Regulation Policy & Welfare

Freedom? Fat Chance!

by Ralph R. Reiland February 16, 2007

Harper’s magazine reports that Americans burn an extra 938 million gallons of gasoline each year because we’re too fat. That estimate of how much the nation’s chubses are wasting in gas comes from a study by Sheldon Jacobson, professor of computer science at the University of Illinois and director of the ...

Taxicab Absurdity

by Scott McPherson February 1, 2007

When one hears words such as “crackdown” and “sting” and “bust” the image that comes to mind is that of daring police officers engaged in some colossal operation that nets really bad people doing really bad things. At least, that’s the image that ought to come to mind. In the charming little city of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, there are taxicab companies ...

No Need for Energy Subsidies

by Sheldon Richman January 26, 2007

For a guy who claims to believe in limited government, President Bush is awfully good at dangling subsidies and threatening coercion when he wants to encourage or discourage something. That’s the lesson to take from his State of the Union Address. Look at what he said about energy: “For too ...

The Bush Torture Memos

by James Bovard November 1, 2006

President Bush is proposing to medievalize the American legal code by permitting the use of coerced confessions in judicial proceedings. This is one of the most stunning proposals in U.S. political life since Franklin Roosevelt banned private ownership of gold in 1933. It is vital for Americans to understand the ...

The Federal Ripoff

by George Leef November 1, 2006

The Big Ripoff: How Big Business and Big Government Steal Your Money by Timothy P. Carney (Wiley, 2006); 285 pages; $24.95. Frédéric Bastiat called it legal plunder — the process by which people and organizations use their political connections to obtain wealth that doesn’t belong to them. When a government ...

Zoning’s Attack on Liberty and Property

by Bart Frazier October 1, 2006

One of the most coercive tools that public officials have at their disposal is zoning. City councils and county boards throughout the country use zoning regulations to dictate which uses are permitted and which are not on every parcel of land within their jurisdiction. While sometimes well-intentioned, zoning regulations nevertheless ...

The Eminent-Domain Origin of Shenandoah National Park

by Bart Frazier September 1, 2006

The establishment of Shenandoah National Park in 1926 is one of the greatest abuses of eminent domain in our country’s history. With the Commonwealth of Virginia condemning the entire area and removing more than 450 families, many by force, the park would eventually encompass 196,000 acres. After people were evicted, Virginia transferred the property to the federal government and ...

Housing Socialism, Part 2

by Gregory Bresiger July 1, 2006

Part 1 | Part 2 The desire for self-improvement is not the mentality behind price-control laws and rent-control laws. Behind them is the mentality of social engineering. It is a mentality subscribed to by those who want the government to micro-manage prices, wages, and even the level of ...

Housing Socialism, Part 1

by Gregory Bresiger June 1, 2006

Part 1 | Part 2 In every country examined, the introduction and continuance of rent control/restriction has done much more harm than good in rental housing markets — let alone the economy at large — by perpetuating shortages, encouraging immobility, swamping consumer preferences, fostering dilapidation of housing ...

Oil Feeding Frenzy

by Sheldon Richman May 3, 2006

The feeding frenzy in Washington over oil prices and profits may win pander-points for cynical politicians, but it takes the public’s eye off the ball. The regular outcry over rising prices, which, you’ll notice, requires a previous period of falling prices, highlights some fascinating puzzles. For example, there is a ...

The Disastrous World of the New York Subway, Part 3

by Gregory Bresiger April 1, 2006

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 Government enterprise validates a kind of cult of failure, a cult that has stood human nature on its head and made incompetence a god. It is human nature to want to do well in anything, no less in business. Most owners risk much of their life’s savings to ...

RIM was Wronged

by Sheldon Richman March 6, 2006

For the last few years we’ve been reading that Research in Motion’s popular mobile-email service, BlackBerry, may be shut down because the company “infringed the patents” of a company called NTP. That’s all the newspapers said. Curious readers would want to know more. Did black-clad RIM operatives break into NTP’s office ...