One cannot discount the role of politics here. In the end, we could have a well-known person owning a felony record and being sentenced to prison and a once-prosperous company in tatters. We will see some federal prosecutors being feted as though they had just solved the Case of the Century. These are dark times, indeed, for the pursuit of justice in the United States of America.
If there is a solution, the market will find it long before the politicians will. Spam filters have dramatically diminished the problem relative to what it would otherwise be, and these have been provided solely by the pressures of commerce. The efforts to certify ISPs and police the web for spammers, entirely a private undertaking, are ongoing. The methods that work will last and those that do not will be discarded.
No restaurant or bar owner can force anyone to work or eat at his or her establishment, so at best, the state is "rescuing" people from their own free choices, which means that the political authorities—and the activists cheering them on—are in effect also coercing those workers and patrons into making choices that meet state approval.
With growing government outlays and the Fed's reckless monetary policies, it is mission impossible to have an effective cut in taxes, argues Frank Shostak. That the intention is to grow rather than shrink the size of the government was demonstrated by President Bush's signing the increase in the Federal debt limit from $6.4 trillion to $7.384 trillion on the day he signed into law the tax cuts.
After several years of scant media coverage, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) is back in the public spotlight. Its admission late last year that it had revived its nuclear program has caused a flurry of Washington war planning.
If the government actually believed that the homeland would be safer due to its actions overseas, why does it impose (under the threat of violence) a terrorism insurance requirement? And why do its warnings of impending doom seem to be increasing rather than decreasing?
When discussing NASA and its impact upon our society, one must deal with myths that have been spawned by the agency and its supporters over the last four decades, the first being that NASA, supposedly driven by technology, has created new technologies that have been easily transferred to civilian use.
When assessing the costs of the war in Iraq, the full costs, including the costs on the home front, must be considered every bit as much as the money costs. Sadly, the most expensive aspects of war, especially in terms of lost liberties and cultural decline, are usually the hardest to measure, and are therefore more easily ignored.
Like previous administrations in modern America, the Bush Administration has openly declared itself an enemy of the rule of law. If well-heeled corporations are unable to defend themselves from what essentially are illegal prosecutions, what chances will avail to the rest of us?
If hedge funds can be regulated or inhibited from selling short, asks Christopher Mayer, what is next? Ban mutual funds that invest in tobacco companies or other sin stocks? Ban investors from betting against a rise in the dollar? Prohibit investors from owning gold? (That's already been done before.)
