When I write about the importance of understanding the difference between a disease and its symptoms, I’m almost always seeking to help people understand why it’s important to focus on the problem of government spending rather than the side-effect of government…
Daily Analysis
Should American Taxpayers Pay a $1 Billion Bribe to Get Syria to Drop Chemical Weapons?
Maybe it’s because I have a bit of a old-fashioned moralistic streak to me, but I viscerally object to the notion that good people should pay bad people not to do bad things. That’s why, a few years ago, I didn’t react favorably when the former dictator of Libya asked…
A “Moderate” Dan Mitchell with “Few Strong Opinions” for a Kinder, Gentler Era of “Tenderness”
Early this year, I took a libertarian purity test put together by Professor Bryan Caplan at George Mason University. The good news is that I got a 94. Sounds like a solid A, right? Well, the bad news is that the test wasn’t on a 0-100 scale. The maximum grade was 160,…
Why Did the Libertarian Chicken Cross the Road?
The good thing about being a libertarian is that you are motivated by freedom, which is a very noble principle, and you have lots of evidence on your side, whether the issue is economics or personal liberty. You can’t afford to be smug, of course, since it’s still a…
Deconstructing Barack Obama, Part I
I’ve argued that Obama’s not a socialist. I wasn’t trying to defend him. I was simply making the point that it’s technically more accurate to refer to him as a statist or a corporatist. But he may be even worse than that, at least according to a must-read Kevin…
CF&P Joins Coalition Supporting Amash Amendment to Defund Privacy-Violating Surveillance
[Download Coalition Letter] Dear Member of the U.S. House of Representatives: We write to urge you to vote yes on the bipartisan Amash-Conyers amendment to the Department of Defense Appropriations Act of 2014 (H.R. 2397). Rep. Amash’s proposed amendment would defund…
If the Government Doesn’t Double Tax Your Retirement Savings, Are You Benefitting from an Entitlement?
I’ve cited some remarkable examples of Orwellian language abuse. The World Bank published a study of national tax systems and countries with higher tax burdens were rewarded with a grade of “high effort.” A German bureaucrat accused a Czech politician of “obstructing…
Jack Lew and Citigroup: How the Corrupt Rich Get Unjustly Richer with Crony Capitalism
If you’re an amoral person with political connections, it’s possible to make a lot of money. Warren Buffett lined his pockets by making a government-subsidized investment in Goldman Sachs during the financial crisis. The rest of us suffered and he got richer, but the…
Just Because California Is Terrible, that Doesn’t Mean Texas Is Perfect
Texas is in much better shape than California. Taxes are lower, in part because Texas has no state income tax. No wonder the Lone Star State is growing faster and creating more jobs. And the gap will soon get even wider since California voters recently decided to…
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…