Jacob Sullum remembers IJ co-founder Chip Mellor. A slice:
Chip Mellor’s legacy, in short, is an organization that challenges people to rethink what it means to defend civil liberties, promote freedom, and help the disadvantaged. It shows that economic liberty and private property, often portrayed as code words for shoring up the privileges of the wealthy, are especially important for people of modest means, who otherwise are at the mercy of a government that can stop them from improving their lives and keeping what is theirs.
“Biden’s top Trade official just admitted tariffs haven’t changed China’s behavior.”
Timothy Taylor wishes that he had the opportunity to choose among better candidates for the U.S. presidency. Two slices:
It would be nice to vote for someone who acknowledges that the US budgets and the accumulating US debt are a problem, and has a serious proposal to address it. Proposals for additional tax cuts and spending are not an arithmetically likely solutions.
It would be nice to vote for someone who recognizes that Social Security and Medicare are facing real and severe solvency problems in the not-too-distant future, and offers some proposals to address them. Reducing taxes on Social Security benefits or increasing benefits for those with low incomes, whatever the justifications for such policies, will not help the solvency problem.
…..
It would be nice to vote for someone who doesn’t think that government controls over prices–whether for rent or credit card interest rates or prescription drugs or groceries–are more than a temporary and dysfunctional band-aid. Also, it would be nice to vote for someone who has a plan for slowing the rise in US health care costs, without pretending that price controls are the answer.
Deirdre McCloskey isn’t impressed with the most recent Nobel-in-economics award. A slice:
His [Daron Acemoglu’s] theory, which is both, fits smoothly with what people nowadays love to hear, on their road to serfdom—that good policy is super easy and that our masters are super skilled at doing it. The theory makes us feel safe, like children waiting to be fed. We don’t individually need good ethics, professionalism, or high political ideals. Mama and Papa State take care of all that.
And here’s Jason Sorens on the 2024 economics Nobelists.
If you didn’t know anything about modern government, you might conclude corporate America is a giant crime syndicate. Instead Mr. [Dan] Clifton’s list shows the degree to which the Biden Administration has unleashed the state against successful companies. Democrats need villains to run against, and the public mood these days is anti-business. Make money, or build a better mousetrap, and sooner or later Uncle Sam is coming after you.
Trump fans applauded when he said he’ll eliminate taxes on tips. Then Harris proposed that, too. Her audience applauded. Trump then proposed not taxing overtime. More applause.
But narrow tax exemptions are bad policy.
In my new video, economist Allison Schrager explains how they create nasty, unintended consequences.
“No one likes tipping,” says Schrager, “but all of a sudden, you’ll have to pay tips for everything.…More people will be paid in tips.”
Even the national political press seems to be getting a bit exasperated at this, if only out of a creeping sense that she might blow the election to Trump, combined with a bit of frustration that she’s making their jobs harder in having to not only carry her water but fill the buckets themselves. Maybe Trump’s well-known flaws will rescue her anyway by Election Day, but if not, it’s going to be a long four years with a president whose only real interests are in culture-war hot buttons.
