Looking for clarity on global warming
Reading the thread on global warming below, I see a common mistake that pops up in a lot of arguments at the intersection of science and policy. With all due respect to the participants in the thread,...
View ArticleWell, that’s a relief…
…That Congress is finally going to do something about gasoline price gouging. There’s really no commentary I could come up with that could improve on this article from the NYT. Consider it your...
View ArticleBecause drug price competition is bad, mmmkay???
Sez Senator Charles Schumer. The pharmaceutical company Merck is facing generic competition for its cholesterol-lowering drug Zocor. In response, Merck is cutting deals with insurance companies to...
View ArticleThe great circle of intervention
Dr. DiLorenzo’s article “Should Wal-Mart be Broken Up?” is a good example of how government interventions in the economy are like bacteria: you only need to start with one, and before long, you have...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Terminally Ill and Their Right to Drugs
Some organizations are demanding a change in the process to permit terminally ill people to gain speedier access to possible cures. Their demands have so far been rebuffed by regulators. Here I argue...
View ArticleThere’s no problem you can’t solve by killing the economy
I remember when I was at Walter Block’s excellent Radical Austrianism, Radical Libertarianism seminar last summer, someone asked him if being an Austrian led people to become libertarians....
View ArticleSolve the world’s problems: plant a tomato
The idea that we need to be “self sufficient” when it comes to producing food just keeps getting more respect than it deserves. As Sallie James of Cato pithily observed, “I know of only two other...
View ArticleWe could let you be free, but you’d just screw it up
Via Scotland: sometimes the simplest arguments for taking away freedom are the scariest: “So pervasive is poor diet that reliance on individual choice as the prime ideology in shaping food supply is no...
View ArticleMaybe what we really need is a vaccine against rent-seeking
A fascinating, and very depressing, story from the NYTimes. Convinced that markets, supply and demand, and voluntary production would be insufficient to protect us from a bioterror attack, the...
View ArticleTrans fats, cold medicines, and real freedom
Jeff Tucker’s cold medicine post got me thinking. As the government’s creeping power to regulate all sorts of things continues to expand, for each new regulation you always hear the same argument: “But...
View ArticleSomalia: Society vs. the State?
The NYTimes has a fascinating article about the obstacles confronting those who seek to establish a new government in Somalia. There have been several debates on this blog about the nature of anarchy...
View ArticleAll together now: price controls cause shortages!
Zimbabwe is the latest nation to experiment with price controls as a method to make food affordable. It is an unspeakable tragedy that Zimbabwe’s people should end up being a object lesson in what...
View ArticlePublic Citizen Cares About Me
And every other woman in America. So much, in fact, that they want to be sure we don’t have a chance to make what they consider to be bad choices about contraception. The organization is petitioning...
View ArticleDaycare providers allow unqualified parents to care for children!
Jeff Tucker’s post on the supposed failures of the daycare market got me thinking about some of the messages implicit in the National Association of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies report...
View ArticleThe little government that could
The story of the debacle at Walter Reed that the Washington Post broke has generated commentary all over the place. Some libertarians have suggested that the Walter Reed scandal is somehow connected to...
View ArticleHere’s your chance to restore my faith in government
This blog has hosted some, shall we say, interesting debates on the question of global warming. For those who are convinced that it is an urgent issue that requires action, I have a question. Suppose,...
View ArticleForget price floors. Can we have an “ignorance floor”?
I frequently come across writings on economic issues that make me think, “If I wrote that, the people who taught me economics would slap me upside the head.” That crossed my mind as I read about the...
View ArticlePeople don’t kill people, the lack of socialized medicine does!
If I see another citation of this story as proof that we need national health care, I’m going to vomit. Supposedly, this man killed his wife because he couldn’t afford her medical bills. People on...
View ArticlePresented without comment
Senator Norm Coleman, quoted in the NYTimes: “Government is about first-class service. It is certainly not about first-class lifestyles.”
View Article
