"When the Government Takes Your Money, It Takes Your Property" by Ilya Shapiro and Lauren Wiggins (Cato Institute: Commentary)

"When the Government Takes Your Money, It Takes Your Property" by Ilya Shapiro and Lauren Wiggins (Cato Institute: Commentary): "The court first reasoned that money is not property"

Money is not property?!?

"Behind The Scenes Of Imprudent Bank Loans" by Alan Reynolds (Cato Institute: Commentary)

"Behind The Scenes Of Imprudent Bank Loans" by Alan Reynolds (Cato Institute: Commentary): "'Bank Lending Keeps Dropping,' according to a recent front-page Wall Street Journal headline. But the Treasury Department statistics used in that article did not measure total bank lending. Instead, the figures include only $231.4 billion of monthly 'loan originations' at 21 of the nation's 8,300 banks — namely, those that received the biggest 'capital infusions' (loans) from the TARP program."

"Speaking in Trinidad-Tobago, President Obama nonetheless complained, "Banks still are not lending at previous levels." So what? Why would anyone expect banks to lend as much while the economy was shrinking as they did when it was growing? When people buy fewer cars and houses, they don't need as many auto loans and mortgages. When retail businesses and car dealers are raising cash by liquidating inventories, they don't need to borrow to buy more inventories."

"When households and firms borrow sensibly, they are borrowing against expected future earnings or against accumulated wealth (assets minus debts). Debt does not allow people to live beyond their means. On the contrary, heavily indebted consumers actually acquire fewer goods over time, because so much of their budget is wasted on interest payments."

"The Obama administration has repeatedly frightened bank stockholders with threats of quasi-nationalization, putting taxpayers at risk for trillions of dollars in the process, ostensibly because of a quixotic crusade to get banks to lend "at previous levels." If so — that is, if the intent of the TARP plan was to induce banks to hand out loans at a faster pace than before last November — then the program has evidently been useless, if not harmful. Yet increased bank lending couldn't possibly have been the real goal, since much of the federal loot went to investment banks that never wanted any part of this scheme. After all, nobody goes to Goldman Sachs or Morgan Stanley looking for a loan.

The deeper purpose of the Treasury's "capital purchase plan" appears to have been quite different — namely, to ensure that big financial firms will now be managed according to the principles of politics rather than economics. And that can also explain why the administration is so suspiciously reluctant to allow TARP supplicants pay back the loans."

"Obama's Fine Act in Trinidad" by Juan Carlos Hidalgo (Cato Institute: Commentary)

"Obama's Fine Act in Trinidad" by Juan Carlos Hidalgo (Cato Institute: Commentary): "Conservatives who have criticized the president fail to recognize that it is precisely confrontation what the Bolivarians want. Anti-Americanism is a building block of Latin American populism: blaming the U.S. for all of Latin America's problems has been a pastime for the region's leftists for many years. That is precisely the central theme of the book Chavez gave Obama: The Open Veins of Latin America. Fueling anti-American sentiment serves them well as a smokescreen for their own corruption, mismanagement and abuses of power.

In the last eight years, Chavez and his gang were able to easily focus their anti-Americanism on the person of George W. Bush. Now that he is gone, and a popular new U.S. president is in charge, they need to look harder for a scapegoat. That is why weeks before the summit Chavez called Obama an 'ignoramus,' and Morales even accused the U.S. last week of sponsoring an alleged plot to assassinate him. But it takes two to tango, and Obama rightfully avoided a public row with the populists. It was not a sign of weakness, but a display of smart diplomacy."

"Abolish the 'Death Tax'" by Daniel J. Mitchell (Cato Institute: Commentary)

"Abolish the 'Death Tax'" by Daniel J. Mitchell (Cato Institute: Commentary): "For all intents and purposes, the tax code sends a perverse message to America's entrepreneurs, investors, small-business owners and farmers: If you squander your money as quickly as possible, the government will not tax you. But if you behave responsibly and invest in the nation's future, the government will swoop in like a flock of vultures and grab a huge chunk of your money when you die."

"Scholars who have examined this issue estimate that the death tax has reduced America's stock of saving and investment by nearly $850 billion.

Moreover, the death tax is a job killer, reducing employment by 1.5 million."

"Fed Up" by Steve H. Hanke (Cato Institute: Commentary)

"Fed Up" by Steve H. Hanke (Cato Institute: Commentary): "What the Fed has failed to realize is that most deflations are good ones, not bad ones. During the last two centuries there have been many deflations throughout the world. Almost all of them have been good ones precipitated by technological innovation, rising productivity, global capital flows and sustained economic growth. If farm mechanization cuts the price of wheat, you get a rising living standard. This is good."

"Arab Education Displays its Discontents" by Raja M. Kamal and Tom G. Palmer (Cato Institute: Commentary)

"Arab Education Displays its Discontents" by Raja M. Kamal and Tom G. Palmer (Cato Institute: Commentary): "Despite the flood of billions and billions in oil money to public education, Saudi students consistently score among the worst in math and science. The greatest culprit is the suppression of critical thinking, coupled with limited and weak exposure to math and science. An impressive investment in the infrastructure of higher education has not yielded positive returns. It is as if the state had purchased the most advanced computer hardware, but neglected to secure any software to run it."

"The task facing many Arab countries is acknowledging the priority of education over mere schooling. The answer isn't just spending more money. Alchemy didn't fail because of a lack of investments in alchemy academies. A curriculum centered on memorization of dogma should be reformed to allow critical thought, a key ingredient in escaping backwardness. That's as true of judicial backwardness, as it is of economic backwardness. Thorough-going educational reform — involving not merely money, but orientation to the market and critical thinking — can produce judicious judges. Memorization will merely perpetuate backwardness."

"Displaying Their Ignorance on Smoking" by Patrick Basham and John Luik (Cato Institute: Commentary)

"Displaying Their Ignorance on Smoking" by Patrick Basham and John Luik (Cato Institute: Commentary): "they refute each of the key claims about the supposed effect of tobacco displays on children's intentions to smoke.

First, there were no statistically significant differences in the estimates of how many of their peers smoke between the children who saw the convenience shop with no cigarettes and those who saw the shop with cigarettes.

Second, there were no statistically significant differences in approval of smoking between those who saw the shop with no cigarettes and those who saw the shop with cigarettes.

Third, there were no significant differences in assigning favourable attributes to children who smoke between those who saw the convenience shops with no cigarettes and those who saw the shop with cigarettes.

Fourth, there were no statistically significant differences in their perceptions of the dangers of smoking between children viewing the shop with no cigarettes and those seeing the shop with cigarettes.

Finally, and most importantly, there were no statistically significant differences in the children's intention to smoke between those who saw the shop with no cigarettes and those who saw the shop with cigarettes.

This research is not produced by the tobacco industry. Wakefield works at Cancer Council Victoria."

"The Goddard Report, a longitudinal study of the causes of youth smoking and one of the largest studies of adolescent smoking conducted in the UK, found that becoming a smoker was associated with seven risk factors: being a girl, having brothers or sisters who smoke, having parents who smoke, living with a single parent, having relatively less negative views about smoking, not intending to stay on in full-time education after 16, and thinking that one might be a smoker in the future.

Becoming a smoker was not statistically associated with being aware of tobacco advertising or being able to name more brands of cigarettes. Indeed, Goddard found that children overwhelmingly did not like tobacco advertisements."

"In Canada, for instance, there is no obvious difference in youth prevalence between provinces with and without tobacco display bans. Moreover, according to the UK government's own data, the highest prevalence is found in Saskatchewan, the first province to ban tobacco displays."

"Obama Is a Statist, Not a Socialist" by Edward H. Crane (Cato Institute: Commentary)

"Obama Is a Statist, Not a Socialist" by Edward H. Crane (Cato Institute: Commentary): "'Doctor Shortage Proves Obstacle to Obama Goals,' laments the headline. Hmm. Wonder why there would be a doctor shortage in the face of nationalized health care?"

How to Keep Your House Safe While You're Away - Travel - FOXNews.com

How to Keep Your House Safe While You're Away - Travel - FOXNews.com: "Don’t put out a virtual welcome mat.

We all like bragging about our trips, but refrain from discussing details on social networking sites before you go. “Every day in my networks, someone indicates that they’re looking forward to their trip. They’re even kind enough to indicate their dates of travel and mention that the entire family is going. Why not just post a sign up in the local jail letting the criminals know you’re going on vacation?” says private investigator Jeff Stein.

Too much information, specifically your home address, may be stored in your car’s GPS device. “If a thief were to steal your car, all he needs to do is turn on your GPS and push ‘Home,’” Stein says. “Since your car was parked at the airport or long term parking somewhere, he knows you’re not home,” he says. Further, the thief has the added luxury of opening your garage door with the remote built into your car, pulling into the garage, and loading up your own car with your stuff."

Did FDR Make the Depression Great? - David Gordon - Mises Institute

Did FDR Make the Depression Great? - David Gordon - Mises Institute:

High wages do not cause prosperity, they are rather an indication of prosperity. Ultimately, it doesn't matter how many green pieces of paper employers hand out to workers. Unless workers first physically produced the goods (and services), there will be nothing on the store shelves for them to buy when they attempt to spend their big fat paychecks.

By focusing on aggregate monetary conditions such as "total wage payments," Hoover completely overlooked the fact that real, physical resources had to be rearranged in order to correct the imbalances in the economy. It wasn't that "business" was producing too much, but rather that some sectors were producing too much, while other sectors were producing too little, in light of the economy's supplies of resources, the skills and desires of its workers, and the tastes of its consumers.

The only way to rectify the situation — to transform the economy into a sustainable configuration — was to shuffle workers and resources. Some enterprises had to be shut down immediately, releasing their workers and freeing up the raw materials they would have consumed had they remained in business… But in a market economy, workers are free to choose their occupations, and the owners of raw materials can sell their property to whomever they desire. Yet with that freedom comes the unfortunate necessity of prolonged spells of unemployment and "idle resources," when the workers and raw materials are searching for a new home in the complex economy.

According to this view, if people anticipate falling prices, they will refrain from spending. Because they expect prices to fall, they think that that will do better to consume later. But this drop in consumption causes a further price fall, and the whole cycle repeats. Prices may spiral uncontrollably downward.

Murphy responds in this way:

"One could construct an analogous argument for the computer industry, in which the government passes regulation to slow down improvements in operating systems and processing speed. After all, how can computer manufacturers possibly remain viable if consumers are always waiting for a faster model to become available? … The solution to this paradox, of course, is that consumers do decide to bite the bullet and buy a computer, knowing full well that they would be able to buy the same performance for less money, if they were willing to wait… (There's no point in holding out for lower prices but never actually buying!) (pp. 68–9)"

Many analysts who are terrified of deflation stress that in an environment of falling prices, cash stuffed under the mattress earns a positive return. This observation is certainly true, but nonetheless cash lent out earns an even greater return. Falling prices, then, encourage consumers to devote more of their income to savings, which in turn lowers interest rates and allows businesses to borrow and invest more.

So we see that immediately following the stock market crash, the Fed began flooding the market with liquidity and in fact brought its rates down to record lows…. If the ostensible cause of the Great Depression — the one factor that set it apart from all previous depressions — was the Fed's unwillingness to provide sufficient liquidity, then how could it possibly be that the Fed's record rate cuts proved inadequate to solve "the problem?"

The Road to Freedom: An Interview with Walter Block - Walter Block - Mises Institute

The Road to Freedom: An Interview with Walter Block - Walter Block - Mises Institute: "The reason we have [Air Polution] at all is due to a government failure to uphold private property rights, in that pollution is merely and simply an uninvited border crossing, a trespass of dust and other particles, as it were. So, air pollution could rise, fall or stay the same as we moved to road privatization. It all depends upon the state upholding, or failing to uphold, private property rights in this domain.

The one exception is that lawsuits for pollution would be much easier with private rather than public roads. No longer would you have to sue millions of separate auto owners. Now, you could sue one or just a few road owners for being bawdy houses, not of sex, but of aiding and encouraging pollution on their property, which then leaks out onto other people's property."

"Congestion problems would decrease, as peak-load pricing (charging more during rush hours than at 3 a.m., which irons out the variations in demand during the day) would become the order of the day. Right now, the government engages in anti-peak-load pricing, which exacerbates the problem. They commonly sell monthly tickets to bridges, tunnels, etc., at a cheaper price per trip than otherwise. But who uses such tickets? Employees, not casual shoppers, visitors. And when do they use these tickets? Precisely during rush hours.

Nor is this any accident. The principle holds true (congestion is a government failure) in many other cases too. Compare congestion during Christmas with the post office and private firms. The former tells you not to mail during the peak-load times; the latter roll up their sleeves, put on extra workers, and satisfy consumers."

"Let's look at private roads in malls. Some allow you to park for free, if they want to encourage attendance. Others charge a fee, unless you make a purchase. Practices vary. All we can say is that if different pricing policies long endure, then they all satisfy consumer needs. If not, the efficient ones will out-compete the inefficient ones."

"Second, it is by no means clear that the Indians are the rightful owners of anything like the entire United States. Under libertarian law, they could justly claim only those parts of the land that they homesteaded, or occupied, not hunted over. They owned those paths that they used to get from their winter to their summer places. This is based on the Lockean-Rothbardian-Hoppean homesteading theory. I estimate that they owned, in this way, at most 1 percent of the land in the United States."

"Every time I get a new freshman class, I have to demonstrate to their utter amazement and consternation that minimum wages don't help the poor, that free trade does, that markets, not welfare, help the poor, etc., etc."

"With Realism and Restraint" by Doug Bandow (Cato Institute: Commentary)

"With Realism and Restraint" by Doug Bandow (Cato Institute: Commentary): "The botched effort suggests that the DPRK poses less than a formidable military threat. Gen. James E. Cartwright, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, snickered: 'On the idea of proliferation, would you buy from somebody that had failed three times in a row and never been successful?'"

"U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon complained that the action was "not conducive to efforts to promote dialogue, regional peace and stability," as if those were North Korea's objectives."

"America should step back and let others take the lead in dealing with Pyongyang. A desperately poor, isolated state with an antiquated military, the DPRK poses far greater problems for its neighbors than for America.

Only South Korea is within reach of the North's army — a good reason for the U.S. to withdraw its troops, since they are not needed to safeguard the Republic of Korea. (Seoul enjoys a vast economic, technological, population, and diplomatic edge over the North.)"

"Finally, Washington needs to concentrate on changing the negotiating dynamic with North Korea before negotiating with Pyongyang. For years the DPRK has used brinkmanship to win concessions. The U.S., ROK, and other friendly states need to reverse this reward structure.

First, they should respond to the North's provocations with bored contempt rather than excited fear. Calling an emergency session of the U.N. Security Council sent precisely the wrong message to Pyongyang.

Second, rather than publicly whining about North Korea's actions, friendly nations should quietly inform Pyongyang that they will offer no benefits while it is ratcheting up tensions.

If the DPRK responds positively, however, Washington should offer diplomatic recognition and the end of trade sanctions, small concessions in areas where punitive policies have manifestly failed; South Korea should move back toward the "Sunshine Policy.""

"High-Speed Rail Is No Solution" by Randal O'Toole (Cato Institute: Commentary)

"High-Speed Rail Is No Solution" by Randal O'Toole (Cato Institute: Commentary): "Outside of the Boston-Washington corridor, the fastest Amtrak trains have top speeds of about 80 to 90 miles per hour and average speeds of 40 to 50 miles per hour. Obama proposes to boost top speeds to 110 miles per hour in some places, which means average speeds no greater than 70 to 75 miles per hour.

This is not an innovation. The Milwaukee Road, Santa Fe and other railroads routinely ran trains at those speeds 70 years ago — and still couldn't compete against cars and airlines."

"The environmental analysis report for the California high-speed rail projects costs of $33 billion for 400 miles, while the Midwest Rail Initiative projects costs of $7.7 billion for 3,150 miles of moderate-speed rail. That's $82 million per mile for true high-speed rail (partly because the California project goes through some mountains) and only $2.4 million for moderate-speed rail. All else being equal, high-speed rail will cost 10 to 12 times more than moderate-speed rail. A true, national high-speed rail network would cost more than half a trillion dollars."

"Americans who have ridden French or Japanese high-speed trains often wonder why such trains won't work here. The problem is, they don't work that well in France or Japan.

France and Japan have each spent roughly (after adjusting for inflation) the same amount of money per capita on high-speed rail as the United States spent on the interstate highway system. Americans use the interstates to travel nearly 4,000 passenger miles and ship more than 2,000 ton-miles of freight per person per year.

By comparison, high-speed rail moves virtually no freight and carries the average resident of Japan less than 400 miles per year, and the average resident of France less than 300 miles per year. It is likely that a few people use them a lot, and most rarely or not at all."

"Still a Nation of Laws, Not Men?" by Nat Hentoff (Cato Institute: Commentary)

"Still a Nation of Laws, Not Men?" by Nat Hentoff (Cato Institute: Commentary): "Moreover, Article 3 of the 1949 Geneva Conventions, which has been made part of our law, requires that any person — whether a prisoner of war, unprivileged belligerent, terrorist or noncombatant, is guaranteed freedom from 'cruel treatment and torture' and 'outrages upon personal dignity, in particular, humiliating and degrading treatment,' including denial of process in case of trial.

These guarantees, Mr. President, apply 'in all circumstances' and 'at any time and in any place whatsoever.'"

Taking Secession Seriously–At Last | Front Porch Republic

Taking Secession Seriously–At Last | Front Porch Republic: "Of course it is true that the particular secession of 1861-65 did not succeed–but that didn’t make it illegal or even unwise. It made it a failure, that’s all."