Rent Control: A Triumph of Vote Counting over Sound Economics

Identifying the worst government policy would be a challenge. Would it be minimum wage laws, which deprive low-skilled workers of a chance for employment and upward mobility? Would it be class-warfare tax rates that generate large amounts of economic damage compared to potential (if any) revenue? Those are tempting choices, but there’s a strong case […]

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The Recycling Folly

While it’s very good to have a clean environment, many environmentalists don’t understand cost-benefit analysis. As such, they make our lives less pleasant – inferior light bulbs, substandard toilets, inadequate washing machines, crummy dishwashers, dribbling showers, and dysfunctional gas cans – for little if any benefit. We can add recycling to that list. To be […]

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Nazis, Communists, Fascists, Socialists, and other Flavors of Collectivism and Authoritarianism

I’ve written about how totalitarian ideologies such as communism and Nazism have a lot in common. Both subordinate the individual to the state and both give the state power over the economy. And both slaughter millions of people. My buddy from grad school, Matt Kibbe, has a great video on this issue. Needless to say, […]

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Understanding the Trade Deficit

In January, I shared a short video about protectionism, which expanded on some analysis from a one-minute video from last year. Today, here’s a short video explaining the trade deficit, which also expands on a one-minute video from last year. Simply stated, trade deficits are largely irrelevant. And since trade balances don’t matter, then it […]

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Gay Marriage, Wedding Cakes, and Freedom of Association

There’s a big controversy about whether business owners with traditional religious beliefs should be coerced by government into doing business with gay couples who want to get married. Back in 2015, I explained that the real issue is freedom of association, not whether gay marriage is right or wrong (I’ve always wondered why government should […]

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The Fight over “Internet Taxation” Is Really a Proxy for an Important Battle on Whether Government Power Should Be Constrained by Borders

One of the key principles of a free society is that governmental power should be limited by national borders. Here’s an easy-to-understand example. Gambling is basically illegal (other than government-run lottery scams, of course) in my home state of Virginia. So they can arrest me (or maybe even shoot me) if I gamble in the […]

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The Upside-Down Logic of Subsidized Birth Control

When writing about the Obamacare and its birth-control mandate, I’ve made a handful of observations. First, it is very bureaucratic and inefficient to use insurance for routine medical expenses. Sort of like using auto insurance to cover the cost of getting an oil change. Second, insurance coverage means third-party payer, which means birth control will […]

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Keynesian Economics and the Fallacy of Boosting Growth by Destroying Wealth

Keynesian economics is like Freddie Krueger, constantly reappearing after logical people assumed it was dead. The fact that various stimulus schemes inevitably fail should be the death knell for the theory, which is basically the “perpetual motion machine” of economics. Indeed, I’ve wondered whether we’ve reached the point where the “debilitating drug” of Keynesianism has […]

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America’s Latest Epidemic: Bureaucrats with Guns

While I dismiss conspiracy theories that presume there’s a plan in Washington to strip away our rights, I do think there’s a natural “public choice” explanation for ever-growing, ever-more powerful government. And that can lead to ever-expanding examples of abusive mistreatment of citizens. If you don’t believe me, just ask people like Andy Johnson, Anthony […]

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The TSA: A Perfect Symbol of the Federal Government’s Waste and Incompetence

The Transportation Security Administration has become infamous over the years for things that it doesn’t allow on planes. Consider these examples of the Keystone Cops in action. o Confiscating a plastic hammer from a mentally retarded man. o Detaining a woman for carrying breast milk. o Hassling a woman for the unexplained red flag of having sequentially numbered […]

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Herbert Hoover’s Anti-Market Policies Helped Turn an Economic Downturn into a Great Depression

There have been many truly awful presidents elected in the United States, but if I had to pick my least favorite, I might choose Herbert Hoover. I obviously have disdain for Hoover’s big-government policies, but I also am extremely irritated that – as Jonah Goldberg explained – he allowed the left to create an utterly […]

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Sensible Swiss Voters Crush Proposed Minimum Wage Mandate

I’m beginning to think that people from some nations are smarter and more rational than others. That may explain, for instance, why voters in Estonia support fiscal restraint while voters in France foolishly think the gravy train can continue forever. But I’m not making an argument about genetic ability. Instead, what I’m actually starting to […]

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Another Failed Gun Control Experiment

It sounds strange, but my two favorite columns on gun control were authored by self-identified leftists. But they didn’t let ideology trump common sense. Justin Cronin, for instance, explained that restrictions on gun ownership undermined his ability to protect his family. And Jeffrey Goldberg looked at the evidence and concluded that guns make people safer. […]

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Left-Wingers Are only Generous with other People’s Money

Back in 2010, I posted some fascinating (at least to me) data on the underlying differences between conservatives, liberals, and libertarians. That same year, I also wrote about whether evolutionary history helps explain why some people are leftists. Let’s now reexamine the difference between those on the right and those on the left, based on […]

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What’s More Important, Monopoly Privileges for Union Bosses or Educational Opportunity for Minority Children?

I’ve criticized union bosses for fighting school reform, and I’ve condemned the so-called civil rights establishment for opposing school choice. And here’s a powerful video from Reason TV that combines those themes, noting the unholy alliance of teacher unions and the NAACP. Fortunately, the statists seem to be losing this issue. Louisiana recently adopted school […]

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Boost Economic Growth by Slashing the Size of Government

It doesn’t get much attention, but one of the most interesting economic experiments in American history occurred right after World War II. Despite warnings of Armageddon from Keynesian economists, government spending was slashed as the United States demobilized from the war. This was the opposite of the failed Keynesian experiment of the 1930s, when massive […]

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The Recycling Scam

Jeff Jacoby analyzes the absurd tendency of local governments to coerce residents into costly – and inefficient – recycling programs. As a resident of Fairfascist…oops, I mean Fairfax…County in Virginia, I already am painfully aware of this bureaucratic impulse. ….recyclables will all go into 64-gallon “toters,’’ which will be emptied at curbside on trash day. […]

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Get the Government Out of the Business of Embryonic Stem-Cell Research

As is so often the case, Jeff Jacoby of the Boston Globe hits the nail on the head, asking why taxpayers should be forced to fund embryonic stem-cell research. The moral issues in this debate are very important, to be sure, but Jacoby’s column takes a different approach and uses economic arguments to thoroughly debunk those […]

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Nazis, Communists, and Moral Bankruptcy

Jeff Jacoby righteously – and rightfully – condemns the moral perversion that allows people to overlook the barbaric cruelty and oppression of communism. If Jose Saramago, the Portuguese writer who died on Friday at 87, had been an unrepentant Nazi for the last four decades, he would never have won international acclaim or received the […]

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Get Government Out of the Education Business

There’s a controversy in Texas because the State Board of Education has mandated the inclusion of certain materials in textbooks. This has elicited howls of protests from the left, which generally has controlled how some issues are portrayed. Since I don’t want leftist propaganda being pushed on kids, I’m mildly sympathetic to the Texas educrats, […]

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School Choice Issue exposes Gap Between Honest Leftists and Politicial Hacks

There are a handful of issues that expose hypocrites on both sides of the philosophical spectrum. Republicans and conservatives love to talk about free markets, for instance, but you often find them voting for completely sleazy and corrupt forms of corporate welfare such as the ethanol subsidy for big agri-business. For Democrats and leftists, a […]

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Bureaucrats vs. Taxpayers, Part V

This may not be as dumbfounding as being told not to advertise for reliable people in England, but I certainly was shocked to see that nearly one-in-five federal bureaucrats is paid more than $100,000 – and that doesn’t even include overtime and bonuses! Or how about the fact that number of bureaucrats making more than […]

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