Zoning Laws Destroy Communities - Troy Camplin - Mises Daily

Zoning Laws Destroy Communities - Troy Camplin - Mises Daily: "With zoning laws, commercial, industrial, and residential areas are separated from each other. The result is blocks of houses, industrial parks, and strips of stores and restaurants. People have to drive miles to go to the store, to work, or even to the park. It is rare to go to the store and see anyone you know.

But imagine a neighborhood without zoning laws. It would then be possible to have, say, a small grocery store on the corner where you could buy fresh fruits and vegetables, bread, and meat. That store would likely be within walking distance, be owned by one of your neighbors, and be designed to serve the neighborhood."

"Zoning laws force you to have your business only in certain locations. This drives up the price of property for businesses, making it harder to start a new business. If I wanted to sell cookies (and I do make some good cookies), I would have to either buy some expensive commercial property or rent a place in a shopping center, get the proper permits and licenses (another barrier to entry into the marketplace), buy stoves and mixers, etc."

"With as many barriers to starting a new business as there are, it's surprising how many do get started. It's typically done by going into debt. This makes it even more difficult for the poor to get out of their poverty. Barred from starting a business at home by zoning and other prohibitory laws, they also cannot get loans due to their poverty and bad credit. Those who do manage to figure out how to make money spend the money frivolously for fear that if they save or invest the money, the government will punish them with fines and audits. Thus, these laws contribute to poor spending habits among the poor. The government can take away your property, but they can never take away the party you threw and had a good time at."

"When our jobs and stores are several miles away, we have to drive." "All that time driving creates large amounts of air pollution, contributing to lung problems and stress."

Innovations Aren't the Problem | Arnold Kling | Cato Institute: Commentary

Innovations Aren't the Problem | Arnold Kling | Cato Institute: Commentary: "First, many of the innovations were profitable not because they added social value but because they exploited regulatory anomalies. Second, the companies that lost money on these innovations were not allowed to fall by the wayside — instead, they were bailed out.

Many pundits claim that we allowed the financial system to be self-regulating during the euphoria. This is emphatically not the case. Without the anomalies created by the Basel capital regulations, the financial system would not have rewarded these innovations."

FOXNews.com - 80-Year-Old Chicago Man Kills Armed Home Invader

FOXNews.com - 80-Year-Old Chicago Man Kills Armed Home Invader: "No charges have been filed against the homeowner, but Chicago currently has a statute outlawing the possession of handguns. Its legality is currently being decided by the U.S. Supreme Court.

A high-profile Chicago attorney has already stepped forward offering to represent the man pro bono if he faces charges for possessing a weapon.

'Self-defense isn't just a right, it's a duty,' said attorney Joel Brodsky. 'If this man is prosecuted for saving his own life it's not just a travesty, it's justice turned inside out.'"

Chris Dodd's Carve-outs for Cronies | Mark A. Calabria | Cato Institute: Commentary

Chris Dodd's Carve-outs for Cronies | Mark A. Calabria | Cato Institute: Commentary: "The Senate bill, sponsored by Democrat Chris Dodd, claims to subject all 'too big to fail' institutions to greater federal supervision, but in fact it only mandates such regulation for bank-holding companies. Regulators would have to make a case-by-case decision on whether to apply it to other financial companies.

That's no minor oversight, because insurance companies, like AIG, tend to have thrift charters rather than bank charters. So, as the bill stands now, AIG and other insurers that accepted massive bailout funds, such as The Hartford, would not be automatically covered."

FOXNews.com - Congressman Boycotts House Resolutions Saluting Sports Champions

FOXNews.com - Congressman Boycotts House Resolutions Saluting Sports Champions: "Chaffetz called the resolutions a waste of time and money, noting that the votes can take up to 30 minutes and requires weighty documentation and work from clerks and staffers.

'I don't know how much it costs, but it ain't cheap,' he said.

Chaffetz said Congress should be paying attention to other matters.

'I don't see us doing resolutions supporting spelling bee champions and people making advances in medicine,' he said, adding that he's going to start introducing those types of measures."

FOXNews.com - No Consequences for Government Employees Who Charged Massive Shopping Spree to Taxpayers

FOXNews.com - No Consequences for Government Employees Who Charged Massive Shopping Spree to Taxpayers: "After the findings of the five-year investigation into the matter were revealed in September, three employees resigned, four retired and five employees faced possible reprimand. No action was taken against nine others, the Times reported.

The abuse of government charge cards is hardly a new problem.

A March 2008 report issued by Government Accountability Office estimated that “nearly 41 percent” of purchase card transactions made from July 1, 2005, through June 30, 2006 failed to meet “basic internal control standards.”"

Greek Loan Would Violate IMF Charter | Swaminathan S. Anklesaria Aiyar | Cato Institute: Commentary

Greek Loan Would Violate IMF Charter | Swaminathan S. Anklesaria Aiyar | Cato Institute: Commentary: "The articles of association of the IMF state clearly its aim to provide loans for balance of payments support. Greece has a huge fiscal need but no balance of payments need. Greek importers can get all the euros they wants from Greek banks, which get euros from the European Central Bank. The IMF is by definition a monetary authority, and Greece has no monetary issues — it surrendered its monetary powers to the ECB Bank on joining the eurozone. Some eurozone countries have fiscal crises, but these are Europe's problem, not the IMF's."

Ron Johnson receives GOP backing in U.S. Senate race | Hudson Star-Observer | Hudson, Wisconsin

Ron Johnson receives GOP backing in U.S. Senate race | Hudson Star-Observer | Hudson, Wisconsin: "Ron Johnson said he went into the Republican state convention hoping that the delegates would not endorse anyone – and he’s surprised they endorsed him for the U.S. Senate.

Johnson got 64 percent of the final vote Sunday over Madison developer Terrence Wall and Watertown businessman Dave Westlake.

Former state Commerce Secretary Dick Leinenkugel withdrew, saying a bitter primary would result in the re-election of incumbent Democrat Russ Feingold."

Certainly surprising!

Budgeted Back Into the Stone Age ... or 1998 | Neal McCluskey | Cato Institute: Commentary

Budgeted Back Into the Stone Age ... or 1998 | Neal McCluskey | Cato Institute: Commentary: "According to inflation-adjusted federal data, in 1970-71 Americans spent $5,593 per public-school student. By 2006-07 we were spending $12,463 — a whopping 123 percent increase that bought lots of teachers, administrators, and other shiny things!

That said, even minor backsliding from this overwhelming trend could be truly alarming if increasing resources had been producing commensurate academic gains. But they hadn't — as starkly illustrated by 17-year-olds stagnant National Assessment of Educational Progress. In 1973, their average math score was 304 (out of 500). In 2008 it was just 306. In reading, their average score in 1971 was 285. In 2008 it was just 286.

For all our huge spending and staffing increases, we have simply gotten no positive return."

How China will bury us | Cranach: The Blog of Veith

How China will bury us | Cranach: The Blog of Veith: "Notice that this is NOT free market economics but state-run and state-directed economics that takes advantage of capitalist economies by means of state monopolies, coercive government power, and economic clout."

Central planning has been shown to be a failure (i.e. most communist nations) and it will once again be shown to be a failure.

Doug's Diggings: School salaries raise plenty of comments | Hudson Star-Observer | Hudson, Wisconsin

Doug's Diggings: School salaries raise plenty of comments | Hudson Star-Observer | Hudson, Wisconsin: "Lord knows, all these administrators are hard workers and probably deserve more money. The problem is, the same could be said for all of us. The difference is that during the past couple of years, the vast majority of us are getting one of the following: no pay increases, pay decreases, pink slips, reduced benefits (401k contributions and health care) and plenty of anxiety about whether or not we’ll have a job in three months."

"Second, this all seemed a bit odd when compared to the timing of the recent school board election. The vote came after the election, but before the new board was seated. I’m sure there are a dozen reasons why it had to happen that way. But the school board should think a little bit about public perception — it doesn’t pass the smell test for most people.

Third, many people are unhappy that many district employees who are much lower on the totem pole have been relieved of their duties and driver’s education was eliminated because of cost factors. Again, maybe all justifiable moves, but it seems to point to a complete lack of perception or empathy from the people sitting on the top.

Fourth, people seem to get tired of this idea that salaries have to be comparable to similar districts, or neighboring districts. It’s a never-ending ladder. Once Hudson raises its salaries, District ABC uses the Hudson model to get higher salaries — when District ABC raises salaries, then Hudson must raise salaries again to be 'competitive.' I understand, of course, that we have to be in the ball park, but I think many people believe that the argument is overused."

Is Aid a Matter of Justice? | Marian L. Tupy | Cato Institute: Commentary

Is Aid a Matter of Justice? | Marian L. Tupy | Cato Institute: Commentary: "Africa is poor not because of Western consumption and stinginess, but because it produces too little. Most economists agree that Africa's low productivity is, in large part, a result of bad policies, such as restrictions on private enterprise, bad institutions, and inadequate rule of law. Unfortunately, far from stimulating growth and reducing poverty over the last 60 years, aid has served as a disincentive to economic and institutional reforms.

Governments that depend on income taxes are generally more accountable to their citizens and more responsive to their citizens' desire to advance economically than governments that do not. In Africa, the constant flow of aid has stunted democratic and private sector development.

Moreover, foreign aid that was not wasted on white elephant projects was often stolen by African politicians and bureaucrats. Corruption insulated the elite from the negative consequences of its own actions. When the ordinary people rebelled, as the Ethiopians did after the rigged 2005 election, they were suppressed by their own troops, who were partly financed by foreign aid. According to Paul Collier of Oxford University, between 1960 and 1999, aid financed up to 40% of Africa's military spending."

Invention Awards: A Box That Keeps Plants Hydrated in the Desert | Popular Science

Invention Awards: A Box That Keeps Plants Hydrated in the Desert | Popular Science: "In 2006 Hoff took 25 Waterboxxes to Morocco’s Sahara desert, and after a year, 88 percent of the trees he treated had green leaves, while 90 percent of those watered weekly (the traditional local method) died under the scorching sun. He is conducting more experiments with 20,000 Waterboxxes in difficult terrains in places like Pakistan and Ecuador this year."

FOXNews.com - Fuzzy Math: Tax Cut Doesn't Add Up for Some

FOXNews.com - Fuzzy Math: Tax Cut Doesn't Add Up for Some: "It's an example of how the early provisions of the health care law can create winners and losers among groups lawmakers intended to help -- people with health problems, families with young adult children and small businesses. Because of the law's complexity, not everyone in a broadly similar situation will benefit."

Could the U.S. Become Argentina? | Richard W. Rahn | Cato Institute: Commentary

Could the U.S. Become Argentina? | Richard W. Rahn | Cato Institute: Commentary: "The U.S. has a per capita income of about $47,000 per year, while Argentina's is just $14,000 on a purchasing-power parity (PPP) basis. A hundred years ago, Argentina's per capita income was about 80 percent of that in the U.S. If Argentina had done as well relatively as the United States, it would have a per capita income of about $38,000 today. Countries can become wealthy in a few decades, as have South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore and Finland, by following the correct economic policies. They also can become relatively poor, as have Argentina, Cuba and Venezuela, by doing the wrong things."

Read the article to see ways that we are following Argentina's path.

Ron Paul Challenges GOP's Foreign Policy Agenda | Doug Bandow | Cato Institute: Commentary

Ron Paul Challenges GOP's Foreign Policy Agenda | Doug Bandow | Cato Institute: Commentary: "Paul observed that conservatives, like liberals, enjoyed spending money, only 'on different things. They like embassies, and they like occupation. They like the empire. They like to be in 135 countries and 700 bases.'

Similarly, Paul said, conservatives talked about following the Constitution, 'except for war. Let the president go to war anytime they want.'"

"Indeed, the 'Defense Department' has become anything but. Most of America's forces do nothing to secure the U.S. They instead are employed to remake failed societies, impose Washington's meddlesome dictates, and subsidize populous and prosperous allies."

"The Europeans might have a larger collective GDP and population. The South Koreans might enjoy a GDP 40 times that of the North. Japan might have the world's second largest economy. Israel might be a regional superpower with up to 200 nuclear weapons.

Yet in GOP eyes all are helpless American dependents, to be defended by Washington at all cost — and apparently forever."

"The U.S. was created as a constitutional republic, with a limited national government bounded by law. Yet the last Republican administration claimed that the president could unilaterally, subject to review neither by Congress nor the courts, order the arrest and indefinite detention of American citizens in America."

"While U.S. citizens pay to defend dozens of nations around the world, those countries invest in business enterprises, economic research and development, and generous welfare states. Trade competitors cheerfully accept U.S. military troops while excluding commercial products.

The defense budget is the price of our nation's foreign policy, and the price is high. The U.S. is spending more than $700 billion annually on the military. In real terms that is more than at any point during the Cold War, Korean War, or Vietnam War. Today America accounts for roughly half of the globe's military outlays."

FOXNews.com - Senate Approves One-Time Audit of Federal Reserve Lending

FOXNews.com - Senate Approves One-Time Audit of Federal Reserve Lending: "At its peak at the end of 2008, the Fed's lending totaled $1.16 trillion. Overall, the Fed's balance sheet ballooned to $2.3 trillion, more than double where it stood before the crisis struck"

When the are using that much money, it sounds arrogant that they don't want to be transparent!

FOXNews.com - Trillion-dollar euro rescue plan offers short-term relief, stores up longer-term problems

FOXNews.com - Trillion-dollar euro rescue plan offers short-term relief, stores up longer-term problems: "Still, the package did not resolve the basic dysfunction at the heart of Europe's monetary union: Governments can still spend recklessly and saddle their partners with the bill."

Sounds like a good idea -- spend a trillion dollars but don't address the cause!

"But because of the debt crisis, private banks in the U.S. have been leery of making loans to banks in Europe. Hence the need for the currency swaps between the central banks."

So if bankers think it is a bad idea to loan money, then the central banks think it is a good idea? How is that not madness?

FOXNews.com - Federal Reserve Opens Credit Line to Europe

FOXNews.com - Federal Reserve Opens Credit Line to Europe: "Federal Reserve late Sunday opened a program to ship U.S. dollars to Europe"

How silly that some would want to audit the Fed and know details about what they are doing!

Why the media ignored the Nashville flood | Cranach: The Blog of Veith

Why the media ignored the Nashville flood | Cranach: The Blog of Veith: "the media can only trade on a story’s novelty for a few hours, tops. It is new angles, new characters, and new chapters that keep a story alive for longer."

Partisanship Has so Far Been Tea Party Activists' Big Mistake | Gene Healy | Cato Institute: Commentary

Partisanship Has so Far Been Tea Party Activists' Big Mistake | Gene Healy | Cato Institute: Commentary: "57 percent of tea party activists view our last president favorably.

What's going on here? Tea party activists claim they're a group with a principled opposition to big government in all its forms. How can anyone take that claim seriously when the membership embraces a president who personifies everything they're supposed to hate?

Aren't these activists opposed to profligate spending? Then why do they look favorably on 43, who led the largest debt expansion in American history and spent more than his six predecessors, doubling the federal budget during his tenure?

Don't the tea party activists hate bailouts? Have they forgotten which president rammed through the $700 billion TARP, bailed out Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, and gave $17 billion to Chrysler and General Motors after Congress refused to authorize tax dollars for failing automakers?"

"no right-minded supporter of limited government could possibly 'miss' a Republican president who, in Medicare Part D — the free-pills-for-seniors program — engineered the biggest expansion of entitlements between President Lyndon Johnson's Medicare and Obamacare."

An Economy of Liars | Gerald P. O'Driscoll Jr. | Cato Institute: Commentary

An Economy of Liars | Gerald P. O'Driscoll Jr. | Cato Institute: Commentary: "Ludwig von Mises, predicted in the 1930s that communism would eventually fail because it did not rely on prices to allocate resources. He predicted that the wrong goods would be produced: too many of some, too few of others. He was proven correct.

In the U.S today, we are moving away from reliance on honest pricing. The federal government controls 90% of housing finance. Policies to encourage home ownership remain on the books, and more have been added. Fed policies of low interest rates result in capital being misallocated across time."

Religious Persecution International | Doug Bandow | Cato Institute: Commentary

Religious Persecution International | Doug Bandow | Cato Institute: Commentary: "A new study by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life explores religious persecution around the world. According to Pew: '64 nations — about one-third of the countries in the world — have high or very high restrictions on religion. But because some of the most restrictive countries are very populous, nearly 70 percent of the world's 6.8 billion people live in countries with high restrictions on religion, the brunt of which often falls on religious minorities.'

Include moderate restrictions, which most Americans also would consider to be intolerable, and more than half of the world's nations limit religious liberty. Fully 86 percent of the globe's people face significant limits on their right to worship God."

Campaign For Liberty — Profits Cure Disease

Campaign For Liberty — Profits Cure Disease: "If you were told you have cancer, would you want Congress to: a) eliminate taxes on companies developing a cure, or b) eliminate their profits?"
"Choose now, because once you are diagnosed with a potentially fatal disease it will be way too late to change your mind."

"The high profits from selling the first units of the cure to the rich provide the investment capital needed to expand production and lower unit costs, making the cure for cancer available to less-wealthy people. If you tax those profits, there is no money to reinvest and the cure will be only for the rich forever."

Campaign For Liberty — Greek To Me

Campaign For Liberty — Greek To Me: "The annual budget deficit in Greece is 12% of GDP; ours is at 11% and climbing. Their public debt is 125% of GDP; ours is over 90% and climbing. More people work for the government in Greece than make things; same here. As economist John Welch put it, Greece is a few chapters ahead of us in the same book. We should read ahead and see how this particular work of economic fiction ends."

Krugman Misleads On Greece � John Stossel

Krugman Misleads On Greece � John Stossel: "In 10 years, under Obama's budget plan, the USA will likely be in same debt position as Greece is now."

Are We a Self-Hating Commercial Society? - Jeffrey A. Tucker - Mises Daily

Are We a Self-Hating Commercial Society? - Jeffrey A. Tucker - Mises Daily: "If buying this cup saves trees, an even better way to save trees is not to buy coffee at all. And it's not clear that lowering the demand for paper is going to actually save trees at all, since a lower demand would eventually mean less reason to plant and renew the resource. And do we really need to save trees anyway? Does someone know the optimal number of trees that are supposed to be alive on the planet at any one time?

The case of socially just coffee is the one that really gets my goat. The coffee plantations that pay the highest wages and offer the most benefits to their workers are the largest, most established, and most well-connected plantations. The smaller, family-owned plantations can't afford all these things, but they are less likely to have access to the rating agencies and export companies. Why, precisely, are consumers supposed to favor the corporate big shots over the family farms, and do so in the name of enlightened social consciousness?"

"Whether a cereal is called "Sugar Smacks" or "Earthen Honey Morsels" is neither here nor there to me, and if some marketing genius figures that the cereal company can make more money with one name over another, good for him and the company. Capitalism is so darn good at what it does that it can even bamboozle muddleheaded socialists to cough up money for its products; that's wonderful."

The Contractors that Couldn't Shoot Straight? | David Isenberg | Cato Institute: Commentary

The Contractors that Couldn't Shoot Straight? | David Isenberg | Cato Institute: Commentary: "For eight years we have been supposedly training the police in Afghanistan. And here is what we have done. We've flushed $6 billion, $6 billion.

Now, am I exaggerating? Let me quote the general in charge of training the police in Afghanistan. This is what General Caldwell said. And I quote, 'It's inconceivable that in fact for eight years we weren't training the police.' He went on to say that essentially we were giving them uniforms."

Avoid Campus Club Conundrum | Ilya Shapiro and Neal McCluskey | Cato Institute: Commentary

Avoid Campus Club Conundrum | Ilya Shapiro and Neal McCluskey | Cato Institute: Commentary: "It is impossible to reconcile free speech with governmentally compelled support of speech. Just as public colleges cannot choose both which student groups to fund and avoid discrimination, they cannot pay a professor without privileging his speech over that of the taxpayers who pay his bills. It also cannot fire him for saying something that taxpayers dislike without the government being guilty of censoring speech.

There is only one complete solution: Government must stop funding higher education — which, after all, is a form of regressive taxation, with lower-income households subsidizing the children of higher-income households (who attend college at a much higher rate). Ultimately, it's the only way to preserve real freedom and equality for each and every American."

New Rules for Your Taxes | Daniel J. Mitchell | Cato Institute: Commentary

New Rules for Your Taxes | Daniel J. Mitchell | Cato Institute: Commentary: "Here's where CBO accounting would be a big help. Why don't you assume that you were going to get a raise of $10,000. Because your pay 'only' went up by $5,000, you can claim your pay was reduced. The IRS will come down on you like a ton of bricks, but you can tell the agents as they cart you away that you were following official government methodology. (Maybe they'll go easy on you when you tell them that an identical approach helped push the IRS budget up to $12 billion.)"

"When filing your taxes, you can fantasize that you moved into a much larger house with a higher mortgage. Then, claim a bigger mortgage interest deduction. Once again, the IRS may frown upon that approach, but perhaps a judge will sympathize if you say you'll pay your full tax bill if and when Congress follows through on the supposed Medicare savings in the Obamacare legislation."

FOXNews.com - Obama Administration Eases Path for Airline, Rail Workers to Unionize

FOXNews.com - Obama Administration Eases Path for Airline, Rail Workers to Unionize: "In a 2008 election, 5,253 Delta flight attendants voted to be represented by the AFA. But the union lost under the old election rules because the roughly 8,000 flight attendants who didn't vote were counted as 'no' votes."

When not voting is interpreted the same as a "no" vote, why should you go to vote if you would vote "no" anyway?

FOXNews.com - French University Builds 11,000 MPG Car

FOXNews.com - French University Builds 11,000 MPG Car: "they run over a much shorter course, only a few miles, at very low speeds"

Apparently they only go 15 mph. I can get infinite MPG by just riding a bike -- and I would be going about the same speed!

FOXNews.com - How the Subsea Oil Recovery System Works

FOXNews.com - How the Subsea Oil Recovery System Works: "The structure is a 40-foot tall concrete chimney that conveys leaking oil to a ship on the surface, the Deepwater Enterprise. Once there, oil is separated from water and stored until the ship can return to shore, where it is offloaded and shipped to an on-shore terminal.

The ship is capable of storing 139,000 barrels of oil, processing it at a rate of 15,000 barrels per day. BP hopes it will be able to collect as much as 85 percent of the oil leaking from the sea floor."

I hope it works!

Passive House in the Woods

Passive House in the Woods: "The exterior wall assembly of the Passive House in the Woods consists of 11” Insulated Concrete Forms (ICF) for structure, and an 11” Exterior Insulation and Finish System (EIFS) facade with an overall R-value of 70. Windows and doors are Passive House certified, come with high solar heat gain (64%), triple pane low-E coated glazings, as well as insulated frames for installed R-values of 8. The slab sits on 12” of extruded polystyrene insulation with an R-value of 60. The flat roof utilizes an average of 14” of polyisocyanurate insulation with an R-value of 95."

Education Race to Top Hits Bottom | Neal McCluskey | Cato Institute: Commentary

Education Race to Top Hits Bottom | Neal McCluskey | Cato Institute: Commentary: "Indeed, as Duncan conceded when he announced the victors, what put Delaware and Tennessee in the winners' circle wasn't embracing cutting-edge reforms, but getting all districts and teachers' unions to endorse their applications."

LOL!

The War on Drugs Is Lost | Patrick Basham | Cato Institute: Commentary

The War on Drugs Is Lost | Patrick Basham | Cato Institute: Commentary: "In prisons, drugs are plentiful and their use is widespread. No matter what they try, prisons can't keep drugs out - an important lesson for those who would turn Russia, or any country, into a prison to stop drug use.

The startling, deeply unpleasant, but equally unavoidable fact is that 80 percent of drug-related deaths aren't the result of drug use. They are the result of drug prohibition."

"filling prisons with substance abusers doesn't make any public policy sense. If we ended the war on drugs, drug addicts could be treated as patients, not as pestilence."