Tax Reform and the Iron Law

Mark Thornton on RT:

The House has a tax bill in their sights, but is it passable? Steve Malzberg joins host Lindsay France to discuss it. The Senate meanwhile has killed a rule that allows citizens to file class-action suits against banks and other financial institutions. Bianca Facchinei has the story. And what is the Iron Law of Convergence? Dr. Mark Thornton is on to explain how this important law was once visible in the US economy.

Pentagon Pushes Plan for Female Draft Registration

The Pentagon is moving forward with pressuring Congress to add women to the Selective Service program, which will make virtually all young people eligible for the military draft. The Washington Times reports

The Pentagon says the country should stick with mandatory registration for a military draft, and it advocates a requirement for women to sign up for the first time in the nation’s history.

2. Regulating the Railroads

1. The Drive for Regulation

Characteristically, it was Albert Fink who saw it first. If the railroads could not form successful cartels by voluntary action, then they would have to get the government to do the job for them. Only government compulsion could sustain a successful cartel. As Fink put it in a letter as early as 1876, “Whether this cooperation can be secured by voluntary action of the transportation companies is doubtful.

Preface by Murray N. Rothbard

The aim of this proposed book is to trace the origins of the current welfare-warfare state in America, in what is loosely called “The Progressive Period,” from approximately the mid-1890s to the mid-1920s.