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 […]

The mid-term elections were a rejection of President Obama’s big-government agenda, but those results don’t necessarily mean better policy. We should not forget, after all, that Democrats rammed through Obamacare even after losing the special election to replace Ted Kennedy in Massachusetts.

Similarly, GOP control of the House of Representatives does not automatically mean less government and more freedom. Here are five possible bad policies for 2011, most of which the Obama White House can implement by using executive power.

Too bad the gift-giving season is already over. Thanks to this story about three men who were arrested by Japanese police for providing coffee enemas without regulatory approval, I now know that I could have purchased a “rectal infusion kit” for only $110. But since Senator Reid will still be around next Christmas, let’s focus […]

Some ideas are so horrible that I’m almost at a loss for words. The United Nations is a grotesquely wasteful and corrupt international bureaucracy with a long track record of failure and incompetence. Yet some people think this collection of looters, moochers, and kleptocrats should have authority over the Internet. I’m not kidding. Here are […]

There certainly are logical reasons to think that Obama’s policies are dampening economic growth. Investors and entrepreneurs have little reason to produce and take risks, after all, when they know the burden of government is going to climb. Especially when you add uncertainty to the mix. Here’s a chart showing Federal Reserve data on the […]

Congress wants to reduce tax evasion, but politicians are unwilling to address the underlying problem of low tax rates, so they continuously give the IRS more power and make it more difficult for law-abiding people to engage in commerce. A good example is the FATCA legislation, which is directly harming honest expatriates and also Americans with foreign investment. I recently returned from […]

The fight for financial freedom and limited government is global. The Center for Freedom and Prosperity recognizes Eduardo Morgan Jr., an individual whose work for his native Panama echoes much of our own efforts to defend fiscal sovereignty from the onslaught of anti-growth taxation and regulation. As Panama’s Ambassador to Washington from 1996 to 1998, […]

I cross swords with my long-time nemesis, Christian Weller. I suspect the most interesting part of the debate, however, is when I jump on one of the hosts for asserting that the Bush years were some sort of laissez-faire episode. How often do you get to ask for drugs on national TV?