Articles Listed by Date

          Krugman has a regular column in The Times, so he can discuss what he chooses to discuss so why is he fussing, as he did in a recent column, that others have other topics they wish to discuss not the ones he likes? Must we all take the lead of Krugman? What conceit!

Effective July 1, 2014, anyone who wants to sell any coin of more than 1% precious metal content must pay 10% of their estimated annual gross income to the state of Minnesota.  Like all bad laws, this one achieves the exact opposite of its stated intention. Rather than making Minnesota "safe for bullion" they are preventing all coin sales to anyone from Minnesota.

Minarchists claim that a constitutionally-limited government is the best protection for our rights, and therefore our best option for a peaceful world. Free market anarchists disagree with that.  Minarchists reply that eventually, the largest private defense agency inevitably will become the new government. Without a historical record, the theoretical arguments could not be resolved. In fact, empirical evidence abounds. 

Often when I argue that governments must not violate our rights--they are supposed to be unalienable, after all--statists have a ready retort:  Government is already violating them, good and hard, all over the place.  

If Voldemort were a Republican, it would be  unnecessary, like "Republicans for Palin."

Just how utterly reliant on sheer power is President Obama can be appreciated from the fact that no one in his administration bothers to defend his policy of confiscating people’s resources.  Apart from calling upon the phony support of a few super rich folks like Warren Buffet -- who, I understand, is by no means offering his own wealth up for use by Mr. Obama (instead engaging in customary dodging and weaving, not paying up) -- no argument has been put forth by the administration for the progressive tax policy it relies upon. 

Something not often noted in the discussion of rape across the globe is that in an age that prizes pragmatism as opposed to firm principles of conduct, even rape can be excused based on the expected benefit to the rapist versus injury to the victim.

Whenever public officials promise to manage affairs of state, I am baffled how they fail to pay heed to public choice theory.  This is the idea, for which the late, great James Buchanan, earned his Nobel Prize (an idea he developed with his friend and colleague Gordon Tullock in the book The Calculus of Consent: Logical Foundations of Constitutional Democracy [Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1962].).  

First Nestlé is forced to reveal the construction of it's coffee-pods to competitors - next the lazy bums want to be also informed when the coffee-machine-design gets changed so they can implement any innovations in their pods without the cost of innovation.

Let's see how far the 'dog-eats-dog' rule is behind the 'antitrust dogwatch'.

Sadly that's just one example of many what goes on here in Europe: Atlas Shrugged all over again ... with one tiny fault: Ayn Rand got the timeline wrong - I won't see the lights go out in my lifetime ;)

I am puzzled that there is hardly any mention in the press – columns, editorials, etc. – about Mr. Obama's executive intrusion in the employment realm.