Here are two superb articles on the financial crisis. First, from Peter Wallison at the American Enterprise Institute, we have a piece on the role of government housing subsidies. Since he warned, in advance, that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were ticking time bombs, Peter has great credibility on these issues. Here is his key […]

I don’t know whether to be amused, disgusted, or angry, but any politician who says we need higher taxes is crazy so long as the federal government is squandering even one penny on sting operations designed to interfere with the freedom of consenting adults to busy and sell unpasteurized milk. Here are some excerpts from […]

There hasn’t been much good economic news in recent years, but one bright spot for the economy is that the United States is a haven for foreign investors and this has helped attract more than $10 trillion to American capital markets according to Commerce Department data. These funds are hugely important for the health of […]

I’m an over-protective parent. Even now, with my kids ranging between 18 and 23, I will try to herd them together while skiing so I can follow them down the slopes and watch for potential injuries. And I never got them a jungle gym when they were young, even though I somehow managed to survive […]

I’m not a big fan of the IRS, but usually I blame politicians for America’s corrupt, unfair, and punitive tax system. Sometimes, though, the tax bureaucrats run amok and earn their reputation as America’s most despised bureaucracy. Here’s an example. Earlier this year, the Internal Revenue Service proposed a regulation that would force American banks […]

Sam Kazman of the Competitive Enterprise Institute has a withering critique of dumb government policies that have taken away our freedom to buy low-cost and effective washing machines and instead forced us to buy expensive machines that don’t do a good job of cleaning our clothes. I guess we shouldn’t be surprised that politicians are […]

Regular readers of this blog already know (see here, here, and here) that I’m not a big fan of the new “CFL” light bulbs that we will be forced to use in a couple of years. In a more entertaining fashion, here’s a video from a few years ago, featuring a Republican Congressman railing against […]

Since I believe in federalism and decentralization, I tend to be somewhat tolerant of stupid decisions by local governments – particularly when those choices are made thousands of miles away and I don’t have to deal with the consequences. With this in mind, I find it rather amusing that San Francisco is now plagued by […]

The President garnered some attention for his January 18 column in the Wall Street Journal, in which he said we need to control the regulatory burden. Let’s start with the insincere part. He praised capitalism. America’s free market has not only been the source of dazzling ideas and path-breaking products, it has also been the […]

I’ve already commented here and here on the government forcing us to use inferior lightbulbs. The bad news is becoming worse news. Here’s a story from England that was linked on Instapundit, showing how big business (which conspired with the politicians to get rid of high-quality incandescent bulbs) will now reap a windfall selling the […]