And yet no one can seem to point to a single example of its use. (Thanks Digg.com, where many bloggers said Game Theory is descriptive, not prescriptive.)

The Tiebout Effect (”voting with your feet”) is supposed to provide a market solution that leads to a Pareto-Optimal equilibrium of local government “services.” Not so, writes Jim Fadako: It’s not you choosing the mix of service and tax rate; it’s the school system, or other governmental entity, making the choice for you.

“The ways of government are unknowable to man”. Somebody must have said that over the past 5000 years. In fact it must have been stated every five minutes by anybody who thought about government. Socrates, Aristotle, Hume, Locke, even Ronald Reagan. Maybe even David Bronner. Know him? You should — he runs the Alabama Pension Program and he just gave away 4 million of your money (I assume you’re an honest Libertarian, who pays his taxes.)

The Securities and Exchange Commission is supposed to be about protecting the individual investor. This New York Times story shows how the S.E.C. is obstructing attempts to obtain company accounting information contained in agency files. A private research firm called SEC Insight is resorting to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit to get the S.E.C. to comply with the law and release its files.

The Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) is the result of the division of the functions of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF). Tax collections functions of the ATF are now under the Department of the Treasury and law enforcement functions of the ATF are under the Department of Justice.

Do you think the price of gas is too high? Do you want to distill your own ethanol to add to your gasoline? Better not try it, you might be committing a federal crime. According to the TTB:

Adam Smith is history’s most famous economist, yet people know precious little about what he wrote. Perhaps that is because the natural time to reflect on his contributions — the anniversary of his birth — is unknown. However, we do know that he was baptized on June 5, 1723, making the 5th an appropriate time hook to consider his work and insights.

A nice piece by our own Robert Bradley, author of the splendid Energy: The Master Resource. “

Because I think they’re only accessible to people with paid subscriptions, I rarely blog items from the Wall Street Journal. But this one from the Opinion page of today (Friday, May 26) is worth a click just to see if you get lucky. Or grab the PAPER while it’s still in the office/house.