The curious task of economics is to demonstrate to men how little they really know about what they imagine they can design. – F.A. Hayek
Posted in Constitution, Government Gone Wild, Institutions on Mar 23rd, 2012
I was going to post a story a friend who runs a local manufacturing company just shared with me about the absurd experience with the EPA he had in his past. It was too depressing, plus I don’t think I can share it without giving away names … I am rewriting it as a piece [...]
Posted in Central Planning, Government Gone Wild on Mar 21st, 2012
President issues Executive Order on National Resources Defense Preparedness. And of course it wouldn’t be this Administration without the requisite loan guarantees, subsidy payments, and the like. Ignoring the utter totalitarian nature of this, someone ought to remind the Planners about Jimmy Carter’s adventures in synfuels, or the Mineral Management Program in the Post-War era. [...]
Posted in Government Gone Wild on Mar 20th, 2012
We should all know that of course. The Joint Committee on Taxation estimates that over the next 10 years the Buffet Tax would generate $47 billion. Let’s put that in perspective. First of all, that is the Committee’s estimate. I’ll bet someone a cup of coffee about how likely that estimate is to be on [...]
Posted in Government Gone Wild, Paternalism on Mar 20th, 2012
And then they came for the … salt, fat and fiber eaten by the … homeless. Richter has been collecting food from places like the Ohav Zedek synagogue and bringing it to homeless shelters for more than 20 years, but recently his donation, including a “cholent” or carrot stew, was turned away because the Bloomberg [...]
Posted in Government Gone Wild on Mar 14th, 2012
From the USA Today (ht: Overlawyered): Hoteliers must have pool lifts to provide disabled people equal access to pools and whirlpools, or at least have a plan in place to acquire a lift. If they don’t, they face possible civil penalties of as much as $55,000. But hey, this sort of thing creates jobs, right? [...]
Posted in Government Gone Wild on Mar 2nd, 2012
Tim Geithner pulls the same rabbit out of the regulatory hat today in the WSJ: Remember the crisis when you hear complaints about financial reform—complaints about limits on risk-taking or requirements for transparency and disclosure. Remember the crisis when you read about the hundreds of millions of dollars now being spent on lobbyists trying to [...]
Posted in Central Planning, Government Gone Wild on Feb 27th, 2012
Oh, you thought I was talking about this? This is perhaps the best way to think about our modern planners’ obsession with light-rail, bike-paths, and other planner friendly methods of producing transportation services. In reading this, remember this big fact. Remember it again and again and again. Here is an illustration of what is going [...]
Posted in Government Gone Wild, Politics on Feb 26th, 2012
Milk has an expiration date. Your drivers’ license has an expiration date. Heck even my life insurance policy has an expiration date. Yet most legislation does not come with an expiration date. Ironically, it seems that any legislation that potentially reduces the size and scope of government does come with an expiration date (e.g. the [...]
Posted in Economic Illiteracy, Government Gone Wild, Government Thuggery, Paternalism on Feb 17th, 2012
I just saw this via Alex Tabarrok: The Hill: Six House Democrats, led by Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio), want to set up a “Reasonable Profits Board” to control gas profits. The Democrats, worried about higher gas prices, want to set up a board that would apply a “windfall profit tax” as high as 100 percent [...]
Posted in Government Gone Wild on Feb 8th, 2012
No comment necessary really. Here is Russ Roberts: If what is legal becomes the norm rather than what is moral, we are all going to be very poor. The names of these people should be on the front page of the Washington Post every day until election day and their constituents should vote them out [...]
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