Taxes and the Top Percentile Myth | Alan Reynolds | Cato Institute: Commentary

Taxes and the Top Percentile Myth | Alan Reynolds | Cato Institute: Commentary: "'the upper 1% of the income distribution earned 19.6% of total income before tax [in 2004], and paid 41% of the individual federal income tax.' No other major country is so dependent on so few taxpayers."

"if tax rates on high incomes, capital gains and dividends were increased in 2013, the top 1%'s reported share of before-tax income would indeed go way down. That would be partly because of reduced effort, investment and entrepreneurship."

Obama's Bull's-eye on U.S. Citizens | Nat Hentoff | Cato Institute: Commentary

Obama's Bull's-eye on U.S. Citizens | Nat Hentoff | Cato Institute: Commentary: "An extrajudicial killing policy under which individuals are added to 'kill lists' after secret bureaucratic processes and remain on the lists (for months at a time) even in the absence of any reason to believe that they pose a threat of imminent harm goes far beyond what the Constitution and international law permit.'"

"In Zimbabwe — where President Robert Mugabe, while voicing agreement with the Bush administration's policies in the war on terrorism, "declared foreign journalists and other critics of his regime 'terrorists' and suppressed their work." His version of our "enemy combatants."

And in Eritrea — where the governing party arrested 11 political opponents, has held them incommunicado and without charge, and defended its actions as being consistent with United States actions after September 11"

"Even a Nazi got more due process than we today are willing to extend to U.S. citizens. Aulaqi is a traitor, to be sure, but hanging American traitors is a job for the American federal courts"

The Ozone Scare: A Retrospective - Rod Rojas - Mises Daily

The Ozone Scare: A Retrospective - Rod Rojas - Mises Daily: "Environmentalists claimed that CFCs would somehow travel 40 miles up above the surface of the earth, despite the fact that CFCs are about five times heavier than air. A common case of floating bricks, no doubt."

"The substitutes for CFC inhalers are the HFA (hydro-fluoroalkane) inhalers, which many doctors report to be of marginal effectiveness compared to the CFC version, which provided faster and longer-lasting relief from the agony of suffocation."

Why This Gigantic "Intelligence" Apparatus? - Robert Higgs - Mises Daily

Why This Gigantic "Intelligence" Apparatus? - Robert Higgs - Mises Daily: "According to retired admiral Dennis C. Blair, formerly the director of national intelligence, after 9/11 'the attitude was, if it's worth doing, it's probably worth overdoing.' I submit that this explanation does not cut to the heart of the matter. As it stands, it suggests a sort of mindless desire to pile mountains of money, technology, and personnel on top of an already-enormous mountain of money, technology, and personnel for no reason other than the vague notion that more must be better."

"the Bush administration and Congress gave agencies more money than they were capable of responsibly spending."

Revealing the Reality of Antitrust - Gary Galles - Mises Daily

Revealing the Reality of Antitrust - Gary Galles - Mises Daily: "Antitrust keeps superior products and marketing strategies from harming rivals, but since every innovation that benefits consumers takes business away from rivals, halting such innovation harms consumers. It inhibits superior firms from passing on their efficiencies to consumers in lower prices; it does so by restricting their ability to cut prices for some (without enabling them to raise prices for others), or by invoking the mythical bogeyman of predatory pricing. It also restricts their growth, even when consumers will be better served by moving more production into the hands of lower cost firms."

"[Producers] have no reason to subsidize retailers through excess markups, which would lower their profits. Producers only impose minimum retail prices when they expect to benefit, which is only true when they believe that consumers value the extra retail services bought with the higher markup more than they value the money they must spend on the increased retail price"

Fear and Control: The TSA Case - Chris Waidele - Mises Daily

Fear and Control: The TSA Case - Chris Waidele - Mises Daily: "Because getting on a plane is tougher these days, don't you think that a terrorist would just try something else? Are there terrorist bombs, fires, and shootings going on around the country on a daily basis?"

"any terrorist with the most basic intelligence will know the security procedures and find a way to circumvent or avoid them."

Missouri's Mover Monopoly | Timothy Sandefur | Cato Institute: Commentary

Missouri's Mover Monopoly | Timothy Sandefur | Cato Institute: Commentary: "the government won't let you open your doors unless you first get permission from all your existing competitors.

Bizarre as it might seem, that's just the law that St. Louis entrepreneur Michael Munie ran into when he asked the state's Department of Transportation for a permit to operate a statewide moving company. Under a seventy-year old law, MoDOT cannot issue a permit without first notifying the existing moving companies and giving them the chance to object."

They Just Hate Rich People | Michael D. Tanner | Cato Institute: Commentary

They Just Hate Rich People | Michael D. Tanner | Cato Institute: Commentary: "On the one hand, we are told that the rich spend their money frivolously. Perhaps some do, but this ignores the fact that frivolous expenditures often provide jobs and income for the rest of us. Back in 1990, for example, Congress decided to impose a 'luxury tax' on such frivolous items as high-priced automobiles, aircraft, jewelry, furs, and yachts. The tax 'worked' in a sense. The rich bought fewer luxury goods — and thousands of Americans who worked in the jewelry, aircraft, and boating industries lost their jobs. According to a study done for the Joint Economic Committee, the tax destroyed 7,600 jobs in the yacht-building industry alone.

On the other hand, we are told that lower taxes on the wealthy won't help the economy because the rich don't spend enough of their money."

Campaign against WikiLeaks Is Lawless | Gene Healy | Cato Institute: Commentary

Campaign against WikiLeaks Is Lawless | Gene Healy | Cato Institute: Commentary: "Terrorism ain't what it used to be. Apparently, today you can qualify just for embarrassing Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

True, some secrecy is necessary, in business, war and diplomacy. And Congress and the Obama administration should take a close look at the vulnerabilities Assange has exposed. Why did an Army private have access to such a broad range of diplomatic cables, anyway?

Anyone who values the First Amendment ought to oppose the campaign to 'get' Assange by any means necessary. In a free society, you can't just 'change the law' to persecute someone you don't like, and you can't abuse your position to silence speech you oppose."

Myanmar and Russia "can now rightly say to us, 'You went after WikiLeaks' domain name, their hosting provider, and even denied your citizens the ability to register protest through donations,' all without the slightest legal authority. 'If that's the way governments get to behave, we can live with that.' "

Ethanol: Let Protectionism Expire | Harry de Gorter and Jerry Taylor | Cato Institute: Commentary

Ethanol: Let Protectionism Expire | Harry de Gorter and Jerry Taylor | Cato Institute: Commentary: "The ethanol tax credit alone costs taxpayers over $6 billion per year.

The expiration of these policies will have little, if any, impact on the U.S. ethanol industry, because the Renewable Fuel Standard requires Americans to consume an increasing amount of biofuels each year. The demand for ethanol will therefore not drop significantly even when the current tax credit (45 cents per gallon) and tariff (54 cents per gallon) expire. As a mandate, the standard acts as a built-in market for U.S. ethanol producers."