Interventionism

"In the market, the decision of whether and how much litter to allow is based ultimately on the wishes and desires of the consumers!"

In this article I'll walk through Glaeser's critical observations, most of which misfire.

And yet every day, young people are finding ways around these preposterous restrictions that are hardly ever questioned, imbibing with their booze a disdain for the law and a creative spirit of criminality, along with a disposition to binge drink when their legal workarounds succeed.

A more realistic view is that a housing boom and bust happened to strike a fragile financial system whose fragility was worsened by ill-conceived government interventions.

Take cover when you hear a political leader talking about economic affairs. You can bet a bad decision is incoming.

A proper solution to the taxicab crisis is not to co-opt the movement of gypsy cab drivers by the offer to take them into the system, but rather to

On January 22, 1991, Mikhail Gorbachev, the president of the Soviet Union, decreed that all existing 50- and 100-ruble banknotes were no longer legal tender and that they could be exchanged for new notes for three days only and only in small quantities. This had the effect of instantly deleting large portions of the savings and accumulated capital of private citizens.

The revolutions were not "against England per se, but against the oppressions of the state, dominated by the English government." Rothbard adds that they "failed largely because the domestic oligarchs were propped up and reimposed by the English power."

"New York City taxicab licenses are strictly limited in number — so much so, that they have been sold for as much as $30,000. This effectively bars the poor from entering the field as owners."

Social Security is right now in deficit, sucking funds out of the general pool. Americans should brace for further tax hikes — in the name of "saving Social Security" — and anyone under 40 should have no illusions about retirement benefits.