Laffer’s Logic

Here’s the second of two posts inspired by the super-committee’s failure to report any results just before Thanksgiving. Committee members did report that differences over tax reform and tax rates blocked progress on a budget package members of both parties could back. The interesting thing about this debate is that the media did not come [...]

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Filibuster Lassitude

Did you know that the super-committee’s recommendations could have passed the Senate with only fifty-one votes? That is, if the super-committee had made any recommendations, they could have passed the Senate without the threat of a filibuster. Does anyone other than politics junkies or James Stewart fans even know what a filibuster actually is anymore? [...]

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The View from Abroad

Washington Should Follow Laissez-Faire Things are really a mess economically in the United States and it isn’t really an exaggeration to say it is all Washington’s fault.  I mean through the easy money policies of the Federal Reserve and the legislative and monetary support of Congress and the previous administration many Americans who couldn’t otherwise [...]

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Tell It to the Judge After I’ve Smashed in Your Tent

In our usual legalistic way, we have entered an earnest debate about whether or not protesters have a right to set up tents in a public space to stay there. We hear a lot about health and safety, public nuisance, the First Amendment, how the encampment smells, how to respond, and so on. Before long, [...]

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Fraud is Fraud

Paradoxically, over-regulation brings about under-regulation. Let’s take regulations that govern the trading of securities. The government is supposed to prevent fraud in all business contracts. Its standard mode of prevention is to prosecute and punish people who commit this crime. That deters others from doing the same thing. To prosecute and punish, government has to [...]

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The View from Abroad

Romney’s Foreign Policy would be Disastrous for America    November 1, 2011 Even though he continues to dwell in the “top-tier” of Republican candidates for president, former Massachusetts’s Governor Mitt Romney continues to draw the distrust of many Republicans primary voters.  Questions continue to surround his positions on the high priority conservative issues of abortion, [...]

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