Has the Government Forgotten How Society Works?
“The premise for the modern administrative state is the dubious notion that the federal government can scientifically plan the lives of hundreds of millions of people. The practical outcome is a regime of sheer incompetence and counterproductive policymaking that is fundamentally at odds with the normal functioning of society. It is a system meant not for a nation of pioneers and entrepreneurs, but hall monitors and clerks.” ~ Ethan Yang
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The 1980s Called, And It Wants Its Industrial Paranoia Back
“Sad about it all is that formerly free market conservatives have joined the echo chamber this time around, and turned the volume way up. A $250 billion industrial policy bill reminiscent of ‘80s paranoia is the result. Good work, conservatives.” ~ John Tamny
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Bureaucracy as Constituency
“As long as the federal bureaucracy remains largely unchecked, expect to see that bureaucracy grow unabated. Expect to see laws getting longer and more complex by the year. And expect to see no one in Washington taking responsibility for a federal government that has been out of control for the better part of a century.” ~ Antony Davies & James R. Harrigan
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What’s New is Old: The Left Turns Originalist
“The New/Old Antitrust Paradigm would reverse the presumption of legality in mergers and acquisitions, placing the burden of proof on economic actors to want to do…well, almost anything. Any economic restructuring of a business is contingent on obtaining the permission and chop of the appropriate bureaucrats and, incredibly, other ‘stakeholders’ such as competitors and labor organizations.” ~ Michael Munger
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New Leak of Taxpayer Info Is (More) Evidence of IRS Corruption
“What’s especially disgusting is that the Biden Administration wants to reward IRS corruption with giant budget increases, bolstered by utterly fraudulent numbers. Needless to say, that would be a terrible idea, and sadly, Republicans in the past have been sympathetic to expanding the size of the tax bureaucracy.” ~ Daniel J. Mitchell
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The Super-Rich Are Not Who You Think They Are!
“The work of Scott provides a powerful illustration of the importance of the qualification proposed by defenders of the super-rich. It is not wealth that is problematic, it is wealth generated by muting the forces of the market process (i.e. by rent-seeking). In other words, the policies that produce inequality matter!” ~ Vincent Geloso
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Fighting Ransomware Doesn’t Require Banning Cryptocurrency
“With OFAC as coxswain, an embargo might achieve everything that a ban on cryptocurrency promises to achieve without depriving gamblers, outsiders, and hobbyists of a product they utilize. It would also be more effective than the status quo, which is not capable of stopping criminals who operate with impunity from noncompliant jurisdictions.” ~ J.P. Koning
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Biden’s Lumber Protectionism is Commercial Quarantine
“Biden’s doubling of Trump’s lumber tariffs will hurt US consumers, protect American firms from competition, and encourage further rent seeking.” ~ Peter C. Earle
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Shadow of the State or Sunshine of Civil Society
“We are often too quick to pull the trigger on government regulation whenever we suspect a problem exists. It is important to first ask what civil society can do (or is doing) to mitigate that problem before deferring to the coercive shadowy state.” ~ Anthony Gill
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‘Big Tech’ Risks Going Down a Path of Decline Paved by ‘Big Rail’
“Here’s hoping a desire for near-term comfort from competition, criticism, and the markets doesn’t do to Big Tech what was done to Big Rail. Time will tell. But for now, it seems Big Tech is intent on traveling a path toward average that was first paved by the 19th century’s most innovative minds.” ~ John Tamny
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Addressing Financial Exclusion: The Right Way and the Wrong Way
“Marginalized groups of people are more than capable of succeeding when you just get out of the way. Policymakers today must understand the devastating consequences of well-intentioned policies and the hard fact that an imperfect private sector response is far preferable to a counterproductive government response.” ~ Ethan Yang
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The Extent of the Market is Limited By the Imagination of the Regulators
“The regulatory state substitutes the knowledge and beliefs of regulators for the knowledge and beliefs of entrepreneurs and innovators. This means entrepreneurs and innovators have to divide their time between actually developing their product and convincing regulators to say ‘yes.’ Regulators are understandably overcautious because of their incentives.” ~ Art Carden
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