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In Washington, words such as “cost,” “tax,” “subsidy,” “spending,” and other fiscal terms have no fixed meaning. For example, it is considered costly to cut taxes, and a subsidy to provide a tax break. This morning, we read that Bush wants to provide a tax break to low income people who buy private coverage, while taxing people “for some workers

I know nothing about the tire market but it seems clear that the u nions have set out to destroy another company . I’m in the market now for tires, and I would like to buy Goodyear if only to support “capital” over “labor” (how absurd to think that their interests are naturally opposed!). But the car parts guy tells me that I can get a better

An excellent piece by Michael Malone in the WSJ today (thanks S. Berger): Given a fate of living under the magnifying glasses of SOX and FD, who in their right mind would want to sit on a corporate board these days? The smart board-level people I know in Silicon Valley now reduce their involvement to being merely corporate “advisers.” Thus, the

It could become very difficult to get in the near future, if we see the political class follow up on the latest frenzy: “ Teens turn to cough syrup to get high, Feds say .” “It’s bad that kids are buying cough syrup and using it this way — it’s not good for them,” said John P. Walters, director of the White House Office of National Drug Control

Virgin America’s Bid to Start Flights Denied by U.S . From Mike Shedlock comes this analysis: The US department of transportation (DOT) ruled on Dec 27th that the UK is a security risk and therefore British owned Virgin America Airlines is not allowed to fly within the US between San Francisco and New York. How flights originating in the US to

This article by Mark Skousen makes the preposterous claim that Mises and Hayek “refused to do empirical work” whereas Milton Friedman did do empirical work, which accounts for his influence and their marginalization. Austrians grow tired of saying this but, once again, the point is not that empirical shouldn’t be undertaken. After all, that is the

For anyone involved in music composition or in a decision-making capacity concerning music performance, the issue of copyright is vexing beyond belief. One is never entirely sure of what the law specifies in a particular instance, so musicians live in fear of venturing outside the realm of private performance. Composers who use popular melodies

An employee at the Mises Institute just received a call from his cell-phone service provider. They are cutting off his service, and waving all fees for the last month. It seems that his use was dominating by roaming, which required the use of a tower for which the service had to pay. The company must have concluded that his use was costing more

From the daily email from the Wall Street Journal: Last week, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said in a speech that he remained worried about inflation, that risks to prices were tilted mainly toward the upside, and tight labor markets especially have the potential to drive prices higher even as the economy gets roughed up by the

I didn’t know until the release of the “ Iraq Study Group Report “ that Iraq’s “inflation is above 50 percent. Unemployment estimates range widely from 20 to 60 percent.” So a quick look at the primitive date at the I raq Central Bank shows a 40% increase in M2 from November 2005 through May 2006 (the last time the data were updated). Cause and