Government Did Invent the Internet, But the Market Made It Glorious
Government involvement accounts for the internet’s continuing problems, while the market should get the credit for its glories.
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slap ink on it?
Good for Steve Chapman for quoting Mises: “Government is the only agency which can take a useful commodity like paper, slap some ink on it, and make it totally worthless.” The only problem is that no one can seem to verify that Mises actually said this. It more or less reflects his thought but the prose is not his style.
Is Ken Lay Really a Criminal?
Yes, Enron employees lost their paper millions when the stock crashed, but so did Skilling and Lay, writes William Anderson.
Privatization: The Old, Old Fashioned Way
USA Today notes in an article today that “States and local governments across the USA are preparing to cash in valuable public assets for one-time windfalls that could reap tens of billions of dollars.” Though there is talk in the article of “operations that private enterprise might operate better” one wonders if this is any sort of victory for free markets. This suggests not:
Estate Tax Repeal As a Gay Rights Issue
Interesting conclusion to an editorial in today’s Wall Street Journal:
[T]he best thing gay activists could do for themselves at the federal level would be to support repeal of the death tax, since under current law gay couples often lack inheritance rights. That would accomplish more than anything that will emerge from this week’s political spectacle over amending the Constitution.
Not Feldstein’s Gasoline Rationing Scheme but Economic Freedom Will Improve the Environment and Promote National Security
A noted economist, Prof. Martin Feldstein of Harvard University, has written an article for the supposedly pro-free-enterprise Wall Street Journal, in which he proposes a system of government gasoline rationing as a means of improving the environment and promoting national security. (The article, titled “Tradeable Gasoline Rights,” appears in the June 5 issue, on p. A10.)
Don’t Let Government Define Marriage (Or Optimal Child-Rearing Environments)
George and Martha Washington never had a marriage license, writes Gardner Goldsmith, and most Americans didn’t need them until the mid-1800s.
Chinese Innovation
It’s a commonplace that Americans and Westerners are the technical and business innovators, and that Chinese are good at imitation. But sometimes it’s the reverse. I recently learned of a Chinese tax policy that I fear the IRS may want to emulate someday (if they are not already--I’m not a tax expert).
Something to Cheer at The New York Times
Earlier today I would not have believed it possible that I would write something in praise of an Op-Ed piece in The New York Times.
But Nicolas D. Kristof has written an article that demonstrates some serious understanding of a highly charged subject and has had the courage to express it in his column. The title of his article conveys its nature. It’s called “In Praise of the Maligned Sweatshop.”
