Since 2010 with the "General Anti Abuse Rule," it's becoming increasingly illegal in the United Kingdom to even minimize one's tax bill through what were once considered to be uncontroversial financial planning techniques.
When Mother Teresa used her Nobel Prize money to fund services for the poor, she was exhibiting "self-interest," but not selfishness. Like virtually everyone else, she used her property to achieve an end she valued, but which benefited others as well.
At his new blog, Ben Bernanke is coming up with new excuses as to why the current recovery is so weak and why mega-low interest rates — and thus a lack of options for middle-income savers seeking interest income — aren't his fault.
"Sound money and free banking are not impossible; they are merely illegal," Hans Sennholz wrote. Today, the barriers to competition in money and free-market banking are numerous, but even a few non-radical changes could open up a new world of options and competition for bankers and consumers.
In California, the price of water is set by politicians, and not by markets, so that cheap water benefits some interest groups over others. It should now surprise no one that the state is in the midst of a water crisis.
As the money supply fluctuates, so does the demand for money and for goods and services. We see this in the stock market, but the effect is not instantaneous, and we must be mindful of the time delay.
When it comes to romantic relationships, people ruthlessly discriminate and make an endless number of subjective judgments. Most agree that it is absurd to regulate these relationships while not realizing that the same is true of all business relationships as well.
The US, Russia, Canada, Denmark, and other states are racing to take control of the Arctic Ocean. Outside of a few tiny outposts, however, these states have never "homesteaded" the region, so their claims of true ownership are fanciful at best.
While not at all perfect, the classical gold standard of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century facilitated some of the greatest leaps in economic prosperity ever witnessed. Marcia Christoff-Kurapovna surveys the views of central bankers and economists of the time.
The Supreme Court case of Michigan v. EPA illustrates how the law provides so many tools to federal agencies that their power is more or less unlimited. It's only a matter of finding which laws will stick, and the result is lawlessness.
