Save the Bluefin Tuna through Property Rights - Robert P. Murphy - Mises Daily

Save the Bluefin Tuna through Property Rights - Robert P. Murphy - Mises Daily: "In principle, the problem of overfishing could be easily solved if 'chunks' of ocean were transferred into private property. Rather than having a meeting of 48 governments to determine 'the' quota, the owner(s) of each chunk of ocean could set an individual policy for that chunk.

To be sure, there would be logistical difficulties in privatizing the oceans. For example, if it turned out to be too costly to sink large nets deep enough into the water at the property lines, then the fish could easily swim from one owner's property into another's. The situation would be analogous to one on land before ranchers developed barbed-wire fencing."

"Alternatively, it might make more sense to establish property rights in the sea creatures themselves, analogous to branding of cattle. To track their swimming property, the owners might use radio collars (for whales and large fish) or coat the schools of smaller fish with a harmless radioactive substance."

"in the case of white rhinos in southern Africa, when property rights were introduced — so that the animals were no longer contraband but prized possessions — the turnaround in population figures was astounding."

There Is Nothing in QE2 Worth Conserving | Mark A. Calabria | Cato Institute: Commentary

There Is Nothing in QE2 Worth Conserving | Mark A. Calabria | Cato Institute: Commentary: "First, the good professor argues that spending is far below trend. That is true enough as it goes, but this trend includes a massive housing bubble, where imaginary wealth fueled spending, aided by massive borrowing from abroad. The objective of our economic policies should not be to get back to the top of the previous bubble. It was this desire to replace the lost wealth of the dot-com crash that contributed to the Fed's juicing of the housing market. All that said, consumption today is higher than at any time during the recent bubble. The primary problem facing our economy is not a lack of demand.

Like Ben Bernanke, Beckworth believes we have had no inflation. Again like the Fed, he arrives at this conclusion by subtracting out of the inflation numbers all the things that real people spend their money on, such as food and energy."

"the good professor fails to consider that households may not be 'hoarding' cash by choice."

"Most market participants, me included, would be happy to put their money into valuable investments. Yet with interest rates near zero, there's little incentive not to hold cash balances, as the opportunity costs are nonexistent."

The Ultimate Insiders | Richard W. Rahn | Cato Institute: Commentary

The Ultimate Insiders | Richard W. Rahn | Cato Institute: Commentary: "[members of Congress] have prior knowledge about which companies or industries will or will not be 'bailed out,' have their taxes raised or lowered, be subject to costly new regulations or exempted from such regulations, receive government contracts, etc. However, because the members of Congress and their staffs do not obtain their information from employees of the companies affected, they are not considered insiders.

There have been a number of recent news stories about how the average member of Congress showed an increase in net wealth over the past couple of years, while the average American was losing net wealth. The obvious conclusion is that members of Congress knew things the rest of us did not and acted on this knowledge to their own advantage — no surprise."

"The authors of the study, Jiekun Huang and Meng Gao, found that hedge funds connected with lobbyists, relative to non-connected ones, outperform by 1.6 percent to 2.5 percent per month in politically sensitive stocks compared to nonpolitical stocks. These results suggest that hedge-fund managers exploit private information, which can be an important source of their superior performance."

"Time and time again, the U.S. government has shown that it cannot protect sensitive information, from atomic secrets to sensitive financial data held by the Internal Revenue Service. Those who tell us that any information is safe when held by the U.S. government are both supremely arrogant and ignorant of history, including the news of recent weeks."

"The SEC is in the process of trying to find ways to criminalize those who (outside a firm) find better ways of doing research or modeling what they think is going on in a firm, even though they have received no direct, nonpublic information from real insiders. This approach eventually could kill the whole field of securities analysis. Only government employees at the SEC could dream up a scheme to try to keep everyone ignorant and call it 'progress.'"

"the decades of failure at the SEC show that enforcement of insider-trader laws is not feasible and often is counterproductive. Also, there has never been a clear definition of insider trading either from Congress or the SEC."

What you pay for Medicare won't cover your costs - FoxNews.com

What you pay for Medicare won't cover your costs - FoxNews.com: "Consider an average-wage, two-earner couple together earning $89,000 a year. Upon retiring in 2011, they would have paid $114,000 in Medicare payroll taxes during their careers.

But they can expect to receive medical services — from prescriptions to hospital care — worth $355,000, or about three times what they put in."

"The same hypothetical couple retiring in 2011 will have paid $614,000 in Social Security taxes, and can expect to collect $555,000 in benefits. They will have paid about 10 percent more into the system than they're likely to get back."

Not a Government Policy | Michael D. Tanner | Cato Institute: Commentary

Not a Government Policy | Michael D. Tanner | Cato Institute: Commentary: "Income inequality is the wrong focus for government policy. After all, if we doubled the income of every American tomorrow, inequality would actually increase — but we would also lift a lot of Americans out of poverty.

In the context of deficit reduction, that means we should keep this goal in mind: not punishing the rich, but reducing poverty. And we know that in the long run, the best way to reduce poverty is to create more jobs and opportunity. Too many think of the economy as a fixed pie, and the role of government is to divide up the slices of that pie. If one person gets a bigger portion of pie, others of necessity get smaller pieces.

But in reality the size of the pie is not fixed. We can pursue policies that grow a bigger pie, allowing a bigger slice for everyone. Conversely, we can shrink the pie, meaning everyone gets less. And unfortunately, if the pie shrinks, those without skills and connections in society — the poor — are likely to end up with little more than crumbs."

What Threat, China? - Kel Kelly - Mises Daily

What Threat, China? - Kel Kelly - Mises Daily: "A powerful military can come only from a powerful economy. Countries that have little capital and little ability to produce factories, tools, machines, and consumer goods likewise have little ability to produce tanks, missiles, fighter jets, and satellite systems. The lesson for the United States in this case is that we need to do everything possible to promote capital accumulation and increased labor productivity.

But even that consideration misses the real issue at hand. Military threats come only from political leaders, not from individual citizens. Thus, centrally controlled nation-state structures are the problem."

Real Death Panels Are Coming Our Way | Nat Hentoff | Cato Institute: Commentary

Real Death Panels Are Coming Our Way | Nat Hentoff | Cato Institute: Commentary: "during a discussion on balancing the federal budget against alarming deficits, [Paul Krugman] proclaimed the way to solve this problem is through deeply cost-effective health care rationing.

'Some years down the pike,' he said, 'we're going to get the real solution, which is going to be a combination of death panels and sales taxes.' That would mean the U.S. Debt Reduction Commission 'should have endorsed the panel that was part of the [Obama] health care reform.'"

"[Sarah Palin] was mocked, scorned from sea to shining sea, including by the eminent Paul Krugman for being, he said, among those spreading 'the death penalty lie' as part of 'the lunatic fringe.'"

For Big-Spending Hawks, the U.S. Military's Work Is Never Done | Doug Bandow | Cato Institute: Commentary

For Big-Spending Hawks, the U.S. Military's Work Is Never Done | Doug Bandow | Cato Institute: Commentary: "The Constitution authorizes the national government to act in the 'common defense' — of America, not the rest of the world. None of the founders imagined that the U.S. would become Globocop, busy protecting populous and prosperous allies (international social welfare) and attempting to rebuild failed societies (foreign social engineering)."

Massachusetts Cop Was Killed by Career Criminal Out on Parole Despite Three Life Sentences - FoxNews.com

Massachusetts Cop Was Killed by Career Criminal Out on Parole Despite Three Life Sentences - FoxNews.com: "Cinelli had a lengthy rap sheet filled with armed robberies, assaults and other offenses, had been serving three life sentences since 1976, and had chronic disciplinary problems while in prison including two escapes during which he committed crimes, the Globe reported.

Still, he won the board over by saying the deaths in the family, including his mother's, and drug counseling changed him, the paper reported."

Korean schools welcome more robot teachers | Crave - CNET

Korean schools welcome more robot teachers | Crave - CNET: "state education budgets have been strained by importing thousands of foreign teachers, who are increasingly unwilling to live in remote areas and on islands. I don't think a telepresence robot can really replace a human teacher, but then again I nearly nodded off a few times in class during my teaching stint in Korea. A robot would never do that."

Man Arrested at Miami Airport After Bullet Parts Found in Bag - FoxNews.com

Man Arrested at Miami Airport After Bullet Parts Found in Bag - FoxNews.com: "A 37-year-old man is facing a federal charge after bullet primers [of several hundred] ignited in his bag as it was being unloaded at Miami International Airport from a flight that had just arrived."

They didn't find them on the way in?

Politicians' Time Is Not Much More Important Than Ours | Gene Healy | Cato Institute: Commentary

Politicians' Time Is Not Much More Important Than Ours | Gene Healy | Cato Institute: Commentary: "Asked last week whether she would submit to a Transportation Security Administration pat-down, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton snorted: 'Not if I could avoid it, ha, ha, ha! ... Who would?'

As a Cabinet secretary, she can avoid it, as can top congressional leaders. Membership has its privileges."

"In 2006, the Secret Service insisted that the Virginia Department of Transportation shut down all HOV lanes on Interstate 395 for six hours so President Bush could get to a fundraiser"

Politicians' Time Is Not Much More Important Than Ours | Gene Healy | Cato Institute: Commentary

Politicians' Time Is Not Much More Important Than Ours | Gene Healy | Cato Institute: Commentary: "Asked last week whether she would submit to a Transportation Security Administration pat-down, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton snorted: 'Not if I could avoid it, ha, ha, ha! ... Who would?'

As a Cabinet secretary, she can avoid it, as can top congressional leaders. Membership has its privileges."

"In 2006, the Secret Service insisted that the Virginia Department of Transportation shut down all HOV lanes on Interstate 395 for six hours so President Bush could get to a fundraiser"

New tax law packed with obscure business tax cuts - FoxNews.com

New tax law packed with obscure business tax cuts - FoxNews.com: "The massive new tax bill signed into law by President Barack Obama is filled with all kinds of holiday stocking stuffers for businesses: tax breaks for producing TV shows, grants for putting up windmills, rum subsidies for Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.

There is even a tax break for people who buy race horses."

"Most of the business tax breaks — about 50 in all — are part of a package that expires each year, creating uncertainty for tax planners but lots of business for lobbyists."

"There is a generous tax break for banks and insurance companies that invest overseas, a tax credit for railroad track maintenance, more generous write-offs for upgrading motorsport race tracks, and increased deductions for businesses that donate books and computers to public schools and libraries."

Negative rights vs. Positive rights | Cranach: The Blog of Veith

Negative rights vs. Positive rights | Cranach: The Blog of Veith: "The problem is that elevating benefits to the level of rights confers an unlimited grant of power to the government. In the legislative process, laudable sentiments too often emerge as programs with unconstrained costs — or, in the case of the personal mandate in Obamacare, policies that rely on coercion. . . .
From government’s point of view, positive rights are marching orders. Heaven and earth must be moved to deliver the promises. The state grows rapidly and ultimately it outruns the capacity of the tax base to pay for it all, endangering the financial security of everyone.

Thirty years ago, Portugal’s government cost its taxpayers about 20 percent of GDP. Then a new constitution was written, chock full of positive rights — the right to housing, education, health, social security. The size of government doubled. Portugal’s borrowing costs, like that of Greece and Ireland, have ballooned."

Obama cites Steve Jobs' wealth, product success | Nanotech - The Circuits Blog - CNET News

Obama cites Steve Jobs' wealth, product success | Nanotech - The Circuits Blog - CNET News: Obama said "We expect that person to be rich, and that's a good thing. We want that incentive. That's part of the free market,"

That doesn't seem to match with his comment that “I do think at a certain point you’ve made enough money”

Feds Should Flunk out of Education | Neal McCluskey | Cato Institute: Commentary

Feds Should Flunk out of Education | Neal McCluskey | Cato Institute: Commentary: "On a per-pupil basis, the Digest reports an inflation-adjusted rise from $435 in 1970 to $1,015 in 2006"

"The problem is that politicians say lots of things, and, unlike when you pay more for a car to get better safety or mileage, when politicians spend money it's often not to get better education. No, it's to curry favor with teacher unions, administrator associations or other special interests whose members get paid with increased federal funding and will raise hell for politicians who don't push it. So spending goes up, up, up, but achievement stays down, down, down."

TSA Searches, Bomb Risk Near Zero | Jim Harper | Cato Institute: Commentary

TSA Searches, Bomb Risk Near Zero | Jim Harper | Cato Institute: Commentary: "In 99 million domestic flights over the past decade, transporting seven billion U.S. travelers, there have been zero bombs snuck on to planes and detonated. (The one failed attempt came from overseas.) Common sense calls that a risk that's near zero."

"Air travel will never be 100 percent safe. But it would take a lot of successful attacks to make it more dangerous, for example, than driving."

On Air Security, We Are the Ones We've Been Waiting For | David Rittgers | Cato Institute: Commentary

On Air Security, We Are the Ones We've Been Waiting For | David Rittgers | Cato Institute: Commentary: "Passengers have been holding their own as a check on terrorists quite admirably ever since the traveling public learned that the rules of the hijacking game had changed.

The passengers on United Airlines Flight 93 immediately took action on Sept. 11, 2001, storming the cockpit and stopping another terrorist attack at the cost of their own lives. Three months later, two flight attendants and a defensive line of international travelers sacked would-be shoe bomber Richard Reid before he could score.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano was right when she said that 'the system worked' after a Dutch filmmaker tackled the would-be Christmas Day 2009 bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab. The system did work, if you count the passengers as part of 'the system.'"

The TSA's False Tradeoff - Robert P. Murphy - Mises Daily

The TSA's False Tradeoff - Robert P. Murphy - Mises Daily: "In fact, no matter what procedures are implemented, it's always possible that wily terrorists will still manage to beat the system. In real life, we can never guarantee safety. This is why so many pundits' discussions of airline travel miss the mark completely: they assume that there is some objective answer of 'the right' amount of security, when this is a complex economic question."

"Only in a truly free market — where different airlines are free to try different approaches to safety — could we approach a sensible solution to these difficult questions. Passengers who don't mind invasive scanning or sensitive inspections could patronize airlines offering these (cheap) techniques — assuming they were really necessary to achieve adequate safety. On the other hand, passengers who objected to these techniques could pay higher ticket prices in order to fly on airlines that hired teams of bomb-sniffing dogs, or set up very secure prescreening procedures (perhaps with retinal IDing in order to board a flight), or implemented some as-yet-undreamt-of method to keep their flights safe, without resorting to methods that their customers found humiliating."

"One possibility is that the legal system would hold airlines strictly accountable for such property damage, and that the airlines would need to purchase massive insurance policies before obtaining permission to send giant steel containers full of jet fuel hurtling over skyscrapers and shopping malls."

End the IMF - Henry Hazlitt - Mises Daily

End the IMF - Henry Hazlitt - Mises Daily: "If there were no IMF, governments whose currencies were shaky as a result of their reckless fiscal and monetary policies would be forced to go to private bankers or investors to extricate them, and private investors would insist on guarantees of fiscal and monetary discipline as a condition of such help. But Keynes insured that a nation's 'domestic' inflationary policies 'shall be immune from criticism by the Fund.' He provided for automatic borrowing rights, and left any aid conditions to the necessarily political decisions of other governments through their representatives on the IMF."

A Tale of Two Colonies - Gary Galles - Mises Daily

A Tale of Two Colonies - Gary Galles - Mises Daily: "The change from communal- to private-property rights dramatically increased the Pilgrims' productivity. The beginnings of that productivity led to the bounty celebrated at Plymouth's famous 1623 Thanksgiving. And as historian Russell Kirk reported, 'never again were the Pilgrims short of food.'"

Thoughtless Taxation | Richard W. Rahn | Cato Institute: Commentary

Thoughtless Taxation | Richard W. Rahn | Cato Institute: Commentary: "Many Democrats, including many lame ducks, are still demanding that tax rates for entrepreneurs be increased under the absurd claim that not to do so will 'cost' the government 'almost $2 trillion over the 2011-20 period' in lost tax revenues. To believe these bogus numbers that the Joint Tax Committee staff and the administration put out about the revenue loss, one needs to believe that upper-income people will not alter their behavior when faced with higher tax rates, that high marginal tax rates on capital (the seed corn of the economy) and double taxation of it do not damage economic growth and job creation, and that the government is smaller than its optimum size to maximize the general welfare. The empirical evidence as well as good economic theory demonstrate that none of the above is true — but to those politicians, mainstream media sorts and left-wing economists who cannot understand the difference between variables and constants, facts don't matter.

The Wall Street Journal reported this past week, 'Some of the nation's largest banks are exiting or scaling back their dealings with foreign embassies and missions because of the burden of complying with money-laundering regulations.' The head of the Angolan mission to the United States said, 'Bank account closures strain relations with the U.S. ... Without bank accounts, we find it very difficult to function.' Surprise, surprise. Most people (other than members of Congress and government bureaucrats) can figure out not to take an action if the costs outweigh the benefits. U.S. government financial regulations on banks have reached the point where it is no longer profitable for banks to engage in many normal and necessary banking operations, particularly with foreigners. Not a good way to make friends.

In March, Congress passed the 'HIRE Act' which has had the unintended — but not unforeseen by many of us — consequence of causing foreign banks to withdraw from investing in the United States because of the costs and uncertain liabilities of dealing with U.S. government regulations. Thus, the United States may lose a trillion or more dollars in foreign investment under the guise of picking up a few billion dollars in tax-avoidance revenue."

"Both plans recognize that tax increases have adverse economic consequences and are far more damaging than spending cuts, but both plans endorse major tax increases. Neither plan seems to have asked the fundamental question, which is: Why do we need to have a government bigger than the revenue the tax code now produces? The simple answer is that we don't.

Government is growing faster than the private sector, and thus it is an arithmetic fact that no amount of tax increases can solve this spending problem. When a politician promises a spending 'entitlement' to one person, that politician is also making the normally unstated promise to make someone else a tax slave to pay for the entitlement."

Conservatives Share Blame for TSA's 'Freedom Fondle' | Gene Healy | Cato Institute: Commentary

Conservatives Share Blame for TSA's 'Freedom Fondle' | Gene Healy | Cato Institute: Commentary: "But when every bungled attack — no matter how inept — gets the screeching siren treatment on Drudge, what do you expect that political dynamic to produce? Sober, sensible policy?"

"when prominent conservatives brush off constitutional concerns with the bromide 'the Constitution is not a suicide pact,' (or, as Mitt Romney put it in 2007, 'Our most basic civil liberty is the right to be kept alive') is it so surprising that liberty and dignity get sent to the back of the line?

Like it or not, we live in the world the alarmists have made.

Yet, in reality, we're remarkably safe. In 2009, terrorists caused just 25 U.S. noncombatant fatalities worldwide. That's 25 too many, but 'existential,' it's not.

My colleague Jim Harper points out that, since 9/11, 'in 99 million domestic flights, transporting 7 billion people, precisely zero domestic travelers have snuck an underpants bomb onto a plane. (The one that we have seen — which did not work — came from overseas.)'

Surely the existence of the TSA — hapless and bureaucratic as they are — deters some potential bombers. Even so, the agency won't — likely can't — identify a single genuine terrorist they've caught, and it's not at all clear, according to the Government Accountability Office, that even the nude machine would have exposed the Christmas bomber.

We're safe — but not perfectly safe. Hyping and politicizing the terrorist threat won't deliver us perfect safety. Nothing can. But, as we're learning, it can put us on the path toward a society that no longer looks like America — one where you're endlessly prodded and poked — and ordered not to joke about the poking."

A Public Display of BMA Ignorance | Patrick Basham and John Luik | Cato Institute: Commentary

A Public Display of BMA Ignorance | Patrick Basham and John Luik | Cato Institute: Commentary: "proponents usually argue that the sole aim of tobacco display bans is to reduce youth smoking. So why does the BMA's statement suggest that other goals are being promoted, too? Why is Ireland now held up as a tobacco control nirvana? Most importantly, why does the BMA ignore a plethora of contrary economic evidence on the effects of such bans?

Until very recently, tobacco-control advocates campaigned for a display ban because it would lead to reduced youth smoking, full stop. But the evidence from various jurisdictions that have implemented a display ban suggests that smoking prevalence, especially among adolescents, is at best unaffected by such a ban. Indeed, there is evidence in some places that display bans have coincided with an increase in smoking.

Consequently, ban advocates are quietly and subtly moving the empirical goalposts. They are replacing youth smoking levels as the test of success with a measurement of how many young people perceive that their peers are smoking and then propagating a lower score as 'evidence' of the display ban's effectiveness. It is an intellectually dubious tactic, but left unchallenged it may do the trick, politically."

Almost no oil recovered from sand berms - FoxNews.com

Almost no oil recovered from sand berms - FoxNews.com: "The government has said that much of the crude that spewed from BP's well following the April 20 rig explosion was skimmed, burned, collected or dispersed. E-mails, internal reports and a log of oil sightings obtained by AP confirm that very little of the estimated 200 million gallons that gushed from the bottom of the sea has been seen on or recovered from the berms."

Hindsight is 20/20. At the time, was it a reasonable precaution given the uncertainty?

Search warrants and online data: Getting real | Privacy Inc. - CNET News

Search warrants and online data: Getting real | Privacy Inc. - CNET News: "Law enforcement agencies have long argued that users who store data with third parties cannot reasonably expect such data to be protected by the Fourth Amendment. The Sixth Circuit disagreed. The judges explicitly rejected the view that since most terms-of-service agreements include provisions that allow an ISP to inspect or audit the user's information, users cannot reasonably expect that their data is private, once stored in the cloud."

LinkedIn disables passwords in wake of Gawker attack | InSecurity Complex - CNET News

LinkedIn disables passwords in wake of Gawker attack | InSecurity Complex - CNET News: "LinkedIn is disabling passwords of users whose e-mail addresses were included in the customer data that was exposed in an attack on the Gawker blog sites."

A smart move!

Israel repatriates 150 Sudanese in broader effort to discourage African influx - CSMonitor.com

Israel repatriates 150 Sudanese in broader effort to discourage African influx - CSMonitor.com: "'What does voluntary mean? Systematically, the government is forcing them to go because they aren't providing them assistance,'' says Yohannes Bayu"

How does not providing assistance mean that they are forcing them to leave?

Production, Enterprise, and Service to Society - Ludwig von Mises - Mises Daily

Production, Enterprise, and Service to Society - Ludwig von Mises - Mises Daily: "In the capitalistic economy, it is consumer demand that determines the pattern and direction of production, precisely because entrepreneurs and capitalists must consider the profitability of their enterprises."

"Entrepreneurs try to produce those goods the sale of which offers them the highest possible gain. They expand production of any particular item up to the point at which it ceases to be profitable. If the entrepreneur produces only those goods whose sale gives promise of yielding a profit, this means that they are producing no commodities for the manufacture of which labor and capital goods must be used which are needed for the manufacture of other commodities more urgently desired by consumers."

"By shifting the height of wages, the market directs workers into those branches of production in which they are most urgently needed. Thus the market supplies to each type of employment that quality and quantity of labor needed to satisfy consumer wants in the best possible way."

"In the capitalistic society, men become rich — directly as the producer of consumers' goods, or indirectly as the producer of raw materials and semiproduced factors of production — by serving consumers in large numbers. This means that men who become rich in the capitalistic society are serving the people. The capitalistic market economy is a democracy in which every penny constitutes a vote. The wealth of the successful businessman is the result of a consumer plebiscite. Wealth, once acquired, can be preserved only by those who keep on earning it anew by satisfying the wishes of consumers."

"Directly or indirectly, capitalistic production serves primarily the consumption of the masses."

A U.S. Defense Budget Worthy of Its Name | Christopher Preble and Benjamin H. Friedman | Cato Institute: Commentary

A U.S. Defense Budget Worthy of Its Name | Christopher Preble and Benjamin H. Friedman | Cato Institute: Commentary: "the best hedge against an uncertain future is a prosperous and innovative economy supporting a capable military that can be expanded to meet rivals should they arise."

Indian start-up strikes deal to combat counterfeiting of medicine - CSMonitor.com

Indian start-up strikes deal to combat counterfeiting of medicine - CSMonitor.com: "The company will print a random code on up to 70 million pill packets, which customers can then text message to a phone number linked to a database. Computers look up the code, cross it off, and send back the expiration date and batch number to the customer."

A Republican Agenda of Real Change | Doug Bandow | Cato Institute: Commentary

A Republican Agenda of Real Change | Doug Bandow | Cato Institute: Commentary: "The Republican Party is resurgent. But the last two periods of GOP dominance ended in political disaster. Unless Republicans promote real change — namely limited, constitutional government — they are likely to be sent back to political oblivion again. And deservedly so.

Today Republican candidates are capitalizing on the wave of popular anger over excessive federal spending. Yet they are as responsible as Democrats for America's financial and constitutional crises."

"Republicans constantly cite the founders, but imagine what those who backed the Bill of Rights would have thought of the claim that the president could order the arrest of an American citizen on American soil and have him be held in solitary confinement — potentially forever. And what the original revolutionaries would have thought of the GOP suggestion that there was no constitutional, congressional, or judicial limit to the president's war-time powers? Which, given the fact that the 'War on Terrorism' may go on forever and that the chief battlefield is the American homeland, means that the president has the powers of an elective dictator if he chooses to wield them."

"the only welfare that the federal government should consider supplying is for the poor. No more corporate welfare. No more pork-barrel hand-outs to local voters, campaign supporters, and influential interests. And no more middle-class welfare, benefits for Americans who can afford to care for themselves. This means directly confronting Medicare and Social Security, ending benefits for the well-to-do and allowing younger people to opt out of the programs."

"Most of what Washington does today has nothing to do with protecting America. The big U.S. commitments are simply a form of international welfare. The Europeans don't need defending: after all, collectively they have a bigger population and economy than America. South Korea has huge advantages over North Korea. Japan has much at stake in a stable international economic order, yet devotes less than one-fourth as much effort to defense as we do.

It is bad enough when the Republican Party forces U.S. taxpayers to pay for an American welfare state. But why should the GOP make working Americans subsidize even more lavish European welfare states?"

Nobel Laureate Diamond Is Unqualified for Fed | Mark A. Calabria | Cato Institute: Commentary

Nobel Laureate Diamond Is Unqualified for Fed | Mark A. Calabria | Cato Institute: Commentary: "According to Section 10-1 of the Federal Reserve Act, the next member of the Board of Governors may not come from a Fed district that already has representation on the board. As both common sense and his Senate paperwork confirm, Diamond is from Massachusetts. So is Fed Governor Dan Tarullo. Unless Tarullo is resigning, Diamond is ineligible.

To get around this quandary, the White House says Diamond is actually from Chicago. The basis of this claim is that he has lectured at Northwestern University. To believe that giving a lecture at the school, located in Evanston, Illinois, makes one 'from' Chicago displays contempt for the law that is unique even for this administration."

"In fact, we largely had price stability in the days when the Fed board lacked academics.

If anything, this era of a 'scientific' Fed has been characterized by rampant inflation. That shouldn't be surprising since it was academics who came up with the notion that you can debase your way to prosperity."

Why New York Shouldn't Mourn Earmarks | Tad DeHaven | Cato Institute: Commentary

Why New York Shouldn't Mourn Earmarks | Tad DeHaven | Cato Institute: Commentary: "Federal administration costs are about 5% of the value of CDBG grants, with local and state governments taking a 17% and 8% cut, respectively."

Who Was R.C. Hoiles? - Jeff Riggenbach - Mises Daily

Who Was R.C. Hoiles? - Jeff Riggenbach - Mises Daily: "Hoiles found, he said, that while his

school texts exposed the political 'error' of the divine right of kings … they never explained the error in the divine right of the majority. [They] simply substituted the divine right of the majority for the divine right of kings.

"

"'The most harmful error most honest people make,' he wrote in an editorial in the Santa Ana Register,

is the belief that a group or a government can do things that would be harmful and wicked if done by an individual and produce results that are not harmful, unjust and wicked. It is the belief that a number of people doing a thing that is wrong for an individual to do, can make it right and just.

"

"As Hoiles himself put it, 'Any time a man has to pay for something he does not want because of the initiating of force by the government, he is, to that degree, a slave.'"

What Drives Profits? - Kel Kelly - Mises Daily

What Drives Profits? - Kel Kelly - Mises Daily: "Paradoxical as it might sound, lower profits and lower prices — not higher profits and higher prices — are what result from economic progress. All taxes applied to profits, interest, inheritance, etc. — taxes paid with funds that would otherwise support productive processes — reduce economic growth."

Whoppers with Sleaze | Walter Olson | Cato Institute: Commentary

Whoppers with Sleaze | Walter Olson | Cato Institute: Commentary: "Staffers at the Health Department were sharply divided about whether the proposed ads went beyond the available science in demonizing sweet drinks. The city's health commissioner, Dr. Thomas A. Farley, overruled three subordinates, including his chief nutritionist, to push things forward.

• 'The scientists, [the city's nutritionist] said, 'will make mincemeat of us.' ' 'Basic premise doesn't work,' said a Columbia professor of pediatrics and clinical medicine whom the city consulted."

"Incredibly, New York City's latest ad, on salt in processed foods, is even worse. It shows a can of soup bursting at the seams with table salt, whole mounds and piles of it. The city's underlying point is not 100 percent off-base — healthful in most other ways, conventional canned soup is a relatively salty food — but the actual amount of salt in a can is more like 1 teaspoon, not the third of a cup or more depicted in the city's ridiculously exaggerated photo. Not to put too fine a point on it, but the Bloomberg soup ad is built on a visual lie.

What would happen if a private advertiser tried to get away with imagery as misleading as this? Well, in 1970, in a case still taught in business schools, Campbell's got caught manipulating the soup pictures in its ads; its photographers had put marbles at the bottom of the bowl so that the pleasing vegetables would be more visible on top. The Federal Trade Commission filed a deceptive-advertising complaint to make the company stop."

The GOP's Budget Cowardice | Michael D. Tanner | Cato Institute: Commentary

The GOP's Budget Cowardice | Michael D. Tanner | Cato Institute: Commentary: "It's time to face some hard facts: To actually bring the budget into balance by 2019 will require as much as a 20 percent reduction in spending relative to the level to which it would otherwise grow with inflation. That's total spending, not just domestic discretionary spending. To truly roll back the size of government — to, say, the 18 percent of GDP it consumed during the Clinton presidency — would require even bigger cuts. How does the GOP pretend that we can get there simply by cutting 'waste, fraud, and abuse,' and without putting entitlements or defense on the table?"

Body Scanners: The Naked Truth | David Rittgers | Cato Institute: Commentary

Body Scanners: The Naked Truth | David Rittgers | Cato Institute: Commentary: "the scanners fare poorly against low-density materials such as thin plastics, gels and liquids. Care to guess what Abdulmutallab's bomb was made of? The Government Accountability Office reported in March that it's not clear that a scanner would've detected that device.

Even if the scanners did work against low-density materials, the same group linked to the Christmas bomb, Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, has already found another way to defeat the technology: hiding bombs inside the human body: A would-be AQAP assassin tried to kill a senior Saudi counterterrorism official with a bomb hidden where only a proctologist would find it.

That bomb wound up killing only its carrier. But a more enterprising terrorist could go to the plane bathroom to remove bomb components hidden in a body cavity, then place them against the aircraft hull — and the results would be far different.

Terrorists already know how to beat body scanners with low-tech (really, no-tech) techniques, but the federal government still spends billions on this gadget."

"An army of executives for scanner-producing corporations — mostly former high-ranking Homeland Security officials — successfully lobbied Congress into spending $300 million in stimulus money to buy the scanners. But running them will cost another $340 million each year. Operating them means 5,000 added TSA personnel, growing the screener workforce by 10 percent. This, when the federal debt commission is saying that we must cut federal employment rolls, including some FBI agents, just to keep spending sustainable.

Why cut funding for the people who actually catch terrorists to add more pointless hassles at the airport?"

You and Your Neighbor's Pork | Brandon Arnold | Cato Institute: Commentary

You and Your Neighbor's Pork | Brandon Arnold | Cato Institute: Commentary: "Earmark advocates love to brag about their newest project and are pretty good at making constituents believe they're particularly adept at this practice. However, most members of Congress are bringing home such a small piece of the earmark pie that their constituents would be far better off if they never sent their tax dollars to Washington in the first place.

Thirty-four states and the District of Columbia are 'earmark donor states.' Their citizens receive only a small percentage of earmarks relative to the share of taxes they send to Washington. Yet 90 percent of the U.S. population lives in these donor states."

Congress Average Salary: Is It Too High? - PayScale Resources

Congress Average Salary: Is It Too High? - PayScale Resources: "According to PayScale.com, the median earnings for people in the US between the ages of 55-64 (which is the median age of US Congress and Cabinet members) who hold at least a bachelor's degree and work full-time is $73,700. This income is far below what Congress and Cabinet members earn. Perhaps a congressional campaign would be a smart next career move."

How do you find an effective teacher? Ask a kid - FoxNews.com

How do you find an effective teacher? Ask a kid - FoxNews.com: "— The average student knows effective teaching when he or she experiences it.

— In every grade and every subject, a teacher's past success in raising student achievement on state tests is one of the strongest predictors of his or her ability to do so again.

— The teachers with the highest value-added scores on state tests, which show improvement by individual students during the time they were in their classroom, are also the teachers who do the best job helping their students understand math concepts or demonstrate reading comprehension through writing.

— Valid feedback does not need to come from test scores alone. Other data can give teachers the information they need to improve, including student opinions of how organized and effective a teacher is."

Obamanomics Leaving World Nervous | Daniel J. Mitchell | Cato Institute: Commentary

Obamanomics Leaving World Nervous | Daniel J. Mitchell | Cato Institute: Commentary: "When I was growing up, China's Communist leaders would attack the United States as 'capitalist running dogs.' How the world has changed: Chinese leaders now publicly fret about America's reliance on 'outmoded central planning.'"

"Ironically, the rest of the world has learned that easy money and deficit spending are a bad recipe, yet the White House somehow thinks that going back to Jimmy Carter's policies is the right approach for America."

Top GM exec says federal pay limits hurt company - FoxNews.com

Top GM exec says federal pay limits hurt company - FoxNews.com: "The top executive at General Motors said Friday that the automaker's attempt to rebound from its bankruptcy is being hindered by salary limits the government has clamped on executives at companies that accepted federal bailouts."

If you choose to receive special gifts from the government, you can't complain when their rules hurt you.

High-speed rail in Wisconsin off track? | New Richmond News | New Richmond, Wisconsin

High-speed rail in Wisconsin off track? | New Richmond News | New Richmond, Wisconsin: "Had the Milwaukee to Madison line gone through, Walker said, taxpayers would have been 'on the hook' for as much as $7.5 million in annual operating subsidies to keep the line operational."

The Fantasy of Wealth Redistribution - Lorenz Kraus - Mises Daily

The Fantasy of Wealth Redistribution - Lorenz Kraus - Mises Daily: "you cannot chop to pieces and spread among the people an oven — and still have a working oven. You must respect the integrity of all capital goods for them to function. A power plant would have to be ground up into atoms and divided into baggies to get equality.

By their nature, capital goods cannot be redistributed among the people in any sense that results in equality and wealth. The redistribution of wealth, if taken seriously, necessarily means the complete and utter destruction of wealth. Socialism is nihilism, the destruction of values.

Communists never successfully distributed wealth equally. This is inherent in the nature of wealth. Because wealth cannot be subdivided (only rights to wealth can) to the masses, they seized wealth for their own clique. Everyone else starved. This is how the integrity of wealth asserts itself when seized. Socialists do not fight over air; their infighting is over this radio station, that printing press, these tanks, or this bit of rancid meat."

"hundreds of millions of people have thought that redistribution of wealth will lead to personal gain. Obama's redistribution of wealth brought economic destruction."

"Where in socialism do you, oh peasant, lay claim to your part of the public schools, the postal service, or the prisons? There is no similar mechanism to illustrate your ownership of the nationalized steel mill, auto company, coal mine, bank, or national park — and there is not much of a mine or mill left after it is nationalized or burned down.

Take out private-property rights and wealth vanishes. We revert to the ravaging of the commons and to mutually assured destitution."

Feds block workers from WikiLeaks, mirror sites | Privacy Inc. - CNET News

Feds block workers from WikiLeaks, mirror sites | Privacy Inc. - CNET News: "Mark Leininger, Fermilab's computer security manager, wrote in an internal newsletter that WikiLeaks' Web site was being blocked because workers at the Batavia, Ill.-based lab could be at risk if they view classified information without being specifically approved for it."

Reminds me of an ostrich sticking its head in the ground.

FoxNews.com - Ben Bernanke Says Congress Should Not Cut Spending or Boost Taxes

FoxNews.com - Ben Bernanke Says Congress Should Not Cut Spending or Boost Taxes: "Lou Crandall, chief economist at Wrightson ICAP, said Bernanke is right that the Fed's purchases won't significantly change the amount of money circulating in the economy. That's mainly because banks aren't lending most of the money they already hold in reserve. When the Fed buys Treasurys, it increases the reserves in the banking system. For those reserves to actually 'create' money, the banks would have to lend it."

So it only sows the seeds for inflation.

Botched execution survivor stays on Ohio death row - FoxNews.com

Botched execution survivor stays on Ohio death row - FoxNews.com: "Broom has said he was stuck with needles at least 18 times, with pain so intense that he cried and screamed.

He was sentenced to die for the 1984 rape and slaying of 14-year-old Tryna Middleton"

Tryna Middleton probably cried and screamed too!

Campaign For Liberty — Waterboy

Campaign For Liberty — Waterboy: "David Axelrod argued the lie again today when he said we can't afford to spend our money on a tax cut for the rich when there are more important things to spend it on. Where to begin....a) leaving rates alone is not a cut, b) keeping your money is not spending, and c) it is not our money, it belongs to whoever earned it. But these are the liberal talking points, repeated over and over and over again, as if the quantity of repetition might improve the quality of the argument. It won't.

The no-tax-increase-is-spending argument is absurd on its face. If not raising taxes is the same as spending, then is electing not to steal money from a church the same as making a contribution? Do you think the IRS will let me deduct all the money I was going to steal from charities but then decided to let them keep?"

More Gridlock, Please | Michael D. Tanner | Cato Institute: Commentary

More Gridlock, Please | Michael D. Tanner | Cato Institute: Commentary: "We know from history that during periods of divided government, which tends to lead to gridlock, government spending increases by an average of less than 2% annually. In contrast, under unified government with cooperation rather than gridlock, spending grows by an average of more than 5%."

Ben Bernanke's Impossible Dream | Alan Reynolds | Cato Institute: Commentary

Ben Bernanke's Impossible Dream | Alan Reynolds | Cato Institute: Commentary: "This whole scheme raises nagging questions. Why would domestic investors accept a lower yield on bonds if they expect higher inflation? And why would foreign investors accept a lower yield on U.S. bonds if they expect exchange rate losses on dollar-denominated securities? Why wouldn't intelligent people shift their investments toward commodities or related stocks (such as mining and related machinery) and either shun, or sell short, long-term Treasurys? And if they did that, how could it possibly help the economy?"

"There is ample evidence from commodity and foreign-exchange markets that world investors are indeed confident the Fed will raise inflation. However, the growing interest in shorting long-term Treasury bonds shows that the market does not believe higher inflation is consistent with lower long-term interest rates.

In other words, Mr. Bernanke and his FOMC allies are risking higher interest rates and inflated commodity costs in the pursuit of the contradictory objectives of higher inflation and lower bond yields, seemingly oblivious to all the evidence that they are pursuing an impossible dream."

Lost natural gas costs gov't $23M per year - FoxNews.com

Lost natural gas costs gov't $23M per year - FoxNews.com: "The government is losing tens of millions of dollars in potential royalties from energy companies that let immense volumes of natural gas escape into the atmosphere, congressional investigators said in a new report."

"The lost gas is equivalent to the annual greenhouse gas emissions of more than 3 million cars."

"Rusco said technology to capture the escaping gas is available and economical. He faulted the Interior Department for lax regulations on the issue and said the agency had greatly underestimated how much gas escapes from storage tanks and leaking equipment."