Prices

It is time to refute claims of gas gouging and explain (once again) that not only were these price increases inevitable, but they have been specially packaged in Washington, D.C.

Americans are concerned about the rising cost of pharmaceutical drugs. This has drawn the attention of writers, politicians, and others who have attempted to deal with the issue in typical fashion by advocating the use of government force to implement their plan.

In a display of amazing ignorance or brazen political grandstanding, he strode up to a gas station and berated the owner for charging too high a price.

Higher prices have unleashed a torrent of economic fallacy, from boycotts on gas stations to agitations for price controls. Paul Cwik responds.

OPEC is restricting production, but it's domestic taxes and regulations that keep gas and oil prices high. 

We could have another on our hands if the bureaucrats get involved in regulating prices again.  

What's behind this new less-work-for-the-same-pay legislation is the 11.4 percent unemployment rate in France, a jobless rate that's been steadily expanded by the piling on of excessive labor regulations, government-mandated benefits and overblown taxation. The miracle here, if we're to believe the French socialists, is that an unemployment crisis that's been caused by too many government regulations will now be solved by yet another regulation.

During the 1980s, just as the free market's reputation was beginning to rebound, the guardians of the national psyche discovered "workaholism." The victim of this disorder was defined as working compulsively, spending far too much time at his occupation, too little with friends or loved ones. He loses the capacity to enjoy what little leisure he allows himself, and eventually cannot even recall the point of his own frenetic activity. We were all advised to ease up, slow down, and smell the roses.

Does Alan Greenspan have a theory or is he just winging it? (Commentary by James Grant) 

As the bureaucrats pursue their Draconian war on drugs, the Clinton administration is conspiring with the pharmaceutical industry to provide drugs at taxpayer expense. Under the guise of expanding Medicare—already a massive wealth transfer from young to old—prescription drugs will be included among the benefits the feds use to further rope senior citizens into the government orbit.