≡ Menu

Some Links

Here are words of wisdom from Nick Gillespie on the ‘war on terror.’  A slice:

The sheen has also mostly worn off The Patriot Act, that awful, Constitution-shredding piece of legislation that, until the passage of Obamacare, held the record for being the least-read law that was rubber-stamped by a pliant Congress (at least our representatives debated The Affordable Care Act). Ongoing revelations about massive bipartisan government abuses of power and the general ineffectiveness of the Patriot Act have driven home the reality that government will use whatever powers it has to do pretty much whatever it can get away with.

Indeed.  Giving government more power to fight terrorism gives government more power to terrorize.

One of the strangest notions that still has currency is that slavery is a means of promoting widespread economic growth (save, of course, for the slaves themselves).  Scott Sumner weighs in against this myth.  (This topic was the subject of my very first regular column in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.)

Bryan Riley rightly argues that Uncle Sam should not copy foreign export credits – that is, not copy the practice of many foreign governments to forcibly shift scarce resources to those producers who display a comparative advantage at pleading to be subsidized with other people’s money.

Abby Schachter explains some of the problems caused by occupational-licensing requirements.

My Mercatus Center colleague Richard Williams warns us to be wary of debt deniers.

Comments