First Cigarettes, Now Bacon and Eggs
First they came for the cigarettes, then Hank Williams Jr. got knocked off Monday Night Football.
Gains From Trade: An Illustration
Today is a big day in the Carden house: my three-year-old son Jacob took a step toward independence and earned his first money in the labor market. Jacob and I went to Brother Juniper’s, which in a bit of serendipity was featured in this morning’s paper, for breakfast. In my opinion and with apologies to my beloved City Cafe, it’s the best breakfast place anywhere.
Why Sweden Is Not a Wreck
The usual claim is that Sweden thrives because of a welfare state, but Nima Sanandaji argues in a new book in PDF form that the real reason has to do with a stable legal system, a homogenous culture wedded to the work ethic, and actual cuts in government welfare provision. h/t Cobden Centre
The Paradox of the Outraged
A wave of social upheaval is shaking the world. In the West, the press has called the protesters “the outraged.” The name is taken from the pamphlet Time for Outrage! (Indignez-vous!) by French intellectual Stéphane Hessel. The outrage by the political and economic situation in the Western world is justified. In Europe and the United States, the gap between financial elites and the rest has widened, while politicians have become a sort of modern nobility completely detached from the realities of the ordinary man.
What Radicalism?
The protest movement is actively supportive of powerful interests that benefit from the status quo.
Econ Nobel: Here We Go Again
This year’s Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics goes to two Americans, Thomas Sargent (NYU) and Christopher Sims (Princeton). Officially the award is for “their empirical research on cause and effect in the macroeconomy.”
Decriminalize the Average Man
“Outright innocence is not sufficient to escape the brutality of detention.”
If you reside in America and it is dinnertime, you have almost certainly broken the law. In his book Three Felonies a Day, civil-liberties lawyer Harvey Silverglate estimates that the average person unknowingly breaks at least three federal criminal laws every day. This toll does not count an avalanche of other laws — for example misdemeanors or civil violations such as disobeying a civil contempt order — all of which confront average people at every turn.
Depoliticize Everything
When politics isn’t fomenting conflict, raising time preferences, and stupefying the nation, it is attenuating progress. Contrary to the incessant jabbering on the need for “change,” all politicians despise change. Change erodes political power and undermines regimes.
Who Could Have Predicted that the Solyndra Deal Wouldn’t Work Out?
If you answered “the private investors who refused to risk their own money on Solyndra,” pat yourself on the back. Matt Welch offers more.
Rethinking the Gold Bubble
The erratic volatility of gold and other commodities is the direct result of further intervention into the market through central banking.
