Great Moments in Prohibition and the Drug War
Even though I’m personally a prude on the issue of drugs, that doesn’t stop me from opposing the Drug War, both for moral and practical reasons. After all, how can any sensible and decent person want...
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The Lesson We Should Learn from the Fort Hood Shooting
One of the best ways of reducing crime is to make anti-social behavior more expensive. Simply stated, the goal is to alter the cost-benefit analysis of criminals. This doesn’t mean, by the way, that...
View ArticleMember of Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers Admits White House 77 Cents...
President Obama and many other leftist politicians are running around the nation claiming that supposedly greedy employers are deliberately choosing to reduce their profits. They’re not actually making...
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A Gun Graphic that Will Depress Your Leftist Friends
It’s easy to get discouraged if you believe in small government and individual liberty. It seems that the burden of the public sector is always expanding and that politicians and bureaucrats are always...
View ArticleNo More Stealing by Government? A Long-Overdue Attack on Asset Forfeiture
Since I’m a public finance economist, I realize I’m supposed to focus on big-picture issues such as tax reform and entitlement reform. And I do beat those issues to death, so I obviously care about...
View ArticleThe Right to Proclaim that Guns Save Lives
I’ve explained on several occasions (here, here, and here) that we can be optimistic about the fight to preserve our rights to keep and bear arms. Simply stated, politicians are increasingly scared to...
View ArticleGun Control and Mass Shootings
Well, another loser killed a bunch of people, this time in Santa Barbara, California. Which gives gun control zealots an opportunity to seize upon the tragedy to recycle their calls to restrict private...
View ArticleLibertarianism and the Proper Meaning of Patriotism
Since we’re enjoying a long holiday weekend to celebrate the 4th of July, let’s take a moment to ponder patriotism. I’ve always been inspired (in more ways than one) by this t-shirt. My patriotism is...
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Disgusting News and Great News about the Exercise of Second Amendment Freedoms
As a libertarian, it’s easy for me to get agitated about the theoretical burden of high taxes, wasteful spending, and costly regulation. But even regular people should get upset when they get exposed...
View ArticleAmerica’s Libertarian Moment?
I think libertarianism is the philosophy that best reflects human decency, but I sometimes wonder why libertarians aren’t more persuasive and why there aren’t any libertarian societies. However, maybe...
View ArticleEven its Creators Want to Shut Down the Government’s Asset-Forfeiture Racket
If you ask me about the most wasteful department in the federal government, I’ll state that there are lots of good choices, but if forced to identify the best candidate for elimination, I’ll go with...
View ArticleAnother Example of Government Thuggery – and another Reason Why Decent and...
A report from the New York Times that has me frothing at the mouth. I can’t imagine any decent person not being outraged by this example of big government run amok. For almost 40 years, Carole Hinders...
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America’s Superior Social Capital
When discussing how to boost growth, economists often discuss the importance of human capital and physical capital. Those are key factors driving economic performance. After all, improvements in human...
View ArticleA Feel-Good Story from Ferguson (Assuming You’re Not Michael Bloomberg)
In the postscript of a previous column, I shared some of Ben Watson’s wise and prudent counsel about the racial unrest in Ferguson. Today, I want to share a feel-good story to come out of that town’s...
View ArticleGovernment Coercion Is the Common Link between Nazism, Communism, and other...
Is Obama a socialist? If you’re asking whether he’s a big-spending interventionist, the answer is yes. But if you’re asking whether the President believes in government ownership of the means of...
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We Need Fewer Laws: Over-Criminalization Hurts the Innocent and Empowers...
I wrote last week about the lunacy of a tax system that created the conditions that led to the death of Eric Garner in New York City. But I wrote that column in the context of how high tax rates lead...
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Another Nauseating Example of Government Thuggery
According to Gallup, Americans now identify “government” as the most important problem facing the United States. That doesn’t surprise. Gallup also found last year that big government is considered a...
View ArticleThere Are some Bad Cops, but the Real Problem Is Bad Laws
It’s probably not a fun time to be a police officer. The deaths of Michael Brown in Missouri and Eric Garner in New York have led some – including the Mayor of New York City – to explicitly or...
View ArticleThe Global Edition of More Guns = Less Crime
Back in 2013, I shared a snarky post comparing murder rates in Chicago and Houston. What made the data amusing is that any sensible person would look at Chicago’s high murder rate and strict gun...
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Comparative City Data Debunks Notion That More Spending Is Key to Better...
For both moral reasons and economic reasons, we should have small government. But even a curmudgeonly libertarian like me also thinks it’s important to have effective and efficient government....
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