Putting Al Qaeda in Perspective | John Mueller and Mark G. Stewart | Cato Institute: Commentary

Putting Al Qaeda in Perspective | John Mueller and Mark G. Stewart | Cato Institute: Commentary: "A standard cost-benefit analysis suggests that enhanced US domestic expenditures on homeland security since 9/11 would have to prevent one large attack per day to be cost effective."

"The chance that an American will perish at the hands of a terrorist at present rates is 1 in 3.5 million per year. And extremist Islamist terrorism worldwide has claimed 200-400 lives per year outside war zones, which although tragic and regrettable, amounts to the yearly number of bathtub drownings in the United States."

"the FBI receives more than 5,000 "threats" a day. Only a tiny number of these have led to terrorism arrests, but the FBI continues to follow up all of them, expending huge amounts of money in what some in the Bureau call "ghost chasing." "

Global Human Rights Cop | Simon Lester | Cato Institute: Commentary

Global Human Rights Cop | Simon Lester | Cato Institute: Commentary: "People in some parts of the world feel very strongly that the death penalty is abhorrent, and should be abolished. Feeling as they do, should foreign governments who take this view impose Magnitsky-type sanctions against Americans who are involved in executions?

Many people have condemned the U.S. treatment of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay. Should foreign governments who take this view impose Magnitsky-type sanctions against Americans who are involved in Guantanamo Bay?"

Immodest Government | Michael D. Tanner | Cato Institute: Commentary

Immodest Government | Michael D. Tanner | Cato Institute: Commentary: "legislators decide that they owe it to their constituents to hold on to their seats forever — until, that is, they decide to run for a higher office"

"If you convince yourself that you are indispensable, it becomes very easy to justify casting votes that you know are wrong, to start salting your district with pork, and to vilify your opponents. After all, you tell yourself, these are small prices to pay in order to keep yourself in office."

"The president and Congress have to decide for us what charities we should support with our money. They need to determine what health-insurance benefits we should buy. From what kinds of light bulbs we buy to how our toilets flush, our political leaders are needed to design and micromanage our lives. They know what we should eat and what we should earn. They understand how much an airline should charge for baggage fees and know, down to the last decimal point, what the proper fee for processing a credit-card transaction is. And they can do all this while fine-tuning the economy and nation-building overseas.

The next great technological breakthrough might be a mystery to most of us, but it won’t be a mystery to the politicians in Washington. They can pick the winners and losers of the future. They know exactly how many miles to the gallon a car should get, and whether oil or wind power is a better investment. When President Obama argues that businessmen didn’t really build their businesses, he is reflecting the Washington mindset. How could business owners do anything on their own? They need Washington.

Of course, Congress also sees itself as uniquely qualified to make our moral choices, because clearly preachers, churches, and our own consciences can’t do the job. Congress isn’t just uniquely brilliant, it’s uniquely moral."

Democrats' Hypocrisy with the Rich | Richard W. Rahn | Cato Institute: Commentary

Democrats' Hypocrisy with the Rich | Richard W. Rahn | Cato Institute: Commentary: "Sen. John F. Kerry and his wife are three to four times as rich as Mitt and Ann Romney, according to the New York Times, yet paid a lower tax rate than the Romneys in 2003, the year before Mr. Kerry ran for president?"

"[Sen. Carl Levin] demands transparency for everyone else's financial accounts, but he is one of the senators who has refused to release his own tax returns"

Flight attendant cited over gun at Philadelphia airport | Fox News

Flight attendant cited over gun at Philadelphia airport | Fox News: "the gun fired at Philadelphia International Airport as a police officer was trying to remove the bullets"

"the officer who accidentally discharged the gun will go back to training on handling weapons"

Romney and Obama: Both Wrong on Medicare | Michael D. Tanner | Cato Institute: Commentary

Romney and Obama: Both Wrong on Medicare | Michael D. Tanner | Cato Institute: Commentary: "Last year, Americans paid $274 billion in Medicare taxes and premiums. At the same time, the program paid out $564 billion in benefits. That amounts to a shortfall of roughly $290 billion. Looking into the future, even the most optimistic estimate by the program's trustees puts Medicare's future unfunded liabilities at more than $38.6 trillion. More realistic projections suggest the shortfall could easily top $90 trillion."

"It is important to point out that the president's "cuts" are cuts only in the Washington sense of a reduction in the rate of increase. Republicans have long protested when their similar proposed slowdowns in growth were demagogued as cuts by Democrats. That would seem to make Romney and Ryan's complaint a little hypocritical."

"The Congressional Budget Office recently pointed out that virtually none of the president's proposed Medicare reforms have saved money in practice. And, when it comes to reducing provider payments, Congress hasn't exactly been a profile in courage: Witness the annual spectacle of the "doc fix," postponing already scheduled cuts."

The Effect of Wage-Rate Interventions - Percy L. Greaves, Jr. - Mises Daily

The Effect of Wage-Rate Interventions - Percy L. Greaves, Jr. - Mises Daily: "every law that raises wages for some lowers them for others. It seems to be very difficult for people to realize that all wages and employment cannot be increased by the mere passing of laws."

"In the long run it is the consumers who pay the wages. The businessman is merely a middleman. He tries to make a profit as a middleman, buying raw materials, hiring workers, and selling the products to consumers. He makes his profit, if any, by holding what he pays for the factors of production below what consumers will pay for the final product. However, once a profit appears, competitors continually bid up what must be paid for each factor of production, including labor. There is always a tendency in a free market for profits to be squeezed and disappear. This includes any profits obtained by paying workers wages lower than the market value of their contributions."

"The real secret of higher wages is increased savings per capita. Increased savings are a result of producing more than is consumed. If more goods and services are produced than are consumed, then these unconsumed goods and services are available for making tools, factories, and other things needed to help increase production. In my great country, living standards have gone up in the past because generation after generation of North Americans provided their children with more than they themselves had had. The history of our country has largely been that the first generation of immigrants provided their children with an elementary school education, the next generation saved enough to give their children a high school education, and the third generation sent their children through college. Now many are going on to graduate work. In this way each generation provided the next generation with a higher standard of living. In each case the higher education was the result of increased savings. The earlier generations just could not afford to provide their children with as much as later generations could."

"One of the great advantages of a capitalistic society is that low-income people can also invest their savings and earn a return on them."

"The essence of labor union policies is (1) to restrict production and (2) to prevent the unemployed, or those employed at lower wages, from improving their economic situation by underbidding union-imposed wage rates. We cannot improve the general welfare by following union policies that restrict production by making high wages higher for some workers, with the result that low wages are forced lower or become nonexistent for those made unemployable."

"the idea that only an equal exchange is a fair exchange, and that if the employer gains, he must have done so at the expense of the worker. This is responsible for much of the antagonism against the capitalist, against the investor, against the saver — the belief that his gain is unearned, and that the capitalist or saver is getting something at the expense of the worker."

"Actually, higher living standards require more production, not more money. Workers can only buy what is produced."

"If the consumer says a man's contribution is only worth $1.30, the employer is not going to pay him $1.40. The employer is only an agent of the consumer. So the man becomes legally unemployable. It is now illegal for anyone to hire him."

"If unions were organized on the basis of accepting only the best workers as members, and if union members performed a full day's work of high caliber, I, as a prospective employer, would be happy to hire union men and only union men rather than untried non-union workers of questionable ability."

Where to Cut the Federal Budget? Start by Killing Corporate Welfare | Doug Bandow | Cato Institute: Commentary

Where to Cut the Federal Budget? Start by Killing Corporate Welfare | Doug Bandow | Cato Institute: Commentary: "Imagine how Americans would suffer if, for instance, ethanol producers didn't receive multiple subsidies. Imagine the national hardship if homeowners had to pay the full cost of buying their houses. Imagine the mass weeping and gnashing of teeth if companies had to pay for their own research!"

"Although liberal Democrats often are perceived as anti-business, they usually are more pro-government. Which means that many support corporate welfare as enthusiastically as do Republicans, who usually are pro-business even if perceived to be anti- (or at least not quite as pro-) government."

"hile participants in the marketplace are imperfect and make mistakes, the marketplace involves people and institutions from across the nation and even world. Their collective judgment will almost always be better than that of ambitious and self-interested politicians and apparatchiks who control government."

"while the Left tends to rail against special interests and their role in election campaigns, its support for ever larger government inevitably enhances the role of special interests and their role in election campaigns. If government is actively enriching and destroying companies and entire industries, they have a right to influence government. The more booty that is available for political winners, the more business will spend and the harder it will fight to achieve victory."

The Bipartisan Imperial Presidency | Gene Healy | Cato Institute: Commentary

The Bipartisan Imperial Presidency | Gene Healy | Cato Institute: Commentary: "[Paul Ryan is ] one of "only six Republicans who voted yes on the auto bailout and both bank bailout votes," "

"in areas where the president has much more discretion than he does over the budget — there isn't a dime's worth of difference between the two tickets. Among those questions: Can the president launch wars at will, subject American citizens to military detention and assassinate them via drone strike?"

"You can't expect the American presidency to operate as the Supreme Warlord of the Earth while abroad and remain a constitutionally constrained chief magistrate at home."

"A government big enough to whack its citizens with drones is big enough to make them buy health insurance."

Stop Global Economic Malpractice | Richard W. Rahn | Cato Institute: Commentary

Stop Global Economic Malpractice | Richard W. Rahn | Cato Institute: Commentary: "Politicians tend to like bigger government because it gives them more power — so they have a natural inclination to try to increase taxes rather than cut spending. The problem is the type of tax that does the least damage to economic growth and job creation is a tax on consumption that hits everyone. Politicians know the greatest chance of public approval for a tax increase is aiming at relatively few people and, particularly, people who can be characterized as evil — such as "the rich." "