Simply cutting the poor off from credit is one way to keep them from going more deeply into debt, but that will produce consequences nobody will much like, the poor themselves least of all. If the payday lenders are regulated out of existence, Senator Warren et al. will find someone else to blame, a new scapegoat. They’ll probably end up creating one, in fact, without ever intending to or quite understanding that they have.
Also brilliant from Kevin Williamson is this analysis of Trump. A slice:
Trump’s character is in fact a practical liability, one that has seriously impeded his ability to pursue his agenda. His egoism, laziness, arrogance, and above all his habitual dishonesty are crippling. That is why he has been most effective on ordinary Republican priorities such as taxes and judges, those areas in which he can deputize such old swamp-dwelling dinosaurs as Mitch McConnell and the ladies and gentlemen of the Federalist Society to actually get things done. Left to his own devices, he’s an ordinary Twitter troll and conspiracy nut with very little in the way of direction or a coherent policy agenda.
Scott Winship points to powerful evidence contra Piketty, Saez, & Zucman.
James Pethokoukis wisely warns against the inhumane dogmas of St. Greta of Stockholm.
Mark Perry shares another reason to reject St. Greta of Stockholm’s childish yet dangerous theology.
Steve Davies busts the myth of heroism.
The protests in Hong Kong were sparked by an extradition bill that would have allowed people in Hong Kong to be sent to the mainland for trial, enabling the Chinese regime to crack down on dissent, in a way that’s similar to what it has done to Unirule in Beijing. That bill has finally been fully withdrawn, as protesters have demanded.
That’s an important step in the right direction, because the future of Hong Kong hangs in the balance. Hong Kong’s economic freedoms created its economic prosperity; if the protesters don’t preserve their civil and political freedoms, their economic freedoms and prosperity could go next.
