Bureaucracy and Regulation

The East German secret police, the Stasi, developed the art of mass surveillance using pre-digital  methods. Modern tech now makes the job a lot easier. 

With each iteration of the banking crisis, the Federal Reserve System and federal regulators gain in power and authority. Maybe the banking crisis isn’t an accident.

The usual answer is that secondhand smoke is bad. But if value is subjective, perhaps secondhand smoke also can be seen as a public good.

Rent control is all the rage with progressives, with several states and localities trying to impose it. However, when people have their property effectively—and legally—stolen, there are long-term consequences.

Postwar Germany was occupied, in ruins, with an economy in chaos. Germans were reduced to using cigarettes supplied by American GIs as money.

The European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation supposedly protects people from government data abuse. In reality, it empowers governments.

South Africa is suffering from rolling blackouts and other power outages. These could be avoided if the government would permit competition in electricity markets.

The Federal Trade Commission is unwisely trying to block a merger between Microsoft and Activism. The result is more monopoly and higher prices. 

While the faux debt ceiling drama rages in Washington, DC, governments worldwide are defaulting on their debt via inflation.

The latest round of wildfires in Canada has brought out the usual statist demands that we ban fossil fuels.