An interesting development has arisen on the issue of regulation. It seems that some state legislatures have moved to limit how much local governments will be allowed to regulate businesses and people. This is quite a development. In the past usually the states were only too happy not only to regulate directly themselves but to […]
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States Limit Local Regulation: Finally
19 May 2015
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It began when the current Pope, Francis, succeeded Benedict XVI and proceeded to issue an encyclical dealing with economics. Many at the time defended him and argued that he could be interpreted in such a way as not to be overly critical of markets and capitalism. But Francis seems to have continued down an interesting […]
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It’s Earth Day!
22 Apr 2015
Everyone, it is Earth Day. I remember painting garbage cans and lids with peace signs as a Sophomore in high school in the early 1970s to celebrate this hallowed day–at least for the radical environmentalists. Look, I support clean air and water–though not the eradication of CO2, which I breath out and trees and plants […]
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Critics of capitalism or markets are not too difficult to find. They come mainly from the ideological Left, but some also come from what appears to be a non-Leftist position of postmodernism. I actually believe most postmoderns lean Left, some violently, but for now I will let that go. Finally I have found a fairly […]
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The Minimum Wage as Maximum Trouble
07 Apr 2015
McDonald’s just announced a wage increase for its employees to ten dollars per hour. But the reaction was not gratitude but protests by union-led workers who are advocating for fifteen dollars per hour. The debate on the wage rate is tied to the equally contentious debate about inequality of income. I am not wading into […]
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Another Historical Distortion, by Bill Maher
09 Feb 2015
Bill Maher tells authoritatively that capitalism did not produce a middle class. It was actually worse than that. I quote extensively from his statements on “Real Time” on HBO because you have to read it to believe someone said it: “so what’s happening is, the Democrats are proposing to nibble around the edges of our […]
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Does truth matter? Ferguson, UVa and Ms. Dunham…
11 Dec 2014
Recent headlines have caused a storm of social conflict over the last month, and competing truth claims are raised to support various positions. We have Michael Brown’s shooting in Ferguson, TV star Lena Dunham’s story of sexual assault during her college years in her book, the UVa rape story of a Greek frat house sexually […]
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One of the calumnies of those espousing an ever-expanding view of the state in determining social outcomes against those who would prescribe any limitations on what the government could do is that it is pure “selfishness.” Indeed, it is alleged that opponents of a larger state believe in a “rugged individualism” where, as President Obama […]
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A “Sider” Sandwich
28 Oct 2014
I was sitting in my office yesterday struggling to stay awake while I prepared a class on international balance of payments. I glanced over at my bookcase and saw this “Sider” sandwich. Ron Sider’s 1977 classic title: Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger (this particular copy is the 1984 second edition) was wedged in […]
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Mr. Rattner’s “Modest” Proposal
24 Oct 2014
In a recent New York Times article, Stephen Rattner made the rather remarkable argument, when boiled down, that two pending Federal cases brought by corporations and shareholders affected by the 2008 bailout, intended ostensibly to address the 2008 recession, ought to be decided on the basis of the litigants wealth, not by the normal rule […]
Bert Wheeler
Jeff Haymond
Marc Clauson
Mark Caleb Smith
Tom Mach