The Subprime Mortgage “Crisis” Will Fix Itself

Hardly a day goes by without someone’s proposing how to make the bad situation in subprime mortgage lending even worse, writes Steve Berger. Legislators at all levels of government are contending for ownership of the most destructive idea. Finalists in this legislative race to the bottom include punitively stiff lending standards, foreclosure holidays and taxpayer-financed bailouts. He proposes a far simpler, fairer and effective course of action: let free people sort it out for themselves.

The Giant Gas-Gouging Gaffe

On Wednesday the House passed a bill that would make price gouging by oil and gas companies a federal crime. The legislation called for jail time and fines of up to $150 million a day for charging “unconscionably excessive prices” and taking “unfair advantage” of consumers. Robert Murphy, author of The Politically Incorrect Guide to Capitalism, argues that this proposed legislation is horrendous and would do nothing to help the American motorist. The most obvious difficulty is the arbitrariness of the “crime.”

What’s The Rule

A visitor from Venus drops down to Earth last month right in the middle of the Don Imus conbobulation. And since someday he’s thinking he’d like to run a 30-minute talk show here on Earth, he’s wondering about the protocol. What’s the rule? Like on Venus radio it’s acceptable to refer to Martians as bug-eyed bellicose guys with zap guns who want your women.

Why High Gas Prices?

I’m intrigued by this NYT explanation: “a surprising culprit: uncertainty created by the government’s push to increase the supply of biofuels like ethanol in coming years. In his State of the Union address in January, President Bush called for a sharp increase in the use of biofuels, along with some improvement in automobile fuel efficiency to reduce America’s use of gasoline by 20 percent within 10 years.

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