documented today the degree to which the natural gas industry has captured the ear of government, receiving favorable treatment as a result: Public outrage at cronyism and corporate welfare is growing—and that’s all to the good. But don’t expect…
If Obama Beat Hoover, So What?
You know your record as President is abysmal when supporters are reduced to touting how much better you’ve done than Herbert Hoover. But that’s where Obama is at, apparently, as historian Robert McElvaine took to the New York Times a few days ago to make…
Price Controls Are Exacerbating the Damage of Hurricane Sandy
Price controls are a spectacularly foolish idea, and that’s true whether they’re imposed by thugs such as Hugo Chavez in Venezuela or bureaucrats at the Department of Health and Human Services. That’s why one of the 20th Century’s economic heroes is Ludwig Erhard, who…
If You Want Competent Government, You Should Support Small Government
I’ve written, ad nauseum, about the economic impact of excessive government spending. But I’ve also acknowledged that Article I, Section VIII of the Constitution grants specific powers to the federal government. What I’ve neglected to explore, though, is the key issue…
A Four-Picture Indictment: Final Pre-Election Jobs Report Is Not Good News for Obama
In some sense, the President is fortunate. I predicted a long time ago that he would win re-election if the unemployment rate was under 8 percent. Well, the new numbers just came out and the joblessness rate is 7.9 percent. So even though his stimulus failed, and even…
New International Monetary Fund Study Inadvertently Provides Very Strong Evidence against the Value-Added Tax
I’m not a big fan of the International Monetary Fund, largely because the folks in charge oftentimes advocate toxic policies such as bailouts, higher taxes, and currency devaluation. But there are some top-rate economists working at the IMF, and the bureaucracy has…
Is There a Libertarian Argument for another Four Years of Barack Obama?!?
From a rational perspective, the logical choice is not voting. After all, the odds of your vote making a difference are infinitesimally small. But that’s if you view voting as an “investment” choice – i.e., you taking time and effort to do X in hopes of getting Y in…
The Fiscal Burden of the Welfare State: A Picture Says a Thousand Words
Here’s a remarkable chart showing that we spend about $60,000 on various welfare programs for every poor household in America. And what are we getting for that giant expenditure of money? Well, as this other chart shows, our progress in the fight against poverty came…
Free Markets Protect Consumers with “Mutually Reinforcing” Private Regulation
I’ve written before about the heavy costs of regulation, including these rather sobering statistics. Or, to be more accurate, here are some staggering numbers. Americans spend 8.8 billion hours every year filling out government forms. The economy-wide cost of…