This chart, published in the New York Times and based on work by Andrew Biggs of the American Enterprise Institute, shows the states with the most serious debt problems. Maybe I don’t follow state issues closely enough, but I was surprised to find that Alaska…
Daily Analysis
When Regulators Attack.
No, that’s not the name of a new TV series. We should be so lucky. Instead, it’s a good description of the government’s approach to tobacco. Instead of letting adults make up their own minds about costs and benefits of risky choices (which includes…
Excellent Video Channeling Bastiat
Tom Palmer of the Altas Network has a very concise – yet quite devastating – video exposing the Keynesian fallacy that the destruction of wealth by calamaties such as earthquakes or terrorism is good for economic growth. Tom cites the work of Bastiat, who…
Is America Becoming a Nation of Moochers?
This story from the Daily Caller about colleges helping kids sign up for food stamps, got me completely depressed. It’s not so much that this is indicative of a bloated, out-of-control government, though it is. It’s more that this symbolizes how the social…
Free-Market Organ Sales Would Save Lives.
USA Today reports on a study showing that payments to donors would significantly increase the supply of kidneys available for transplant. Such a system potentially could save thousands of lives per year, so it is perplexing that statists are so viscerally opposed. The…
Great Moments in Government Waste and Stupidity.
This Associate Press story really bolsters my confidence in the public sector. I can’t wait for geniuses like this to be in charge of determining what health care procedures are acceptable: Fifteen phony products – including a gasoline-powered alarm clock…
Taxpayers vs. Bureaucrats, Part XX.
There’s been a bit of buzz about a recent story in Politico revealing a huge increase in the number of congressional staff receiving six-figure salaries. Some of the details are eye-openers, including a 39 percent increase in the past four years in the number of…
Should Babies Born in America to Illegal Immigrants Get Automatic U.S. Citizenship?
George Will argues that the answer should be no. I’m not a lawyer, but I think he makes a compelling case regardless of how one feels about immigration in general or the specific issue of how to deal with illegals: A simple reform…would bring the…
More Sarkozy Demagoguery on Financial Regs.
Nicholas Sarkozy spoke at Columbia University in New York on Monday and, as he has done before, demonstrated that everyone who calls themselves a conservative is not a free marketer. The French President pressed for an expansion of global financial bureaucracies and…
America’s Tax Haven Policies Attract $Trillions of Job-Creating Investment.
I think it is very nice when left-wing groups publish reports that make the case for pro-market policies A recent example is a report from the Center for International Policy, which wants to demonize so-called tax havens, but their report shows that the United States…