Single Payer Economics Don't Work

"Any sensible reform of US healthcare must confront the problem that the consumers of healthcare do not have sufficient incentives to control costs. A California single payer system doubles down on this issue because it would eliminate virtually all incentives by consumers to control costs.

Intellectuals At Work

Blatant racial hatred is a hoax - and proven such over and over again.   The latest hoax is the claim that the US is among the ten worst nations for women, even though it is the US that fights hardest for actual rights for women. And Intellectual bigotry - the heart of Intellectualism is bigotry because Intellectuals are personal and social failures who lash out in denial - shows again in yet another NY Times piece, this one attacking admissions standards at specialized high schools in the city - all because Asians outperform others in such schools.

The Nature Of EPA Meddling

A look at a Richard Epstein piece on the EPA and the nature of its meddling.

The Myth Of Canadian Health Care

The myth of government-run health care always cites Canada as an example of success. In fact it is a failure, with Canadians paying far more than they're supposed to and get less than they're supposed to - the iron law of government intervention in market forces.

Facebook's Crony Capitalism

Mark Zuckerberg runs Facebook and after the Cambridge Analytica "scandal" - it was simple advertising research - was grilled by a Congress that showed it has no idea how Facebook operates, a Congress that has "never produced anything valuable in their lives and are in the business of using force to achieve their ends" Zuckerberg welcomed government meddling in Facebook, continuing the dubious tradition of crony capitalism.

The Fighters For The Myth Of Net Neutrality

Donald Trump's FCC ended net neutrality - the regulation of the internet by government, which by definition is NOT neutral. The tech giants of Silicon Valley who fought for net neutrality did so only because net neutrality established a monopoly they controlled and felt entitled to tell everyone what to think.

FDA's Attack On Biochemistry

A necessary program of genetic engineering has been ruined by the Envirnnmental Protection Agency

Housing Regulation Equals Shortages

It's the oldest fact of economics - government intervention in economics produces shortages. California refuses to learn, and botches housing as a result.

The CFPB Technocracy

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is a dictatorial technocracy that refuses to be accountable, and it was built that way.   That the hacks within are fighting assertion of legitimate authority shows why it has to be killed.
Also worth looking at is the troubled legacy of Dodd-Frank.

Attacking CFPB Works, Part II

The Democratic Party narrative about the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is - as always - a fraud - just like Liz Warren.

Attacking CFPB Works

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has never done much "protecting" and it now gets reigned in by Trump. Now it needs to be killed outright.


UPDATE November 27: Trump has the law on his side while the Democrats - as usual - jerk everyone around.

London Attacks Market Forces

By attacking Uber, London once again shows that government regulation solves nothing.

Taken for a Ride in Austin

Austin's attempt to regulate ride-sharing services has - as always happens when government interferes in the market - blown up in its face.

On May 29, Texas governor Greg Abbott signed a law creating a statewide regulatory framework governing ridesharing services. The impetus for the law was clear—overriding the city of Austin’s onerous ordinances that prompted the sector’s leaders, Uber and Lyft, to stop operating in the state capital last year.

In the few weeks since Uber and Lyft returned to Austin, the results speak for themselves. RideAustin, one of the more popular local ridesharing services that popped up when the big guns left, saw its ridership plummet 62 percent. “One element that we routinely hear, of course, is that we are more expensive than Uber/Lyft and this is the No. 1 criteria for many riders,” RideAustin noted in a Facebook post. “As a result, we are now going to match Uber/Lyft mile/minute pricing.” Another service, Fare, announced it was abandoning Austin altogether rather than try to compete.

The Dangers of the FDA's Regulatory Hegemony

Courts rule against it yet the FDA fights for bureacratic meddling anyway

In March, Arizona became the first state to pass a bill allowing the free flow of medical information between drug companies and physicians. The Free Speech in Medicine Act, which was passed unanimously in both state houses, may seem curiously innocuous: It simply permits pharmaceutical companies to share information with licensed health-care professionals, provided the information is not misleading, not contrary to fact, and consistent with generally accepted scientific principles. So far, so good—one might rightly assume that relaying information would be permissible with or without legislation.


However, FDA regulations largely prohibit pharmaceutical companies from discussing safe and effective uses for FDA-approved drugs, unless those uses have been specifically sanctioned by the agency. For example, if the FDA approved a certain drug as a headache treatment, drug company representatives could not recommend that drug as a treatment for muscle pain, even if substantive data showed that it treats muscle pain effectively. Instead, the company would need to apply and pay for a separate FDA trial to approve that use. In practice, this means that information on effective treatments is often deliberately concealed from doctors, despite the fact that they are free to prescribe FDA-approved medicines for virtually any purpose they see fit.

Regulating The Regulators

A look at two moves to counter government meddling, starting with the FDA.

The Myth Of Dodd-Frank Defended

Democratic demagogues like Liz Warren want to defend the Dodd-Frank law that meddles in banking and has caused small banks to disappear, and recent testimony from Fed Chairman Janet Yellen tries to strengthen their case - a case based on inaccuracies.

Trump's EPA Pick Spooks Liberals and Ecofascists

Liberals and the environmental left have gone into a tizzy over the selection of Oklahoma attorney general Scott Pruitt as Donald Trump's pick to head of the Environmental Protection Agency.

"House minority leader Nancy Pelosi says the Pruitt nomination must be blocked for the sake of the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the planet we will leave our children. New York AG Eric Schneiderman says Pruitt is a dangerous and an unqualified choice. Independent socialist senator Bernie Sanders declares the Pruitt pick is not only dangerous but also sad. The League of Conservation Voters calls Pruitt not just a global warming skeptic but an outright climate denier.


Whew! That's strong stuff. But what is Pruitt's actual offense? He has challenged the EPA's practice of going far beyond its authority to attack the energy industry and thus affect practically every industry in the country. The EPA needs a leash, and Pruitt and other state attorneys general have gone to court to attach it.


He and Greg Abbott, then AG of Texas and now the state's governor, succeeded in voiding a dubious EPA rule that claimed air pollution from Texas and Oklahoma was harming Granite City, IL. In that case and others, EPA's evidence was pretty skimpy."

The Regulators' Bad Day in Court

The Consumer Product "Safety" Commission gets rebuked

There’s a massive problem with their logic, Shihan Qu told an audience, two years ago, about the federal Consumer Product Safety Commission's attempt to ban his product, Zen Magnets. Two days before Thanksgiving, the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with Qu and smacked the regulatory agency for improperly assessing the risk of a once-popular, now nearly unavailable, novelty for adults. The court decision vacating the agency's proposed ban highlights how far the CPSC has exceeded its mandate, bullying small business with shoddy regulation.

Zen Magnets is the last of what was once more than a dozen companies selling powerful, ball-bearing-sized magnets. The magnet sets are used like a sort of high-tech modeling clay—with the little balls sticking together magnetically, users can position and arrange them in an infinite variety of shapes.

The CPSC has been out to eliminate these products since 2009, successfully pressuring most businesses making the magnets to voluntarily recall their products. Indeed, the commission had nearly cleared the field after running Craig Zucker's highly successful company Maxfield & Oberton—the maker of Buckyballs and Buckycube—into bankruptcy. The agency had filed a complaint against the company and sued Zucker personally (ending in a settlement with the CPSC for hundreds of thousands of dollars). But Qu refused to bow when the agency, instead of claiming his product was defective or that his company had failed to provide adequate warning of risk, opted for an outright ban.

End Freddie And Fannie

Donald Trump's Treasury Secretary nominee is Steven Mnuchin and he has proposed ending the government's control of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, the two bodies involved in the housing collapse that have been under government control for many years.  The result was Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae "became corporate zombies, by being stripped of all the standard attributes that normally attach to share ownerships."  Government involvement in economics by now is manifestly a failure, so in essence getting the government out of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae should not be a negative.

Repeal Overtime Rules

The incoming Trump administration needs to repeal Obama's rules on overtimes in the labor market, yet another futile government intervention in economics.