Transportation: From the Top Down or Bottom Up? | Randal O'Toole | Cato Institute: Commentary

Transportation: From the Top Down or Bottom Up? | Randal O'Toole | Cato Institute: Commentary: "Fifty years ago, America's transportation system was almost entirely funded from the bottom up. Airlines, railroads and most transit systems were private and funded out of fares and fees. Airports and highways were public but funded out of user fees such as ticket fees and gas taxes; highway managers knew bridges to nowhere would not generate any fees, so they had no incentive to waste money on unnecessary projects."

"No matter how well intentioned, top-down transportation planning quickly turns into a combination of social engineering and pork barrel. It is time to return to a bottom-up funding system that rewards transport agencies and companies for reducing costs and increasing mobility."

Illegal War? Congress Doesn't Care | Gene Healy | Cato Institute: Commentary

Illegal War? Congress Doesn't Care | Gene Healy | Cato Institute: Commentary: "Remember when President Obama assured us his Libyan adventure would be over in 'days, not weeks'? To employ a Clinton-era euphemism, 'That statement is no longer operative.' (Translation: I lied.)

On Friday the 60-day clock ran out, leaving Obama in clear violation of the War Powers Resolution, passed in 1973 to 'fulfill the intent of the framers of the Constitution ... [and] insure that the collective judgment of both the Congress and the President will apply to the introduction of United States Armed Forces into hostilities.'

Instead of withdrawing U.S. forces, the president sent a letter to congressional leaders insisting — bizarrely — that drone attacks and 'suppression and destruction of air defenses' don't qualify as 'hostilities' under the resolution."

What Drives Higher Unemployment? - Patrick Barron - Mises Daily

What Drives Higher Unemployment? - Patrick Barron - Mises Daily: "Mises explains that machinery replaces men only when the market is driving the cost of labor higher. Labor costs are rising because capital investment is making labor more productive. To remain in business, the businessman must invest in capital goods to boost the productivity of labor in his industry, too. He will do that when capital is sufficiently available."

"What would all those labor lawyers, judges, advocates, investigators, insurance providers, and record-keepers do if the country scrapped all labor laws? And what would happen to all the welfare administrators and caseworkers if all men were forced to be responsible and self-reliant, because government refused to enslave their fellow citizens to provide for their upkeep?"

The Good Krugman - James E. Miller - Mises Daily

The Good Krugman - James E. Miller - Mises Daily: "the complaints about the 'decline in U.S. manufacturing' are really a somewhat-misguided acknowledgment of the global shift in production that has taken place since we entered the Information Age with the commercial introduction of the microchip in 1971 and gradually left the Machine Age behind. When we complain that 'nothing is made here anymore,' it's not so much that somebody else is making the stuff we used to make as it is the case that we (and others around the world) just don't need as much 'stuff' any more in relation to the overall size of the economy."

Sound, Fury and the Policy of Climate Change | Patrick J. Michaels | Cato Institute: Commentary

Sound, Fury and the Policy of Climate Change | Patrick J. Michaels | Cato Institute: Commentary: "If, by 2050, the U.S. reduces its per-capita emission of carbon dioxide to what it was at the end of the Civil War, and the rest of the developed world does similarly, prospective global warming would drop by a grand total of 7%, 100 years from now. This assumes that the 'sensitivity' of surface temperature to a doubling of atmospheric CO-2 is 5.4 degrees, a commonly used value that may be way too high"

Tort Reform and the GOP's Fair-weather Federalism | Randy Barnett | Cato Institute: Commentary

Tort Reform and the GOP's Fair-weather Federalism | Randy Barnett | Cato Institute: Commentary: "if Congress now can regulate tort law, which has always been at the core of state powers, then Congress, and not the states, has a general police power.

This issue concerns constitutional principle, not policy: the fundamental principle that Congress has only limited and enumerated powers, and that Congress should stay within these limits."

What Would Jesus Cut? by Shawn Ritenour

What Would Jesus Cut? by Shawn Ritenour: "a fundamental problem with Sojourners’ program is the assumption that what “we” do must be done by the state. It is a large and not logically necessary leap from “We are called to be charitable to the poor,” to “A righteous society will have an extensive welfare state.”"

"forcing taxpayers to pay for such programs, even if worthwhile, likewise does violence to the citizenry. It is a violation of the Christian ethic of property and, hence, cannot be accepted as a truly Christian approach to ministering to the poor."

Are Oil Futures Markets Being Manipulated? | Jerry Taylor and Peter Van Doren | Cato Institute: Commentary

Are Oil Futures Markets Being Manipulated? | Jerry Taylor and Peter Van Doren | Cato Institute: Commentary: "If futures prices rise even though no underlying shortage exists to justify higher future prices, the shorts (along with everyone else) will be offered a golden opportunity to buy oil in spot markets (so-called because oil can be bought 'on the spot'), put it into storage, and sell that crude forward into the futures market — at the inflated, 'manipulated' price — and realize a very real and totally risk-free profit. Because our economy is full of people who are smart enough — and motivated enough — to know a risk-free profit opportunity when they see one, any significant divergence between spot and futures price will trigger so much of this sort of thing that futures prices will fall (more futures are being sold into the market, and futures prices — like the price of everything else — is established by the supply of and demand for futures) and spot prices will rise (because of the reduced supply from oil being placed in storage) eliminating the difference between the futures and spot price."

The "Buy-Local" Canard - Tyler A. Watts - Mises Daily

The "Buy-Local" Canard - Tyler A. Watts - Mises Daily: "The cost of providing a good typically goes up with increased distance from market. But for many goods, people in more distant locations are so much more productive that — even factoring in the cost of transport — we find that trade makes sense."

"If buying local makes sense, there's no need to extol or encourage it. If it doesn't make sense, but people do it anyway in a half-baked attempt at local stimulus or in a vain effort to save the planet, the effects are not 'good for the economy,' but quite the opposite."

Getting Osama Bin Laden: The Case against Torture | Doug Bandow | Cato Institute: Commentary

Getting Osama Bin Laden: The Case against Torture | Doug Bandow | Cato Institute: Commentary: "the GOP torture caucus argues that Bush-era prisoner abuse enabled officials to track down bin Laden.

Assume for the moment that this is true. It still offers no compelling argument to torture.

Bin Laden was a moral monster, well deserving of his fate. But for all of his plotting, he does not appear to have achieved very much in recent years. Wrote Charles Fried, a former U.S. Solicitor General, and Gregory Fried, a philosophy professor: 'Osama bin Laden was not the ticking bomb requiring immediate defusing, so familiar now from television dramas.'"

"The U.S. prosecuted Japanese military officers for war crimes including waterboarding: how can American interrogators use the same technique today?"

"many professional interrogators argue that torture generally is ineffective. Carle complained that torture 'didn't provide useful, meaningful, trustworthy information.' The interrogator stationed in Afghanistan, who also has worked in Guantanamo Bay and Iraq, stated: 'No torture, no waterboarding, no coercion -- nothing inhumane -- is considered a useful tool in our work.'

Warned Stuart Herrington, a retired Army colonel who interrogated leading Iraqis, 'The abuse often only strengthens their resolve and makes it that much harder for an interrogator to find a way to elicit useful information.' Similarly, Alexander, now with the UCLA Burkle Center for International Relations, argued that prisoners tend to 'quit talking' after being tortured.

Even if they continue talking, what they say cannot be trusted, since torture creates an incentive to appear cooperative and say whatever will stop the pain."

"though Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who was waterboarded 183 times, provided Abu Ahmed's nom de' guerre, Khalid apparently was not the first detainee to do so. That information also was not garnered while he was being tortured--when, in fact, Khalid lied about many details about the courier."