The Democratic Dividing Line: Big Government…Or Even Bigger Government?
To spend a lot of money, or to spend a lot more money? That is the question.
Economics
Opium Suppression in Afghanistan Was a US-led Failure
The basics of supply and demand still applied.
Will Illinois Give Government Worker Unions a Constitutional Right To Overrule Laws They Don't Like?
Taking the "public" out of public service
California Judge Overturns Voter Initiative That Said Gig Workers Aren't Always Employees
Plus: You can't FOIA politicians' browser histories, Pentagon compels commercial airlines to evacuate Afghan refugees, and more...
Why OnlyFans Is Double-Crossing Sex Workers
Plus: FTC revives antitrust suit against Facebook, Planned Parenthood pushes back against Montana abortion laws, and more...
Governments Love a Media Cartel—As Long as They're in Control
Friday A/V Club: Some people are against concentrated media power. Some just want to bend it to their will.
We Will Keep Spending Trillions on the Afghanistan War Long After the Last Soldier Leaves
The final price tag could eventually exceed $6 trillion, and American taxpayers will be paying the tab when the 50th anniversary of 9/11 arrives.
Infrastructure Bill Tries To Boost Number of Toll Roads While Exempting Almost All Drivers From Tolls
A new grant program that would help states set up privately operated toll roads would also forbid charging tolls to anyone making under $400,000 a year.
If Texas Businesses Are Free To Require Face Masks, Why Can't They Require Proof of Vaccination?
Gov. Greg Abbott's position on private vaccination requirements is confused and confusing.
Solar Panel Manufacturer That Hasn't Produced Solar Panels Since 2017 Seeks Extension of Solar Panel Tariffs
What good is protectionism that isn't protecting anything?
With Free Guy, Hollywood Gives Us a Video Game Movie About the Thrills of, Uh, Labor Disputes
Ryan Reynolds stars as a video game character who discovers his whole life is a lie.
State Governments Didn't Need Coronavirus Bailouts. They Got Billions of Dollars Anyway.
As it turns out, state and local tax revenues hardly collapsed.
The Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill Is a Sham
The Senate just passed a $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill—and teed up another $3.5 trillion bill in the process.
The Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill Will Add More Than $250 Billion to the Deficit. Does Anyone Care?
A CBO report that might have sunk legislation in an earlier era was greeted with a bipartisan shrug.
Kansas Wants This Experienced Eyebrow Entrepreneur To Get 1,000 More Hours of Training
Jigisha Modi can't hire her own mother-in-law—who has decades of eyebrow-threading experience—because of Kansas' occupational licensing rules. Now she's suing.
Cryptocurrency Fight Holds Up Infrastructure Bill
For now, the side that wants less cryptocurrency regulation and taxation lost.
NLRB Recommends Amazon Warehouse Workers Vote Again on Whether To Unionize
In April, workers in Bessemer, Alabama, voted 2-to-1 not to unionize. Now they may be asked to recast their votes.
More Than 53,000 American Companies Sought Exemptions From Trump's China Tariffs. Almost All Were Denied.
New GAO report says the process for determining which companies could avoid paying those tariffs was rife with "inconsistencies" and poorly documented decision-making.
State Governments Are Creating Their Own Drug Cartels
Much of what government does is tax people to try to fix problems that government caused.
Judges Say Web Design Is 'Pure Speech' and That the State Can Compel It Anyway
Trump's critics fault him for fomenting division. The left's efforts to drive people of faith from the public square are making the problem worse.
Uber Has Reduced Drunk Driving Deaths by 6 Percent, Study Finds
Plus: Americans evenly split on immigration, bill moves to stop EPA raids of auto shops, and more...
EU Bureaucrats Seek to Diminish Your Cryptocurrency Privacy
Watch what happens when the drive for government surveillance meets longstanding technological ignorance.
Elizabeth Warren Says People Are Struggling and Jeff Bezos Hasn't Pitched In Enough
Bezos pitched in by creating an online marketplace of cheap consumer goods that people can get delivered to their homes in two days flat.
Google CEO Sundar Pichai Is Right: Companies That Dominate Today May Be Gone Tomorrow
Today's antitrust activists forget that big companies with significant market share come and go.
Police Reforms Make Progress Against Entrenched Opposition
Every time cops denounce reform efforts it is evidence of a win.
U.S. Billionaire Wealth Would Fund Government For Just 6 Months
Mocking penis-shaped rockets is no substitute for holding the feds accountable for a looming fiscal crisis.
Elizabeth Warren Wants the IRS To Create Its Own TurboTax. What Could Go Wrong?
A simplified tax code is the answer, not giving the IRS more funding.
When Government Spending Hurts the Most Vulnerable
As inflation increases, we need a low-debt environment.
NLRB Rejects Complaint Against "Scabby the Rat"
Board precedent, First Amendment concerns and a fair assessment of the message communicated by a giant inflatable rat carried the day.
Economist John Cochrane Is Still Worried About the Debt
The U.S. national debt held by the public is currently almost $22 trillion, surpassing the country's annual GDP for the first time since World War II.
Louis Menand: 'Freedom Was the Slogan of the Times'
Why postwar culture from Jack Kerouac to Andy Warhol to James Baldwin to Susan Sontag to Yoko Ono battled boundaries hemming them in.
AOC Says Amazon Abuses Market Power, Ignores Fact That Customers Shop at Amazon Because They Want To
After returning from space yesterday, Jeff Bezos thanked Amazon customers who made his fortune possible.
Senators Aim To Curtail Presidential Power Over War, Arms Sales, Emergency Declarations
Plus: The FBI had at least a dozen informants helping put together the plot to kidnap Michigan's governor, price controls fail again, and more.
California Lawmakers Unanimously Approve the State's First Basic Income Program
The idea of attaching fewer strings to government assistance is gaining currency.
Does Bitcoin Have the Potential to Become a Generally Accepted Medium of Exchange?
Financial consultant John Vallis vs. George Mason University economist Lawrence H. White
Good Economic Policy Is About More Than Inflation
Monetary policy can't work optimally until we free up the economy in other important ways.
Can Bitcoin Become the World's Money? A Soho Forum Debate
Financial consultant John Vallis vs. George Mason University economist Lawrence H. White
More Tariffs Won't End Pollution or Solve Global Warming. They'll Just Make Stuff More Expensive.
Taxing Americans to punish other countries for having lax environmental rules would be a logistical and bureaucratic nightmare. Democrats are trying to do it anyway.
Magical Thinking Abounds in New Budget Deal Discourse
Plus: The growing trust gap, pandemic-low unemployment numbers, and more...
Post Apocalypse
Neither rain nor sleet nor snow will stop the U.S. Postal Service. But a pandemic on top of a political fiasco? That's a first-class problem.
Biden's New Death Tax Hits the Middle Class While Excluding Certain Wealthy Investors
The American Families Plan hits individuals with identical net worths very differently.
Joe Biden's Executive Order on 'Promoting Competition' Covers Everything From Farmers Markets to Net Neutrality
Plus: Treating social media platforms as common carriers, Norway criminalizes sneaky influencer editing, and more...
The U.S. Has Strayed Far From Its Founding Ideals
Governments at the state, local, and federal levels can obstruct our pursuit of happiness and at times even jeopardize our safety.
Jeff Bezos Is Obsessed With You (If You're an Amazon Customer)
Amazon's CEO stepped down this week after 27 years of extreme customer focus.
You Can Now Read the Secret Trump Administration Report That Claimed Your Toyota Is a National Security Threat
The never-released Trump administration report is a reminder that "national security" is usually a bogus reason to impose tariffs
How Big Business Uses Big Government To Kill Competition
Corporations can afford robots. Their competitors often cannot.
Is El Salvador's Embrace of Bitcoin Good, Bad, or Both?
Officially adopting the currency is great news, but mandating acceptance is a problem.
